027 Sample Videos

http://celtacourse.wikispaces.com/Speaking+Sample+Interviews

so yeah ive been very busy recently and for that recent my blogs have beeb very sparse.  I thought in this post I would post the last assignment i had to hand in for my celta course. it is supposed to be my feeling about my strengths and weaknesses etc.  not only does it sort of some up the shitty work they make me do it does also give some sort of indication of the pressure i felt i have been under over the recent period.

Introduction

Throughout this course I have grown in many ways.  This said there are still several things I need to work on.  Two areas in which I think I have grown stronger are lesson planning and language in context. However I am still weak at my classroom management and keeping to the receptive skills blueprints.

Strength One

 In my first lessons my lesson plans were not very detailed.  I had too many aims and not enough information in my Language Analysis sheet.  This was evident in TP2 in which I think my lesson would have really benefited if I had predicted difficult vocabulary and put it into my lesson plan. TP3 was not much better. TP3 was also unsuccessful and I think that one reason for this was due to the fact that I had not included actual timelines, rules and meaning check questions in my Language Analysis sheet.  

Strength two

 Language in context was a really big problem for me at the start of the course.  I was completely unfamiliar with grammar let alone teaching it and I thought I would never get my head around it.  This became poignant in TP3 where I really let myself down.  As addressed earlier it was unsuccessful.  I believe that it was unsuccessful not merely because my lesson planning was poor but also because I did not teach the language in context.  I did not properly show the students the target language ‘in action’ and this meant that I failed to create the necessary grounds to clarify the meaning of the grammar item.

 I finally got to grips with language in context in TP7, where I braved grammar for a second time.  Although it was not a flawless lesson, I was able to use the target context as a means to help the students tackle the grammar item.  This was a real break through for me.   I had managed to prove to myself that, even though I had not had the same experience as some of the other teacher trainers on the course, I was able to contextualise the grammar I wanted to teach. 

 I think that observing the language in context in both the live teaching and the video recordings helped me to come to grips with this style of teaching.  The first observation class I watched particular impressed me.  The teacher used a story about himself to springboard the lesson into a grammar lesson. He seemed to make the transition so swift that it did not affect the mood of the class, by which I mean, he avoided the fear factor that can be associated with the learning of grammar items. 

 Weakness one

 There are definitely areas that I feel I am still weak at.  My transition from the upper intermediate to the pre intermediate was not very smooth.  I let myself slip and I was extremely demotivated by this.  I felt as if I was taking one step forward to take ten steps back and this was a real struggle for me to get passed.  In particular my class room management dropped.  Whilst in the upper intermediate class I felt my classroom presence was strong, in the pre intermediate class my feelings changed.  This was obvious in TP7.  Planning wise the lesson could have been a great lesson, but I let my nerves get the better of me due to my blow in confidence.  This meant that where I needed to be strong and affirmative in my instructions I was not. Evidence of this could be seen when I was carrying out instructions for the classroom game.  Due to poor classroom management I completely failed to create the snappy fun game that I wished to, instead the activity was lifeless and slightly boring with students becoming disinterested.  I think there are many ways in which I can try and improve my classroom management and I hope by my last lesson to have really improved on it.  In hindsight I would have set teams up so that the students could scaffold each other.  I would have also used my script from my lesson plan more advantageously to make sure that my instructions were clear and to the point. 

I have seen evidence of good classroom practice in my observations and this should help me to pursue my aim to get better at it.  In one of the classes we watched, the teacher presented herself as a true mentor to the students, she was firm fair and consistent. I think because of this she earned the trust of the students, which is exactly what I aim to do in the future.  I have also found a site online which I think will help me in the future: http://www.theteachersguide.com/ClassManagement.htm. 

Weakness two

Another area where I am weak is my consistency at keeping to the blueprint.  In TP3 I provided a brilliant listening blueprint.  I was certain that I had fully understood the layout of a receptive skills lesson.  However, in TP6 I had my worst lesson.  I completely failed to meet the receptive skills blueprint and my grading of the task level was appalling.  I completely broke down and thought I was never going to come back from it.  For that stage in the course my lesson was extremely weak and I had not properly distinguished between TAVI and TALO. 

This slip in my receptive skills blueprint is something I am not happy with and I wish to put it behind me by correcting it rapidly.  I will do this by observing more receptive skills lesson videos oncelta.wikispaces.com or youtube.com.  I will also take heed from the criticism on my feed back form. I need to learn to contextualise my receptive lessons in the same way I have learnt to in my grammar lessons.  I need to make sure I have the blueprint in front of me when planning my lessons and be certain not to stray away from it.  I further need to make sure my tasks are suitable for the texts that I am using.  I believe if I follow this advice I will be able to overcome this challenge and become the teacher I want to be.

 Developing my ELT Knowledge

Finally, to develop my ELT knowledge and skills beyond this point I will look at the Internet further and make use of the resources I have been provided with throughout the CELTA course, such as thecelta.wikispace.com and the youtube.com links.  I have also come across many textbooks and other Internet sites that I am sure will benefit me.  For example I found the essay by Grellet and sites such as https://www.esl101.com/ and http://www.britishcouncil.org/ especially useful.  

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