Beginning Teaching & Beyond_Barry & King

Page 5 From Rachel's journal: I'm really looking forward to my course in teaching. I want to be a teacher because I love children and enjoy being with them. I have a lot to offer and think teaching is the most important job in the world. After all, it is training the next generation.

From Steve's journal: Well I'm not really certain if I want to be a teacher. Sports Science was my first choice for tertiary study but I couldn't get into that. Somehow, I've ended up in teaching. I had some shocking teachers at school and I'm sure I could do better than them. I like the challenge of coaching kids in sport and get a real buzz from seeing them improve. Come to think of it, the holidays seem pretty good and the pay is not bad. I'll give it my best shot and see how things tum out.

Page 17

From Steve's journal: I think the following points about good teachers aren't far off the mark: plan carefully and are well organised. They also get students involved in this planning and organisation plan interesting lessons that students can understand explain clearly and check that we understand know what they are talking about encourage active learning have a positive and friendly classroom atmosphere have "eyes in the back of their heads" have, and consistently apply, classroom rules and procedures nip problems in the bud so the class doesn't get out of control are sincere, friendly and supportive are enthusiastic about what they teach give plenty of feedback about work-and the more immediate the better.

From Rachel's journal: I think a good teacher is patient, understanding, caring and interested in what the students are doing. A good teacher can also explain clearly. I want to be a good teacher; above all I want to be a creative, interesting teacher with a stimulating classroom.

Page 28-9 From Steve's journal: We had an interesting session with Kevin today. He talked about different approaches to learning and told us about a survey he had done with 160 of our final year teacher education students on how students learn. The question asked was, "How do you believe students learn best in schools?" The answers covered an enormous number of ideas. I was really struck by the importance these student-teachers placed on student-centred learning. In fact their answers made quite an interesting contrast to the teacher-centred learning I had at school. I wonder why there is so much difference? I'm certainly looking forward to learning more about learning.

From Rachel's journal: In class we have been talking about learning and how students learn in different ways. This has led me into thinking about how I learn best. I certainly learn best when I'm motivated to learn. I also like to learn through listening, through making relationships between the old and the new, and through doing things step by step. I think repetition is also important but I certainly don't like repeating things the same old way. I much prefer to go over things in different ways. It will be interesting to see if my learning style changes as I go through my teacher education course. Thinking about learning, I know what "turns me off'-monotony, disorganisation, lack of challenge and work that is too hard to do.

Page 42 From Rachel's journal: Well it is my final prac. Not long now before I am a real teacher. Today I took a lesson which I was really pleased with. There's been a lot of ganging up and bullying in the school grounds so the teacher asked me to take a lesson on cooperation and conflict. I wondered how I could get the message across without "telling" the students, so thought I would go for a structured group discussion. It worked. The kids came up with some really good strategies for making a happier school and I reckon that because the ideas came from them we have a really good chance of improving things around here. Funny thing-Kevin, my university supervisor-sat in on the lesson and said it was a great example of the plan-teach-evaluate model. I hope he's not planning to put it into that book he's always going on about!

Page 68 From Steve's journal: Wow, have I been put through the hoops on lesson planning. I didn't think that planning in detail was necessary for my first lesson. After all, it was only an art lesson with Grade 2 and I thought it was pretty straightforward. However, my teacher didn't think so and wrote some really sarcastic comments on my lesson plan. I didn't like that at all. Worse still, she took me aside and explained that if I was to teach in her class I had to take the learning programme seriously as the Principal and parents had high expectations of her and the children. She also told me to "shape up or ship out" . I thought about this advice and decided to shape up. I'm glad I did for the re-planned lesson went really well and I learned a great deal from the teacher and the way in which the kids responded. They loved it. Come to think of it, so did I. Teaching is definitely for me!

Page 96 From Rachel's journal: Thinking back over my unit of work on conflict and cooperation I'm really pleased with it. In one of my earlier journal entries I talked about how well the lesson on cooperation and conflict in the school went. Well the rest of the unit just continued to build on this. I think the reason for this was that I put a lot of time into planning. In doing my programme I found it very helpful to draw an idea expansion chart first and then select my subject matter for the 40 hours of the unit. I also took into account the students' prior knowledge on conflict and cooperation-they certainly knew a fair bit about it. I wonder why! I also found it very helpful to sequence my subject matter from the immediate neighbourhood to the wider orld. One other thing I was particularly pleased with was the way my work linked together. My objectives tied in nicely with my subject matter learning experiences and evaluation. Oh, and one final thought-I think Im beginning to understand what Kevin meant when he told us about the famous New York Yankees baseball player, Yogi Berra, who said: "You've got to be very careful if you dont know where you are going because you might not get there".

Page 101 From Steve's journal: I've been thinking about the kind of image I'll present to students during teaching practice. As I've said before, I have a lot to offer kids but I'm not sure if my prac teachers will see it that way. I'm pretty sure that I will be natural and come across as a real person to the kids. I'll also

be warm, pleasant and approachable. I hope I will be fair to all students and I' II certainly be trying. B1,1t a lot seems to happen very quickly in classrooms and I just hope I don't overlook some kids. One area I'm going to try particularly hard in is to make sure that I'm very even-handed in the way I communicate with girls and boys. Having been a student at an all boys school I'm not at all sure about teaching girls and I must work on communicating with girls and boys in the same way. I'll ask my prac teacher to give me some feedback about this.

Page 133 From Rachel's journal: Today we had an interesting session on clarity. Kevin showed us how not to explain by trying to teach us how to tie a tie using a Shelby-Pratt knot. He got himself, and us, hopelessly confused! However, some good came out of it for we had a discussion on Do's and Don'ts in Instructional Clarity. Because it impedes learning one of the Don'ts that really interested me was the verbal maze. I checked this idea up in Land (1985) and found that a verbal maze is any verbal behaviour that involves a false start in a sentence, the use of too many or unnecessary words to express an idea, words becoming tangled within sentences or sentences not following on from one another. Land said that Smith (1977) had found in one study that 35% of teachers used three to six verbal mazes per minute of teacher talk. Wow, I must make a point of looking out for verbal mazes during lectures--especially as, according to Land, they impede learning! I don't think I will have trouble on practice with verbal mazes but I must watch out for these problems: using vague terms like "you know", "okay", "sort of', and "all right". backtracking and saying things like "Oh, I forgot! ". I guess the answer to this problem is to use a palmcard with the main points on it-and stick to it! forgetting to signpost transitions and important points.

Page 141 From Rachel's journal: Since we've been studying lesson beginnings I've been thinking about a couple of things. One is our course in learning where we've been looking at information processing. Information processing involves how we take in, store and use information. I can now see that in order to get students to take in and store information in memory it is important to follow the guidelines we have been told about in planning lesson beginnings. The other thing I've been thinking about is some of the poor lesson beginnings I have seen. For example:

 Take out your maths books and start at page 41. Today we are going to write about what we did in the holidays. You have to know this for when you go to high school. Finish this and you can go early. This test will sort you out. I'm certainly going to try to do better than that-the kids deserve it!

Page 168 I feel a bit depressed. Today I took a lesson on the Bushmen of theKalahari. I spent ages preparing my resources for the lesson andorganising the kids into groups but I didn't have time to think throughhow I would explain it all to the kids. Because of this I got mixed up inexplaining the map and worksheet and what the kids had to do in groups. My teacher was pretty good about it-she reckoned my lesson wasreally interesting and the kids enjoyed it but I know it wasn't one of mybest lessons. I really will have to work hard on planning myexplanations. I think I'd also better start my next lesson on the Bushmenwith a review of this one just to make sure they learned something. Iwonder how many kids have seen The Gods Must be Crazy? I must askthem. Gee the kids in this class are great-prac is a ball.

Page 255 From Rachel's journal: Well it's almost time for my first "prac". I'm a little nervous but can hardly wait for I'm sure it's going to be fun. In class today we talked about "prac" and what a great experience it will be. However, some people said they were feeling a bit scared and wondered if they would "survive". So we talked about managing student behaviour and Kevin asked us to write down the problem that worried us most. We then collated the responses. The most common problems were : not being able to gain attention not knowing the answer to a student's question a student or students calling out all the time a student sho~ing off a student refusing to obey an instruction coping with hostile or physically aggressive behaviour such as fighting or bullying

 students not completing work, and students not bringing books to class. We then had a long talk about basic management techniques and looked at some of the ways we could respond to our problems. We also looked at some of the legal regulations that we are bound by in the classroom. I knew that corporal punishment was not allowed in government schools but I was surprised to learn about the regulations concerning detention. Anyway, with all the work we've done in our course and having met my prac teacher (who seems very good) and the kids (they're really well-behaved), I'm really beginning to feel confident about prac. I know it will be a challenge but after all that's what I'm here for.

Our Response: Well Rachel that's the only way to go. The behaviour problems you mention often concern student teachers before teaching practice. Unfortunately, there are no magic answers that work for all students in all situations. This is because the management of student behaviour is such a complex process. Nevertheless, a vast amount of scholarly work has been done on the subject and teachers are well informed on appropriate principles and strategies for managing student behaviour. These principles include techniques for developing positive relationships (Schmuck & Schmuck, 1992), setting up and maintaining rules, routines and procedures (Emmer et al., 1997; Evertson et al., 1994), planning and conducting worthwhile learning experiences (Doyle, 1986; Good & Brophy, 1997), monitoring student behaviour (Kounin, 1970), developing appropriate behaviour through the use of a behavioural approach (Becker, Englemann & Thomas, 1975) or a responsibility/problem solving approach (Balson, 1992; Glasser, 1969, 1977; Gordon, 1974; Rogers, 1998), and procedures for setting up a whole school management programme (Canter & Canter, 1976, 1992; Glasser, 1977). In this chapter and Chapter 16-Advanced Management Skills-we will discuss many but not all of these principles for managing behaviour. In essence, our approach to managing student behaviour revolves around the twin principles of preventing or minimising problems in the first place and then, if necessary, responding to problems in appropriate ways.

In terms of preventing or minimising inappropriate behaviour we believe that the following factors are especially important: thorough planning and effective implementation of learning experiences careful organisation of students, time, materials and space establishing and maintaining rules, routines and procedures, and establishing and maintaining positive relationships with students.

In terms of responding to inappropriate behaviour, we believe in: careful observation a thoughtful analysis of the cause, and

 the selection and use of an appropriate management technique. In this chapter our purpose is to help you prepare for your early teaching practice experiences by providing a guide to some basic management techniques. As your theoretical and practical knowledge about managing student behaviour grows you will gradually develop your own belief system and apply that in the classroom. In the meantime, we hope this chapter will provide you with some starting principles for answering the questions that concern you about student behaviour on teaching practice. We continue the discussion in Chapter 16 at a more advanced level.

Page 280 From Steve's journal: Well this entry is about adapting to individual needs in the classroom. I thought I would write about this topic for we have been talking about it in class and I saw an interesting article in the paper. First the article. It was about the Australian Teacher of the Year for 1998, Ms Meg Roche, and it really brought home to me how important meeting individual needs is to excellent teachers. In outlining Ms Roche's educational philosophy thearticle stated: She cared a lot about children and her main educational philosophy was that each was unique, therefore teaching needed to be adapted to the needs of each individual. "Most kids fit into a mould so they learn easily, but there are quite a lot of kids who do not," she said. "Every one of them is unique, and we should work out exactly what help they need to succeed and be happy ." (The West Australian, 3 July 1998, p.3 .)

Page 285 From Rachel's journal: Had a chat with Mum last night about her first day at high school. Mum and her friends were really nervous and unsure of what to expect as now they were regarded as "little fish in a big pond". All the first years were herded into the gym and their names were systematically called out in groups beginning with Form 1-1 through to Form 1-12. Mum told me how obvious it was that the kids in 1-1 were the real brains and those in 1-11 and 1-12 were well ... Mum said the teachers' faces "said it all" as they were also called out to be the form teachers for the groups. The look on the teacher's face for Form 1-12 left a lasting impression! I suppose this relates to what Kevin was saying in his lecture when he spoke about streaming and the teacher expectancy effect. Mum remained in the same Form class for all her core subjects for 3 years. By the way Kevin, Mum was in 1-1 !

Page 288 From Steve's journal: Yeah well, I've been thinking about streaming lately. Although Kevin tries to cover it up, it's pretty clear he is biased against streaming. He must have been scarred pretty badly with his 5B in whenever. However, I think streaming has got its place, especially in a secondary school. I've just been observing in a middle school [i.e., 12-15 year olds (Editor's note)] and had a good look at Grade 9 English. The students were studying feature articles and I was able to watch three different classes. The low-achievers were working on feature articles about people, especially teenagers. They studied content, style and structure of feature articles about people, interviewed a teenager and used a structured framework to write a feature article in the computer lab. The regular class analysed different types of feature articles examining the content, structure and the style of language needed to reach the target readers. They then focussed on "issues" type feature articles. Each kid selected and researched an issue affecting teenagers (interview and survey), wrote a feature article on the computer and submitted it for publication in the class magazine The Issues. The highachievers produced group magazines (six students per group), choosing their own target audience and writing a minimum of six different features for their magazine (e.g., music, fashion, films and sport). These articles really showed they knew how to structure generic material, write for an audience and be persuasive. They also did the "extras"-ads, puzzles, quizzes and comics. The magazine was put together in the computer lab and given to students, teachers, families and friends. It seemed to me that the classes were happy and kids were working at a high success rate. The teachers were smiling too-it had a great feel about it. I think I can see a place for streaming in our schools. Kevin's feedback: Steve-interesting entry. I'm wondering if this material on feature articles couldn't be taught without streaming? Steve's addendum: Not as well, Kevin.

Page 309 From Rachel's Journal Saw an example of peer tutoring while on prac in a MAG [i.e., multi-aged grouping-Ed.] class I was assigned to ~ At long last I have an example of linking theory (that Kevin is always going on about) to practice. The teacher grouped children according to year levels and assigned a Grade 2 child to a pre-primary child. They were doing a Maths lesson using money, buying and selling groceries in a shop that was in a comer of the room. The lesson

was really busy and at times noisy. I admired the ability of the teacher to be able to have her pulse on what was happening and be aware of all the children's differing developmental stages. I watched with interest a Grade 2 boy happily explaining, assisting and teaching a preprimary girl to successfully buy two grocery items for a cost of less than 10 cents. The collaboration and peer teaching that was taking place was rewarding to watch and the benefits to both the kids was very positive. Kevin has talked about the advantages and disadvantages of peer teaching to us and this bought it all home to me. I'm really pleased I didn't skip his lecture and join the other students for a coffee.

Page 332 From Rachel's journal: In recent times I have been giving a lot of thought to evaluation. I can see that is a very important and complex aspect of teaching. I was interested but not surprised to read that between 5% and 15% of classroom time was taken up with evaluation (Crooks, 1988). This means that teachers must spend an enormous amount of time working out evaluation procedures, assessing work, recording marks, and reporting on students. I wonder how much time teachers really do spend in and out of class on evaluation? I must look up some research on this. If I decide to do Honours it might even make a good research topic. Testing is one aspect of evaluation that bothers me. I must admit that as a student I hated tests. At high school we always seemed to be having tests and kids who failed pretty well gave up studying. I'm sure we had too many tests and this stopped us exploring lots of new areas of learning-especially lots of areas we were really interested in. Some of our teachers were always teaching to the next test. I also know many kids who go badly in exams; they get really worried about them and, as a result, bomb out. Still I'm sure that if testing is done well it can really be very useful. 1. Think of your final year of secondary school and estimate the amount of time you spent being assessed. In your opinion, was there an excessive amount of assessment or not? 2. Interview a teacher and ask how much time s/he spends each week on assessment and evaluation of student learning. If possible, do this as a class exercise and collate your results. What conclusions can you draw from your data? 3. Respond to this proposition: "At all levels of schooling, the benefits of tests outweigh their limitations."

Page 358 From Steve's journal:

Well, well, well-have I had a win. We' ve been learning how to write multiple choice questions. In his first lecture Kevin gave us this item from Beginning Teaching as an example of a good multiple choice question : Henry VIII had: A. 3 wives B. 4 wives C. 5 wives * D. 6 wives Kevin said it had a stem, a correct response and three distracters. I politely pointed out to him that it had a stem and 4 correct responses! He couldn't believe it. First of all he said something like "just trying to see if you were awake, Steve"' then he started to mumble something about Len not checking things properly and how the example would have to come out of the third edition of "the bible". Well we'll see. In the meantime I'm chalking one up-I deserve it for I've certainly had heaps from him! I've also learned something interesting about multiple choice questions. In the past when I haven't known an answer I've played "multiple choice bingo" and chosen the letter A and stuck with it through the test. However, I was reading a measurement book by Popham (1990) and he said that research showed choice C was the best one to go for in a guess. It seems, because of the mental set of test writers (answer not too early but not last), C is the most frequent position for correct answers. Well my students won't catch me out on that one! But for me as a student, "multiple choice bingo" becomes C. I can't wait for the education exam (only joking). I know Kevin can't write multiple choice questions, but he wouldn't fall for alternative C-would he? Authors' note: Steve you are getting on our nerves. Please graduate soon.

Page 387 From Rachel's journal: In recent times I have been giving a lot of thought to evaluation. I can see that is a very important and complex aspect of teaching. I was interested but not surprised to read that between 5% and 15% of classroom time was taken up with evaluation (Crooks, 1988). This means that teachers must spend an enormous amount of time working out evaluation procedures, assessing work, recording marks, and reporting on students. I wonder how much time teachers really do spend in and out of class on evaluation? I must look up some research on this. If I decide to do Honours it might even make a good research topic. Testing is one aspect of evaluation that bothers me. I must admit that as a student I hated tests. At high school we always seemed to be having tests and kids who failed pretty well gave up studying. I'm sure we had too many tests and this stopped us exploring lots of new areas of learning-especially lots of areas we were really interested in. Some of our teachers

were always teaching to the next test. I also know many kids who go badly in exams; they get really worried about them and, as a result, bomb out. Still I'm sure that if testing is done well it can really be very useful. 1. Think of your final year of secondary school and estimate the amount of time you spent being assessed. In your opinion, was there an excessive amount of assessment or not? 2. Interview a teacher and ask how much time s/he spends each week on assessment and evaluation of student learning. If possible, do this as a class exercise and collate your results. What conclusions can you draw from your data? 3. Respond to this proposition: "At all levels of schooling, the benefits of tests outweigh their limitations."

From Rachel's journal: Well, I've made it through term one and finally to the first journal entry for two months.

First term has absolutely flown by and involved me in a variety of experiences including combined successes and disasters and many exciting challenges. The kids are great. I guess about 90% of them are really enthusiastic and "on-side". There are however about 10% that will be disruptive given any opportunity so I've had to develop my control skills quite a bit. I do feel now, however, that they are beginning to turn. Many of the Grade 8s haven't done any music before and are fairly overawed by using the keyboard laboratory. I guess the hardest thing is that the music classes are made up of mixed groups so their musical backgrounds range from "I listen to the radio Miss!" to 7 years of piano. This is presenting the biggest challenge so far as I feel I really need to improve my multi-level teaching skills. I also need to do quite a lot of arranging these holidays so that I have ensembles with basic through to advanced parts to suit my students. I'm going to do quite a bit of preparation these holidays as I find it always takes me longer than I planned to prepare. On countless occasions last term I heard Kevin's voice booming in the back of my mind reiterating" planning is the key to success"! The staff also are very helpful and supportive. In the English Department especially I've found that there are people who I can ask for advice and share ideas with. Perhaps I was a little too idealistic and expected too much from some of the kids in the beginning; however, the senior teachers have given me a lot of help in finding the right standards. I'm enjoying my English classes although the marking has really astounded me. I have found that I spend about two hours each evening marking and usually Sunday afternoons as well . I think perhaps I am over-assessing so I'm going to work on other assessment methods for next term. I certainly need to rethink my policies on homework--especially cutting down on "busy work". The school is very different from the schools I did Prac at. It's very big for starters and the student population consists of students from many different cultures. It's taken a while for me to adjust my pronunciation of names. I guess the thing that is so daunting initially is the 280 faces (that all have different names!) that sit in front of me each week. I discovered that a

seating plan with a class map for me was an absolute must. This has enabled me to learn all student names. There's been a lot of talk and debate recently about competency-based standards for the teaching profession. Joan, my Principal has had a talk to me about this and suggested that as a beginning teacher I should try to demonstrate to a competent standard using The National Competency Framework/or Beginning Teaching (see Panel 9.1). She will work with me later in the year to see how I am going on the competencies. At this stage they look okay to me. They remind me a lot of the things Kevin and Len talked about in class-and of course in their book! As I think back over the term I would have to say I've gained a lot of satisfaction from my teaching Certainly there have been problems but you get that in any job. Anyway the problems have been far outweighed by the rewards such as teaching great kids, being in a good school and enjoying what I'm doing-and getting paid for it! I'm really pleased I chose teaching for a career and I still agree with what I wrote in my first journal entry: "I have a lot to offer and think teaching is the most important job in the world. After all it is training the next generation." Authors' Note: Rachel, thanks for your letter and journal entries. We've really enjoyed sharing your teacher education course and are delighted to publish some of your journal entries. It's great to see that you are enjoying your teaching and shaping up as a true professional. Cheers and best wishes, Len and Kevin.

Page 289 From Steve's journal: Well it's the cyclone season and the town's cut off, so I thought I'd write in my journal. Thinking back on the last few months it's all been happening. I received my appointment four days before school began and had to get it together quickly to get up here in time. Still I made it and am having a huge time. The kids, staff and locals are great. Accommodation wise I'm sharing a duplex with Mick and we're gradually getting the housekeeping sorted out. Still it's nice to score a meal around town every now and then. That's not to say though that it's been all roses. This town is really isolated and I've missed home and all my mates. At times I feel like I'm living in a fish bowl. Does the goss fly or what! Still there are lots of good things too. I'm full on with sport and am captain/coach of the basketball team. There's lots of parties and as a staff we've used the weekends to visit many interesting places. I like exploring the gorges and doing a bit of climbing. At school I think I'm beginning to learn to get across ideas without being palmed off, to talk to parents, to mark the roll without destroying it and so on. Several benefits come from this.

First, you begin to work as a more competent teacher, and then you find where your personal incompetencies are and have time to correct weaknesses such as lack of preparation (okay, Kevin-"failing to prepare is preparing to fail", etc., etc., etc.), untidy room, and not keeping up with the marking. This work on self-improvement snowballs to give a better teachinglearning situation. You find satisfaction and employ more resources, game approaches, different strategies and so on. More time seems available to play staff at badminton (at which I am a legend although some people beg to differ), socialise on a Friday arvo (I'm good at that too!) or get to know some girls (some work is needed in this department!). Trouble with the girl department is that there aren't many up here. O.K. so where are we now? I know I'm flat out teaching and fitting in with the local scene. I'm finding I'm becoming more critical of myself and the kids, always expecting miracles. I get very disappointed with the low achievers and must really learn to adjust the learning activities for them. I guess I have to be more realistic in my expectations. After all when I look back at my records of learning for the last couple of months or so I can see improvement. I had to laugh today at one of the kids. After all our bottle top, decimeter rod, algorithm and hundreds chart work, he still goes through an elaborate ritual whereby all fingers, thumbs, the chin, nose, cheeks, ears and even blinking eyes are used in large or repeated addition and some multiplication examples. Anything involving more than 3 lots of 8 turns into a circus act. I have to look away. He does it with such enthusiasm. I know it's only time and sooner or later I will get to him and go through it all very slowly with concrete materials. In the meantime his neatness has come up and he voluntarily involves himself in science. A break through. I've had some other successes. The one I feel most proud of was a student who was a real problem. I decided to meet Mum and Dad and talk things through with them. We have had several meetings and slowly things are beginning to change. It makes me think how much the "teacher" represents-not only to the student but to parents as well. Teaching is a lot more than just 3-Rs. So what do I have to work on? I think I have to use the kids' knowledge a lot more. These kids know a tremendous amount about the land, sport, horses and cattle, and country music. If I can use that knowledge in my teaching then I know they will be that much more interested. With sport I am in front but I don't know very much about the other areas. Come to think of it, I wish we had been taught more about teaching Aboriginal students in our teacher education course-! have thirteen Aboriginal students in my class and I really do have a lot to learn in this area. I also think that I will have to work harder to make a point of finding out about the students' prior knowledge before I teach. That way I can make their learning more meaningful. And I must keep reminding myself that the students "world" is so completely different to the one I have been brought up in-and I must accommodate this. There's no doubt about it, teaching is much more difficult than I ever imagined when I started this journal. It certainly is a big game and to play it with purpose you need to spectate every so often, just cruise-to the point of having an easy lesson or a slack afternoon. Take 10 minutes to go outside and just soak in the sun. In the long run it's well worth the time.

Well, how about that? Fancy comparing teaching to sport. And to think I wanted to do sport/science before I got into teaching. Perhaps the two are closer than I thought. O.K. The end. P.S . Can't wait for the end of the cyclone season ; it's cramping my style a bit. P.P.S. Must book for Bali in the holidays. P.P.P.S. Must write to Kevin and Len to tell them about the real worldthey meant well. Authors' Note: Steve, thanks for your letter and journal entries. We've really enjoyed sharing your teacher education course and are delighted to publish some of your journal entries. In thinking of your course we are reminded of the words of the T.V. ad-''They said you'd never make it." In your final journal entry you seem to be getting a bit cocky. Be careful. Teaching is very complex and context is so important. We suggest you re-read parts Two and Three of "the book" and enrol in further study (external). It will help. Cheers and best wishes, Len and Kevin. P.S . Take mercy on the English language. P.P.S . A SURPRISE. We will visit you (in the tourist season, of course)!