Being with people was always important for me. I can't imagine myself workplace where my responsibility are limited to paperwork or some repetitive actions. I have chosen a profession carefully because I was hoping for a lot of interaction with groups and students. But what surprised be a lot was how intense and important are relations among teachers!
CO-TEACHING
OXFORD INTERNATIONAL
Last summer during my contract at Oxford International I was able to experience co-teaching in practice. Each group during the summer school had 2 lessons every day with 2 different co-teachers. My first co-teacher was Effie, an EFL teacher from Greece. For 2 weeks we taught groups on pre-intermediate level. It was great to have a person with whom I can share my doubts about lesson plans or students' behaviour.
The biggest challenge we've faced was a group formed by half-half Italian and Chinese teens. They were really antagonistic to each other and didn't want to work in mixed pair or groups. Lessons were sometimes impossible to conduce, because students were sitting in silence! For the sake of learning process our goal was to plan their work in a way that they always work with a person from different country. Unfortunately in this group it was really impossible. Together with Effie we discussed lots of strategies and activities ideas, but they all failed one after another. By the end of their course we decided that the best strategy for this group is... let them work inside their national teams! It was a risk from our perspective, but we wanted to give it a try. How shocked we were when it worked out! Students were so against the idea of working with friends from another culture, that eventually they started to be engaged only when the stress was reduced. It was an important lesson for me and Effie and we've learnt that good solutions are these solutions, which are beneficial for the students and not these which we can find in academic books.
OXFORD INTERNATIONAL
Last summer during my contract at Oxford International I was able to experience co-teaching in practice. Each group during the summer school had 2 lessons every day with 2 different co-teachers. My first co-teacher was Effie, an EFL teacher from Greece. For 2 weeks we taught groups on pre-intermediate level. It was great to have a person with whom I can share my doubts about lesson plans or students' behaviour.
The biggest challenge we've faced was a group formed by half-half Italian and Chinese teens. They were really antagonistic to each other and didn't want to work in mixed pair or groups. Lessons were sometimes impossible to conduce, because students were sitting in silence! For the sake of learning process our goal was to plan their work in a way that they always work with a person from different country. Unfortunately in this group it was really impossible. Together with Effie we discussed lots of strategies and activities ideas, but they all failed one after another. By the end of their course we decided that the best strategy for this group is... let them work inside their national teams! It was a risk from our perspective, but we wanted to give it a try. How shocked we were when it worked out! Students were so against the idea of working with friends from another culture, that eventually they started to be engaged only when the stress was reduced. It was an important lesson for me and Effie and we've learnt that good solutions are these solutions, which are beneficial for the students and not these which we can find in academic books.
Remaining 2 weeks I worked with Diana, Italian room teacher for primary students with British roots and passport. We taught 3 different levels at the same time - elementary, pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate. Our DOS told us that he paired us purposely, as two strong personalities with big experience in work with YL. We were given the most mysterious groups - small elementary group formed by 15/16 years old Japanese boys and much younger (10/11 years old) mixed gender students from Palestine. Their level although both elementary, was completely different. Japanese were very focused and engaged in lessons, their receptive skills level was higher than a group level, but language production was very poor. On the other hand Palestinians were talkative (in Arabic, of course), they were pushing the borders constantly and didn't show much interest in classes. "Away from home holidays" syndrome were very visible. Combination of these two groups was a crazy mixture!
We shared our experiences with Diana after each class and tried to use each other's good ideas and things that worked out. I was proud of myself to figure out a bit how to get to Palestinian students. I saw that they feel more engaged if they feel secure in the lesson, so when level isn't set too high. I started each lesson from very easy activities and I made them speak and do something. After they felt a spirit of success, it was easier to introduce more advances and demanding tasks. Diana pointed out that our pupils face serious school difficulties in general, not only in terms of language learning. One of them wasn't able to hold the pen properly...
It was a pleasure and honour to work with such an experience teacher as Diana. I learnt a lot!
We shared our experiences with Diana after each class and tried to use each other's good ideas and things that worked out. I was proud of myself to figure out a bit how to get to Palestinian students. I saw that they feel more engaged if they feel secure in the lesson, so when level isn't set too high. I started each lesson from very easy activities and I made them speak and do something. After they felt a spirit of success, it was easier to introduce more advances and demanding tasks. Diana pointed out that our pupils face serious school difficulties in general, not only in terms of language learning. One of them wasn't able to hold the pen properly...
It was a pleasure and honour to work with such an experience teacher as Diana. I learnt a lot!
MANAGING TEAM OF TEACHERS
SPEAK:ART
Becoming an owner of a school gave me a chance to bring to life my teaching philosophy. It makes me happy when I can share my knowledge and experience. I take all available actions to make our cooperation inside the company as easy and smooth as possible.
SPEAK:ART
Becoming an owner of a school gave me a chance to bring to life my teaching philosophy. It makes me happy when I can share my knowledge and experience. I take all available actions to make our cooperation inside the company as easy and smooth as possible.
- I always take into consideration teachers' individual needs. I do my best to adjust lesson plans and deliver replacement if any of teachers need a day off.
- I don't relay on requirements and expectations, but I always give teachers tools. If I plan an activity, that requires any special materials (ex. art & craft), I try to deliver them to teachers myself.
- I encourage teachers to exchange ideas and materials.
- I established Facebook group for speak:art teachers to create space to praise special achievements and pass admin announcements.
- I did my best to minimise admin work - all procedures are made on-line in Google Drive docs and can be done from every device in every place on Earth.
- I share all resources about teaching methodology to reference.
- I organise regular CPD sessions on Saturdays.
#myELTclan
Together with my closes friends we established an unofficial group of teacher trainers with the aim of supporting and helping each other. I am amazed to be a part of such an exclusive party. We're just starting our synergy, but I am more than sure that...
Together with my closes friends we established an unofficial group of teacher trainers with the aim of supporting and helping each other. I am amazed to be a part of such an exclusive party. We're just starting our synergy, but I am more than sure that...
- Łukasz
- Magda
- Marzena
- Gosia
- ...and me :)