learn
Throughout the program I had multiple occasions to discover and fully realize that one of the key characteristics of teachers who develop professionally is their curiosity about teaching and learning. They would ask questions such as: Why were the students more/less attentive today? Was it related to something I did? What does it mean to me know? These teachers are continually learning.
The courses, the teaching practice, and the articles which I read helped me develop strategies that lead to my continuous learning. These strategies include the ability to:
reflect on my teaching explore my teaching analyze my beliefs theorize my practice |
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” |
Reflecting on teaching
Practice Teaching - APLNG 500
During my teaching practice at the IECP (Intensive English Communication Program) I had the opportunity to teach academic writing to a group of undergraduate students. Even though before beginning the program I taught English to adult learners in Poland, this experience was different. I was not only gathering more teaching experiences, but also reflecting on those experiences. Engaging in reflection allowed me to become aware of certain patterns in my teaching. For instance, I realized that I often try to follow the lesson plan even if students would benefit from an additional activity which I initially did not plan to complete with them. This new awareness helped me become more flexible during my classes. I understood that following a lesson plan is not always the best for students' learning. It might give me a false sense that the lesson is progressing smoothly but, in fact, it might not be fully benefitting students. Having gained this awareness, I was more responsive to the students’ needs during our classes. For instance, when I noticed that the students needed more practice with a given language structure, I was ready to provideit even if I had not planned for it initially. Reflection has become one of the key strategies that I regularly engage in to grow professionally. |
We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.
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Exploring my teaching
Focus on English - APLNG 802
One of the tasks in class 802 was to record a tutoring session and analyze students' pronunciation. Having recorded the lesson, I listened to it and discovered something that I had not realized before. Both audio clips (open and open_4) provide evidence that I corrected my tutee's pronunciation of diphthongs in words such as “open” or “both” by providing the right pronunciation. In other words, I did not give my tutee any opportunity to self-correct; instead, I immediately provided the correct answer. As a result, my tutee kept making the same mistakes. Having listened to the recorded session, I noticed behavior which I was not aware of before. I decided to change my approach towards my pronunciation instruction. In the next session, I elicited the correct pronunciation from my tutee and now he remembers it well. This experience showed me that when I am involved in the activity of teaching, I am not fully aware of each decision which I make. If I am not aware of it, I cannot decide whether it contributes to students' learning or not. Audio-recording the tutoring session proved to be a useful method which can help me raise my teaching awareness. |
Much of what happens in teaching is unknown to the teacher.
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Analyzing my beliefs
Theory and Research in L2 Teacher Education APLNG 587
This course showed me that teaching is so much more than selecting activities or methods and attempting to apply them in various contexts. It showed me that teaching is about students and teachers, and the experiences with which they come to class. It is about a process that emerges out of the interactions between the teacher and students. One of the key discoveries which I made during this class was that my teaching beliefs filter my perception and have impact on my decisions. I developed the above graphic after I read the words which are quoted on the right. Understanding the connections between beliefs, judgments, and behaviors allowed me to understand many of my beliefs. Having understood them, I could ask myself whether they contribute to students' learning or not. If they did not, I could replace them with new beliefs. |
“teachers’ beliefs influence both perception and judgment which, in turn, affects what teachers say and do in classrooms” |
Theorizing my practice
Exposed to a variety of articles from the TESL field I gradually noticed that I begin to view my practice of teaching through the theoretical concepts which I was reading about. One of such concepts was scaffolding. Having a theoretical understanding of what it means to scaffold a student's learning I gained deeper understanding of my teaching behaviors and decisions. Even though not much has changed in the actual activity of teaching, I felt more confident about my teaching, because it was informed by theory.
Various theoretical perspectives began to support my classroom decisions. For instance, I was taught in the past that as a teacher I should use only English in my lesson. Yet, I often used Polish when I felt that it could help students better understand a discussed concept. I used it strategically, but felt that I should not be doing that because of the "English only" mantra present in my head. In one of my classes, I read the article entitled "Reexamining English Only in the ESL Classroom" written by Elsa Auerbach. I understood the historical reasons which led to the emergence of this policy. Also, this article provided evidence that using the mother tongue is methodologically valid, which gave me confidence in using Polish in my language classes. I see the relationship between theory and practice as a dance of two equally important partners who complement one another. |