Reflection
My training journey during July was an interesting experience. At first, I
thought that I would not be able to manage it but I think it all went so
well and above expectations. I was told before starting my training that I
would be trained for the Celta and that was an amazing opportunity to
have an idea of how a Celta trainee would be teaching like before doing
my CELTA. I was also provided with some clear objectives by Mr.
Almahanad Albadi to follow them and have a clear idea of what I am
supposed to do during my training.
Many of these objectives had been achieved or at least covered orally. I
started gradually projecting instructions and setting up tasks after
attending one or two classes with the instructor. I mainly used
“waygrounds” to do most of the activities. At first, I had no idea how to
use it, but the instructor sent me a tutorial of the effective way to do it and
the way that he thinks it works better with the students. Step number two
was assigning me to do a lead-in, in which I gave an introduction set of
questions and tried to tap on the student’s prior knowledge along with a
recap of the previous lesson. I was told to reduce my talking so the
students talk more than I do, and that was a very nice way to make the
class gradually more comfortable for the students. The instructor said that
I did quite good at that and at eliciting responses and he made me do it
one or two times. I think that it was perfect to learn how to do this first
instead of starting with teaching a lesson immediately. Starting with a
lead in helped me a lot in understanding the background of the students
and their willingness to learn. After that, I started giving whole lessons
after observing Mr Almahand approaches in teaching. He said that he
likes my CCQs and my ICQs and he taught me many of them like the
CCQs: Is it positive or negative? Is it bad or good?... etc. The training
mainly focused on language skills, which are reading and listening. I
wished to have one or two lessons in grammar and vocabulary because in
my CELTA I will do all of them (reading, listening, vocabulary, writing,
and grammar). However, I did some practice on the vocabulary section
while doing the reading and the listening skills so I can apply the MFP on
the new words given. The MFP was a bit hard to give and required a little
preparation so I didn’t miss giving it during the class because I always
forgot to do it and the instructor would always remind me to do it. I also
learned to do jigsaw reading in which students share what they have read
and it is part of the active learning. It is a good approach when it comes to
the active learning but it is bad at the same time since the instructor has to
monitor and catch-up errors to do a delayed errors task after it. I think the
approach of lining students up and dividing them into As and Bs was not
a good idea for that class, especially if the students are taller than the
teacher. I think it turns out to be a mess instead of sharing information.
Therefore, a more neatly done activity would be more helpful for the
active learning. For the time management, I had been taught to set a time
on the screen before each task I do but again, I had to open the app before
the class so I don’t forget to set the time. In accordance with this point, I
don’t really feel that the time should be set in front of the students for
each thing the teacher wants to do. It is better to set it only when needed
because I am afraid that the students would focus on achieving the task
within the given time instead of focusing on the task itself, so setting time
is important but I am not sure if putting it on screen is a good idea.
For the writing, I wished to be trained on this but I didn’t think that Ms
Amal liked me to do any writing sessions so I just kept attending classes
and did nothing related to writing skills although I feel that it is so
difficult to do it more than any other skill especially for the low level
students.
I also loved the idea of bringing American students for the speaking
sessions. I can tell that students loved that and wanted it to continue for
the whole course. In addition, I love the way he put me on Teams with the
students so I can post to the students directly whatever I should post. I
just wish that he would keep me updated before each lesson so I can
prepare for the lesson. I also liked the way he gave me instant feedback
on everything I did and he emailed me feedback on the two lessons I
taught, mentioning the positive things I had done and the things I should
work on. He would also make sure if I received the emails so if I have
any question I can ask him.
I generally loved that experience and if anyone asked me to do it again, I
would absolutely love to repeat it. The instructor was so helpful and
cooperative and he was giving me quick explanations of what is going on
in each step while students are busy with something in their hands. I
appreciate his hard work on teaching students while also teaching and
supervising a trainee. That must have been a difficult thing to do but he
managed it perfectly without missing out on tasks.