StrengthsGetting feedback after my TPs reallygave me insight into the ways in which I can develop my teaching skills. I alsodiscovered my strengths and after my 3rd TP I felt more comfortable andconfident in the classroom. According to my tutor in written feedback, one ofmy greatest strengths shown was monitoring and I was able to do active andsupportive monitoring during tasks. I believe this is an important aspect ofteaching because a good teacher should know whether the students caneffectively carry out the tasks or not thus giving appropriate feedback aftertasks. Another strength that was mentioned by my tutor and my peers was that Ihad good rapport and could provide opportunities for students to get involved.

The students were engaged and interested. Also, as evidenced in my tutor’sfeedback, I can anticipate problems before my lessons and think of practical solutionsto overcome them. DevelopmentalNeeds and Action PointsThere are many areas that I need tofocus on.

First, I need to work more carefully on how I sequence the stages andthink thoroughly how I will do things in class by working more on the details.This will make it easier for me to follow my plan during the lesson. I believesetting clear tasks for the students and planning what I will say or do before,during and after each stage of the lesson can help me improve in this area.

I also believe that I should keepworking on instructions by making them well staged and clear. I can improve inthis area by setting clear aims for each task and in the last stage of thecourse I intend to think of the procedures in my lesson plans thoroughly and include in more efficient ICQs to helpme keep tasks clear for the students.Another area I need to improve on isbringing in variety with regrouping and movement in class.

I intend to make useof more types of  interactions in my nextlessons so that students will stay focused and all students including the weaker ones may have a chance to get involvedin tasks. I also believe I can exploit the contextmore efficiently if I use the white board more effectively and make use ofproper visuals and use PPT with the OHP to get students more engaged. I believe constructive criticism isinvaluable for a developing teacher. I am definitely going to miss receivingfeedback after each lesson once I start teaching in another environment and Iwill try to take every opportunity I can to be observed by my more experiencedcolleagues and to observe them.

 SummaryDuring the course,         I have learned that student centeredteaching is far more effective. I have also learned that building rapport withstudents is one of the biggest keys to become a good teacher. A good teachershould be able to encourage students by enabling them to learn in a studentcentered way rather than keeping the lesson teacher centered and not givingstudents much chance to speak and improve their language skills. Before taking the course, I used to thinkthat it is a teacher’s job to explain everything. I discovered that this was awrong approach and eliciting information from the students is the best way toengage them in the lesson. A student centered approach makes students moreconfident and helps a teacher build rapport as well.I have found out that receivingconstructive feedback is one of the most important opportunities for me todevelop my teaching skills.

I learnt a lot from my tutors and my peers.I have learned the importance ofeffective time management and developed the habit of  considering the ways time could have beensaved after each lesson. Another thing I have learned over the duration of thecourse is that we should not feed students answers, instead we must let themlearn from their mistakes and correct their errors in a productive way.Observing my tutors and peers gave me lots of inspirationand ideas on my journey to become a better teacher. Plans for Post-Course DevelopmentA good teacher never stops learning andI have many ideas on how to become one.

I intend to start improving myselfbeyond the course by reading as many books as I can on teaching skills. A fewbooks I plan to read are Teach Efl byDavid Riddell, Essential TeacherKnowledge by Jeremy Harmer and How toTeach Pronounciation by Gerald Kelly. I will also try to observe myexperienced colleagues whenever I get the opportunity to improve myselffurther.Over the duration of the course Idiscovered the importance of effective lesson planning, so I intend to developmy lesson planning skills and create a portfolio of  my lesson plans to keep my work organized.

I believe body language is anotherimportant aspect of teaching and I found that a good way of maintaining apositive body language is being aware of my personal gestures. So I plan torecord a few of my lessons in the future and watch them to improve my bodylanguage in the classroom.Lastly, over the long run I intend togain experience in teaching in a multilingual environment abroad and before movingon to that I would like to apply for a Delta course after having 2 years ofexperience in teaching.