 I'm Laura O'Grady and I work in CES in Dublin. I'm on the committee of the Outer Ireland. I've been teaching for 10 years on and off. I recently started a course in UCT, an elective for an introduction to teaching, which was terribly exciting. What I'm going to talk to you today is the summer dust survival guide. Anything can happen as I'm sure you know. How do I become a summer dust? Well, I, as I said, working for eight years, then two years I've been dusting for the junior centres. The previous dust actually preferred teaching. After one year of doing it, she decided no, no, no, I don't like this. I'm going to go back to teaching and enjoy my summer that way. I completed the delta and so I thought where can I go next after teaching? What can I do within my language teaching organisation? And then they asked me. So I said yes. I'll give you a brief outline of my junior centre. It's eight weeks. It's the longest one I think that runs in Dublin as an outside centre. At our peak we had 400 students and 26 teachers. Nationalities from Asia, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Argentina, French, Spanish, Italian, so the big, big nicks. Lots of different cultures with group leaders and everyone within the staff room. It's an interesting time. But where are my expectations? Fun and easy summer. I had eight years of teaching in junior centres. So I thoroughly enjoyed working with teenagers, lots of role play, lots of fun, actual activities and sports. Then I thought, ooh, I won't have to do the actual activities. I'm going to have all this nice peace and quiet in the office, in the afternoon. I was going to be able to motivate and encourage teachers and give them some of my experience working with juniors in over the eight years. And then I'd get to do the other side and observe teachers and plan workshops and help develop. There. They were my expectations. The reality. What is a DOS during the year and what is a DOS at an 8B Junior Centre? What does it entail? And being aware of the academic curriculum. What is that? As a teacher? Communicative. Interactive. You know what you're doing, what your lessons, what your students with your classes. As the DOS I had to make sure my teachers were doing that and the communicative approach within CES. As a lot of the teachers were new, they just knew PPP. So I have to then be aware of how to make sure teachers were doing what they were supposed to be doing. Staff management. I can do classroom management. Managing teachers and different staff is a very, very different area that was a little bit out of my comfort zone. Student management. Okay. In a lesson, that's perfect. But then you have to be aware of level changes. Changing classes because their friends are in the other class. Changing classes because there's too many Italians in the class. And my mom said I can always be English. And I'm not to stay in the class with Italians. Okay. Time tables. Making sure your teachers go to class on time. Making sure the students go to class on time. That they finish on time, that everyone gets their break. Administration. Paperwork. Paperwork. Then there's more paperwork. And normally from a teaching point of view, you go, yeah, here you go at the Friday meeting. Yeah, that's my job done with paperwork. I don't care what happens after that. It's nothing to do with me. I discovered what happens after I hand up my paperwork at the Friday meeting. It's constant. It doesn't stop. You've got piles and piles of weekly schemes, registers, reports, feedback forums, weekly feedback forums, final feedback forums, group leader feedback forums, constant. And then you have your electronic copies, because Excel is not your friend. It changes things on you. So then if you student, you have to be aware of, oh, where did she go? And you have to go back through all the paperwork. Health and safety. I just needed to know when I was teaching that there was enough chairs, the windows opened, I had a CD player or a radio at whiteboards and markers. And you know, let's not jump on the tables. This becomes a much bigger issue. Because you have to be aware of health and safety of the entire facility of the secondary school. Is there anything hiding down from the ceiling? To the toilet work? Are there separate toilets for boys and girls? Because you're generally renting a secondary school, which is just girls. And then the boys get really confused as to where they're supposed to go. Many have staff of toilets, boys and girls. Lots and lots of issues. Health and safety refers to who is your first aid person. Do you have one? Do you need one in the junior center? What do you do? Child protection. So generally, most of us teach adults during the year. Then you go into your juniors during the summertime. Or is anyone aware of child protection? Do we know about this? Do your teachers know about this? Do you have a child protection liaison officer? If you don't, do you need one? Is there someone in your main center that you can go to for this if something happens? So this is what it entails. Doesn't entail fun, easy, quiet, relaxed. You can anticipate problems. So eight years of working in junior centers and teaching, you can anticipate a lot of problems. You can anticipate complaints about teachers from other teachers from group leaders from students. About the students from other students from group leaders from teachers. Nationality mixes. There's too many Italians, as I mentioned. Classes are too easy. I was an A2. I was a B1 in Italy. You're an A2 here. Social program is too boring. Complaints from group leaders, their expectations, what they were told by the agent and their company versus what the reality of the situation is in the center and how you deal with it. By passing school protocols, students do this as well. By changing, trying to change their class. Okay, they go text their mother. Too easy. Mother contacts agent, agent contacts group leader. Group leader comes in and says, too easy. Teachers experience if they have too much experience. How does it manage that? Or if they're just brass banking you? How do you balance that? Staff room protocol. Appropriateness language, openness and tire, how do we deal with people? How do we interact with people? Teacher expectations. Do they expect perfectly modern rooms with projectors and whiteboards and interactive data and everything is on the computer and I just need to go in and be present. Resources, if we don't have data, do you have any? Junior centers, as we probably know, get what we don't use in the adult centers. So we have to be aware of informing teachers that maybe you might need to supplement a lot. And know the audio doesn't match that edition of the book. But you can find it on YouTube. Teacher absences. They can be expected or unexpected. These are the things we need to anticipate. Before we go into our eight weeks on the sun. Solutions, how can we anticipate the solutions to complaints? Well, we assure students and group leaders that yes, okay, I'll talk to that student today. We'll assess their level. Please leave me alone. I will talk to that student today. A layer of teachers to explain issues or challenges being faced with them. If it's with students, if it's with teachers or group leaders, give them the opportunity to do that. If it's with a Friday weekly meeting, if it's a one to one meeting, if it's a yeah, email me, send me a memo, no problem. With students, depending on space, obviously, move the student or highlight the nationality mix in the class, even if it's only two, one French, one Spanish and the rest of Italian, you can say, well, there's three nationalities in my class and go about it that way. What I do generally on first day is when we do our testing, I introduce myself, I explain the test and then I explain how people can change class in front of all of group leaders. And then should it come back to me, I go, they will talk to me. Stick with this. It's easier. It's easier if you go from day one to say, no, you can't do that. Is that with you already? It's in a book or to your teacher. Stick to your guns. No, no, I'm not changing your student. Follow your protocol. If you do adapt or kind of bend one, you're going to bend for the eight weeks. Explain the protocol again, if necessary. And how it works, that's no problem. Do follow up with the complaints. Explain the teaching approach of your school. So a lot of students complain because it's not, as was mentioned, what they expect in an English language class, because they're accustomed to school in Spain where it's grammar translation and it's translate, translate, translate. So do explain what you're trying to get them to do. This works with the students and the teachers, as Peter mentioned, he was talking earlier on. Experience. So what I tend to do is I mentor. So the new teachers and the teachers who are returning, they get paired together. So it's not so terrifying for the new teachers. And then the more experienced teachers feel like, oh, yay, Laura's using me to help new teachers. She must trust me and value me as a teacher, in my opinion, which is really good. I do fortnightly workshops here in summer, which is tough, but it works. And I also encourage the teachers. I do a teacher centered one where they share their tips and tricks. And about how they get their class motivated and what to do when, you know, he's coming to see 14 places like this on their morning. And staff in Portugal, that gets highlighted in the weekly meetings. Many issues have been raised by group leaders, by the principal, if I've noticed anything, we would take it off as a general. And if it continues, then you would go maybe have a one to one meeting. Repetition, repetition, repetition. As we know that teachers are probably not best learners. As we know we're used to teaching, not listening and having to do something. Expectations. We give, I give an induction and I go through their roles and responsibilities, what to do, how to do paperwork. So they're prepared to a point. And then week one happens and they go, oh, no, because there's so much to do that in the presentation, in the induction, it seemed logical. But then they see it in reality and go, oh my goodness. So that's where the mentoring comes in, because they get someone to help them constantly. Do you provide contracts with a clear start and finish date? Because then they know. They know what they're doing and they know how long they're doing it for. And they work better, I think, when they know that versus the 13th of July to August. When in August, when are you finishing? What are you doing? We work with twin teachers, so that's the mentor. So it's great for that. Absences. All you can do for absences is plan. If it's an expected absence, well, you know that person is going to be there. So get someone in to cover. Keep spaces in classes. Always keep two or three during the summer, because if the person is absolutely merge, merging is your friend when you have no one to cover. So if you have 14 students and no teacher and you've got 14 spaces to create the different classes, that's where you're going for the day. But do let them know. I'd like you to know what's going for today. The teacher's sick. Get cover. If you can't merge. Continued absence, obviously, this would be a major issue. You'd have to discuss it down and see if there's something ongoing. This is where you become your counselor role and decide is this because there's some serious issue or do they just not really want to be here anymore. My tip to tricks. Be prepared. Ask a senior teacher or staffer advice before you start. So before I started doing this or it off, ask. Don't go in and think, this is going to be amazing. I know exactly what I'm doing. Eight years of teaching in junior centres and then you're on the flip side. Don't be afraid to ask for help. They're there. Your institution, your organisation are there to help you. Do look at the feedback forums. The weekly feedback forums and the final feedback forums. It helps me work on workshops to see what I need to help the teachers with or to give them guidance. If they're constantly getting the sad faces, why are they getting the sad faces? What are the students writing? And then, so it's not to see guide teachers. We do workshops all together, so everyone benefits from it. Fits into the equals of the ACLCP framework nicely as well. So they don't tick. Address the teachers at the weekly meeting if there is an issue. I find that it's kind of less threatening or intimidating. Then say, can I have a chat with you today? Yeah, what a pop would be great because you're thinking, what have I done? These would be my tips and tricks. If you're thinking of doing it, I say go for it. It's great. It's a great change for every year. You go from your teaching to the other side. What's the old phrase? Change is as good as the rest. So that is me. Have you any questions? Shall we go? Thank you.