My 10 hours of teaching was a great learning experience for me as I discovered so much about myself as a teacher and came to know what my strengths are, what are the things I need to work upon.
My Strengths as a Teacher:
I think what I did really well was building rapport with the students. During my observation hours, I started interacting with them and they were really comfortable with me when I started teaching them. They were comfortable asking me questions and I quickly earned about their interests, their level and the way they want me to teach them. For example, some of the students in the class were quick to respond and some took time to think. So, learning about them helped me a lot while I was teaching and I think this is my biggest strength, making connections with the students and knowing them. Even on the last day of my teaching, students came to me to thank me and said that they enjoyed my class.
Also, another thing I discovered about myself is that I am good at preparing and presenting. I spend extra time every day preparing my lessons and going through the content so that when I am actually delivering it in front of the class, it should not seem like I am teaching it for the first time. Though I do not have much experience in the lesson planning, I think I did a very good job at preparation and planning. There were times when the time management became an issue but I was able to handle it well.
Also, I have a good command over the class. I make sure that students pay attention to me while I am teaching. I speak clearly and slow enough that students understand.
Areas for improvement:
I understand that I still have a lot to learn and improve. The most prominent thing that sponsor teacher pointed out and I also realized is that I have a tendency to provide the correct answer to the student right away. I need to learn and incorporate different techniques of error correction rather than providing the answer immediately. I also tried it in the last two lessons which worked fine but I can still improve upon it.
Another thing I need to work upon is introducing more activities in the classroom to make it interesting. The class that I taught in was very curriculum bound so the class teacher told me that there is not much we can change but still while teaching the content, introducing little activities make it interesting rather than teaching every day in the same way. For example, there were 2 reading chapters, first chapter, students did individually and but the second reading was done in the groups in the form of activity. So, I think I would need to learn these techniques.
Future Plans:
I plan to gain some more experience in teaching by doing volunteering so I am thinking to apply for volunteer opportunities after this course because I am working full-time right now. At the beginning of next year, I will be moving to Toronto so I hope to have good teaching experience by then so that I can start my teaching career there. I am inclined to teach EAP students.
My reflection on student’s evaluation:
Overall, the feedback from the students was really good and positive. They mentioned that they understood the lectures well and that also reflected in the class activities they were doing and their tests. All of them mentioned that I spoke clearly and most of them preferred the group activities over the individual work. One student suggested that there should be more activities in the class and they should be given more handouts to practice.
My Strengths as a Teacher:
I think what I did really well was building rapport with the students. During my observation hours, I started interacting with them and they were really comfortable with me when I started teaching them. They were comfortable asking me questions and I quickly earned about their interests, their level and the way they want me to teach them. For example, some of the students in the class were quick to respond and some took time to think. So, learning about them helped me a lot while I was teaching and I think this is my biggest strength, making connections with the students and knowing them. Even on the last day of my teaching, students came to me to thank me and said that they enjoyed my class.
Also, another thing I discovered about myself is that I am good at preparing and presenting. I spend extra time every day preparing my lessons and going through the content so that when I am actually delivering it in front of the class, it should not seem like I am teaching it for the first time. Though I do not have much experience in the lesson planning, I think I did a very good job at preparation and planning. There were times when the time management became an issue but I was able to handle it well.
Also, I have a good command over the class. I make sure that students pay attention to me while I am teaching. I speak clearly and slow enough that students understand.
Areas for improvement:
I understand that I still have a lot to learn and improve. The most prominent thing that sponsor teacher pointed out and I also realized is that I have a tendency to provide the correct answer to the student right away. I need to learn and incorporate different techniques of error correction rather than providing the answer immediately. I also tried it in the last two lessons which worked fine but I can still improve upon it.
Another thing I need to work upon is introducing more activities in the classroom to make it interesting. The class that I taught in was very curriculum bound so the class teacher told me that there is not much we can change but still while teaching the content, introducing little activities make it interesting rather than teaching every day in the same way. For example, there were 2 reading chapters, first chapter, students did individually and but the second reading was done in the groups in the form of activity. So, I think I would need to learn these techniques.
Future Plans:
I plan to gain some more experience in teaching by doing volunteering so I am thinking to apply for volunteer opportunities after this course because I am working full-time right now. At the beginning of next year, I will be moving to Toronto so I hope to have good teaching experience by then so that I can start my teaching career there. I am inclined to teach EAP students.
My reflection on student’s evaluation:
Overall, the feedback from the students was really good and positive. They mentioned that they understood the lectures well and that also reflected in the class activities they were doing and their tests. All of them mentioned that I spoke clearly and most of them preferred the group activities over the individual work. One student suggested that there should be more activities in the class and they should be given more handouts to practice.
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