From the Other Side of Hilltop

Peter Clements, UK

Peter Clements teaches ESOL in the Adult Lifelong Learning sector in and around Canterbury, Kent in the UK. He works with a variety of students from inside the European Union as well as long- term UK residents from numerous other countries including members of the large Nepalese community who live in south east England. He started out teaching ESOL in 2007. E-mail: peter.clements@talktalk.net

Early June and I had just started teaching a new class. I had spent a large period of the weekend - more time than was reasonable - preparing the lesson and creating some nicely laminated resources.

Arriving on the Monday morning, rushing around doing the photocopying, trying to find the user name and password for a computer and IWB in an unfamiliar classroom, the students arrived and were ready and waiting. All started out well but about half an hour into the lesson I felt a headache coming on, and began feeling disoriented. Also half my peripheral vision was beginning to fade. I was also experiencing the kind of bright visual swirls in my eyes that normally precede a migraine so I simply took a couple of headache tablets with some water and carried on.

The vision deteriorated to the point that half my field of vision in each eye had completely gone. The students were matching job name cards with pictures and I could not see if they were correct- it was as if I had lost the ability to process the visual information. When looking at an individual’s face, I could only see their right side; it was if a line had been formed which divided each half of their faces and one half was just a blank, no matter how I looked at it.

My wife came and we went straight to the doctor who advised me to go to the local hospital immediately as she was certain I was displaying classic signs of a stroke. The visual problem, she explained was a phenomenon known as ‘hemianopia’, where vision in one hemisphere of the brain is affected. Subsequent tests and an MRI scan revealed that a minor stroke had taken place and at this point the implications this might have for my work as an ESOL teacher started to dawn on me.

I was not allowed to drive (in case of a reoccurrence) or do anything that might trigger another attack. Rest and lots of it was the order of the day followed by gradually increasing exercise. It also meant staying off work for the foreseeable future so all my classes had to be covered by other teachers. At the same time, I counted myself extremely fortunate that things had not been much worse. My vision returned to normal and there are now no long-lasting outwardly physical effects apart from my right limbs being slightly weaker than my unaffected left ones.

Treatment followed and medication and dietary regimes were set in place. My employer, who has been extremely supportive throughout, carried out a risk assessment through an occupational health practitioner and it was agreed that I could return to work gradually at the beginning of the new academic year. This was surely great news but felt apprehensive and lacking in confidence. It was under these circumstances that I came to attend some of the afternoon and evening teacher workshops at Pilgrims at Hilltop which were so beneficial and ‘just what the doctor ordered’ for a tired teacher.

I wish to write my thoughts and review these sessions from a personal perspective, as viewed from ‘the other side of Hilltop’. Why ‘the other side’? Well, in previous years I had cycled the route up and over the hill where the summer teacher training workshops are held, only to freewheel down the other side to work in a local school of English for the summer. I would see the wheat turn ripe from green to yellow and finally be gathered, all in the course of the journeys to and from the school. This year though, due to the stroke, this wasn’t to be. However, the last few days of summer, while the golden wheat was being harvested in the fields, I had recovered sufficiently to able to undertake that same cycle journey for a week along the same route but this time stopping at the top of the hill with a different purpose, namely to join other teachers who had travelled up to Hilltop from the opposite side from Canterbury and all over Europe.

In the next year’s issues of HLT you will be able to read re some outlines of the sessions I attended.

The week I spent attending sessions at Pilgrims was a wonderful and positive experience. To be learning alongside so many professionals from all over the EU and other countries made a big impression on me. Add to this the fact that top English language trainers, expert in their field as educators and writers, were accessible and right there leading the workshops.

As I looked around during the sessions, I noticed the teachers attending were all engaged, laughing, having fun and, in between all the lively activities, desperately trying to get some of it written down by way of notes for future reference as I was. The content was precious, and of too much value to let go of and lose. Yet it was something that was alive and in the moment and you had to be there and be part of it to appreciate it.

Something that also struck me was that all of the teachers, while from different countries and circumstances, teaching in all kids of institutions were probably all facing the same kind of challenges, all trying to juggle so many things in order to be the best possible teachers for their students. Some would be up late preparing lessons, getting up early to get in and struggle with the photocopier, the marking while still having to run a household and be responsible for a family, and sometimes becoming weary as a result. Judging by the effect the sessions had on me, they were like a tonic and a source refreshment.

Feeling refreshed made me want to apply the suggestions, to aspire to being a better teacher, and to remember to take better care of my health in order to maintain joy in my work and family life. It helped me to get back into focus what is really important in the classroom, learning or, I should say, facilitating learning. Letting the students do more, getting them moving around and energised. Letting them take time to reflect, understanding their needs and adapting my approach accordingly.

I felt involved and engaged, motivated and inspired. Worries and doubts due to the health problems I had previously experienced that summer faded and I felt mentally energised and looked forward to getting back into the classroom. It certainly illustrates the benefit of what is abbreviated in the UK to ‘CPD’ or Continuous Personal Development. But unlike some institutional training which can be rather dull and often places emphasis on procedure and paperwork, this was dynamic, experiential, totally relevant and ‘in the moment’.

Adopting these behaviours will hopefully make me a better but more balanced teacher, one who looks after their health and is in for the long haul and not the short sprint that leads to stress, burn out, or in my case, a stroke.

The week finished with the river trip in Canterbury which I went on with some of the other delegates. Funny, I must have been about 16 or 17 years old when I last went on one and in those days you had to row the boat yourself. This time I was able to relax and look at the city from a different perspective, from a viewpoint you can’t see from the street. Yes, a different view, from the other side of things. I had been part of something really special that week, instead of passing by the structures of distant buildings on a hill from afar, I had experienced a view of the other side of Canterbury’s Hilltop.

Please check the Pilgrims courses at Pilgrims website.