#fabianolima

[building-knowledge-blog]

Is there a line to be crossed in our first class?

This text is a sort of reflection about one of my English teaching experience when I become the teacher of the extension group at UFPB. Generally, it’s believed that you’d just understand, or know what is to become a teacher when you have got students’ group(s) of your own. I’m not a hundred per cent sure if things go like.

During my under graduation course I used to imagine how it would be when finally get an English group to teach, spending a quite long time modelling behaviour, based on some teacher and professors who inspired me, fantasying about situations, and foreseeing what it would look like. Besides, I got involved with projects and had experienced the internships very successfully, until one day it finally happened, I discovered I was going to teach a group of students.

Everything was so hurried up, and there were mingle thoughts running up my mind like “Oh my God, I’m so happy,” and “What the wreck I’m gonna do now?”, also “I am a ‘real’ teacher now,” because at the moment everything would be different, as if I’d always studied for that specific moment. Besides, lots of ‘if’ questions popped in my head “if they (students) don’t like me?”, or “if they don’t understand me,” were some examples of them.

I spent that whole weekend planning my first class/moments in class, because I had some important aspects to consider so far: there was large group of students, around 26, they had no book, the classroom was a bit small (at that point I already knew where classroom was).

Monday finally arrived, and I was very nervous. I got very early in the room to organise every little detail I’d thought and written in my lesson plan. It officially started at 5:35 pm, right after the tutor introduced the project and programme.

When I started teaching the most remarkable things I can remember were my legs and voice shaking so much. After a few minutes everything got so much better, because I didn’t feel like I was in a strange place, in fact, it was quite familiar. So, I tried things like pairing them differently, asking to stand up and sit down (several times, by the way), explaining about elements of introduction. I could notice that students were involved and supportive.

When I got home I was so happy with the result of the first class, and I started reflecting about my place as teacher: did I finally cross that (imaginary) line of being a teacher? After some time thinking about it I concluded I had already crossed that “line” way before my first class.

I realised that I had other important experiences that immensely helped me in my first day like the projects I was in and my internships. In my opinion, there’s no a real line to be trespassed when it comes to be a teacher or not, because it is all a matter of feeling like one or not. Now I question what kind of experiences have you had to feel like a teacher?

[building-knowledge-blog]

How was your first English class experience?

Come on, share it with us.

[building-knowledge-blog]

A reflection about co-working perspective in schools.

The article named “My classroom: China*,” written by Rebekah Gordon, and published by the ‘English Teaching Forum’ introduces two high-school teachers and some of their professional challenges and what strategies they have adopted as a way of improving their class and student’s skills. As a matter fact, the English teaching method and approach have never been set in stones, and their importance are widely recognised on teaching and learning process.

As a constitution of a process, especially in the English learning and teaching one, there are many elements that come together in order to promote efficiency and effectiveness such as studying a language within cultural and historical aspects, planning lessons, developing the students’ four language skills (listening, writing, reading and speaking), dealing with time and so forth. Indeed, most of the time teachers tend to consider what went well and what did not work so well, and what was a total catastrophe.

In the article, the teachers explain that they were the first pattern to give lessons together in this co-operative perspective as a way of improving their own teaching skills. Observing one another’s class, discussing about their own experiences and difficulties, planning classes together are some of the strategies they have been applying.  

However, the self-reflective practice on the process, in which teachers have the chance to understand what can be improved, applied, discarded, or adjusted in their class, usually is not part of some teachers’ plans. Perhaps, if it is a small school there is a single English teacher who works in at least two schools for meeting schedule. Or possibly if it is a big one there are two English teachers that work in different shifts.

I think that the adoption of this perspective public regular schools, especially in João Pessoa, could solve a meaningful amount of teaching problems and difficulties for both preservice and in-service teachers, not only because of performance in class, but also because in that way both could analyse the local demanding and news ways of dealing with them.

* https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/etf_54_1_pg39-42.pdf