sinking!

you find me buried neck deep in work and studies, hence my not writing on here as much as I would like to be doing. This time of year is always a hectic pace, and for me it is not helped by the fact that a) I'm trying my damndest to get my Dip done, and b) I'm now also doing, at the same time, my Diploma in Teaching for the Lifelong Learning Sector, or DTLLS for short.It would be fai to say that I have rather a lot on my plate right now. You might be asking, why the hell are you doing two courses? Well, it is soon to be a requirement in the British FE sector that all instructors have a qualification to teach specifically in the further education area - all part of a drive to push up standards etc. So, every wednesday this year, my services will be required in a classroom to discuss this, that and the other - currently, curriculum design. It promises to be rather a long slog, and, if the word of some of my colleagues who have already done the course is to be trusted, there's a bit too much of the old jumping through hoops while dotting 'i's and crossing 't's about the whole thing. I'm just trying to see where I can make the work cross over the two courses, as it were.

Wake me up when September ends.

Oh well, back to the whiteboard. I returned to work on monday: Now for another term full of testing, enrolment, stress and acquired colds. I'm still getting back into my stride and going through one of those 'bugger this for a game of soldiers' moments. However, there are fairly good reasons for this - we are chronically understaffed, we have a new Curriculum Manager, we have an administrator who still needs a bit of breaking in, I'm busy testing out new systems, I don't know yet how many students I'm going to have coming through the door, and the University Reprographics department has run out of its budget and doesn't have any paper. That's right, we can't print anything up. Oh, and there's been a nasty snafu about the enrolment sessions involving a buggered up booking programme, two classrooms and too many potential ESOL students. On top of that, I'm having a mare finding time to study - and there's another thing: I will have to do my Cert Ed this year on top of completing my Dip. Joy.
On the plus front however, I found this electronic version of the European Language Portfolio, which will hopefully make using portfolios with my students much, much easier.

busy?

rather a slow week, or at least it's felt that way - maybe it's the weather. And again, frustratingly, not much going on on the Dip. front. I want to complete my current workbook in the next few days (the distance Dip. Tesol is split up into workbooks), then try and do as much as possible over the summer before I'm inundated by the shitwave of work that inevitably breaks over me come september. So far this week, I've been working on publicity for the PT & FT EFL courses, marketing strategies (too little, too late, in my opinion: The university's sole overseas agancy is about to be closed, meaning that we probably won't be getting much in the way of FT students for the new academic year), and, of course, portfolios. It finally looks like they've crystallised. Basically, the FT programme will use the portfolio in very much the way they were originally designed to be used, vis. a showcase of each student's best work. However, the Programme Leader will set out prior to the start of the programme what work needs to be covered, and from that the minimum number of items that need to be included. On top of that, and to encourage students to work, having a complete portfolio will be in some way a requirement of course completion, and prizes will be given for the best portfolios.
For the PT programme, because of time constraints and its more specialised nature, the portfolio will be used more in the way I originally envisaged it, i.e. a way of delivering specific tasks that conform to ECF freamework descriptors and show students the type of tasks they may face in PET, FCE, CAE and CPE. It means we can spread the exam skills workload over the whole of the course, rather than trying to cram it from halfway through the course (don't ask why this is: suffice to say it's a long story involving fundaing regulations for FE).
Anyway, I'm fairly pleased with what I've hammered out - now all I have to do is sit back and see if it bloody works.

Dipping away.

working away on the dip. Currently, I'm having a deeply exciting time looking at theories and methodologies - right at the moment, Krashen's Natural Approach, TPR and the Silent Way. Why do none of these seem to have much to say about higher level English Learners? They're all focused at getting beginners competent to a certain degree. Since I generally teach the other end of the spectrum, I'd be interested in the work done regarding theories and methodologies for those who already have higher levels of L2.