In the last issue of English Now we printed the story of "A day in the life" of a new primary English language trainer in Hanoi. Here is the story of a novice primary English Language trainer in Ho Chi Minh City, Trinh Thi Mai Phuong, who was a trainer-in-training on the primary teacher training courses run in the South earlier this year.

The roles of a trainer - in - training

Trainer-in-training
I got a call from the British Council and I couldn't believe my ears! Becoming a trainer-in-training put me on cloud nine!

Sneak teacher
The course was in the afternoon but I had to teach all day. So how could I squeeze the course into my tight schedule? Somehow I managed and sneaked out of school each afternoon. I want to say a big thank you to my 29 students for their good behaviour during the 5 weeks of being a trainer-in-training.

Shadow tutor
For most of the course I was a shadow tutor, shadowing Jane Boylan and Klara Banks, the British Council tutors. On the first day, I learned from Jane's note taking of her sessions. There were lots of highlighted notes in different colours, which helped Jane to keep track of what she was doing and avoid skipping any important points. I was also enthusiastic with her way of praising: "Good answer... but not in my list" when we were asked to guess a list of words related to the topic she just raised. "Good answer but not in my list" I kept telling myself all the way home. I was also very impressed when Klara knelt down while talking to a participant during a classroom activity.

Co-observer
As part of my training I shadowed Klara during classroom observations and feedback in local schools. I learned a lot from my Vietnamese colleagues. Klara showed me how to give positive and constructive feedback. Sometimes we shared the same observation notes. Sometimes I noticed things which she didn't or vice versa. It's good to see things from many different angles, though. One thing we should bear in mind when giving feedback is "judge the work, never judge the person."Klara always found some praise-worthy details in every lesson and since then I have told myself not to be too critical of teaching. On the last observation, Klara let me give feedback first and I thought I also did well.

Learner
Not until I became a teacher did I realize how much fun it was to be a learner! I picked up some good ideas and techniques from my colleagues such as placing pictures up-side-down as a cue to elicit 'No- answer' or using magnets on a magnetic board as counters in a scoring system. I had to deliver a mini session (45 mins.) by the end of the course. Though I was well prepared (thanks to Klara's help and her encouraging words), I was still nervous. My topic was "FUN to LEARN", in which we discussed ways of adding fun to the learning process. Luckily the session went well and feedback was good.The skills I developed during the course have been invaluable and it was a really great opportunity for me.
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