New Year – New Projects

Although I don’t have any new year’s resolutions involving diet and exercise, (although perhaps I should), the last heavenly three weeks that I spent with my little boy Hugo, swimming at the beach and walking the dog, have given me the clarity to figure out some plans for the year. I’ve decided to bite the bullet and enroll at Curtin University to do a Graduate Diploma in Education (secondary) and hopefully get into a different kind of teaching.

We’ve bought a block in our dream destination, Margaret River, and should have a slab very soon. The beaches there all look like postcards, the vineyards are fabulous and every person we have ever met down there are really friendly. In some ways it has a really European feel about it and makes us feel like we’re back in France. It’s a great place to raise kids and there’s even a new primary school that is going to be built within walking distance of our place.

Flickr: Robert Young, Vineyard

Unfortunately, from what I can see, there isn’t much of an ESL scene, which means I won’t be able to do exactly the same kind of work I’ve been doing for the last four years. After toying with some radical career changes involving a whole new three or four year degree, I’ve decided that I would love to be a secondary school teacher. Hopefully with some patience and perseverance I will be able to find some work in the region, and enjoy it as much as I do teaching adults.

Another project that has me fascinated at the moment is the Country Teaching Program and the Remote Teaching Service. Essentially, teachers are encouraged to work in country towns all over the states for one year or more and incentives depend on the remoteness of the school. I think it would be a great adventure for my family and it would be really satisfying for me to put my ESL teaching experience to use in an Aboriginal community. I am also sure that some materials-light teaching in a small school will give me some really valuable experience that will make me a better teacher.

Flickr: Georgie Sharp, “Horseshoe Range”

For the moment I’ll keep my head in the course textbook and enjoy being a student some of the time, rather than just having a teaching role. I’m expecting some really good things from 2016 and hope that the things I learn will get me ready for adventures in years to come!

 

 

Living and teaching in Perth, Australia – An update

https://www.flickr.com/photos/illusiax/7829421636 –

After spending an amazing three and a half years in France, my husband and I have come back to Australia to make the most of the beach, the sunshine and the family. As I wasn’t initially doing any teaching work, (I took some time off and then tried some call centre work for a few weeks), my blogging and Linkedin activities were on hold for a few months. I missed teaching and having the opportunity to get to know students and see them develop from day to day and week to week., but was delighted to get a phone call from the PIBT at the beginning of the month inviting me to come and teach. So I can happily say that I am back in action and looking forward to being able to share my new teaching and learning experiences with you.

My new position at the Perth Institute of Technology (PIBT) at Edith Cowan university

Let me begin by telling you how much I love my new job! The staff are all lovely and we even have morning tea on Fridays. The Mt Lawley campus is really beautiful at this time of year and I can have my lunch outside at a picnic table underneath the blossom trees. My class is also a real pleasure to teach and because I see them for 14 hours a week, I really have the opportunity to get to know them. This means that my classes can be adapted to what they need and what they respond best to. The other great thing that has struck me, as compared to my students at the business school in France who only had a few hours contact time per week, is the progress that I see from week to week. These students are preparing for an IELTS exam which they need in order to be able to take various courses at Edith Cowan university. One of the most important skills that they will need for both the test and their tertiary study, and the fact that they have sufficient time to write in class means that I can give them the feedback they need.

Another great thing about teaching English to international students in Australia is that, rather than having a monolingual class like I did in France, I’ve got a real mix of nationalities and backgrounds, (Indian, Vietnamese, Saudi and Chinese). Although students do sometimes speak their L1 during class in small groups, most of the time they have no choice but to communicate English during the class. The mix does bring with it a new set of challenges though. Having taught exclusively native French speakers who tended to make all the same kinds of mistakes, this is a whole new ball game. There are different aspects of pronunciation to work on for each group and the majority of students who don’t use the same alphabet in their first language, which can mean that handwriting, capital letters and spelling aren’t always a strong point. My project this weekend is to dive into Michael Swan’s Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interfererence and Other Problems and try to get a better idea of what I’m dealing with.

More happy news – A new Australian on the way

In other news, I’m delighted to announce that my husband and I have our first baby on the way! Baby will be coming late February, in the heat of the Australian summer. With a Kiwi mum and a French dad, this little Aussie is going to have a lot of travelling and language learning to do! I’ve been reading quite a bit about bilingualism in children and I suppose that this will be something that I’ll be researching more and blogging about in the future. With everything I read, I become more and more amazed at how clever kids are and how well they can take on information to adapt to new situations. I’m almost inclined to organize a Chinese au pair who will speak only Chinese to baby so he doesn’t need to work anywhere near as hard as I do to learn the language as an adult. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted!