Day 3- Coordination and spontanity day + toughness test

Wednesday, the 3rd July was a day full of concentration, coordination and spontaneous action in our trainings with Mr Richard Clark. Fun, of course, but not always easy at all. The notes about the activities will be posted separately, and hopefully more clearly after we have got the full pack of handouts with the descriptions of what we have done.

The rest of the day was a toughness test.
The Dartmoor National Park is a wonderful place to see and visit! Again, not easy for everybody with all its hills, when walking up and down, up and down. Going up- that's quite an effort, to be honest... '
Views, nature, rocks and Tors- still worth all of it!
But- let the pictures speak for themselves...

The best group of IPC in Darmoor National Park ;)

Day 2- Hard work

Tuesday, 2 July 2013- a day full of hard work.
Seriously.
No laughing! Yes, the pictures here might seem like having fun, but it was not that easy to make sense of every game we played. Yes, we played, and it can be a really hard work. Look at theu children after their day when sleeping- exhausted, right? Why should it be any easier for us then?

Actually, in-between of games we had rather deep and serious discussions about the rationale, aims, possible modifications for different levels etc etc. As there were so many good ideas of games and activities, I am going to write separate posts about some of them and put them under special keywords or topics to be easily found later.

Evening pub-walk - also a hard work- many kilometers of walking in the middle of pastures to get to the pub. I wonder why they have set a pub so far away from the city and a tiny footpath only leading to it? Maybe the Britons become very wild when they have a pint and that is why it is placed far away from people? Probably, yeah, for moral reasons as well, to keep the drinkers away from a public sight... ;) :D

A million-dollar quiz question: On the door of which facility you can find that kind of sign in Britain? :D 

Dripping sky tonight. Well, the water needs to get down anyways, and we need a good weather tomorrow afternoon, so- let it rain!

Day 1- Where are you from? And you?

Cheerful group of ladies chirping by the breakfast table were definitely the other course participants, because I heard the small talk lines:
Where are you from?
What's your name?
Are you here the first time?
And you?
And you?
What was your name again? ...

A nice continental breakfast, a short bus trip, just a little more of walking, and the IPC center with another groups with "Where are you from? And you?" were right there on the lawn. Greetings, instructions, diving into groups, following our group leader Mr Richard Clark (a very lively and inspiring gentleman, by the way), and arriving at the Xcentre. Nicely prepared room with impressive interior with coffee-break table already set made you feel welcome and less stressed about the unknown. "It is going to be the best course here, and the other participants are going to envy you afterwards", said Richard. And I believed him.

There are no special tips to write here on blog today, because I was sooooo overwhelmed with excitement and immediate involvement in the course activities that I even forgot to take photos, and the notes about the methods will be given to us at the end of the course in a full pack.

Enjoying our packed lunches and an amazing view to the river,the city and the hilly background while sitting on the green in front of IPC house, hearing my course mates already having rather more personal talks about families, troubles... wow! that gave me some more confidence- it was a good choice to come here!


Afternoon guided tour of Exeter city centre with Mr Nigel Harvey was just perfect short overview (in the light sauce of English humour, I'd say...) for a non-historian like me. Lov'ely!- would an English person probably say (the apostrophe marking the place where the voice goes down and pauses for a moment)






A walk back to the Holland Hall. Now, with much less confusion and not getting lost at all.
Perfect healthy dinner in a partly new company of participants of other courses. Already hearing some envious comments from others (as Richard had promised). Some more information about social programme, buses etc and... the first day of those two weeks has already been rewarding enough to say-
Lifelong Learning Comenius teacher training programme has fulfilled some of my dreams, and it is only the beginning.

From Tallinn to Holland Hall, Exeter- The way up is never smooth...

After having a quite expensive meal at Tallinn airport, a bit shaky flight to Helsinki on a small plane I had a few-hour stop there, and I wrote a Facebook comment:
"...thank God I had a meal at Tallinn airport. In Helsinki the same meal would have been our family's weekly cost on croceries... Must stop comparing now."

Well. Got on the plane again. At first looked around in a half-empty aircraft- whoohh, enough space to sleep and enjoy my time- but then a noisy God-knows-what-language-speaking crowd flocked in and settled all around. Pff, no problem, I thought. Put on my headphones and tried to focus on reading "Atonement", but the vertically challenged lady next to me in the middle seat was constantly posing diagonally, reaching far away over the tiny armrest between us. Huh, no problem, I thought, I'm still slim enough to lean towards the hollow wall with window. The lady set another pose, me- leaning closer to the window. Another setting, accompanying with a gurgling sound from her throat (hopefully), me- cleaving to the window now...
Probably her right side was finally hurt by the armrest, as she finally stood upright. And I- fell asleep.

Oohhh I was sooo proud of myself at the London airport, walking faster than others even on those moving staircases and catching my luggage! Found my way to the coach station so easily as if it was my home airport :) Having my online-booked and printed-out ticket ready, started checking for a stand to board on my 19:50-bus, but... The notice board kept saying "Wait in the lounge". Then "Expected 20:10". After a while "Expected 20:15", and "...20:20", and "...20:25... :26...
Went for a coffee.
The boiling-hot coffee cup in my hand hurt my fingers when I read the great news "Expected 20:19"!!! Whoohooo, arriving earlier, it means arriving at Exeter also at rather reasonable time, hopefully.
Grabbing my luggage, backpack and still hurting cup of desired coffee rushed to the stand. Couldn't get past the noisy youngsters there, until realized- they are all going on the same bus. With all their luggage which the bus driver was desperately trying to stuff into relatively small spaces under the bus, marking them with chalk- Ex, Ex, Ex... No, not ex-boyfriend or girlfriend. Exeter, of course. Their final destination.

The bus trip went well. Sat next to a nice lady, she- watching a film on her iPad, me- reading the most lushy parts of Atonement and watching and listening to a real sweety- Milow on my ultrabook.

I wasn't really prepared for arriving in Exeter that late... No city lines going anymore. Taxis all taken. Well- looking at my "great" GPS I decided to have a half-an-hour walk. After such torment of sitting, walking in the streets of good old England felt like heaven.
The heaven miraculously turned into a hell-like situation, actually, when I discovered that my GPS is telling me total rubbish, and that the streets don't really look the ones I was prepared to take... Suddenly those lonely cars in the streets, and random passers-by started taking a bit menacing shapes... Tried to carry my otherwise rolling suitcase to avoid the noise. Kept on checking the streets in GPS and around me. At least the direction seemed to be right. Seemed. Until the so-called street became a narrow quiet dark footpath with the trees and bushes leaning towards me...

Ooh- a sign about the university of Exeter!! Great! Found my way.
The way up. Up the hill, to be more precise. Brrrr... The suitcase felt heavier than ever. And my feet.
The instructions of the organisers had been to find the Northcote House first to collect the key to the room when arriving very late. I was. Once the sign even had the name of Northcote, but this time downhills. Nice. And then- no house, no other sign. Went back. Up the hill. With the suitcase, now a ton, definitely.
Nope. No house, no other sign. Checked my "darling" GPS again. Found the direction and a footpath. Downhills, yeah-yeah-yeah! There- found a sign pointing almost towards the same direction I had come from- up the hill!!! No way! Ohh.

Now it took me a bit more to reach a house with a sign "Northcote House". Found a very kind security guard who said that the keys have definitely NOT been left there... :(  But he was even more kind to call the other security, arriving by car, helping my ton-weighting suitcase with a light move and me to the car, just a few (way more than a few, to be honest...) curves and ups-downs, and- Here we are, love! he said. That's the sweetest thing I have heard, I thought. The security guy found a key (mis-wrote the door code thought but opened it for me with his card), and escorted me to my sweet little "asylum" and wished me a pleasant stay.

And- here I am now, kicking and alive! Ready for the action! Just bring it on!! :D

On my way...

After a few days of puzzling thoughts like "what-should-be-done-before-leaving" or "bl...y-hell-I-should-be-packing-already!!!" I'm finally sitting at the Tallinn Airport, having probably the most expensive meal of the last few months (but at least it's my own dear Estonian meal, which I am going to miss the next two weeks...).
It felt weird to leave this time.
I've travelled quite a lot due to my work and studies, no fear of flying, not very many problems with finding locations so far, mostly pleasant trip experiences, but...
So, what is it? Am I getting old? Hahaaa... :D
I am definitely going to miss my home, my garden with the river curving around it where to dip in any time of day (or night). I am going to miss seeing all the blooming, berries ripening, bird-watching with morning coffees in the garden house... I am going to long for my dear ones...
What am I going to gain? Two weeks all payed courses and trips in an authentic environment of the language I need to teach is expected to enrich my "package" as a teacher, helping to avoid boring routine in the classrooms, hopefully :) Looking forward to being enlightened again!!!
So long- my dear Estonia!
Hello, good old England! Here I come!!!

Listening: What makes a good teacher? - Do you know? ;)

Here is a link to one of the ELT Podcast about What makes a good teacher? to listen.
Posting it with great respect and humble thanks to Phil Keegan-
a teacher trainer who has inspired me during the summer course in Cambridge,
and who now works at Katherine & King's London College!

Our great teacher trainers Phil Keegan on the left and Mike Furber on the right in one of the sessions.

with the Creativity group in Cambridge 

Why not a Comenius teacher training

I love travelling.
I am fond of meeting people from different countries.
I am keen on challenging myself with some new situations.
I enjoy learning new things and becoming better in my work.

If that applies to you as well, you could try a Lifelong Learning Programme teacher training.
In Estonia it is administered by Archimedes Foundation http://archimedes.ee/
And the list of courses can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase/
Good luck!

Shortly about me becoming a teacher- or - To improve or not to improve- that is NOT a question!

Life works mysterious ways and at the age of 30 there was a big change in my life- I was invited to a small country school to become an English teacher. Why do I call it such a big change? Because I had only worked as a part-time accountant, and I only had a qualification of a teacher of health education and social skills. Even more, I had not had any English lessons till then... True. Not one class.
At school I had learned Russian and German only. So- how did I dare to go to the class, or how did the school dare to take me in??? The last- they didn't have a chance, the previous teacher had left a few days before new school year, at least I had some qualification as a teacher, and finally I had promised to start studies of English. And so I did, successfully. But how did I dare to start with something like that is maybe partly because of being young and brave :) or maybe because the pupils were total beginners and I hoped to learn and prepare well before each lesson. And so I did. This is how I happened to become a teacher.
Since then I have tried to do my best to be a good teacher inspiring and motivating young people, to improve my skills every day to cope with it in a better, easier or more enjoyable way. When years pass, it is very easy to fall into a "trap" of everyday routine, to lose excitement and to become boring.... This is what I fear most. I do not want to become another boring exhausted "textbook-workbook-test"-routine teacher!!
And I have found ways of avoiding the traps. In-service training is definitely worth time and effort put into it. But if the training includes travelling abroad (which by rather pitiful teacher's salary would otherwise be impossible), offers new exciting approaches to teaching practice, and at the same time is fun- then it is a hundred times more worth any possible trouble!! Several years ago encouraged by some colleagues I applied for an in-service training course in Britain, was very lucky to have this chance to learn new methodology of teaching English, and it has been one of best experience in my life!
So- to improve or not to improve? - that is not a question! To improve. And if possible, to improve in a nice relaxed fun way.