...where PD, of course, stands for Professional Development, a part of the course which is not assessed and we don't necessarily need to pass, but the pressure to produce a good piece of work is there all the time...
So, here is a small summary of today's lessons, and considering how it was Monday, first day with a new class, new students coming to my afternoon class, and a long and tiring weekend on my shoulders (longer and almost more tiring than the whole week, but let's not talk about it), considering all this, I think I did quite well.
So, this is the first of many reflections which will be duly labelled as "Teaching Journal" - this is only an experiment, I plan to be more detailed and specific with a bit of time...
Monday 12th, AM LESSON – Level: S 3.2
The class is upper-intermediate and has been here for a week, with another teacher. The book used is Elevator, and the previous teacher hasn’t used it much (she didn’t like it). I had a quick look at it, but not very thorough. About 45 minutes before the beginning of the class, I decided what I wanted to teach, studied the unit in details, checked the first listening and decided that it wasn’t good, and made some alterations to the unit itself; I also prepared some back-up material in case the class was stronger than expected and I had time to fill in.
Being the first day I aimed at a general view and understanding of the level, including an evaluation of the type of students, in order to be able to create more specific lessons for the next three weeks (two of the three students will be here for a month).
The lesson went generally well, although the reading was probably a bit too scattered and unfocused, and so were the two language points following it, which I didn’t explore in depth (the first, compound nouns, had no explanation whatsoever and I had prepared extra material to cover the area properly, the grammar point about articles was not necessary as I noticed that that students could master articles pretty well – maybe we could do some quick revision later in the week, but spending more than 20 minutes on it would be unnecessary). The language point I presented wasn’t very clear, mostly because I hadn’t prepared it properly, and didn’t have it very clear in my mind – and the extra material for explanation wasn’t very helpful either. The speaking activity went very well and I was able to push the students for more language.
In the second part we did a quick listening, which followed and was followed by a speaking activity – the listening was half improvised but went well, although it was too easy for the class; I tend to blame the book in this case, as it seems to include very long listening with no specific language point and not very interesting either. The speaking activity that followed was from another book, and it was an activity that I had already practised with a previous class, so I was more prepared and could lead the discussion well.
Generally the lesson went well: the atmosphere was good, the students satisfied and cooperative, my performance, albeit based on improvisation, was good.
Negative aspects: improvising shouldn’t be the rule – I allow it only because it was the first day with the class, and because I was new with the book.
Action plan: study the book in depth, and prepare more thoroughly for the next lesson.
Monday, 12th, PM LESSON – Level: S 2
It’s a class I’ve had for three weeks, this is the fourth, and there was a new student. In total they were only 3, which made pair work impossible – I had to be part of the activity myself, although that was calculated beforehand.
The lesson was based on listening and speaking, the topic was food and lifestyle: the choice of the topic was based on being the first day with a new student, being the first day of the week, and it was well timed as the morning teacher had done body parts, which could be linked to my topic.
The listening was half improvised, as I realised that the two activities on the plan wouldn’t need a second listening (it was a very easy one again, as it came from an upper-intermediate book): therefore I stopped the tape to allow the students to compare the first part of the questions, before resuming the listening for the second part of the activity, before playing the recording one more time after they had compared, to revise vocabulary and warm up to the speaking.
The speaking went well although it was a bit repetitive, but on second thought it was useful as I could see that my student (who was doing the exercise with me) needed some help with the same questions that I had asked her before, so it was good revision of question forms, and conversation at the right level for all the class.
Generally the lesson went well, again because of a good atmosphere, and because I was more relaxed, being a class I’ve been with for a while.
Negative aspects: I should have listened to the whole recording beforehand (not just to a part of it); maybe I could have organised the listening activity in a different way to make it more challenging.
Action plan: prepare more thoroughly for the next lesson.
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