On Wednesday, I got up under the impression that my first session in Z would go smoothly. I know the directions, I know how long it takes to drive there, I know the staff at the Pisga centre (apart from the new manager), I have done the same session three times in the past fortnight… I was sure everything would roll according to plan.
Maybe I should have suspected that the day wasn’t running to plan when I left school far later than I should have (“Just one more meeting”, “Just write this one paragraph for me…”, “Just remind someone…”). I arrived in Z on time but didn’t have the time to sit and have a quiet cup of coffee as I prefer to do before a session. It marks the division between school and course, the drive itself just isn’t enough. Then the computer just wouldn’t open my windows 7 files. “Oh yes, that is the only room in the centre that we haven’t done the changeover yet…” Luckily the technician was there but he only helped me with some of my materials.
I thought I was ready to go when the participants began to arrive. Suddenly I realized that I recognized the teachers, they were in my group last year. After hellos, I explained: “No, my course this year is for beginners, it’s the same as last year”.
“We want a continuation course”.
“So did I, but the centre staff decided there was more of a demand for first year so that is what they asked me to prepare”.
“We’ve come anyway, we want to learn more”.
“That’s great but… OK… let’s wait and we’ll see who arrives”.
“Even if it means doing the same things, we’re here”.
Thoughts were racing through my head. I knew we could deal with the same topics and others and that they could enrich their understandings but I certainly couldn’t show the same powerpoint presentation, do the same exercises or use the same examples. We waited until 4pm came and went and other teachers arrived. The group was small, too small, 11 in total – 6 “old” and 5 “new”.
I made a flash decision to run the session and to find a way to manage a course with such a diverse group. I said “If I can do it in the classroom at school, I can do it here”. How could I disappoint those six teachers, so eager to learn, so determined to continue the process we began last year? That said, I had to decide what to do in the three hour session before me. If I had been closer to home, I would have said “OK, go home, we’ll meet in two weeks time. In the meantime I will prepare new materials”. But I was an hour and a half drive from home and knew that nobody would pay for my transport if I didn’t run a session.
I have never before been in that position – a group sitting before me waiting to begin, a lesson plan ready, photocopies, books, powerpoint etc waiting to share and then having to pull something else from up my sleeve.
After 3-4 minutes of thinking and composing myself, I began with my introductory letter. It worked for all – “new” and “old”, and gave me an extra 15 minutes to get ready while they were busy reading my letter and writing a response.
What did I do? I did a revision of the writing process on the board (I couldn’t get that powerpoint to open). From the questions asked by my continuing students, I could see it wasn’t a waste of time. Then I dwelt on the publication stage of the writing process and connected it to the characteristics of competent writers, another area we discussed last year. Finally I opened my pupils’ blog on my school web site and introduced them slowly to the wonderful world of student and teacher blogging. Last year I didn’t do this session with this group because so many of the teachers had extremely limited computer access. Under the circumstances, I decided the newness of the materials would suit the needs of both groups. The session went well.
At one stage, one of the teachers asked for an opportunity to introduce themselves to the group. This is the second time this has happened to me – I don’t know why I forget to do this when it is so important for me to get as much group interaction in as possible. I promised we would do it before the end of the session.
I ended the section on blogging with an invitation that if anybody is interested in setting up a blog, I will be happy to help “I’ll even come to your home to assist you!” I promised. One teacher openly said she is going to give it a try. This is an enormous step for a very religious teacher working in an ultra – religious school.
To finish the session we did a round of introductions. I asked everyone to say their name, where and what they teach and areas of interest in the teaching of writing. It was fascinating. Three of the “new” teachers had come as a result of recommendations from colleagues at school. The other two are a mother and daughter teaching and studying together.
The continuing participants all talked about what they had done during the course last year and following it. They talked proudly of classroom success and empowerment. They talked enthusiastically about long term writing projects they had done with their students. One teacher described: “As a special education teacher, this was the first time my students have ever achieved a finished writing product they can be proud of. They can thank you for that, Nikki”. “Oh no” I replied, “…they can definitely thank you for that!”.
