full on teaching

Its now november .Not only have the leaves on the trees changed colour but they have also dropped so the landscape is looking bare.The weather is damp and foggy.Low clouds.My garden is a swamp.All in all winter has arrived and it will be fairly dark most days here in Yorkshire for the next few months.Hmm.
I do enjoy winter.When it snows.Or when its icy and I don't have to drive.And our winters are becoming more snowy.That feeling you get when walking on crispy white snow (being the first to do so!) is wonderful.I love the silence that decends with snow.But I digress...
I am now teaching full time on line.My classes are a mixture of teenage geography students who attend a virtual high school ,Chinese IELTS students working hard for exams to enter Universities or gain residency somewhere and Russian students who are a mix..some business,some school children and some conversation.Its great!I am really enjoying it now and am fully in my stride..
I am using a number of excellent textbooks for the students
Compelling Conversations
New Opportunities
Market Leader
to name a few.
And today I have decided that I am now more committed to this blog and so will update it weekly from here on in.I hope to include lots of links to helpful sites for both teachers and students so if you know of any then feel free to let me know!

Returning to England.

Sadly I had to return to the UK a week ago to deal with some issues that needed a firm hand.After a long long bus journey from Tabua to Faro we flew into a very wet and windy Liverpool which was also in the grip of some mini rioting/looting/conflict.
After 2 months away some things have changed but most things have stayed the same.
My garden has blossomed and was a joy to behold when I saw it.Just lovely ,overgrown and lush with colour.So that was a good change from when I left it all planted up.
My dogs and cats have doubled in size ,mainly because dog walking became an opening the door to garden kinda walk for those people left behind to care for these little beauties.So no moorland walks ,no woodland walks and no swimming for the dogs in the recent past.Very sad dogs greeted me at the door.So not such a good change.
The house was ,as usual ,a tip.No worse than normal so no change there I suppose.
People don't appear to have changed ,I have not really spoken to anyone though so I don't know what they would say.They still look down trodden ,defeated and depressed in general.They still appear to be consuming lots ,creating lots of unrecycled waste and being generally unhappy with their lot.Or maybe this is what I see around me because I am so dis-satisfied with my life in this  country.I feel myself to be an outsider here and I am just looking in.Hmm
I came back here for a number of reasons ,one of them being work related.While yurt sitting I had power and internet and could continue to earn money but then I moved onto my own place without these facilities in place and that made online teaching a little tricky.I managed to get hold of some vital equipment to get me going but was missing an important component to bring it all together so work slowed down somewhat and cash drained out of my bank account.Hence a return to England.Well one of the reasons anyway.

I have been back for a week now and my calendar is now more or less full of students and I have started to turn down work .Its interesting that all the new students I have come from Korea and China on the whole with the odd Russian ,Japanese and French.I have taken on some children also and they are a joy to teach so far.Very bright ,keen and able.But they are under so much pressure to achieve some of them are taking lessons at midnight (age 8/9) its a bit crazy .I am not sure how long I will continue to accept these kids because it feels like its just too much for them to be doing.My adult Chinese student today told me I sound like a Marxist when we were discussing the topic of society which was funny really...so thats the update.
The UK is the same but I am not.

working from a yurt in Central Portugal

Since starting this blog I have become more involved in the world of virtual schools and lesson giving via Skype and a number of teaching platforms(adobe and Seggle being the main 2 that I use).And in fact I do very few lessons via Skype now by choice as this is the lowest paid work.
I have also begun to have a better understanding of how the system works.Its not that different to how schools ,real physical rather than virtual ones ,work.An agent is your friend as a teacher.Its the agent who has the worldwide contacts ,if they are any good.I have now developed strong relationships with a number of agents and so work is just there for the taking it seems.If I were to put no limits on my working hours I could most likely be teaching 24 hours a day.Which obviously would be too much.But now I have managed to get myself into the position where its easier for me to pick and chose my students and my hours.
There seems to be a very high demand for IELTS and Business English Many students around the world are keen to migrate to English speaking countries for more education mainly so IELTS are essential for this.Chinese students are keen to get to Australia and New Zealand.South American students are keen to get to North America ,European students are keen to get to the UK.The Russian students I have seem to trend in two ways.The men want Business English in order to expand there successful businesses but they do not want to leave Russia and it appears that there is no need for that as business seems to be coming knocking on their doors.The women(remember this is in general) on the whole just want conversation English lessons so they can be good hosts for their husbands at dinner parties.

Since June the 12th I have in Central Portugal staying on a friends farm while she attends to some family business back in the UK.I am staying in her yurt which has been fascinating some of my students who in general all aspire to big houses ,big money and lavish lifestyles.Most of my students come from countries that are now developing and becoming big on the economic front..i.e China ,Russia ,Brazil and India.So they cannot see the attraction of living a rural lifestyle and think it funny and quaint.
This is a growing major industry and by all accounts it is going to get bigger and bigger.If you want to join get yourself a CELTA or TEFAL award and join in!

My work has changed...

its fantastic...its a time of change for me again.
I am now teaching students from around the globe.They come from Algeria,Korea,Russia,New Zealand,China ,Brazil ,Australia,Turkey and Japan at the moment.Its confusing for me ....getting a system in place so I am organised is proving tricky. Students are coming to me from a large variety of contacts and I'm required to keep records for some but not for others.
I am really enjoying using the new teaching software..interactive white boards ,group video conferences,shared browsing ..its brilliant.The same tools I used to use in the classroom teaching geography I am now able to use on line teaching English.This is much better than the Skype based conversation lessons which I still do a little of.

IELTS

For many students the IELTS are the holy grail in terms of attainment in English learning.To the uninitiated these are the key to the future...this is what gets you into your chosen country to live or to study. The International English Language Testing System are a set of exams which test a persons level of English.The speaking part is  a short exam..around 15 minutes .But its intense.And so easy to mess up.
How to pass IELTS:
Keep focused.
Listen to every question AND respond.
Your answer does not have to be true.The examiner justs wants to hear you speak.He/she is not interested in your story really.
For PART 1
 give a direct answer first followed by a 
short explanation.
In total 35 seconds for each question...
For PART 2
Read the question,
prepare your first sentence to help get your 'flow',
remember to EXPLAIN why you chose to describe the particular item/experience/topic.
Remember it doesn't have to be true.
You have 1 minute to prepare and 1.5-2 minutes to speak.
For PART 3
You need to give more detail,
Treat it as a discussion rather than information requiring direct responses,
In total 45 seconds at the most for each question.
THEN ITS OVER!!!
Have you done enough to get your 6.5 or 7 score?
Students make mistakes for all sorts of reasons.
Nerves can get the better of them.
There can be a lot riding on the exams.It can mean a permanent visa for Australia or the opportunity to study for a masters in London.
Its hard.
The level of English expected is advanced .Examiners are looking for complete and complicated sentences ,with connections and prepositions used freely.
Spoken not written English.
A fair amount of students speak in a formal fashion using words that may be commonly used in written English but not in spoken English. Using words such as "in addition..." in speech is not common in everyday English usage.
I have great sympathy for the IELTS students who work so hard to succeed.

Interview nerves...

Does anyone like interviews really?When I was younger I got a bit of a buzz from them but not any more.I had 2 interviews today ,both on line.One was straight forward and I was rubbish.It was through Skype ,simple question and answer format and I was rubbish!The second was after down loading a companies unfamiliar (to me) software and an observed lesson with some kids.I really quite enjoyed this one and felt that it went well.I shall find out tomorrow.

The range of on line resources

When ever I do a search for more materials such as clips and quizzes for my students I am amazed at the sheer volume of what is available to me.I am a massive fan of the world wide web and how it connects people and allows for the sharing of ideas and resources.Its an extremely valuable tool  in terms of learning (and not just English language learning).
I am now an on-line student as well as a teacher.I have dabbled with learning Portuguese for a few years and have now decided that I need to up my game and so have engaged an on line teacher for conversational purposes.Its interesting to see how he works and how much preparation he puts in prior to the lesson. Inevitably we speak a lot about teaching on line! But I also like to discuss current political developments around the globe and in Portugal.He is based in Portugal and is currently engaged in studying for a masters in Political sciences so we have a fair few interesting discussions.For my first lesson I was very self conscious about my speech and in particular my accent and mixed up tenses but as time has gone by I am much more comfortable with making mistakes and he is excellent at correcting me without me losing my flow of thought and words...

I operate in a similar way to this.I have to listen very carefully to my students and judge when and what to correct.Its not always necessary to correct every single error in speech if the general gist is understood-and I chose what to correct depending on the students confidence and ability.I have one Russian student who is reasonable fluent in English but nearly always mixes "he/she" and "they/we" and I always correct this even if it means interrupting his flow of speech because I KNOW he can cope with this interruption.
The resources on line for students of English are copious and varied in quality and no student will ever be short of practice materials.There are many listening and reading activities that are free but the opportunity to speak with a native speaker for free is more limited and essentially this is what all language learners need in order to progress in their language skills. 

How long has it been???

My word!I cannot believe how long it is since I last wrote the blog!Blimey..
I am still teaching.I now work more independently ,finding my own students and developing my own resources.Currently I teach around 12 hours a week.My students are of mixed nationalities including Russian,Turkish, Taiwanese,Greek and Portuguese.This provides a challenge for me because ,despite having a bank of built up resources to use ,each nationality obviously has its own alphabet or has no such thing as idioms ,for example ,in their native language and often I am teaching a concept rather than a grammatical point.The benefit of mixed nationality students is the variety for me as a teacher ,the new knowledge I am gaining of other lifestyles that I have maybe been ignorant of  and at the moment the free lessons I am receiving from one of my Portuguese students.We exchange a lesson each once a week rather than me accepting a cash payment.It would be wonderful if we lived in a cash free economy and exchanged services or goods instead!
I teach via Skype and I had a lesson last week with a student living in Moscow.His English is at the beginner stage but he was able to tell me about a recent first trip to the UK for work related reasons.He managed to stay for 3 extra days and spent the time in Manchester in the North of England as he is a Man U supporter.(Football team).
http://www.manutd.com/Splash-Page.aspx
He loved Manchester even though its a grey damp time of year in the North.He found the night-life exciting and so much cheaper than Moscow.

His aim for our lesson was to recreate the noise on the streets of Manchester on a Friday night.Hmmm...
He wanted me to teach about swear words and their meanings.My daughters were in the room next door and I spent an hour shouting out swear words to him.It was difficult to explain the meaning of some words as they are regional and sort of require a knowledge of the place.But it was a fun lesson,I really enjoyed it.
Here is a link to follow up swear words...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A753527