Bye bye school

Wrote this yesterday, once more... no internet at home

I’ve done it.  This has been one of the strangest weeks that I remember, it has been simply impossible to get my head around the idea that the biggest part of my life this year is coming to an end.

The last lessons started on Monday - I only have each class once a week, so every lesson was a set of goodbyes.  Three lessons on Monday morning with my little ones (that’s what I call them, they’re actually year 9 and 10) started the theme of cake in every lesson.  They were a bit excited about the whole cake situation, and obviously being the younger ones they don’t know as much English as the others, but nice things were said by me and by them, and it was really very lovely.

On Tuesday I finished working with two of my colleagues, and my students went a bit further with the lessons - they shouted ‘surprise’ as I walked in, and they did a thank you speech, and we got through another massive tray of biscuits.  Another class gave me a cuddly cat (they’d asked me the lesson before what my favourite animal was).

On Wednesday I had the last lesson with an amazing class, who I’ve always got on well with.  In those lessons I spend a lot of time laughing.  We had a fun lesson, and we’re all going out for pizza tonight, together with my wonderful colleague, the real English teacher at school.  I was glad that I didn’t have to say bye to them then.

Then today I woke up, after not a great deal of sleep.  When I saw my colleague we said we’d have to just brush over the whole last day thing for now because we didn’t want to be sad.  I walked into my first class and there was another big tray of biscuits.  We made a toast (as in like a cheers toast, when you lift your cup up) with some Coca Cola.  I didn’t say goodbye well enough - when it got to the vital moment near the end of the lesson when I should have said stuff, I forgot everything and so we just took a photo.  

The next lesson (in which one of the girls had made a chocolate cake), I remembered all I wanted to say, be good, learn English etc.  The final lesson, they had brought in the most amazing cake.  It was big, covered in chocolate and pistachio, with a marzipan bit on the top, with writing that said ‘See You Soon’.  There were the tops of some white roses on the cake, and then a red rose on the desk, which I’ve brought home.  It was the most beautiful cake I’ve ever had anything to do with.  After we’d eaten for a bit, they did a bit of a discussion in groups about language learning (an attempt to choose an appropriate final-lesson theme).  Then we had a discussion all together for the last five minutes, talking about why it’s important to learn languages and what you can do with them.  At various points I wasn’t totally sure I’d manage to say everything at the end, but we concluded nicely actually.  My students were the epitome of all that was good - they were absolutely lovely to me all week, but particularly in that last hour when I think they understood a bit of what this has all been for me as well.

For some reason, ever since I finished at school at midday, I’ve been in a pretty normal mood.  I think it’ll take a few days to sink in that the thing that I’ve thought about most for the last year has actually finished, it’s just so strange.  

At the worst points in the last nine months, a good lesson was the thing that cheered me up, and the thing that motivated me to keep slogging away at this whole Sicilian thing.  Apart from the fact that the job was the reason I was put here, it was also the reason I stayed.  I mean, it took a while for life here to get as amazing as it is now, and if I hadn’t loved my job, I’m not 100% sure I would have seen it through the winter.  I don’t know what else I can say about it now.  It’s just been amazing.

So now, the summer.  Still teaching, but at the English language school up the hill.  Just a few weeks of normal lessons and then a summer camp by the seaside.

I’m so glad I’m not leaving Modica, and I’m very excited about my summer plans.  I’m so glad I’ll still be teaching, because I love it.  Roll on the next stage of the Modican life.

Nearly there...

I wrote this on Monday, but this is the first time since then I've been at the internet with my computer...

It is getting hard to think that I’m only going to get to see my kids once or twice more.  I am putting a massive effort into planning my lessons now that all the time seems so precious and scarce.

My last week of lessons, after a useful suggestion from my friend Sally, is going to be focused on the usefulness of language learning, English in particular, in the world at the moment.  I am planning those lessons at the moment, and I just got a big wave of a feeling that’s something like sadness, maybe with a bit of worry, about these kids.  I have tried the best I can to show them that the world outside of this small Sicilian town is big and multilingual, and I really hope that this is something that they’ll take away with them.  These kids are every bit as sharp and intelligent as kids in a good, high-ability school in any other part of the world, but in this corner of Europe they don’t have as much exposure to travelling or other cultures as in my own part of the continent.  This was my reason for doing this job - the idealistic aspiration to bring a subject to life a little bit for a small amount of people, because they really do need English for a lot of things.

It’s difficult to feel motivated to fulfill the ideology in every waking moment, and now I’m so close to the end of my job, I’m worrying about the times I did my lesson planning so begrudgingly, and when I was looking forward to going home, or when they haven’t liked the activity I’ve given them.

I think in real world terms, that’s taking into account that sometimes you’re tired or have a headache or the students are naughty and it’s disheartening, I’ve tried as hard as I can.  It’s not over yet, I have another seven days of teaching, but it’s getting so eerily soon.

Today I reminded my three Monday classes that next week is my last week.  Of course they hadn’t remembered what I’d told them right at the beginning of the year, and it took them by surprise, and it was quite humbling that they were sorry to hear it.  As a person striving to be a good teacher, I try to think first about what the experience is like for them, blah blah.  This post so far has obviously missed out a large piece of the picture.  I have learnt an immeasurable amount from this job.  Firstly the fact of it being my first proper serious job, kind of professional, with responsibility and all of that, that I need to think about a lot and really apply myself to.  Secondly, the personal nature of it.  I have been lucky to meet very many lovely people who are my students and colleagues.  I am free to do what I want in my hour-long slots, so I’ve found a lot of time for lovely interesting conversations, and much as I go on about them understanding the culture behind the language, it’s very much a two-way process.

And of course, the job was the reason for me coming to live all the way out here instead of just going to a university city like a more conventional year abroad student.

I’m getting my head round that weird feeling of a big impending change, that makes you back-evaluate everything, and think back to how wonderful all the wonderful bits were.  

Bloopers

If anyone reading this is considering working as a tefl teacher, think of the big advantage: you get to listen to amazing English mistakes on a regular basis.  I have tried to remember the best ones as I’ve gone along.  In the majority of cases, I’ve kept my composure in the class itself but had to have a good laugh about it later.  Occasionally it’s just been too funny.  Here are the best ones that I can remember:

‘William and Kate’s baby will probably be a girl or a boy’

‘Tower Bridge opens when the shits go down the river’ (should have been ships)

I point to the word ‘shouted’

Me - ‘How do you pronounce this word’

Student, confidently - ‘shitted’

Back story: in Italian you can say ‘Maria!’ in a similar way to ‘oh God’! or ‘for God’s sake!’ in English.

In one class, there was a lot of chatting going on.

My wonderful colleague - Can you all stop chatting and focus on the English lesson? Maria!

Student (making fun of what we’re always saying to them) - Speak in English!  Not Maria! Mary! Mary!

Student wrote the word ‘coconut’ on her desk, and pointed to it, looked at me and said ‘okay?’

I didn’t understand her question and got the giggles.

Italians have problems with English vowel sounds, which sometimes works out well for me and my entertainment.

Student - ‘I love the bitch’

Me - ‘Where were you?’

Him - ‘In the bitch’  (should have been ‘on the beach’)

Me - ‘What do you think foreigners think of first when they think of Italy?’

Her - ‘Beautiful bitches’

One time a student got a massive fit of giggles when I was talking about their ‘worksheet’, and I did a mini-lesson to him and the student next to him about the difference between ‘shit’ and ‘sheet’, ‘bitch’ and ‘bitch’, ‘fuck’ and ‘fork’.  Bless them, we’ve set out a lot of traps for a very small difference in a vowel sound.

One time I was helping an English teacher friend with some practice oral exams.  This took place in exam conditions.

Me - ‘Do you like listening to English language music?’

Him - ‘Oh yes, you know the new Pink song?  *Sings* ‘just give me a reason just a na na na na na’, that one?’

Me - ‘Erm, yes?’

Him - ‘I like singing along to that one in my car’

Now these aren’t mine, but of other language assistants in Sicily.  We text each other when someone says something really good.

‘The beautiful bitches of Venice’

‘The wild bitches of Florida’

‘English people are forced to have lunch in the pub’

‘If you don’t want cock and you still want something hot’ (should have been ‘to cook...’)

In written work ‘I love the bitch’

Even though real crackers don’t happen every day, I do have a funny quotation or anecdote after the majority of school days, which makes me remember that I love my job.