Such a relief! I am ending up a BIG THING! It took me 3 years and many evening of hard work to bring to the end my second master studies.
I really appreciate language confidence that I've gained thanks to university classes. Language background is something that I've always lacked and I am still learning how to live with it. I don't have philology degree or any certificate in English, moreover I have never taken a class of English during my whole education! I consolidated my knowledge thanks to courses as Pronunciation, Academic Writing or Grammar for teachers. I really appreciate this module and from my point of view it was the most important part of the whole studies. On the other hands we came across few teachers, who were disappointing in terms of language level.
I've improved a lot on teaching methods too. Most of material cover during the course was repetitive for me considering that a year before starting GPTE I had finished CELTA. I agree that topics that we've discussed are very important and none teacher should be qualified without mastering this areas. On the other hand GPTE programme is commonly chosen by graduates from similar faculties and for these students it doesn't make sense to repeat the same material in such a basic way. Subjects like Second language acquisition, Early education or Teaching English to young learners should be adapted for mixed abilities group, especially that one of the crucial thing that we've been taught during these courses is that material should be adapted to group level!
These studies introduced me to the idea of CLIL, that I didn't know before. A lot of emphasis was put into this subjects and I see I've developed a lot thanks to this. For me CLIL brings new standards to teaching because it forces teacher to think wider and prepare himself more complex to every lesson. Additional reflection almost always leads to improvement and, in my opinion, drives to professional development.
Another inspiring area to discover for me was formative assessment. It changed my point of view for teaching. Bitter part is that it's difficult to believe how useless were some tasks that we were given during the studies and how many things we had to do just because we were asked to. Pressure for "copy-paste" type of essays and presence during classes over real knowledge and skills could be depressing sometimes. What matters for me is an outcome and if students are able to present expected level of abilities before entering particular subject, they shouldn't be forced to attend classes that they don't benefit from. We should either have adjusted course aims and passing criteria or we should have a chance to pass the subject without presence during the classes.
At the end I'd like to mention teaching practice, which was a complete waste of time in my case. Both my mentor teachers were very friendly and I find them to be excellent teachers without any doubts. But in their teaching context I didn't find anything new or surprising for me. From the very first lesson I could have come and start teaching myself. I didn't find my task challenging, therefore the whole obligation of going there and preparing crazy amounts of documents to prove what I've done was a pure formality. And this amount of paperwork and working hours spend without any deeper purpose for an active and busy teacher is indeed a waste of time and energy. Feedback from my mentor teachers and university representatives wasn't really important so I didn't find it as I was really learning something there. Some tips I got I even found absolutely ridiculous. I agree that no one should get diploma in teaching without finding him- or herself in a position in front of the group and a chance to practice his or her skills in practice. But again previous experience should be taken into consideration. Underestimating current work that students are performing except for university path is a big mistake in my opinion. I believe that we study with the aim of be prepared for the real life teaching experiences. If we have a chance to experience this real life teaching, we lead groups on our own and we earn real money for this, it should be incorporated in our studies.
I really appreciate language confidence that I've gained thanks to university classes. Language background is something that I've always lacked and I am still learning how to live with it. I don't have philology degree or any certificate in English, moreover I have never taken a class of English during my whole education! I consolidated my knowledge thanks to courses as Pronunciation, Academic Writing or Grammar for teachers. I really appreciate this module and from my point of view it was the most important part of the whole studies. On the other hands we came across few teachers, who were disappointing in terms of language level.
I've improved a lot on teaching methods too. Most of material cover during the course was repetitive for me considering that a year before starting GPTE I had finished CELTA. I agree that topics that we've discussed are very important and none teacher should be qualified without mastering this areas. On the other hand GPTE programme is commonly chosen by graduates from similar faculties and for these students it doesn't make sense to repeat the same material in such a basic way. Subjects like Second language acquisition, Early education or Teaching English to young learners should be adapted for mixed abilities group, especially that one of the crucial thing that we've been taught during these courses is that material should be adapted to group level!
These studies introduced me to the idea of CLIL, that I didn't know before. A lot of emphasis was put into this subjects and I see I've developed a lot thanks to this. For me CLIL brings new standards to teaching because it forces teacher to think wider and prepare himself more complex to every lesson. Additional reflection almost always leads to improvement and, in my opinion, drives to professional development.
Another inspiring area to discover for me was formative assessment. It changed my point of view for teaching. Bitter part is that it's difficult to believe how useless were some tasks that we were given during the studies and how many things we had to do just because we were asked to. Pressure for "copy-paste" type of essays and presence during classes over real knowledge and skills could be depressing sometimes. What matters for me is an outcome and if students are able to present expected level of abilities before entering particular subject, they shouldn't be forced to attend classes that they don't benefit from. We should either have adjusted course aims and passing criteria or we should have a chance to pass the subject without presence during the classes.
At the end I'd like to mention teaching practice, which was a complete waste of time in my case. Both my mentor teachers were very friendly and I find them to be excellent teachers without any doubts. But in their teaching context I didn't find anything new or surprising for me. From the very first lesson I could have come and start teaching myself. I didn't find my task challenging, therefore the whole obligation of going there and preparing crazy amounts of documents to prove what I've done was a pure formality. And this amount of paperwork and working hours spend without any deeper purpose for an active and busy teacher is indeed a waste of time and energy. Feedback from my mentor teachers and university representatives wasn't really important so I didn't find it as I was really learning something there. Some tips I got I even found absolutely ridiculous. I agree that no one should get diploma in teaching without finding him- or herself in a position in front of the group and a chance to practice his or her skills in practice. But again previous experience should be taken into consideration. Underestimating current work that students are performing except for university path is a big mistake in my opinion. I believe that we study with the aim of be prepared for the real life teaching experiences. If we have a chance to experience this real life teaching, we lead groups on our own and we earn real money for this, it should be incorporated in our studies.