TESL 0170 Practicum - Self Evaluation

During my ten hours of teaching, I learned a lot about myself, my strengths, areas where I can improve upon and overall where I want to see myself in the future. To start, I think some of my strengths lie in building rapport with students, time management, and breaking down material so that it is easy to comprehend.

Strengths:

After observing my practicum teacher develop a close relationship with his students, it inspired me to do the same; having students that trust you and feel comfortable is essential to creating a positive learning environment. Therefore, I worked at creating those connections with my students. I made an effort to learn their names and talk with them one-on-one to learn about their interests, where they are from, and their strengths. I’d do this during group discussions, during breaks or after classes. I wanted them to feel important and to feel that they could come to me openly if they ever had any questions.

I also discovered that I am able to manage my time effectively. Although I have very little experience lesson planning, let alone actually teaching a lesson, I found that I was able to stick to my lesson plan schedule and often had a little extra time afterwards. During those times, I always had an extra filler activity up my sleeve; usually something fun for the students to do. Hangman was one such activity which the students really seemed to enjoy!

For my teaching practicum I had to teach a unit on banking, a topic that was full of dense and somewhat uninteresting material. Initially this really intimidated me because I was worried I would not be able to explain the content in a way that the students would fully grasp. However, I had several students comment later on that they found my explanations easy to understand. Their ability to understand the content later was reflected in the review activities, where they performed all performed very well.

Areas of Improvement:

However, after these ten hours of teaching, I have also discovered some areas which I would like to work on in the future. To start, I find that I am not the best under pressure, and so when a lesson doesn’t go as planned, I can get flustered. I hope to work on this by preparing better alternative activities and resources for my classes so that even if something does not according to plan I will be ready. I also feel that this is a skill that I will become better at with more experience.

Another area I’d like to improve upon is my use of error correction. This was something my practicum instructor pointed out early on; I tended to give answers directly to students without letting them work the answers out themselves. I did manage to incorporate some error correction strategies later on, but it is still a knee-jerk reaction for me to simply give the answer to the student.

Future Plans:

In the near future, I hope to gain some more teaching experience by volunteering at English Language Schools, University Club activities, or any place that will allow me to hone my skills. I have one more TESL course to take before I can obtain my certification, so I hope to fill my time volunteering until then. Once I receive my certificate, I hope to teach English overseas, specifically in Japan. I have worked there before and would love to return. I plan on applying for the JET Programme in the Fall, as well as apply to work for AEON, a large company that operates English school throughout Japan.

Student Evaluations:

Overall, I received very positive reviews from my students. They all remarked that they understood the content of my lessons and commented that they enjoyed them; they especially enjoyed my Kahoot! Vocabulary reviews. They also offered some valuable suggestions which I will make note of and incorporate into my future lessons. A few students suggested having more group discussions and role plays, which I agree would give them even more opportunities to practice their speaking. One student also suggested having take-home assignments for extra practice. Lastly, one students suggested that I give out handouts to fill as I go over definitions.