It is finished

Well I did my last teaching prac yesterday and I passed all four of my assignments - so I survived and passed CELTA. Feeling exhausted so it is a little anti-climatical but had coffee with my friend Gail after yesterday and went for a braai with friends last night. Was supposed to go to a zumba class with my cousin this evening but I think I might have collapsed on the floor in a heap.

We will do one last unobserved lesson with our students tomorrow and then wrap up. Yesterday we looked at teaching business English and today young learners. Reaching saturation point where there's not much more that can go into my brain. So looking forward to being in Howick and Durban and relaxing next week with friends.

Will try catch up with a few more Cape Town friends this weekend and visit Church on Main before flying to Durban on Monday morning.

At the braai yesterday a friend came back from a sit-in on the UCT campus over the Rhodes statue. It touches on bigger issues to do with transformation and inclusivity at the university. Is an interesting time for UCT and how it will tackle race issues. One of the challenges is making education open to those from disadvantaged backgrounds without lowering standards. The legacy of apartheid is still very entrenched in some of the systems.

Day 14 - caffeine and how many tenses are there in the English language?

Well today has been all about grammar. We observed our tutor give a two hour lesson on modal verbs and functional language for giving advice. A lively debate arose around the topic of etiquette for interviews with the students getting quite worked up about whether it was OK to chew gum and not say thank you. It was entertaining. This afternoon we looked at time and tenses and why English is so confusing. The fact that time and tenses don't always correlate is what makes it so hard. Present tense though can be used to talk about the past and the future

e.g. Sir Charles dies or The Chelsea Flower Show opens next week.

Is fascinating but the mind boggles a bit. We got asked how many tenses there are in the English language - the simple answer is two - past and present if you only look at word endings as the future tense is not inflected and you rely on auxiliary verbs. If you get technical though with combinations to the continuous, perfect etc. there are 8 but when you put in modal auxiliaries and the passive form there are 16. Yes, complex!

I saw dolphins near Llandudno on my way into school today - so special. Needed more than Ricoffy this morning and went via Bootleggers to imbibe caffeine. My friend Warren picked me up after class and we had a quick coffee and almond croissant at Baked in Bakoven on the way back to my Aunt and Uncle's this evening. There's an interesting debate going on at UCT on white privilege which is linked to the movement to have Cecil Rhodes' statue removed from Jammie Stairs on campus. Some people see it as an abomination but the land UCT is built on is part of Rhodes' estate that was bequeathed. Would have liked to have gone to the debate yesterday on the law campus.

OK need to finish my assignment on my reflections on my teaching and observations of experienced teachers. On a caffeine high - eeeek!
Til soon :)

Day 6 - it is going to get hectic!

OK short blog today as I have to prepare my lesson for tomorrow and stress is starting to mount. Next week is going to be a little crazy as I teach three times and we have two big assignments due the same week - aaaargh. Lots of work.

Enjoyed visiting Christchurch in Kennilworth yesterday and had dinner after up in the Smuts and Fuller car park of UCT overlooking the city. Lots of memories from near Mem Stone. I also met up with my school friend Judi and we had a good chat about everything from the ethics of hunting to the philosophy of Victor Fankl. Really fascinating.

Christchurch Kennilworth

UCT campus and Mem Stone, lots of memories.

Met up with my friend Gail after school today and heard of her experience of being evacuated from South Sudan when there was a rebel attack. Was good to de-stress a bit with her and see her again.

OK I must prepare my lesson and if I have time finish Wednesday's assignment before midnight. Have another Skype interview for work in Oxford on Thursday for a school that is based at Lady Margaret Hall at the University.

Bye for now :)

Two great videos are 1) street art in Zim and then 2) language related to mathematics.
Check them out, they are really cool :)