Teach English in KAiyuan - Zhumadian Shi

There has been so much in this course that I have found fascinating and thought provoking. The most striking change for me has been my desire to analyze the language that I encounter from day to day. I find myself dissecting phrases and contemplating the logic behind construction. I speak three languages and so I already had a less formal interest in etymology and sentence construction, it has been interesting to study these points in a manner that consolidates this interest. I have deliberately taken my time, researching, discussing with colleagues and trying to thoroughly understand the material within each unit. So in brief, I have gained a great deal of language knowledge, albeit just the tip of the iceberg. I am currently a Counselor in an American international school in egypt and so my duties include teaching Character Education classes. This has given me the opportunity to put many of the teaching points into action already. I have found that the ideas on the approach to planning lessons have been hugely successful. Particularly, I have had my students working in groups or pairs, as opposed to sometimes individually, consistently since being persuaded of the benefits of this method. Also, I now plan my lessons using the ESA format, which although it was something I was loosely speaking already doing, it has been helpful to define each stage so clearly. The biggest gain for me has been the understanding of the language material. As I have been teaching for many years I feel prepared and confident with classroom management, behaviour management, etc, but I was less confident with the grammar and verb tenses.