Paints Pastels Prints and Pedals World Bike Ride

Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Learning Teaching

Since passing my CELTA in March, I am now teaching full time at a local language school, BLS English, here in Suffolk. A few weeks in and I'm getting to make the classes and lessons my own, teaching Thai and Spanish teenagers, who are a delight with wonderful personalities.

My Thai students enjoying a lesson task

But it was a baptism of fire as when I started, along with one or two other new teachers, we arrived on the Monday, were handed a few worksheets from a course book and told to go and teach! As terrifying as it was, it couldn't have been a better introduction to teaching. Thinking up an instant lesson plan meant that as a new teacher, I didn't have much armoury to draw on for interesting ways of teaching the lesson. But it's amazing how much you can draw on your course for ideas and weeks into the job, it's getting easier. My days now are spent reading newspapers, magazines and any reading material I can get my hands on; a pair of scissors never far away!

students facinated with an English Bobby

a trip to London with my Thai students

Embankment London

While I search around for more texts and pictures to cut up for future lessons, I will leave you with a selection of my recent photos, including some general shots taken in the last month.

the students punting on the River Cam in Cambridge

Chasing giant soap bubbles in London Embankment

The London Eye

My Thai students busy in class

sunrise in Suffolk

(all photographs and text in paintandpedalsworldbybike.blogspot.com is the copyright of Deborah Anne Brady (c)
all rights reserved 2012)

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Presently Perfect

Hello again!
A few more photos to view while I tell you what's been happening for the past month.

What it feels like earning a CELTA certificate!

Having just emerged from an intensive month long TEFL course ( Teaching English as a Foreign Language) at Norwich, I am now the proud, albeit, exhausted owner of a CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching for Adults). It was a tough, demanding four weeks bu

Jo and Carole, our CELTA tutors

a hug from Carole, one of our CELTA tutors, for trainee Sue, at the end of the course

t with the encouraging support of both the tutors and my fellow trainees, we pulled through. All the publicity for CELTA courses point out that it can be intensive and quite stressful at times and now I know why! We had to teach grammar on only our second day of the course and to real foreign students of mixed nationalities and abilities. Talk about hitting the ground running!

Some of the brilliant, wonderful, foreign students I had the pleasure to teach on my CELTA course. L to R front: Keiko, (Japan) Anne Cecille (Nice France), Jozeph, Marianne and Balent from Hungary.

Johanna and Eden - two more of the students I taught on the course

But my fellow trainees, tutors (and the foreign students I taught), were brilliant, funny and very supportive and we all plan to stay in touch. There were four Russian trainee teachers on the course, who we came to adopt as our 'family'. We had such fun, a lot of laughs and we're going to miss them, but I'm sure we'll see them again in the future.

Homeless in Oxford City Centre.

somebody's granny

The rather embarrassing aspect of the course was that the Russian girls were far more advanced in English grammar than we native speakers! It was quite something when in class one

cat in a tight spot

day, we English trainees had to pair up with one of the Russian trainees. There were eleven of us in the class and knowing how good the Russians were at grammar, it often became like a game of

cartoon artist in Covent Garden

musical chairs at the January sales -each English trainee rushing to grab a Russian and sticking to them like glue with the unfortunate few of us being left stranded with a native speaker. There just aren't enough Russians to go round I say! But as with most English native speakers.

my good friend Sue, enjoying her ice cream in Paris during my cycle trip

tortoiseshell butterfly

we leave it all behind in school, and although we intrinsically know the meaning and how to use it, we lose the ability to analyse it. Whereas, foreigners who have learnt to speak English, will have excellent grammar, as they've had to study it to understand the language. Either way, it's a strange sight to see an English class dominated by struggling native spea

kers, being directed in the grammatical art of English language by foreigners!

Stormy weather - Northern Ireland

woods in Suffolk

So, what of the future? Well, having emerged from the minefield of phrasal, modals, collocations past simples and perfect tenses, I am now in a position to start reorganising my world cycle trip and to try to continue on my journey. With my degree and a CELTA certificate in my hands, I will be able to work anywhere in the world, doing a fantastically rewarding job and I hope to be able to travel as soon as I can regroup and get going again. Organising this will take a little time and so I hope to either get work teaching in England for the summer and/or do some voluntary teaching to get some experience before setting off. Timescale? I hope to be working in Seville in Spain by next winter.

But before all that, I'm off to various parts of the country to catch up and enjoy some socialising with some of my friends. How do I feel? - Presently perfect.

Bye for now.
Deborah
(C) all photographs and text in Paintsandpedalsworldbybike is the copyright of Deborah Anne Brady; all rights reserved 2012

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

On Futures and New Years Plans

Hello
Contact me on: deborahannebrady@hotmail.co.uk

Drummer Girl: Harbour Festival Bristol

It's been a few months since my last update. I miss the travelling, but life has been very hectic none the less and I thought I would bring you all up to date

My good friend Cathy

with what's been happening. Not only that, but photography is in my blood, so I'm going to post some more cycling trip photos, as well as some extra pictures that I have been taking over the last few years for you to view.

Three C in three D: open air theatre Rugby

It's now been five months since returning home from my cycling trip and it's given me the time to reflect and plan ahead. Although I decided to cut the trip short, I now know I made the right decision and know I will be travelling agRenoir's home town of Essoyes in France (above) and Chataux Chillon on Lake Geneva

ain as soon as I can. In fact, I decided that I love the travelling so much that I intend to find a way to work for half the year and then travel for the remaining half year. So, I'm planning to carry on with my talks, (I have bookings already for 2013) and teaching photography. But the thought of working abroad and staying in one country also appeals to me and as a way to finance further travel out on the road, I have decided to do a TEFL (teaching English as foreign language) course which starts in February in Cambridge. Then there were four Green oil cans sitting on .... the Grand Union Canal nr Rugby

The more research I do on TEFL and alongside my previous experience and enjoyment of teaching, the more I really want to do it. And it gives me the choice between working here in England, or abroad. There's nothing like having a large number of strings to your bow! Bottleneck: Empty wine bottles in France (where else!) Wooden carving statue at local market in Montreaux with Dents Du Midi range of mountains in the background

While I have been sorting all that out, I have also been very busy carrying out volunteer work for Sustrans, the sustainable transport and cycling network charity. That has been fabulous and it's giving me the chance to put all my skills, abilities and experience into it, through fundraising talks that I am planning, as well as organising Sunday bike rides and raising the Sustrans profile through leaflet distribution and media work. Just right for my kind of background. A lady in the library: Rugby Library or Olive from On the Buses! (only those over 25 yrs will know what I mean)

Other travellers will know that one of the many things that happens to you when you go on a trip like I did, (no matter how long or short) you come back a changed person and it makes you sort out the priorities in your life. So, without pontificating too much on this and I must stress this is personal to me, here are some of the things that I came back with and thatMy wonderful German friends in Bologne, Hedi and Franz

I want to change.

Firstly, I wanted to at least once in my life, do some volunteer work. Give some of my time to something other than me! Having done that, what's happened is that I enjoy it so much, that I intend to continue to carry on being associated with at least one charity all the time now. Not only that, I'm meeting some great people. Bike shadow in a local park

Secondly, I plan to live more within my means. I have found that since 'downsizing' a few years ago, and especially so since my trip, that I really don't need or want, lots of posessions. All we/I ended up doing was working to service those posessions. I don't even really want to own a car with all its expense. I still havn't got mine on the road and am enjoying travelling by bike or public transport now. However, as far as expense goes, I will make the exception when it comes to do with anything for my bike, cameras or travelling,... so that's one New Years resolution out the window! But what I really mean, is that although I still like some comforts and will still need a car for my equipment when I do my talks, I enjoy simplifying my life and spending my money on the things that I really want to do in life rather than on acquiring and financing more things that I don't need. The little fox cub whose uncertain outcome, broke my heart

One major part of travelling is the joy of meeting new people all the time. On my cycling trip to Greece, I met some wonderful people who I have stayed in touch with and to this day we are e mailing and staying in touch. I'm hoping to visit my friends, Hedi and Franz,who I met in Bologna and had a meal with in Florence, in Germany some time next year. (Hedi and Franz - if you are reading this, I got your e mail and auto replied but I am not sure if you received it - can you give me your postal address in case the e mail is not working? Bike park Oxford Indoor market

I have also started my book! Not the one about my travels, I want to get some more travelling under my wheels before I start that one. The one I have started is one that has been on my mind for some years. Its going to be about my life when I was a photojournalist in Fleet Street.
So I now have to find the discipline to sit down every day and type out the first draft. Not easy when you have had the freedom of the road for the last year.

Great Interpretation! Poster of Van Gogh's painting alongside the original setting they did this at all the points in the town of images he painted

So with one thing and another, life is very busy indeed, so many endless possibilities and opportunities out there and open to me that sometimes it is difficult to decide which direction to go in. But I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going... As I'v mentioned before, I've included some more photos, and to quote a phrase, they are, 'not in any particular order.'. for you all to browse. Hope you like them and hope you are able to continue to follow my blog (I am going to try to keep an update going every month or two) and more adventures to come.

Merry Christmas and Happy NewYear! The end!

Monday, 3 October 2011

Best laid plans and all that....

Street busker - taken during recent visit to Cambridge

Rising sun - taken while cycling the Suffolk Coastal Route recently I

Early morning sun (Suffolk Coastal Route)

Coffee break- local bookshop (Suffolk)

Visitors at Manet's Gardens at Giverny France

Well some of you know, and some of you don't know, but the reason for the long delay is that I have taken my time making a big decision.

When I got to the end of Greece, I decided I would not continue my world trip due to my financial situation. I wasn't running out of funds but made up my mind that as much as I was enjoying the trip, I needed to keep my remaining funds for home. Also, as there were going to be three or four flights involved on my trip, the amount of baggage I was carrying was going to be very expensive.

I came back to UK about two months ago to regroup and sort out my bike luggage to make it easier to fly and not have to pay so much cost. However, it wasn't going to be and so I am staying in UK for the winter and heading out to Europe again in early Spring. But this time I am cycling through Spain to Morocco and back up the east coast of Spain to the Med. The art theme is following on from the first journey and I will finish the Asian tour over another winter, sometime in the future. So, that's my story - sorry to disappoint, but all is not lost - it will just take a little longer than at first planned. Until then, I am really excited about Spain and Morocco and all that art!

Although I was very disappointed about abandoning the trip, one bit of good news is that since leaving in May, I am now 2 and half stone lighter! I have actually gone down a dress and trouser size!

I am still cycling back here in UK and recently spent 2 days cycling the 150 mile Suffolk Coast route while we still have some sunny and warm weather left!

Meanwhile thank you all for following my adventures I loved every minute of it and will be continuing the journey soon albeit not the original route. I now have some fantastic memories and stories to tell (one day in a book) and I met wonderful people and made some great friends along the way, some of whom are still keeping in touch. The comararderie of the road and meeting other travellers and locals is something that I really miss. But I intend to continue to cycle tour in the very near future, so I hope you will all stick with me and follow my further adventures.

In between cycle touring I teach photography and give lectures and talks and I always tell my students that it's not the camera that matters so much, as what you do with it. I always maintain that you don't necessarily have to go to exotic places to make interesting and atmospheric photos. So to prove a point, I have included some very recent photos I took with only a compact camera, as well as some taken on my trip, that I havn't included before. I hope you agree!

And while back in the UK, I hope you will still join me in my regular blog updates and photos.

To be continued.........

Deborah