Come Back, All Is Forgiven

Trying very hard not to get depressed over my new-found status as a “manager of dilemmas” (see yesterday’s entry), I swallowed hard on my brimming tears before leaving my office for an 8 AM class. The same lesson that had broken my faith yesterday, even in the same room. Different group, though. Different world. After all the navel-gazing self-flagellation I had put myself through, the very same lesson went down a storm. The students had fun, laughed, made boisterous suggestions, took detailed notes and executed their assignment for the day admirable. No groans about the reading homework- in fact, a few even gave it a quick skim in class.

I also saw the Writing group, and although their session was at the end of the day- traditionally a tough time for all of us- we breezed right through. Before they submitted their second drafts of the essay, I put a chart on the board where the noun, verb and adjective forms of typical words on the theme (television) were listed. They copied this to their notebooks and checked that these words- at least!- were correct in the draft. A snap survey showed that most of them had found up to five words from the list misspelt in their writing. (There was also a 50/50 split in opinion on whether “psychology” started with a s or a c. Oh well. At least they corrected it, not me!) Arabic-speaking learners of English are known- “notorious” is such a strong word- for the discrepancy between their high verbal fluency and their low written accuracy, and spelling is one area where this should easily be corrected, not so? It would be interesting to see how effective this technique is. Unfortunately it is a bit like putting a band-aid on an ulcer, since it doesn’t really solve the crisis of split skills among several teachers who barely know of each other’s existence…

That is one of the matters that can hopefully be addressed at tomorrow’s curriculum planning meeting. It is one section of the quality control project that was launched with great fanfare recently. I just hope there will be more to it than mere fanfare. Judging by the documents, the ministry is making a real effort. Unfortunately many colleagues have had the experience of labouring over proposals that are invariably lost in the bureaucratic abyss. But faint heart never won fair lady.

If I am to be a “manager of dilemmas”, then I may as well get cracking.