DELTA Module 2 - Finished!

Yesterday was a great day as it signalled the end of my eight week delta course. To say it's been a tough eight weeks is an understatement. I've written a total of over 37,500 words, taught about 12 hours of classes, watched about 30 hours of others teach and attended 60 hours of input sessions. So, yes, I'm glad its over and glad I'll be going back to work on Monday. 

Photo with a number of the students.

On Friday morning we had a party with a number of the students that we've been teaching. We all brought in various treats. I went to Dunkin' Doughnuts which is always a winner. After this we had some admin stuff to do before getting to the pub for about 12pm. We opted to go to a rooftop bar where we spent the next 10 hours. I've taken some pictures of the rooftop bar before it got messy which offers some very nice views of the city. 

Anyway, back to work and normal life on Monday, now the Delta is finished I can start thinking about other stuff.

Rain storm whilst working

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm at work getting my essay ready for my final delta lesson next Wednesday. I come to work because I've got a good desk and there are less distractions in the office than at home. Anyway, it's rainy season and whilst I've been at work there has been a great storm outside. I still love the rain here when it comes down. I've attached some pictures and video to this post. 

This is my view from my desk. You can see my monitor and name badge

Goodbye Mangrove Forest

Remember how when I started at RMIT I posted pictures about the lovely, lush, green mangrove forest behind the University? If you don't the pictures below will refresh your memory.

Well, I feared it was only a matter of time before this nice piece of land would be used to make someone lots of money and as the pictures below show, over the past few months they've been cutting it down so they can build on it. 

I think they're building a University which I suppose is better than them building another shopping mall or overpriced and unwanted high rise flats. I'll post some more pictures as the developments continue

Darts - The Tavern vs The Vinyls

As I've been doing this delta for the past few moths I dropped out the darts team but did tell them that if there was ever an emergency they should give me a call and I'll play. Well this past Tuesday they were short on player and as my delta pressure has eased off a bit I played. We were playing the team that is second in division one and very good. The Tavern have been struggling a bit this season and before the game were sitting in relegation. 

 I was a bit worried that I wouldn't play very well so went early to practise, by the time the match was up I was played okay. I'm pleased to say that I won both my doubles and singles matches checking out both legs in all the games which helped us to a 8-4 victory. The win has taken us out of relegation and my contribution helped to achieve that. I'm looking forward to getting back to the darts when I've finished my course next week.

One more week of Delta module 2

After 7 hellish weeks I'm nearing the end of the Delta module 2 training course. So far it's been all good news and I've passed three out of the three assignments and only have one more to go. It's not been all clear sailing for everyone as some people have failed some parts of the assignment. Each assignment requires a 2,500 word background essay and a 5,000 lesson plan. In addition to the 7,500 words for each lesson I had to write another experimental practise lesson plan and essay which was about 5,000 words and a professional development document which was 2,500 words, this totals around 30,000 words so far which does not include the other 7,500 words I still have to write for my final paper. So by the end of the eight weeks I will have written 37,500 words.

My assignments so far have been on 'speaking - improving fluency in long turns', 'grammar - helping lower level learners use the present perfect continuous and present perfect simple' and my personal favorite 'phonology - raising awareness of elision in connected speech', all very interesting I think you'll agree!

The final assignment is the most important and we have to pass it. The reason is we are externally assessed and Cambridge are flying a guy in from England to watch our lessons. All I know about him is that he's a doctor and gets paid to fly around the world and watch people teach - not a bad gig. The topic of the paper is 'Reading - developing top down processing for high level learners' - another winner I hope. I have to teach the lesson next Wednesday morning so this time next week it will all be over!

Nice Sushi

Where I live in Vietnam there are a lot of Korean people which means there is quite a nice section of food available to target Koreans, one of which sushi. I've been going to a few of the sushi places which is a food I didn't like when I first got to Vietnam but has been growing on me over the past year or so to the point that we're going out weekly to have some. One good thing about Sushi is its visually quite appealing so I took some photos below.

 

Still doing my Delta which is not much fun. Only two weeks left now. I genuinely can't wait to go back to work.

New role at RMIT Vietnam!

Some good news. I went for an interview a week ago for a role as assessment coordinator at RMIT where I currently work and I'm please to say I got the job! This is a full time position and I will be responsible for making sure the English exams at the university all run smoothly. I think it will be quite demanding but I'm looking forward to a new challenge. This does mean that I won't be teaching now for the time being. I will miss teaching but this was a good opportunity. I start the new role as soon as I return from my delta on 26th October.