Job offer: Teaching English in Havelberg, September 21 through Oct 2, 2009

[Torsten]

Hello everyone, we are looking for English trainers for the following course.

Location: Havelberg near Stendal
Dates: September 21 through October 2, 2009
Times: 8:00 until 3 pm every day, 8 lessons per 45 minutes from Monday through Friday
Purpose: teaching basic business English to beginners
Pay rate: EUR 125 per day (including all expenses)

The level of the group is A1 and A2.

Each group member is going get a copy of the following book which the trainer should use too:

Fairway. A1. Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch + Audio-CD + CD-ROM
Verlag: Klett Ernst /Schulbuch
Erscheinungsdatum: September 2005
ISBN: 3125014603

For more information, please contact me here on the forum.

Many thanks,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Scott Graham]

Hi Noel,
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the team.

It was very nice to talk to you this morning and I look forward to possibly meeting you sometime.

Enjoy your weekend, and I am interested in reading your report when you have time.

Kindest regards
Scott
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[NoelHolburn]

I intend to make a fuller report at the end of the assigned work next week.

This has been a fantastic group to get to know. They are of considerably different abilities but they have gelled together as a team remarkably well. There is a huge group dynamic going and a strong commitment and energy. The most advanced member of the group is an upper intermediate, while there are one or two members of the group who are near beginners. Being the german army, I had aniticipated that the group might be totally male, but in fact there is one woman which is a godsend because she adds a good degree of buoyancy to the group.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the group is that on Monday morning i asked them all individually to introduce themselves. I said that to do it in German would be fine, but if they could speak any englih, then it would give me an idea of where each person was. Not one of the team of six chose to speak in english. Two days later, there was a new addition to the group, and so for his benefit i asked them all once more to introduce themselves. I did not request either language but amazingly this time they all chose to introduce themselves in English ! And that has been a big part of the weeks work, which is that the English they learnt all those years ago in school is gradually coming back to them, and they are getting stronger by the day.

There has of course been a substantial use of games. They particularly enjoyed pelmanism, and i often started the day with a game. I asked the learners to write out the tabs for me, which of course helped their vocabulary, and the material for the game was always the previous days new words. They were incredibly quick to pick up new words etc. I took along my favourite learning tool, the softball, and we used that all day long, every day. The men in particular seem to really identify with and love the softball. Perhaps it reminds them of playing soccer ( its like a small soft football ) or of their favourite football team, but whatever the source of the influence is, one can see in their eyes a deep engagement with the subject being discussed once they have the ball in their hands. It really is a phenomenally powerful teaching tool. The teaching day simply wouldn't be the same without it !

Another thing I like to do is to hand control over to the group. for instance when we have just done a written exercise, I will throw the softball to one team member and tell him that he is now the teacher, and he in turn throws the softball around the class to check answers. This delegated autonomy goes down a treat and they love being in control of agenda, even if only for a few minutes at a time.

One thing that took me by surprise was that I asked the group as a whole to translate a passage in the tutor book ( Fairway A1 ) and the man who i thought was the weakest member of the team, and the closest to being a total beginner, actually did all the translating by himself ! In other words, he has the vocabulary, but simply needs lots of practice in actually speaking english.

Another amazing feature of the group has been how well they all work together. There is cavernous gap in ability between the strongest and the weakest, and yet that is totally immaterial to the group dynamic as a whole. The weakest is not intimidated by his stronger colleagues, while the most advanced, rather than being bored because he is learning nothing new, simply loves the social dynamic of the lessons, and he is as engaged as the rest of the team. To be honest, I think he enjoys being the leader and welcomes the opportunity to share his ability with the group. And just once in a while he will show off by coming out with a technically very advanced sentence in english, but he loves seeing other peoples ( and mine ! ) jaws drop !! There has been a lot of fun and laughter and we are all looking forward to a second week together.

[Scott Graham]

Hi Noel,

Thanks for your report, I read it with great interest. It really sounds like you have a great group there and they will benefit from your enthusiasm and knowledge.

I know from our telephone conversation on Saturday you mentioned the group don't have internet in the classroom. It would be great for the students if you could explain to them about the english-test website and it's benefits for them to continue learning English after their course. If you could explain the benefits of the Forum itself and how it's very international and there are many people 'in the same boat' as they as far as English learning is concerned. Also we offer the free e-mail english course which they can sign up for and again it will help their progression in the future. The link for the email course is below:
http://www.english-test.net/esl/lesson-plans/e-mail_English_course_overview.html

Of course lets not forget the free online tests they can take, they are a great way of learning for all levels.

Anyway have a great last week with them.
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[Torsten]

Hi Noel,

Thank you very much for your great work and your detailed update. Can you please tell me how many of your 7 learners are at level A1 and how many of them you would place at a higher level?

Scott, many thanks to you too for supporting Noel in such an excellent fashion.

Talk to both of you soon.
Regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Scott Graham]

Hi Torsten and Noel,

It's my pleasure to assist Noel and any other trainers that may need any support in any way. As we say "there is no 'I' in team", and especially with English Team we can really benefit by communicating and pulling together.

Kindest regards
Scott
_________________
By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

[Torsten]

Hi Scott, I greatly appreciate your approach and of course I'll try to make a down payment on your next invoice so you can take the vacation you deserve. Today I'll send you a proposal regarding the upcoming Nordhausen project.

Have a great day in Eilenburg.
Thanks,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[NoelHolburn]

Havelberg week 2.

Well the second week got off to a disturbing start as suddenly what had been a class of 7 suddenly became a class of 5. Two Ss didn't turn up on the monday morning I didn't let this disturb my work and in fact the smaller group of 5 lost none of its dynamic compared to its larger former self. We were still generating as much engagement and fun as previously. As it turned out, on Wednesday, one of the absentees re-appeared complaining of having been ill. so we started the course with 7, and two weeks later finished with 6.

One of the most hilarious moments of the week was during an exercise we did in giving directions. I had made it a stand up exercise and i suddenly found that i had lost half my class as they had been giving each other directions out to the break and smoke area ! Great fun !

One of the most important discoveries i made during the second week was the value of having something totally different up your sleeve. The subject of food had come up in the coursework in week one, and i had promissed to bring along a Delia Smith cookery book in week two. This i did to illustrate a recipe i had spoken about, but one of the group members suggested on the wednesday that we take a closer look at the book. And so on thursday i took up the suggestion and WOW what a difference it made ! The group had got tired by then of nearly two weeks of the same repetitive style of course material ( Fairway A1 ), even though it was amply peppered with many games, and even though over and beyond that I had tried to vary the lessons as much as possible, the move in to looking at one of Delias recipes really set the group on fire. They were quite literally wild about it and there was even the very strong possibility that the Ss were going to get the ingredients for the following day, and we were going to cook "Irish Stew with Parsley dumplings" !!! But that would have been our last and final, and half day, and it was eventually decided by the Ss ( not me ! ) that it wasn't a realistic proposition. It was simply too close to the end of our time together. But the experience taught me the value of having plenty of ideas to be able to suddenly change direction from the course material and do something completely different. Obviously one cannot be too wild and lose too much course material time, but the occasional diversion works wonders for group morale.

I had been asked to prepare a test for the group which i did in the intervenening weekend. I had very much a mixed ability group and so had to get a good balance to accommodate all. The results were that the two strongest and advanced candidates scored 100% in the test result, while the least advanced ( and lowest score ) scored about 83%. I was delighted with this because the most advanced would have been horrified to have scored anything less than full marks, whereas the least advanced still felt he had scored a very good mark and made good progress - and indeed that was the case. That individual had made leaps and bounds throughout the two weeks.

On Friday morning, the course concluded, and the representatives from various agencies who had organised the project came to hand out certificiates etc and to do the opinion survey of the two week course. I absoultely love german poetry, and not being sure of what quite came over me, finished the course by reciting one particular german poem off by heart to the group. English is such a powerful and globally dominant language and i think the Ss deeply appreciated to see that their tutor, rather than just being there to disseminate his own language, was able to show a real love and passion for their own language. I was very nervous - but it went down a treat !

As for Havelberg itself, it is a beautiful incredibly small town about 130 kilometers from Berlin. It is romantic, picturesque, and very peaceful and quiet. I now know where all those german scenic Christmas cards come from of cobbled streets and crooked quaint charming houses. It lies on the Elbe and the view i had out of my window at the erlebnispädagogichescentrum of the Elbe and the sunrise each morning which was directly in front of my view, was stunning. Being so small, there are not so many facilities, and eating out it has to be said was a poor experience, but having said that, I didn't eat at the more upmarket restaurants that there are in the town. The most spectacular aspect of the town is the cathedral high up on the mount above the town on the other side of the river, part of which still has the 17th century origins. There is also an exquisite church almost totally smothered in ivy. I have never seen a church before that in equal proportions was red, green and glass !

It is quite a challenge to teach the same group intensively day after day with the same course book for two weeks none stop. But the group had a lot of energy, we had a lot of fun, and i hope, think and feel, that the whole experience was a great success for everyone.

[NoelHolburn]

P.S. - As Scott suggested, I told the Ss about the free lesons they could get on the forum here.........

[Torsten]

Dear Noel,

Thank you very much for your excellent job with the Bundeswehr. We really look forward to working with you again.
Best regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary