Tuesday, 18 February 2014

Pick yourself up and dust yourself down

Although I have completed a full circle and am back to where I started out when I first arrived in Hong Kong - searching for a job - this time it feels different and I do too.  My previous experience has taught me to bide my time and not leap blindly into the first job that is offered to me.  I feel less manic than before and am endeavouring to remain that way.  I have a plan and, as long as our cash flow allows, I intend to stick to it.  Starting a new career in teaching, I am keen to take time experiencing one-to-one tutoring with adults and children, as well as teaching part-time in a school or kindergarten, before committing to a full-time role.  Up until yesterday the plan was on track with my tutoring work taking off and an interview lined up for a part-time kindergarten job.  Naturally, as with all the best laid plans of mice and men - mine went astray with the kindergarten interview going awry in spectacular style.

It had all started so well.  I had dedicated a majority of my weekend and Monday morning to familiarising myself with every aspect of Jolly Phonics.  I had learnt the actions and songs for all the letter sounds and I had even read the entire UK Department of Education's Letters and Sounds programme to promote speaking, listening and phonological awareness in children.  I felt prepared to answer any question directed at me about phonics.   In addition I had successfully negotiated my way through the MTR system, onto a mini-bus and through a maze-like housing estate, and found the kindergarten.  Then disaster struck at 2.40pm - five minutes before my interview.  I received a phone call to say that I may be expected to teach a class as part of the interview.  Oh brilliant!

I am a highly organised person and I plan things meticulously, as a result I am rarely put on the spot.  I went from feeling confident that I had prepared all I could for the interview - the job was in the bag - to feeling exposed, caught-off-guard and a quivering wreck.   Perhaps naively, it never crossed my mind that I would be asked to teach at first interview stage without prior warning, and as a result I had nothing prepared.  I had no option but to jump straight back onto the minibus and head home or I was going to have to wing it.  Unfortunately, I chose the latter option and I experienced the most humiliating 15 minutes of my life.  And it keeps playing back in my head, over and over again, causing me to repeatedly cringe with embarrassment.

According to the TESOL training I have recently been immersed in, the key to a good lesson is developing a detailed lesson plan with clear objectives for each stage and executing the plan with strong materials to engage your students.  It is vital for the teacher to get the students communicating as much as possible, with the teacher directing and prompting but not doing all the talking.  It would be fair to say that I failed on every single one of these counts.

I was let into the school by the headmistress (slightly lacking in social skills as she couldn't bring herself to say 'hello' to me) who directed me straight to a classroom and pointed at a cupboard to indicate I may find something within to help me teach.  I was given five minutes to prepare before I was faced with twelve little faces waiting expectantly for the English lesson of a lifetime.  Sadly what they were presented with was a deranged English woman who thought it would be a great idea to start the class by singing a song to learn their names.  In retrospect, a bit of a waste of time, seeing as I will never see the children again!  In case you are interested, the song in question goes 'Hello, Hello, What's your name?' to the tune of 'London Bridge is Falling Down'.  The children had literally just woken up from their post-lunch nap so I was greeted by a row of glazed faces while I sang away dementedly, demanding they tell me their names.  I should have got them playing musical chairs, as even though it wouldn't have got me the job, at least we all could have had some fun.

Once the children were 'warmed up' or in reality, still glazed and now post-traumatic, I reached for the phonics book to teach them some letter sounds.  Due to my detailed pre-interview research, I knew this group of kindergarten kids were learning the sound 'th' this week, so I thought at least it would be relevant if I selected this sound for my fifteen minutes of ritual humiliation.  Teaching the sound 'th' requires a bit of tongue sticking out and the odd bit of escaping spittle - an attractive look for an interview.  I managed to supplement the spitting with a Jolly Phonics song about a rude clown making this sound and that sound, which a couple of charitable children joined in with, to my relief.  However, I had no games or materials up my sleeve to make the class interactive or engaging so the next 10 minutes were spent getting the children to repeat or guess words featuring 'th', while I quietly shrivelled up and died inside.  Finally I managed to generate some excitement as I asked the children to sing the 'Bye-bye' song to me.  They waved me off with the most enthusiasm they had shown since they had arrived in the room.

I was hustled out of the classroom and out of the building with a curt - "we'll be in touch".  The only four words the headmistress uttered in the twenty minutes I was at the school.  There was no interview.  Unsurprisingly this was followed-up two hours later with an email to confirm that I had not been successful in securing the job.

I have spent the past 24 hours reliving my heinous loss of face, but finally I am seeing the humorous side.  On a positive note, I know for next time to arrive at an interview with a lesson plan and materials fully prepared.  It is also apparent that this business of changing careers is not going to be smooth sailing all the way, but I will keep plugging on and the plan will fall into place eventually.


Sunday, 2 February 2014

I'm back

I know, I know, it's been ages since I last blogged but I am back - in every sense of the word.  After a fabulous break over Christmas, back home in the UK, catching up with friends and family, I returned to Hong Kong to start the Trinity CertTESOL course.  Having met and spoken to many people in Hong Kong who had completed the CertTESOL at English for Asia, I was entering into the course with my eyes wide open.  Without exception, everyone warned me about the intensity of the course, the horrors of writing assignments and lesson plans until the early hours of the morning, the sleep deprivation and kissing goodbye to a social life for the duration.  I would be lying if I didn't say I was both apprehensive and scared when I arrived on day one.  After my horrendous experience of working for an American PR agency in Hong Kong and the affect it had on my health, I was nervous that I would fast-track back to that horrible place I found myself in back in September.

For the first week I felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of assignments we had to complete.  I hadn't expected to be working until 1am in the first few days just to keep up with the deadlines and as I felt my stress-levels escalate on a daily basis, I wondered if I actually had the mental strength to survive the full four weeks.  However, over the first weekend, things started to fall into place, I resigned myself to the fact that real life was going to be on-hold for a bit, and I started to enjoy learning and being a student again.  During the first week I compared the course to what I imagine it would be like to join a cult.  You are effectively programmed to think in the TESOL way through an intensive brainwashing process combined with extreme sleep deprivation.  I am clearly very malleable as I 'got it' pretty quickly.

The years of working in advertising and PR, completing lengthy tender documents and pitch proposals definitely stood me in good stead for churning out the seemingly endless array of written assignments and observations.  The time and money JWT and MindShare invested in my presentation training, and the years of putting that training into practice in client meetings, at pitches, running workshops and roundtables, and presenting at conferences was invaluable.  There is something a lot less intimidating about standing in front of a class of smiling students, rather than a room full of opinionated marketeers looking to catch you out, impress their boss or justify their inflated salaries.  As a result I loved the teaching practice side of the course and the creativity I could apply to planning my lessons.  Who would have thought that I could begin a lexis lesson on 'expressing opinions' using 10 collocations such as 'we are poles apart' and 'contrary to popular belief', with an image of Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMAs?  It worked though, with the students quickly demonstrating that they had strong opinions!

Miley and Me

For me, the highlight of the course has been developing deep friendships with the fellow students.  Together we have survived the highs and lows, the stress, and the lack of sleep with a combination of sweat, tears and most importantly humour.  We have propped each other up through the good times and the bad.  Having spent 5 months last year working in the least supportive and compassionate environment imaginable, I had started to believe that maybe that was the norm in Hong Kong.  The last month has affirmed that this is simply not the case.  I have met some wonderful, kind, caring people - in the other students, the tutors, and the willing victims who were kind enough to give their time to be our English Learners.  I feel confident that I have made long-term friends in the past month.

Ladies who lunch

Yesterday I was ecstatic to be told that my hard work had paid off and I had come top of the class and achieved the A I had yearned for.  It appears that I am a bit of a natural teacher - something I would never have predicted.  I am now looking forward to the next stage and going out and teaching in the real world.

I could not feel more different today to how I felt five months ago.  Last September I know I was a broken person, the CertTESOL course has mended me, my confidence has returned and I feel I am finally ME again.  Thank you English for Asia and Sara, Donna, Simone, Tracey, Laura, Trish, Keenan, Manuela, Jo, Gerry, Charlotte, Frank and Diederik, the makers of Maltesers and MacDonalds flat white coffee!

 Pizza feast with the students and the tutors