I received my TESL certification in 2020. My teaching English as a second language certification was an importance piece in my journey to becoming a teacher, as well as an influence on my current teaching. It gives me more understanding to my ELL students that are in my classroom. In the certification, we learn about different cultures, the presence of English in our global world, and also some experiences our students may face as English language learners. Sometimes, students can feel stuck between two worlds, or sometimes they can take on important roles in their families as a translator if they are the only English speaker in their family. As a teacher, I will keep what I’ve learned in this certification in my mind to both help my students as learners of another language, but also the social and emotional aspects of their lives in school, and that theirs can sometimes be complex in different ways than those of my other students.
Week 6
This week was the sixth hour of teaching, over half way through now! I am still exhausted after the one hour lesson and have a hard time paying attention for my class that follows the teaching hour. It’s difficult to switch from being a teacher to a student in an hour. This week I think my teaching took a step back. For the first time in probably my life I was told I talked too much, and I could see myself doing it but couldn’t really stop. Normally I’m one thats not opposed to silence but this week it really bothered me. Next week I’ll have to really monitor this and make sure I’m not developing a new habit of speaking too much. I doubt it will, but better to be safe than sorry.
Along with this new talking issue, this week the biggest things I would like to change are tweaks to the lesson plan and actual activities. It didn’t really play out how I envisioned when making the activities. This is pretty much the first time it happened. Maybe it’s because we added more teacher focused activities, rather than a big open discussion so there is more room for students to react not how I expected them to for the activity. However, really it is experience and gives me the opportunity to grow in the flexibility department in my teaching. With the teacher focused activities, the lower students spoke more which was the goal of the activity so I’m really happy about that and will probably continue this format.
In the teacher focused activity, it seemed kind of like a was game or maybe some competition to the students and I wonder if that increased their engagement. When I told them they found more than I ever did when I found the activity, they laughed and seemed to like that they did better than me. As discussed in class last week, games have a great place in the lesson. I’m curious how they would react with an actual game. I think including a real game would be even more fun for them and I would really like to try it, hopefully next week.
Week 7
Just like that hour 7 is complete. For the first time I’ve come out not feeling stressed, or defeated, or like a fraud. I think because I’m still a student in my undergrad degree I don’t feel like I can be a teacher. Maybe the others who have finished their degree also feel like this. I know Karen has talked about it in class, but it’s one thing to talk about it and one thing to feel it myself. I never really had a massive dream to be a teacher and while I am really liking it, this idea that I should have known I wanted to be one when I was young kind of plagued me for a lot of the program. But, it seems like it’s starting to pass! So that’s good.
Incoming information from multiple sides is kind of difficult to keep in my head. The information learned in my culture class, and then learned in my technique class, and then also in practicum class as well as my sponsor teacher bounce around in my head. It’s hard to keep track of in my brain. I think it’s a bit like learning anything, but I can relate it to learning languages. You see words and at first they are foreign, and then eventually you can learn how to sound them out, but adding in the grammar and new vocabulary kind of makes everything fall out until multiple exposure has occurred. I don’t know, maybe this analogy doesn’t make sense.
In my actual teaching today I think I’ve finally gotten comfortable at being more animated in the classroom. I was able to laugh at myself with the students at my awkward attempt at playing a game, and they were receptive my teaching. The format of the lesson went really well also. My teaching partner and I have been changing up our routine a bit and right now it’s working out well. The class time is essentially divided into thirds, with each of us teaching in one of those, and then going into breakout rooms to monitor and interact more closely with students in pairs. The timing was almost spot on as well today. Everything is looking sunny!
Next week I am going to try and limit the choices I give my students so I limit the chance of confusion, as well as working on my prompting for next week. I will also try and add in a bit more error correction in the breakout rooms to really help the students.
Week 10
Phew! Just like that, the practicum is complete. Honestly, it went by much quicker than expected. 10 weeks really isn’t that long when you think of it. 19%, not even a quarter of the year. I can honestly say that I learned a lot over that short time though. I’m sure if I could go back in time I would cringe to see how nervous and awkward I was. All of the meetings, lesson planning, preparing and teaching has allowed me to grow into a teacher and feel comfortable in that role. For the majority of the course, I felt a little lost and unsure. But now that we’re at the end, I can actually look back without looking forward as much. Before, when I thought about what I’ve done I could only think about what I had left to do. Now standing at the finish line I can actually see all that I’ve done.
Today’s lesson went pretty well. The students were a bit quiet but it was a fun class nevertheless. I think I was relaxed and was able to explain clearly- a feat that has been known to evade me. The students seemed to enjoy the activities planned and the feedback we received was positive. The most touching moment though was at the end when one of our students told Taylor and I how reassuring we are as teachers. It’s something I’ve never thought to describe a teacher as before but now I want every one of my future students to feel this way as well. Now that I am at the end, I need a new goal and I think that student helped me find it. Thank you.