A TEXT POST

#ELTworkplaces in Scotland: learning from and about @carol_goodey

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I’ve been meaning write this for months but when I’m at work, I keep forgetting to take more photos. I took this one just as I was leaving one evening and kept meaning to add to it but haven’t. I’m off this week and supposed to be working on something else so it seems the ideal time to finally write about my work place! 
So this probably isn’t the best photo ever - I blame the evening sun - but it’s where I work. This is my spot in a fairly big office in one of the new-ish community campuses. I work in Community Learning & Development (CLD) for the local authority and I’m the Adult Literacies and ESOL worker for our area. Across the desk from me is the CLD Capacity Building worker. Beside her are Youth Services assistants and the Adult Learning Worker. To my left, is the CLD worker for Youth. To the right of me are mostly hot desks where careers advisors, employment support, outdoor education workers use the computers. 
All the desks in the office were originally meant to be hot desks and there was supposed to be a clear desk policy, but as you can see that didn’t happen as planned and most of us are well settled in to our very ‘lived in’ space. We were also not supposed to drink tea or coffee at our desks and, when we first moved in about three years ago, I bought a mug the colour of the desk so that it would blend in and I’d be less likely to be ‘caught’. But, that rule never came to much either so I’m much braver now and use much more visible mugs! 
There is another row of desks behind me where we have countryside rangers, community link workers, active schools and NHS engagement workers. It’s a great mix of people and I really enjoy my work and being based here. So many interesting conversations go on around me which spark ideas for my own work or where I can join in and share my thoughts. Although no one else in the office is a literacies or ESOL worker, there is plenty of support when I need to chat through plans or worries and having so many people around leads to lots of informal planning of new projects and a better understanding of the community.
Alongside us in the building, is the local high school, the community library and the sports and recreation centre. There’s a selection of rooms and technology that we can use for learning or meetings. 
The office, as you see it above, is quite tidy. It’s been tidier (a bit) and it is often much messier (much like my board work!). Under the desk to my left is a box of folders that I was using with my literacies group of people with learning disabilities. We’re not meeting this term so that box has been put away but it was a really enjoyable group to work with and hopefully we’ll be able to do some more work with them in the future.
Apart from that, I do ESOL groups and literacies and numeracy in small groups or on a one-to-one basis. I also have a great group of volunteer literacies tutors who work one-to-one with either literacies or ESOL learners or help out in groups. And, of course, there’s the ESOL reading group. Reading maps counts as reading, doesn’t it?
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Thanks a lot, Carol! The mug the colour of the desk is a hilarious idea and it made me smile. I can’t imagine my workplace without a chance to drink tea! I’m glad it’s all sorted out now.=) Thank you for sharing your pictures and telling the story. It looks to be a very interesting and unusual place to work at!

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If you wish to join the #ELTworkplaces project, as many teachers have done, contact @AnnLoseva on Twitter or in the comments to any of the posts on this Tumblr. Join in and share your workplace and your story =)