Simon and Amanda

Simon's my co-trainer on our CELTA course this month and Amanda works in another centre in the city. We went for a drink and bite to eat straight from school tonight. Here we are in the Flamenco Hotel bar in Zamalek. A nice way to end our official working week.

It's the first time Simon and I have worked together and I think we're a good team so far. It makes me realise though just how much time the trainer I usually work with and share a flat with talk shop in the flat and in the taxi we share to and from the school. Simon and I hardly have any time to talk to each other properly in school. When he comes out of input I’m going in. Our lunchtime (45 mins) is always taken up by the trainees needing help and we end up with 20' before we both go into teaching practice to observe 3 lessons. We aren't together for those 20' as we don't have a designated work area or desks and the temporary teachers' room is packed then and very noisy. We then have a 20 min break before feedback (when we often can't find a free desk to finish writing up our feedback and certainly not two desks together). This is the time of the day when we really need a quiet place as we might need to consult on grades for the lessons just observed and make decisions before giving immediate feedback. By the time we finish giving feedback and winding up it's 6.30 and we're too tired to talk about anything important. It's not really workable and certainly not efficient use of our time. I'm going to push for a designated space for the rest of the course, but am not hopeful. On a good day it's just about manageable. On a bad day it's stressful and frustrating.