Week One -- DONE!

I had to teach . . . WAIT! Let's start over . . .

I got the opportunity to teach for 40 minutes on Thursday. Since our previous teaching experiences were only 20 minutes that was a fairly big jump requiring more preparation. And, because this is a learning experience the idea is that we might be applying what we are learning. Now there's a thought, right?!

Sooooo . . . I sat down to teach part of the lesson. My previous training would have frowned on that one because a standing teacher is a teacher in control of her classroom and visible to all. But in CELTA you're encouraged to at least try sitting in order to make you more comfortable (and possibly projecting less stress to your class) and allow for you to be eye to eye with the students.

I learned and applied and now have a better understanding of that classroom management technique. Yea!

Another lesson I tried to apply was actually correcting pronunciation. Now that's a hard one for me. I know that the students want to speak the way other Americans speak. I know that's why they are there. But the Southerner in me only wants to correct their first attempt. If they don't get it right after that, I feel embarrassed for them and don't want to keep pushing. Not exactly a great line of thinking when it's an English class!

So I corrected! And corrected! And, if needed, I did it again. We shaped our mouths into the right shape. We highlighted the hard part. We tried. One or two made it to much better pronunciation. Some didn't get there. And . . . this is big so pay attention . . . I didn't say "Good" if they didn't! My previous training as a trainer said to affirm any response from a student. But that doesn't mean saying they are right when they aren't. I sometimes get that mixed up and say "Great!" when the effort really isn't great. After a few, "Not quite there yet but we'll work on it" lines from me, I began to think this learning stuff might be working on me.

When our instructor gave us our evaluations, I discovered yet another thing I was going to have to unlearn. "Echoing." Again, my early training said if a student responded we should repeat the response so the class could hear. Not a bad idea, right? Especially in a classroom like ours with an air conditioner fan blowing fairly loudly every few minutes. Wrong! We aren't supposed to echo their response. We're just adding to what they call the Teacher Talk Time. In a class where the students are supposed to be learning English, it seems the CELTA folks think it's a good idea for them to actually get to speak English . . . and maybe even more than the teacher! Who would have thought!

So I'm learning that I have to unlearn.

I once threatened to get a line of T-shirts printed that simply read:
"Wow Bow!" -- Old Dog

If I had the shirt, I would have to wear it now because it pretty much conveys my hopes for the next few weeks: I can learn a few new tricks. I know I can.