Teach English in Jianggang Zhen - Yancheng Shi

All careers have a learning curve but teaching is one that has a difficult beginning for the people taking the path of teaching in foreign countries. As mentioned in some of the units of this TEFL course, it is inevitable to encounter huge cultural gaps that makes some people have very hard times or even lead them to quit; and not only that but multiple difficulties that go as far as survival matters like, trying to build good rapport with local coworkers for better working experiences, finding people willing to help with daily routines that a person can normally do by its own without thinking too much about it (like getting food, or taking transportation), but in another country it turns into something not so obvious at the beginning and might affect a teachers performance. When going through the learning process of this career it is definitely important to take a course like this, because it becomes a guide in many aspects as it addresses not only teaching matters that will improve a teacher’s professionalism, but tips and important suggestions that can help avoid bad situations. From a personal point of view and experience, I came through many of the difficulties that are mention through the units; problems like how to control kids when language is the main barrier, how to lead different classes when age differences can be so great that having one methodology is not enough nor healthy for the teacher and the students, and also dealing with lack of interest or problematic students. In addition, matters as how to be a good teacher, preparation of class plans to follow but having the ability to adapt in case the lesson doesn’t go as planned, preparing material for a class and ways to get it to make a lesson more appealing to the students, etc. Most of these problems I encountered at some point and had to live through the experience; knowing the problems in advance by taking a course like this gave me some confidence and knowledge of how to deal with them, but it was ultimately going through the process that helped me growing into a better teacher. After almost a year teaching in a foreign country, there are things that are still difficult, and others that allow a great room for improvement. Going through the YL course made me realized I was committing many of the mistakes mention. Mistakes like not having a lesson plan for most classes because even though the school asks the teachers to make one for each class, the program has everything needed to teach every lesson; this also led me to take a lazy attitude towards the classes in a way that I would never try to go the extra mile to make it more interesting or try to get material that the students would find more interesting or at least less monotonous than the general material supplied by the school and the program. For the students, having and energetic and friendly teacher is good for keeping their interest in taking the course; but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are learning as much as intended. Counting with the experience I gather through a year and seeing how some students fail to keep up with the class or just follow the class out of obligation but not retaining the information, made me wonder what was I lacking of as a teacher. Going through the course and finding that some of the things I was doing were wrong, or at least not the best approach, makes me want to reconsider the way to prepare my lessons. But I consider that it is only through the experience I have been through, that taking this course was more meaningful and enlightening than taking it before. In all, being a teacher and becoming a good one is a constant process that I consider is achieved by preparing to be one, going through the experience, but always be on the look for information and courses of more experienced people that can help one’s career grow in the right direction. At the end it is only through the progress the students make that a teacher can evaluate if he is doing the right things for them.