Linfen, China TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

This unit discusses the different roles of a teacher and what makes them good at it. It also describes the different levels of students that a teacher will interact with. A number of points are made describing what a good teacher should be and the types of roles that one will have to adapt. Any teacher needs to be patient and kind for it helps nobody to become frustrated with the students who are there to learn from you, and I highly agree that a teacher needs to love teaching. If you are not teaching because you love it, then why step foot in the classroom? Teachers need to motivate their students, and one way to help with that is being entertaining and having a good rapport with the class. Bored students will not absorb the information and leave the class feeling like they wasted their time. Any teacher needs to know their material as to be able to properly correct students when needed and help identify weaknesses for making progress. The best teachers make sure to involve all of their students in the lessons and give individual attention when the student requires it. A teacher needs to be a good manager, leading the class through the lesson each day without fail, but there are other ways to help the students learn. Organizing the students into activities is an excellent way for them to practice and work together, and one will need to be a good resource in creating these exercises. Teachers also need to assess the progress of their students to give feedback on how well they are doing and to grade their efforts. There are times students may become stuck trying to answer a question and this is when the teacher should prompt them by guiding them to discover it on their own and helping with the feeling of success. There are even times when participating in the lesson along with the students can inspire and liven up the lesson in a exciting way. Another role a teacher will become at times is that of a tutor, giving some one on one time to assist a student in their progress free of the classroom. Of course any teacher needs to be a good model for their students by speaking clearly and conversing openly to give them the chance to practice and improve verbally. Through all of this we teachers need to observe the class to determine how successful a lesson is and what parts may need to be expanded on, and what was an instant success. This unit also discusses the types of students a teacher may see in their classroom and what makes them good learners. First it depends on their age, each group providing their own challenges. Early teens are easily the most difficult since they are usually unmotivated and not wanting to take risks or challenge themselves. Now the kids between the ages of 8 and 12 are a different story since they are open to new sounds and typically eager to try new things. However children before that age, while having a shorter attention span, are generally easier to teach a new language to since they are still mastering their native tongue and their minds are still in that early learning stage. Any student that enters the classroom will have their own learning experiences, with adults having an idea of how a class should be handled, while younger students might not know what to expect. This can also affect their motivations for being in the class, since an adult will have chosen to be there while a child typically had the choice made for them. This makes the adult more motivated to learn having come for their own reasons. However adults will more likely be nervous about the experience and will need more encouragement in the process. Another difference between adults and children in this regard is how they learn. Adults will match the words of the new language with the one they already know, which can cause issues. Children, on the other hand, tend to absorb the new language as its intended and have less of a language barrier between the two. One plus to teaching adults is much fewer behavior problems than when dealing with younger students. This unit explained the different roles of the teacher, all of which I had studied before. This made it easier to understand the points being made and see how each of them can be used in the classroom. It did provide a definite refresher in the material and allowed me to see those connections once again. It also went on to explain the levels of students, based on age and experience, and while I had studied similar areas in regards to this before, it did place the context in a new area for me in regards to teaching a language as opposed to any other subject. All in all I felt this unit was a great review of the basics on teaching for me.