The Sheffield College

French speaking students at Manchester United FC

In the world of work today, the policy of last in, first out is now becoming very commonplace, especially for self employed professionals and, at A+ English, I was unfortunate to experience this myself - along with another teacher who was much younger than me.

Having really looked forward to getting up early in the morning and going to work again on a regular basis, I was very disappointed when the funding for the Libyan and Saudi Arabian students was withdrawn from A+ by their respective Embassies and I was back in the ranks of the unemployed. 

Old Trafford Stadium

Before too long I was back at work and my next job at the Sheffield College was most memorable for the classroom management and field trip leader skills that I acquired, more than the English teaching experience itself. Along with a handful of other teachers, I was responsible for 60 students who had come to Sheffield with the French FM Sports Etudes academy - from France and from very many of their former colonies in West Africa, South America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

          

Old Trafford Stadium

During the initial tour of Sheffield city centre, despite also being accompanied by their French group leaders, they showed a lack of discipline when, without permission, they all broke away from the group upon their first sight of the mobile phones and trainers. In the classroom too, it was obvious that many of the students were more interested in playing football than learning English; however, by the end of the 4 weeks, they had improved considerably. 

Although textbooks were available for my lessons, I also prepared a glossary of terms used in football, in both English and French, which I gave to them for reference but, for conversation practice in the classroom, I used a much more comprehensive list of vocabulary in English only. Having enjoyed playing football myself at school, and supporting one of the top clubs in the English Premier League, Chelsea, I found that I was never short of ideas to discuss with my students in the lessons.

Industrial scale grow lamps at Old Trafford