Monday, April 30, 2007

Teaching...still.

I was once again thinking of retiring properly - of not teaching anyone for a bit, now that Higher English is almost upon us - when out of the blue came the kind of proposition I just couldn't ignore. A luminously bright student to "educate" in the old-fashioned business of Eng. Lit. - Shakespeare and that kind of thing. My choice. As a by-product, we achieve a Credit 1 next year and a Higher A the year after. A challenge, but goodness does it sound like fun.

So I'm doing it, and we start in a couple of weeks. At the moment I'm thinking about the best online methods of keeping the impetus going between lessons. Ewan has already suggested using Skype and Google Docs plus a blog of best work. I've not used Google Docs before, so want to see how it compares with Quick Topic for ease of use (if anyone already has a take on this I'd like to hear from them). I realise that doing this sort of thing only intermittently means I get left behind a bit, but at the same time I relish the prospect of some real hard work on exciting texts.

Today I suggested to my current student that she might like to sit in the garden for her lesson. I don't know whether it was the proximity of the exam or the sunshine and cool breeze that gave her an edge, but she's doing much better at the old Interpretation. (I'm sure I shouldn't be calling it that.) Exam weather always has a bittersweet edge to it. Let's hear it for all the kids facing exams right now!

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