Via Lingua Granada
TEFL, in haiku
June 27, 2006
Arriving at school
Via Lingua summer day
Nervous excitement.
Give them the chicken,
Says Tim, not just an egg to
Be learning English.
Smog, mist, there are so
Many words for fog in the
Cold English language.
Antonia’s late
Arrival to class because
A broken down bus
Carls mountain bike did
Not make it to class but it
Sweetly sat outside.
Alastair picks on
Americans while dropping
Markers and flip charts.
The never-ending
Presence of ex-trainees who
Cant find any jobs.
Determinator
One and Two, The Verb Factory
The Board is Sacred.
Mike got nervous we
Feared he ran away, escaped,
Fled from teaching day.
The little comma
Can change everything from yes
To no in a snap.
Shall we correct in
The moment or wait until
Bitter cruel end?
Phrasal verbs have their
Hobbit roots big feet, small words
Used in every way.
TEFL is Twin Peaks
When verbs collide in white rooms
Bloody seagull tack.
The sound of flip-flops
Up and down the hall during
One final teaching.
Tim speaks to squirrels
While killing leprechauns and
His head strikes acorns.
Pippi Longstocking,
The Joker wears a black shirt,
Girls are so pretty.
Cathryns long walk to
Class but she always gets here
On time or early.
Lilac always late
And likes to speak for us all
So cute while boxing.
Someone was always
Somewhat late to class each day
Sometimes absentees.
Antonia reads
In bold and Tim picked on her
Until the long end.
Anything a plane
Can do to a cloud Darko
Flight proposition.
Feedback is mostly
Not fun for anyone but
The TEFL trainers.
Lesson planning is
A chore worse than cleaning the
Toilet with bare hands.
Oh flip chart we will
Miss thee entirely too much –
Never to be seen.
Teaching days over,
Some just beginning and some
Onto different things.
As a group we did
Not ever get drunk but now
Maybe we all will