A life defining moment

I am now in my 6th year as an  'English teacher'. I sometimes feel a bit of a fraud about that title. I am not a 'qualified' teacher, in the classical sense. I left school when I was 16 (because I was fed up of it!), and until I was in my 30's I didn't study for anything...until I learnt Basic Sign Language. Then in 1999-2000 my wife & I spent a year at Bible College in Scotland. Though I never considered myself to be an 'academic' (compared with some of the younger bright sparks that were there!), I equipped myself to the task & did quite well. My Principal commented that whereas others could grapple with the deep truths of the Bible in complicated ways, I had the style of a farmer! :-) It was meant as a compliment! (I hope!) 
It was after my 5 minute homily that Tony Gray (the Principal) said that I 'had a gift of communication'. It was a defining moment for me from that year. Someone had seen my 'gift'. And I must admit, it gave me a buzz...but I really didn't know what to do about it.
He later suggested to me that I should consider doing a TEFL Course, with a view to teaching English in Czech Republic (as we were planning to move there sometime in the future). I politely avoided the idea - one, because it was way too expensive for us to afford it (at that time), and two...well, me? A teacher? No way! I was no fan of school, and was in no rush to get back into that environment. I'd left it behind a long time ago...


It's a long story since then. Some of it has been related in this blog...I'm sure more parts of the jigsaw that has become my journey will follow. But I have to say that at this moment in time, I am absolutely convinced that I am in the right place - not just where we are living - but in my job. I love it, and yes, I believe that I was made for this, prepared for this...and the best is still to come. It has been an adventure. Not being a 'regular' teacher, I had to make things up as I went along. A lot of hit & miss lessons - learning what works, what doesn't...but always striving to encourage students to express themselves in the wonderful gift that they have in the English language. 



And then the other day an ex-student kindly sent me the following link:
http://life-engineering.com/1747/do-public-schools-kill-creativity/
"In 2006 Sir Ken Robinson gave an unforgettable talk at TED about how to develop children’s natural capacity for creativity and imagination, and how the design of our current public school systems are working to kill that creativity."


This is stunning! Please - if you haven't seen this already, do yourself a favour & watch it. Just listening to this man affirmed what I believe in my heart to be true. I am still on the journey. I don't profess to have reached perfection - there is more work to do. But this is where I'm going :-) And I hope my students enjoy the ride - and that other teachers get the point too :-)

A gift

Shortly after Christmas, we went to Tovačov, a local area with some lakes and a great place to do some bird watching. Of course, at this time of the year there aren't so many birds around - but you never know - you just might spot something unusual...
Towards the end of a fairly fruitless time we spotted a Sea Eagle flying over the far side of the lake. Actually, with one arm carrying the telescope and the other clutching my binoculars to my face, I thought it was a heron! :-) But Petra was certain it was an eagle...We set up the telescope & looked around, to see if it had perched anywhere, but we had no joy...
As we were heading back towards the car, we had one last look...sure enough, there was the eagle! And what do you know? He flew towards us...and over us, circling as he went & gaining more height. This was easily the best view we've ever had of a sea eagle! We just enjoyed the sight, and it was a couple of minutes before we were stunned into action to try and get a photo! We managed to get one with our zoom...but I guess nothing will ever capture the beauty of what we witnessed. We had many gifts over Christmas, and we are very thankful for them all...but we can thank God for this one :-)

Nowhere is now here...

Been a while since I posted...but some stories to catch up on ;-)
A few weeks before Christmas in one of the seminars, a young lady was reading a text which I was following...when suddenly she lost me! She said 'now here...' Confused, I asked her where she was reading from...it was the same passage, but she'd read the word 'nowhere' as 'now here'!! :-) I found this not only very amusing, but also highly original...in fact, I don't recall a single student doing that in my 5 and a bit years at SGO! We had a few laughs about it & I hoped she saw the funny side...of course, The Beatles had a famous song - 'Now Here Man'...and the Talking Heads also did 'Road to Now Here'...
In the very next lesson, I told the students that I'd just had an interesting experience. I wrote 'nowhere' on the blackboard and asked a young man at the front to say the word. To be honest, I really expected no problems...but quick as a flash, without so much as a blink, he said 'now here'!!! His friend next to him gave him a look which suggested he'd forgotten how to speak English and said 'It's 'nowhere'!' Cue more laughter...
What are the odds of that happening?!
Well, as Neil Young named one of his albums - 'Everybody Knows this is Nowhere'....