Tuesday, July 9, 2013

An English Teacher

It's been a year and half now that I've been teaching English as a foreign language. About two years ago I thought that I would want to be a teacher and considered looking into a Master's Program and the University of Minnesota. So I volunteered at an Italian middle school, and after two lessons I decided this was definitely not the job for me. Ironically only a year later I was back in Italy taking the TEFL course to get my certification to teach English. 

My first 6 months of teaching, were at a very small school with about 5 teachers, run by a guy in his 30's. The majority of my classes were conversation groups and I had only a few classes focused on grammar. It wasn't very serious, and my position didn't require any preparation. However I probably should've prepared and studied more, because despite being a native English speaker, it doesn't mean you know everything about your language. For example, one day I told my class there is absolutely no difference between using will or be going to for the future. Only later to find out that there is actually a big difference. 

Will  is used for predictions, promises, or decisions made in the moment. Be going to is used when something is already planned, organized, on your calendar. For example: The phone is ringing and your mom says " someone answer the phone!" and you say " Ok! I'll do it!" -- a decision made in that moment. Or: your friend invites you out for drinks tomorrow evening and you say " I'm sorry, I can't, I'm going to the cinema with my boyfriend" It's already been planned.  So having said there was no difference many of students were very confused and thought they had been taught a lie in every other English class, only later to probably find out that I was a terrible teacher who didn't know her material. 

I have learned however, that even if you really don't know the answer, as a teacher you can never say " I don't know" As soon as you say you don't know, you lose any trust with your students and they will question everything you say. So you must be convincing and sure of what you say. Which for me is difficult because I'm a big blusher. And as soon as I don't know something I blush, and I give myself away. 

So my first 6 months was an important learning period for me and I grew a lot as an English teacher. It was good to start at a school that wasn't very serious, with a few classes, to get my foot in the door, make mistakes, learn from them, and gain experience. 

However, come Autumn, it was time to find a teaching position at a better school that would offer me more hours, and pay better. So I went around to different schools and quickly found a new position at a much larger school that has been around for over 30 years. 

I began to teach children as well as adults, and was working all different levels. It was a good balance to work with all ages. The atmosphere was very different from the previous school, and I now had to prepare the majority of my lessons from scratch. Having to prepare lessons for various levels made me feel more confident and when students asked questions not related to the topic we were discussing I was able to answer them.

Teaching is great when you've taught a lesson and you know it went well. Your students understood you, they were interested, engaged, it was light hearted and they laughed. Or teaching can be really stressful and frustrating when you've prepared a lesson and you teach it and everyone leaves with a blank stare on their face and a headache. So you approach the topic at a different angle and they still don't get it. Then you question whether or not your'e a good teacher, you ask yourself what you're doing wrong, and you get disheartened. 

These past 15 months have been a huge learning curve, and I'm hoping that as I approach my 2nd year of teaching that I can only improve as a teacher and keep on improving. But in the meantime I can say that it has definitely been a challenging, exciting work experience. 

Followers