first observation - by Theo

Today I had my first observation by my University Tutor, a man who has trained at least one person in every English Department west of Reading (or so it seems - he's been at the University's Education Department for 25 years). This was a formal observation which would count towards my final grade. So no pressure then.

Actually I wasn't feeling too much pressure. I'd been observed by somebody in the 15 or so classes I had taught prior to today (plus loads as an EFL teacher), so wasn't feeling too unnerved at the prospect of having somebody commenting on my every utterance. Plus I always try to keep in mind that it is through being observed and reflecting on the comments you get back that you learn. So, bring it on.

I was teaching a Year 10 class that I had taught twice before. Their aim at the end of the unit is to write a review of the film, Jaws, and after two classes looking at how film makers use camera angles and sound to create tension, we were now looking at effective language use in reviews. The class went well. Not brilliantly, but a bit more than OK. It wasn't inaccessibly hard, but it wasn't a stroll in the park for them either. They behaved. They learned (something). We finished on time. It was alright.

I've still got loads to do. Both my Associate Tutor (who was quite nervous as it's her first year as an AT and she had to give her feedback first - so essentially she was being observed too!) and University Tutor were complimentary and thought I was doing better than they might expect at this point in the PGCE course. They were really pleased with my planning and consideration of the needs of individual students; I've my EFL experience to thank for that I guess. But there is plenty of room for me to improve, with a few of the things being:

• I need to think about how to get the students to reflect on their work, to realise what they have learned.
• I need to cut down the amount of Teacher Talk and build in more steps to the tasks so the students can guide themselves through with minimum input from me.
• Leaving space for individual work and only doing group work if there is a real point to it.

It's that last point where my EFL background isn't helping. "Discuss with your partner" is such a CELTA staple - language is communicative, and when teaching English as a Foreign Language, just getting students to talk to each other and convey meaning can be a learning objective and outcome all on its own. In contrast, times when EFL students write in silence for 15 minutes or more are rare. So changing what my view of what learning looks like is going to be crucial.

proceando paso a paso

This Saturday past, our wonderful and multi-lingual friends Belen and Cesar invited us over to their house for a dinner party. Along with David and Natalie, a charming Venezuelan couple whose company we've enjoyed several times before, they had invited a Spanish couple, Alberto and Marito, whose English was rather limited. Thrillingly, however, we were able to communicate (with some generous understanding) for the entire night (9 til 2) in Spanish. Impressive really, especially considering we only really know two tenses - el preterito perfecto and the future with "ir". Better still, we could understand a fair amount of what was said - not only to us, but between the Spanish speakers as well. Naturally we had to ask for clarification at times and there was a great deal of "como se dice (English word) en espanol?" but it's all very exciting!

For the past three weeks we had been attending 90 minute classes nearly every morning at International House, where trainee Spanish teachers were able hone their skills on us (as a result the lessons were free). While the early start was a pain - especially last week when Cathy and Tish (Kate's mother and Godmother) were visiting and we would rather have been spending time with them - the benefits are already showing. We're on that steep learning curve all beginners experience where you easily tell that you are progressing; soon (I hope) we'll hit the Intermediate Plateau, where progression becomes less tangible. By then you have the structure of the language more or less under command and it's a case of improving pronunciation and receptive skills, learning vocabulary and getting to grips with the less everyday grammar points (e.g. when to use "cual" for 'which', rather than the usually ubiquitous "que").

That's a way off yet though - as we can presently only talk about things we have done (hemos hecho) and things we are going to do (vamos a hacer) there are a few tenses (was doing, did, would do, are doing) we need to learn before we get to the dizzy heights of intermediate proficiency.

Cómo se pronucia esta palabra?

Hola nuestros amigos y extraños! Nosotros esperamos que vosotros estáis bien. Mi guapa esposa Kate y me aprendemos español, pero muy despacio. Encuentemos la pronunciation de ciertos letras sumamente difícl, especialmente 'c', 'j', 'll', 'b', 'v' y 'g'. Plantea nos un problema pourque la palabra que significa "beer" se escribe "cerveza".

So, as you can see Kate and I are learning Spanish, and, as you may have divined from the above, it's not easy. The fact that we'd started learning Italian first is making it harder as many of the words are very similar, except in the crucially important differences.

Still we've managed to learn all the important phrases, namely:

No hablo español - I don't speak spanish

No comprendo - I don't understand

Puede hablar más despacio, por favour? - Can you speak more slowly please?

Tiene algún plato vegetariano? - do you have any vegetarian dishes?

Cómo se dice "we're tired and hungry, please help us"? - How do you say "estamos cansados y tengamos mucha hambre, ayuda nos por favour"?

and of course...

Nos trae dos cervezas, por favour? - Can we have two beers please?

If we can ever learn to pronounce "cervezas" without drowning the waiter in spittle - it must be the only word in the world where having a lisp would be an aid to pronunciation....