Nic-CO3

Today I observed Felicia Ciappetta’s Grammar class. Today’s lesson was on adjective and adverb clauses. I actually had forgotten what these were, so it was a good reminder lesson for me. To start the class, she began with a 15 minute handout. This gave her time to prepare for the rest of the lesson, as well as write the agenda for the day on the board.

After this, she gave them a handout where you had to complete the phrases with an adjective clause (For example, Bill Clinton is the man… What did he do? Bill Clinton is the man who was the former President of the U.S.). She split the class up by calling out A/B/A/B. The students had to find a partner who was the opposite letter of them. I liked this method because there didn’t have to be a lot of shuffling around the room, but it still managed students getting somewhat out of their comfort zone (for example, there was only one student in the table I was at, so she paired up with a student from another table). I could tell she cared about the students, and she laughed with them. One of the students confused Michael Jackson and Mike Tyson, he was making boxing gestures while singing “Beat It”. We were both amused at this cultural error, and after she explained it, the students laughed as well.

The class went by fast. She had plenty to do, which I thought was great (better to have too much than not enough). She ended the class with error correction (e.g. John Doe will has homework today). At the end, she collected and stapled everyone’s homework and said goodbye.

Nic-CO2 Teaching Tips from Ryan

Yesterday, I observed Ryan Fleming’s upper-level listening class. It was an interesting class--the lesson for today was to review the steps of effective listening (Pre-Listening, Listening, and Post-Listening). Once Ryan made sure everyone understood these concepts, he used this to get a better understanding of a speech presented at TED by Matthew Childs.

Ryan did several things that were effective from a teacher’s perspective. If a student asked a question, he would repeat it back to them, to give them a chance to hear what they said (especially effective, given this is a listening class). If they didn’t give him a response in a complete sentence, he would ask them to say it again.

I asked him a few questions about the class, and he said that I could share these teaching tips with the rest of the TEFL class:

Advice for rising teachers: the two areas I've grown the most in are my knowledge and application of discrete grammar points and my ability to plan for and manage the classroom experience. In spite of my theoretical training at FSU, I was unskilled in both these areas - thus I went through a lot of trial and error. Most teachers at CIES seem to be put through the same fires of testing early on; perhaps you'll grow in these areas immediately as well. So, I guess the advice is: keep the periods of perceived failure in perspective - with consistent effort you'll gain the skills needed to be a strong teacher of English.

The most difficult part of teaching: Using my time wisely outside of the classroom, giving enough time to grading and planning. The hours before class begins seems to fly by; I'd prefer to not keep my students waiting forever for feedback, but it's impossible for teachers to have a "finals week" cram session every day...

The most rewarding part of teaching: working face to face with students, helping them to realize their specific areas to improve, noticing with them the improvements they've made over time, and the adventure I feel by meeting and making personal connections with people from all over the world - right here in Tallahassee.