Tactics to Increase Teacher Confidence in an ESL Class
A teacher must be confident in the classroom so he or she can keep control over it and make sure that the students look up to him/her as an example for their English journey.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tatiana M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Knowing the subject
As a teacher, you have to know and understand clearly anything you are trying to teach to your students. This, apart from showing respect to your students, make the teacher feel confident about what is coming out of his/her mouth and the activities he/she decides to release in the classroom. It will make the teacher feel that the class has a purpose and that it is to communicate and share with the students your true knowledge about the subject.
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Preparing the class
This is probably one of the best ways to make sure that you can act with confidence during the class. When you know what is the next step in the class and you have control over it, even if is an activity that the students will direct you will know that it is in your schedule. Having an organized step by step of what is going to happen for the lesson can make you feel more comfortable that just arriving to improvise with a book to the classroom, the students will notice it and they will appreciate your effort. You will also know how to approach any difficulty that it might be during the lesson.
Being on time
This can be a very simple thing that can create a big difference in how your confidence develops during the class. Arriving on time can make you feel empowered from the beginning because it allows you to prepare the activities you plan previously, to check if the materials you need for the activities are available, in order and working to prevent surprises. This also can give you the chance to prepare the whiteboard so you will not lose time in it later in the class. And when your students arrive they will feel more confident that their teacher is there ready for a new class.
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Being patient with yourself
As a new teacher, you can not expect to have everything under control from the very first day, it will take some time to get used to it and some mistakes may happen during the lesson. Having your schedule set is important but if something happens outside of it do not be so hard to yourself and make sure that you have a notebook and pen to write down at the end of the class the things you think were missing from your teaching so it will not happen again in a future lesson. You are human and this is going to be a learning process for you as well.
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Know the student's needs
If you know the student's needs then you can make sure that your lesson plan is going to fulfill those needs, so the students will show more interest and they can feel more involved in the class. This is going to increase the students confidence in the teacher and for consequence, the teacher's confidence is going to increase as well when he/she sees the students interest and participation on the lesson that is being given to them it will make your feel that the work you put into preparing the class is worth it.
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