Every once in a while I have to inform you about the practicalities of your life as a student. So here goes: practical information.
GRADES
On June 5, at exactly 14:00, the grades will be officially published. In order to be able to check them you should go to our websiteand just follow the instructions that will allow you to pass this screen.
REGISTRATION FOR 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR
After checking your grades, you may want to attend classes in October. If that is your plan make sure you register for the next school year. Your place is not compromised, but you still need to register.
EXAMS
Once your grades have been published, you can choose to take the certification exam (nivel C1). There are two potential scenarios here:
If your are a C1.2 student you don't have to pay for the examination fees. The deadline for registration is June 17. Remember that the exam will be held in September.
If you are a C1.1 student but would like to try your luck and take the official C1 exam you can also do it. The difference is: you have to pay and you there is a different schedule for registration. Unfortunately the dates are not available as yet. It will be, obviously, after June 17. I'll keep you posted.
As for the "examen de promoción", it will also be held in September. Remember: even if you have failed to be promoted (on account of a negative progress report) you can still make it to the next level (C1.2 or C2). You don't need to register for the "promotion exam". Just show up on the right date and take the part of the exam that you haven't passed now. Example: if you only failed the listening comprehension exercises that's the skill you will have to redo in September.
At any rate no exam calendar has been published yet, which is only logical. Our school will only be able to welcome half the usual number of students at a time. Therefore ensuring that the health, physical and safety needs are met is going to be rather complicated. To make matters worse the official rules and recommendations may change over the summer. So stay tuned.
The lockdown came into force 71 days ago, but I feel that today we enter a new phase, so I'm going to drop the word lockdown.
How are you all? I hope you're at least healthy. These days that's saying a lot. I'm still writing out reports (which some of you should have already received). Anyway, I thought you could just take a look at this photograph I took after a class months ago. If you understand all those words (which, of course, came up in class) congratulations. If you actually use them when you speak English, then my hat is off to you: you're now ready to attend a C2 course.
Hi again. I keep working on your final grades and your reports, which doesn't mean I cannot answer questions or solve problems. Some of you are clearly going over the grammar we have seen in class and require my technical assistance. I am willing to oblige. So here you have a brief clip in which I discuss a grammar point we didn't quite tackle at the time because I thought it was not "advanced" material. Anyway, here are my comments.
Today I'd like to share with you an item of news that is already two days old (so by our pressing current standards it's Ancient History). Still, I think it's worth a read. Cambridge University, one of the leading institutions in the academic world, has announced that all lectures will be on-line in the next school year. Some of you may regard that decision as a bit of an overreaction, but I beg to differ.
In fact, I think we ought to pay close attention to what Cambridge and Oxford do, not only because they have set major trends in the past, but simply because a veritable paradigm shift has become overwhelmingly clear in these past two months. The transition to remote learning is no flash in the pan. Therefore we might as well get ready to make the most of it. For better or worse we are going to have to expand the use of digital resources, just like two decades ago teachers had to accept that they would have to learn to use a computer. On a more practical note, I believe we should all start to come to terms with the fact that our classes in October might have to be partially on-line. At this point it is unclear how the beginning of the new academic year will be like. There's a good chance that nothing will go back to normal for quite some time.
At the EOI we are going to spend a big part of the summer setting up on-line classrooms so, come October, we can be ready to face the inevitable challenge. Believe it or not, I have already started to edit materials for the next course. Anyway, I'm happy to see that most of you have managed to navigate the complexities of the digital world. You have been able to put together narrated PowerPoints. You have sent them over via WeTransfer or put them up on OneDrive. If anything, this pandemic has forced quite a few technophobes to shape up in terms of becoming acquainted with the basics of remote learning (in my case remote teaching). The clip below, published by Cambridge University less than a month ago, describes this befuddling state of affairs. If you watch it you will surely learn some interesting way of putting into words those feelings of frustration that you must have experienced over the past few weeks.
What's up, everyone? As promised, I am going to inform you about the practical side of the imminent end of our course, which is not going to be nothing like the educational apocalypse that some of you may have envisaged. So let's jump right into it!
CERTIFICATION EXAM
You can all still register to take the exam in September (should you feel like doing so). The deadline for registration for the official exam was March 22. The state of alarm came into force on March 16. So, of course, it became impossible for many of you to register, but as far as office formalities go everything was put on hold, as though Dr. Strange himself had frozen time. In short, every student who wishes to take the certification exam will be able to register. The dates cannot be published yet on account of the lack of official legislation regarding this specific procedure. I've been told that the lawmakers at the Board of Education are putting the finishing touches on the regulations, which should be published pretty soon. So stay alert.
PROMOTION
Over the next few days you will receive an email in which I will let you know whether you pass to the next course or you get held back. As simple as that. The actual grades will be published on our website on June 5 at 14:00.
If you should not get promoted you can always cancel registration. No strings attached. The present school year 2020-2021 will not count in terms of the number of school years ("convocatorias") you are allowed to be an official student before you access the next level. Remember that one level consists of two courses. The C1 level, for instance, consists of courses C1.1 and C1.2. If you take three years to pass the C1.1 exam you'll only have one to clear the C1.2. So, even if you fail to get promoted this time around, you will have not "used up" one of the four "convocatorias". As this has been such an exceptionally weird year, it's only fair that these last eight months should not be considered as one of those four chances everyone gets.
PROMOTION EXAM
Those of you who do get promoted to the next course won't have to sit the promotion exam. The promotion exam is actually for the students that have not canceled their registration at the school and still want to take a shot at getting into the next course, be it C1.2 or C2.
WHAT AM I GOING TO DO IN JUNE?
Since no official exams are going to be held during the month of June, we teachers won't be giving tests, proctoring students or grading exams, which does not mean that we plan to slob around the house. I'm afraid we are going to be quite busy. Apart from getting the promotion exams ready for September and attending several on-line courses on both remote learning and exam standardization, we have been required to be available to our students. So I will devote a number of hours to assisting you in several ways. I will clarify doubts, offer advice, etc.
Our calendar will be duly published on the school's website so that you know when I will be available for questions, emails, etc. Personal circumstances still make it quite difficult for me to host videoconferences, but I might and take a stab at it. The most interesting I'm going to be doing has to do with the reports I'm compiling for all of you. In the classroom it is impossible for any teacher to cater to every single learning style. I am aware that every student had their own needs. I sometimes talk to some of you individually about your specific strengths and weaknesses, but I don't believe I have gone into detail about the state of your English and the way you can go about improving your command of the language. So be ready to get some tailored reports and comments, which will include specific advice. That is a time-consuming activity. So be patient.
Rest assured that I will keep posting on this blog. Maybe not every day, but frequently. Anyway, remember that, as far as grades go, as of today... the die is cast, which leads us to my next two paragraphs.
TODAY'S MESSAGE
Even though the course finishes on May 28, today is for me the last "class day". I want to thank you all for keeping in touch and showing interest and determination in the face of adversity. On May 15, I uploaded a video, which was a summary of the C1.1 course. Unfortunately, I accidentally listed it as "private", which made it impossible for you to view from this blog. One of you was kind enough to tip me off about the glitch. I just wanted to tell you that the problem was fixed so you can watch it (just click on the blue phrase). I think it may also be interesting to some students in the C1.2 courses. And for those of you who, at some point during this crisis, have asked yourselves "What's going on?", I have decided to share with you this inspired rendition of the Marvin Gaye classic. Strictly speaking it's not educational and it has little to do with our syllabus... but, boy is it uplifting! I believe we can use a bit of feel-good music. Enjoy.
N.B. The "Boy, is it uplifting!" is C2 material. I just realized...
My dear students. The end of our course is only ten days away. You have been kind enough to send me the exercises for the progress report. So there is not much I can teach you at this point. I plan to devote most of the remaining days to rather laborious clerical duties. Also I'm still recording audio commentaries on your presentations. So be patient. You'll get yours. Since there are no new contents to be taught, I will use this blog to make sure you are duly informed of the novelties regarding not only your promotion but also the certification exams. I will keep posting. Don't worry about it. On a more practical, tomorrow a staff meeting is going to be held. All teachers at EOI Laredo will join a videoconference to discuss this unusual state of affairs and the impending end of the course. So expect a digest on Wednesday.
I hope you can afford to take seven minutes of your day and watch the video below. If you are a C1.1 student this clip can help you get an idea as to what the next course is going to be about. If you are part of a C1.2 class it will help you remember some of those strategies that can make you sound "natural" which, let's face it, is the holy grail of the C1 level.
My dear C1.1 students. This post is for you, but if you you are in my C1.2 class you are welcome too.
The course is almost over. Pretty soon we're going to have to wrap this up. So I thought it would be nice to hit the pause button, look back on the past few months and give you a recap on the most important areas we have tackled in class. I will edit a similar video for my loyal C1.2 audience. Enjoy (or not).
