Project #366 Week 37

Every morning has started with drizzle, making everyone think that the weather is turning autumnal, but it has brightened up by lunchtime and been warm and sunny. Still, I think the weather is on the turn. It's still in the 20s, but only just.


Sunday 9th September 2012




Windy

Final day of the regatta. Today there was enough wind to go sailing, and M finished, at the end of the day, with a second prize. Not bad considering that he went swimming yesterday instead. I drove him down to the quay so that I could get a look at Le Marite. She is the last 3-masted  fishing boat in the French fleet, and has been massively renovated. 

Monday 10th September

Today our guinea pigs will arrive for teaching practice sessions. My fellow TP tutors and I are going to teach them, to do a diagnostic lesson for the trainees. At the moment I don't know how many, what level or where they come from! I'm going to eat my lunch by the beach in St Brelade's in order to have some quiet time before the chaos.

Update- We had 70 students,  mostly from Portugal and Eastern Europe, although there were a few Western Europeans, and a couple of Thais and Philippinos. We managed to make some excellent sized TP classes, with some beginners, elementary, pre/intermediate and upper int students. That will give the trainees some good practice at the different levels:-)

Tuesday 11th

I went to the supermarket this morning to pick up some milk. We have a rota system on the course and today is my turn. I had to get my camera out because I couldn't believe my eyes. Talk about wishing one's life away. Is this the earliest sign of the big C word ever? I was surprised and dismayed in equal parts.
My trainees did well for their first session. We don't have any weak trainees- including my daughter, thank goodness :-)
I have quite a lot of things to do this evening, including getting to grips with the course Gavin Dudeney is running on Digital Literacies. It's probably not a brilliant time to do a course, in the middle of mine, but I will try to make time for it, as it is something I'm interested in.

Wednesday 12th

 These are the first Gladioli of the season. The ones I found were almost black, but they are opening up as a dark, velvety red. As you can see, we still  have the scaffolding which they promised to take away last week! A busy day today, quite wet and windy in the morning. In the evening M and I went out to pick up a birthday present for Cairis. I had to wait until she went to bed in order to dress the room and table, and to wrap the presents. This was late, as she was writing her self evaluation of her lesson, and preparing for her next lesson.

Thursday 13th

Cairis's birthday and the Battle of Britain air display. The college is on the flight path from the airport to the bay. You can't hear yourself think, so we have cancelled the lessons for this afternoon, and given the trainees some catch-up time. I offered to do lunch for everyone, as it is Cairis's birthday. She loves sushi, so I ordered some from the local deli. We were eating it in the lunch room, with a handful of elderly Japanese students at the next table. They were looking longingly at our food, and sadly at their sandwiches and fruit, so we shared with them. Much bowing ensued:-)
We dashed down the hill at four O'clock, to watch the end of the air display. We were in time to see a few enormous helicopters, and then, the stars of the show- the Red Arrows. The sky was cloudfree and the sea was a beautiful blue. The bay makes a natural ampitheatre for the show, which was watched by hundreds of people all around the coast. We were also treated to a view of le Marite leaving the harbour in St Helier, on the other side of the bay. She had her sails raised and looked like an elegant vessel from times past.

 

Friday 14th

 The end of the week. The students have all turned up regularly, and the trainees have done a good job of teaching them at the different levels. I take my hat off to the group who had the beginners class. It is difficult, even for experienced teachers, to have a class of students with a spiky profile, and they coped surprisingly well. One of the Japanese students from the main college made a birthday card on Photoshop for Cairis to say thank you for the Sushi :-)

When I got home, I was delighted to see that the scaffolding had been taken down at last. Our house is not quite finished, as there are bare patches where the pillars were placed, but I expect it will be finished on Monday . Our neighbours like it so much that they are going to paint theirs the same !

 

Saturday 15th

I had to go in to work for a few hours. I promised my trainees the chance to get in to photocopy or prepare lessons without getting under the feet of the main school teachers. I returned to find everyone at home working flat out- Cairis was doing her Learner Profile and M was preparing a Money Laundering prezi for his trainee accountants at the office.They look like a pair of bookends, although they were actually working in adjacent rooms :-)