Blue & Yellow Post

Week 3 TESOL Log on Deficiencies May 26, 2010

Posted by Liz Mead in : TESOL , trackback

Captains Log – 3rd week out from port – lost sight of the Isle of Tesol, confirming we packed the right navigation charts! Checked supplies today, Cook tells me we’re low on fresh fruit. Unless we can pull into one of the Islands, I fear the crew will come down with Scurvy.

3rd week into my TESOL (Teaching English as a second language) course, and I’m noticing – like one would notice a skin condition – my own failings in the classroom.

I have an unsettling emotional reaction to negative feedback
I don’t read carefully
I don’t listen properly and
I use information for humour, sometimes without considering the implications.

I’m getting the impression my condition is fairly skin-deep, and certainly doesn’t bode well for the course I’ve set myself – to being an effective teacher!

As soon as I had the insight it didn’t take me long to slip into my default position of “I give up! I knew I’d never be a teacher!”.

After this rigorous audit and decision making process however I take a deep breath and re-evaluate my options.

I could turn those weaknesses into strength and fix my condition with the very things I think are weaknesses. Who better to understand a learning process that one who doesn’t learn as quickly as others.

I settle on the antidote:

a good dose of thicker skin for myself whilst learning the art of giving good feedback
give students plenty of time to read, then read again
repeat things in a number of ways and check comprehension as you go and
realise humour is relevant and or useful sometimes but no-one expects teachers to be entertainers as well!

Lift anchor, as I have enough supplies to get back on course.

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