Fabulous Friday

I had such a tender mercy today. My minor is TESOL, but I've been questioning whether I really like it and can do it and do it for a long time...and those questions are still valid, but today helped. In my teaching methods in TESOL class, we had to teach just for 10 minutes, but to actual students from the ELC. I was assigned to teach today, but I had a really hard time deciding what to teach. I figured if I could come up with that, teaching wouldn't be too bad. I finally decided maybe talking about prefixes would be good, but I really didn't know how well it would work. How much do they know about prefixes? Is this level appropriate? I know their level, but what the heck does that even mean? Last night I prepared and felt okay, but still really unsure. This morning I felt so much anxiety. It was a hard morning. Finally it was time. There were three of us teaching our little group that day (the class was divided into 4 sections and we taught at different white boards). I was the last to go, so I had to sit through theirs...I was kind of worried, because the students weren't talking a whole lot, but in some ways they didn't have a chance, plus they also were shy to begin with I think. So I finally got to teach and it went fairly well, but I still wasn't really sure if I was being clear or if it was helpful. They knew what a prefix was, but I'm pretty sure they didn't know what most of them meant. One of them took notes. They talked a lot more, because I asked them to brainstorm words that began with whatever prefix we were talking about. I was really impressed with some of the words they came up with.

After, I told one of the other teachers she did well and she commented to me that the students seemed to really enjoy mine, that it actually meant something to them, as they kept thinking of new words and such. I realized she was right. They got kind of excited as they asked me questions and clarified points. So I felt pretty good.

As I walked down the hall after class, my "class" caught up to me and asked me if I wanted to teach. I said that was the plan eventually. She asked again though, and then I realized she wanted me to teach her. I figured maybe she'd like a tutor or study buddy type thing, but then she was asking what I wanted to teach them. I ended up telling her that I don't know much about teaching yet, and I don't know what to teach yet, but I would be able to meet with her and the others sometime if that would help them. She told me that she thought I'd be a good teacher.

Anyway, that was a really long way of saying I must have done alright. I think it was helpful to choose something that wasn't too easy, so it was new to them. Pushed them a little. But the point of all this is that I was really grateful to get some good feedback. I'm not quite as terrified by the concept of actually teaching English as I was before. And this post is way longer than I intended and I'm not actually expressing everything how I would like, but I think I'll end anyway. Happy Friday!