So much to say...

Christ, I can hardly catch my breath. There's so much to say! I need to tell you about:

• Jo and Simon's wedding
• Finding out my JET placement - Fukushima prefecture
• Lewis and Angela's wedding
• Moving out of Manchester and in to Catford
• Chris and Flora's wedding
• Coming to Ireland for Andrea and Anthony's wedding
• Hearing from my JET predecessor

As you can guess, it's been an ridiculously busy few weeks. I'm lucky enough to be sitting in a hotel room at the amazing Tankardstown house in Meath, so maybe there's a little I can do to catch up. Let's see...

Final thoughts on Trinity Cert.TESOL

This afternoon we had our final moderation at the Openshaw Campus. Studying for the Trinity Cert. TESOL at The Manchester College has been a mixed experience, with generally high standards of teaching and tuition interspersed with some instances of shocking incomptence. I've learned a lot, though some of the most useful learning has been through repeated contact with the wheezing administrative organs of the College, rather than through the classes. A few thoughts:

• Lesson plans: idealism and realism. The course demanded precisely-timed lesson plans from students. Minute-by-minute timings were presented as standard practice. In reality, the detail within the plans was far greater than any full-time teacher could be expected to produce, and certainly not six or seven times a day. The course sets up new teachers with unrealistic expectations about their capacity to plan in such minute detail.

TESOL Interview

I had my TESOL interview today. Interested? Get clicking!

Emi-san! Konbanwa!

Would you like to know about our first Japanese lesson? Well, get clicking then! Click! Click! Click!

Good News Wednesday

Two great pieces of news today!

1. I passed my college course! Whoop!

2. I've go another interview, for a research position this time, on Monday 12th. Yeehaw!

Can't I procrastinate some other time?

After the jump is a list of things that I did before starting my homework today.

Making learning fun

I have never known an atmosphere like it at college. Never has there been so much laughter between the paving slabs of fact and discussion. I doubt that's because Theory X and Theory Y are a barrel of laughs, or that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is an absolute hoot - far from it. It's the residual impact of the residential. I'm looking forward to the rest of the course now.

One thing I'm less enthused about, however, is our new tutor. Today she said the IQ stood for intelligence QUOTA rather than intelligence quotient. Yes, quota, as in a restriction based on specific quantity. Says it all, what?

College residential

Our tutor had been eerily quiet about the residential weekend, to the extent that some of the class were getting a little worried about its content. Would it be an Outward Bound affair? Would we be pushed to the limits of our souls to find out who we truly were inside, man? Were the SAS involved? Would we be getting wet?

Yvonne

I ran into the lovely Yvonne on the bus after college. We chatted back to Chorlton, and decided to nip for a couple of pints to carry on. Yvonne writes for the theatre, which reminded me of my film-making days back in Sheffield. There was plenty to discuss. It tickled a certain something in me: be creative! Do things!

And maybe I will.

Be Assertive, B-E Assertive, B-E-A-S-S-E-R-T-I-V-E

Being assertive helps you handle working with absolute wankers, according to the video that we watched today at college. Based on my recent experience at work, I should get a personal copy of the tape. And watch it every day.

Tired, tireder, and then beyond tired.

Why did I wake up tired? Had I been running through a special someone's dreams all night? No. Well, not to my knowledge, at least. No, I'd slept terribly. Still up at three, exhausted, but unable to settle. Too much caffeine that afternoon? Irregular sleep after Saturday night's antics? Or just too damned excited about work on Monday? I know which of those three it wasn't.

The day went by in slow motion, the hands of the clock crawling round their familiar, tedious journey. I was grumpy as fuck. Miss F sent me an email - another one of those that at face value looked like it was about work, but in real life wasn't really, instead about saying "Hello." On another day I might have responded pleasantly. On another day I might have accepted the olive branch. But today I blanked her. No reply. Nothing at all. I didn't feel great, but those are the breaks, right Kurtis?

College, thankfully, was only a half session of work, with a half session of IT beforehand. King geek that I am, the how to log on to M____ and how to use college email were old news to me: I'd spent hours in the library already. Phew, lazytime! The subject matter of the main session was Meetings, which I feel I can contribute on strongly, given my experience in C______ and in my current job. "So, what makes a bad meeting?" asked Gerard. I had to stop myself from contributing too much.

Afterwards, a well-earned pint in Oddest, and a chat and catch up with Kate. I was pleased to hear that Nic liked her presents. The CD and the book are a nice match. It's good to find another Belle and Sebastian fan out there. Even if it does mean losing the odd badge now and then.

An ally in the darkness

My boss is a good person. That good person is, however, a bad boss. She's the kind of person who'll spend fifteen minutes chatting on the phone to someone who's dialed the wrong number. She's always late, and ill-prepared with it. She's not deliberately mean, and generally only causes offence through her skittishness, not through malice.

But I've been at college, learning about time management. I kept a log of every working minute for the last week as part of my training. I am studying under the sensei of workload optimisation to become the ninja of not wasting time. And my training has made me ruthless, like a machine that knows no mercy.

We had a meeting booked for ten. We didn't start until 10.45. My inner ninja was enraged. Shurikens of anger shot through me. And then we didn't get all the work done because we ran out of time. Grrrr.

My colleague spoke to me afterwards. "That's just how [the Boss] is. We'll work around her. We'll manage her. Don't worry. I'm with you."

An ally in the darkness. Interesting.

College, day 1

An introduction: to the course; to the college; to each other; and to our tutor Anne’s teaching style.

The course seems very exciting. The subject matter is basic, but broad, as befitting to its aims. Operations, rather than strategy, is the focus. Perfect. The college used to be a school, and it shows. The library isn’t massive, but it has comic books: I saw a Hellboy on one of the tables. It doesn’t have much Batman though – I checked the catalogue, and I’ve got my own copies of both of the comics in their collection. So it goes. I liked my course mates too. For once, the ice breakers didn’t feel forced or false. I was genuinely interested in finding out more about them. And my tutor Anne? She’s new to the college, and new to the course. Did it show? Maybe a little. Not most of the time. But at one point, talking about the Harvard system of annotation, her style went through me like a jagged nail through a plimsoll. I hope it wasn’t typical for her: she’s teaching twenty-one of the thirty-six sessions.