There are so many ways that I could improve as a teacher. Of these, the most pertinent would probably include my lesson planning and timing combined with presentation skills.
It has been almost ten years since I completed my CELTA certification in Vancouver. Upon finishing that very comprehensive and intensive course I felt a whole lot more confident about my ability to get up in front of an audience and conduct a decent, well thought out presentation in lesson form in a relatively interesting and timely way. Since having lived in Korea for almost nine of those ten years, however, I have definitely found my ability and admittedly my desire to do so dwindle somewhat. I believe it's partly due my mistake of not having kept up with most technological advances in teaching practices. There has certainly not been a lot of professional development tended to in my nine year teaching career.
I am looking forward to learning about current programs that today's educators are using and the ways in which they implement them into the learning environment. And while I do not necessarily want to become completely reliant on technology alone, I think the process of creating organized tech-inclusive lessons will hopefully result in my being both more enthusiastic and apt to start and finish a lesson on time. Even after our first day of class in Framingham State University's EDUC 932 , I am already feeling some inspiration and hoping this course will help me get on the right track.
I chose your post to comment on because I wanted to know if other Bucheon Uni teachers had similar feelings to mine. It is very hard to develop professionally when so much of our time is spent trying to find the least boring way to introduce concepts that we might find simple. I also want to implement more technology in my lesson plans and think that this course is a great way to light the fire and get up to speed. Let's get it done, Brodie!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear you are feeling inspired. I hope I can help you put the inspiration into action. Please let me know if there is any support you need.
ReplyDeleteI also feel I'm pretty weak in the planning and presenting departments, so I can definitely relate. With regard to feeling like your abilities and desire to teach are diminishing, I feel pretty much the same. I think most people that stay in Korea for an extended period feel that way. It's almost like the whole the older you get, the wiser you get thing was a farce!
ReplyDeleteI believe much of that feeling can be attributed to the material we teach and, of course, our students. You can only handle teaching "My name is..." so many times before your mind goes numb. Our students lack motivation at times and I feel like we all have to take a little more responsibility for that and maybe try to inspire them a little more.
Clearly, a lot of us seem to be getting some inspiration from the many new things we're learning. I think, with some new lesson plans and fresh ideas we may just be able to spark some interest from our students in the coming semesters! Inspiration can go a long way.