My first EFL teaching job was at a summer school for Italian children 12-16 years of age. I think after that I was ready to teach anyone. It was quite an interesting experience considering that I’d previously spent over twenty-three years in banking, most of those years in the ‘foreign’ departments. On my second day of teaching the Italian children, I realised I’d left my board pens in the staff room on the other side of the campus. I couldn’t leave the classroom unattended due to the children’s age. I didn’t have anything to write on the board with and this was in the time before IWBs or YouTube or music streaming.
I therefore had to rely on my repertoire of songs, puzzles and tongue twisters that I had tried out on younger relatives. Luckily the children were very responsive and enjoyed the lesson, but it was a very long seventy-five minutes. Another time I wrote on the whiteboard with indelible marker pens and didn’t realise until it was time to wipe the board at the end of the lesson. It was very hard work removing all my writing from the whiteboard. The children found it hilarious. I wish I could have said the same for the Director of Studies.
