Hi,
As I said in my last post, I've recently changed jobs... and it's proving quite the challenge to adjust to my new situation. While a lot of the conditions are better than I had, there are a few things that I'm struggling with. One of them is the lack of technology.
After teaching at a school where all students had their own netbooks or iPads, and where a lot of work was done in digital form, using the textbook as the only material available is quite limited. To begin with, textbooks rarely cater for different levels, and I have a multitude of levels in each classroom. Another issue is that textbooks provide a limited number of exercises, and some students still struggle with some grammar forms after having exhausted all the exercises available in the textbook and the workbook. Last year, it was simple--I could just generate my own drills, or search for some in trusted websites, and share them with my students within seconds. This is not possible now.
Mind you, I'm probably allowed to send work via e-mail if I take care of personal data. I haven't asked yet.
Anyway, I have been thinking about this famous video quite a lot. I admire Sir Ken Robinson, and I think he's absolutely spot-on with what he says about the school system. Thinking about this saddens me, makes me think I'm only one little person in a little school which is part of this system, where I haven't spotted many 'lone riders' (as someone put it in a talk I attended a couple of years ago) who are taking risks by encouraging divergent thinking, creativity and group work. I feel like a fish out of water because in my last school at least there were a few people like that.
It's not all doom and gloom, however. I think knowing your enemy is a key part to defeating it. Or at least, to save your sanity and to know what you can get away with. There's another video I have been thinking about, because I've left my comfort zone and I'm staring at the abyss, looking at the panic zone and looking for a way to fly upwards. Here it is,
It's comforting to think that there's a way out if only you dare to dream.
Thanks for reading!
Maite
