Things are getting crazy here for me here in Japan. Work has exploded recently – offers are coming in from everywhere.
On top of that, Japan has taking every possible precaution against the swine flu – my local university was closed for a week after a student contracted a very mild form of the disease. As an extra measure, people everywhere are wearing those face masks that – as far as I can tell – have no practical effect at all.
The second year of teaching
Back to teaching, though. I wrote some time ago about the common adage that one’s first year as a teacher is the most difficult. Well, the second year has certainly kicked off with a bang. My teaching hours have almost doubled over the last few weeks, which means preparation time has skyrocketed too.
I now have an even greater variety of students, too, with businessmen, university students, recreational learners and other more random categories of learners, taking classes with yours truly.
The benefits of variation
I like the thrill of a challenge, and there’s a lot to be learnt by teaching a variety of students. It’s always wise to keep a cool head, though, and remember what your goals are as a teacher instead of getting bogged down in methodology and professional practice.
The goals, then:
1. Help people to learn English
Some useful advice
I’ve also picked up some useful bits of advice/information recently that I’d like to share with you.
- Try not to digress too much in lessons – sub-topics come up all the time, especially when looking at new vocabulary. Focus on the aims of the lesson rather than meandering.
- Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know – I was recently stumped by a grammatical question in the lesson – a relatively simple question, at that, which made it more embarrassing. However, it’s good practice to admit you don’t know and offer to explain the term after doing some research.
- Pairs/teams shouldn’t always consist of the same people. Students have a tendency to stick together, but it makes for a better class atmosphere if you pair people with new partners when doing tasks, or even encourage people to swap seats every lesson.
That’s the latest from Ben’s crazy world of TEFL. Check back soon for tips on planning lessons properly.
I taught for ten years in Thailand and I enjoyed it so much. it can be a problem sometimes dealing with the in school politics, about 7 years ago they mentioned that teachers would be screen in Thailand. But it never happened. Still would be advisable for anyone going to teach to get a police check done to take with you.
In Thailand the kids are great, and the parent really care about their child’s education. biggest down fall. you are not allow to fail a student.
But that made me in some ways a better teacher. because i would work even harder to get my weaker students to pass. So Not to give away a free pass.