Gaba Certification Day Three

It's over! Three long, tiring days but it's over.

They were exhausting, but quite enjoyable. The trainer was from Birmingham too so that was nice. He was very friendly and knowledgeable. I was listening so intently that I made 20 pages of notes!

The last day comprised of learning more about the computer system Gaba uses and a lot of teaching practice!

In fact, we had two Japanese women come in to have lessons! The actual lesson length is 40 minutes but because we only had limited time, ours were 20. I thought mine went okay, but that I was a bit tense (I was nervous!) as we'd only practised with ourselves roleplaying as students before.

After the lesson, the students filled out a feedback form about each teacher, rating them on different aspects of their teaching from 1-5.

And apparently I made Gaba-history! I had all 5s in my feedback and my student asked where I would be working so she could come in and continue her lessons with me as her instructor! What a shock! According to the trainer, neither of those things had ever happened before.

She was a very nice woman and I look forward to being able to teach her again if she finds me!

Gaba uses a LOT of different textbooks, and we familiarised ourselves with the Business series in the afternoon, then did a 50-minute written multiple-choice test. You have to pass (at least 70% e.g. 35 out of 50) to finish the training but apparently only 2 people have failed, and 2 have got 100%.

The test was difficult at times - there's a section on grammar! There's 5 sections of 10 questions on the textbooks and the computer system and professionalism etc. A lot of the answers were just common sense, others had been drilled into us over the last three days, and some required a "What!?" The good thing was that we were allowed to use the textbooks, internet, Gaba system and our notes during the test, so if we were listening during the training, it should be easy. The only challenging bit was the grammar.

I got 94% (47/50) and I was pleased with that. Two of the questions I got wrong were in one particular section... I'll let you guess which it could have possibly been!

The other people on the training course were very nice and I enjoyed working with them, and being able to speak to them and learn about their countries (the usual mix of Australia, USA, Canada etc.) so it was an enjoyable three days!

I also chatted to a nice cleaning-lady who I met several times in the men's toilets. She brightened up the breaks for me!

I have a meeting at my school on Monday so I now have a Gaba-free weekend to sort other things out. It's been quite a busy week on the job-front, I'll let you know more tomorrow!