Vietnam
SEA-Teacher Batch 10
Teaching Practice
Scroll down to see my teaching practices encompassing four sections: procedures of teaching, time management, classroom management, and problem-solving.
Procedures
of Teaching
My lessons involve three parts: motivation, lesson proper/discussion, and evaluation. To start the lesson for each teaching day, I always try to find an activity that will equally motivate the students and also act as a jumpstart for the lesson ahead. In my lesson plans, you will see that I use a lot of gamified activities, whether collaborative, individual, or technology-based. Some games I've utilized were Pass the Message, Charades, and music-related motivation. This ensures that the students' attention will be captured while also allowing them to connect the lesson to concepts in which they already have a background. I also try to include vocabulary words that the students might not know about in this part.
​​​
The lesson proper mostly revolved around the Cambridge student book activities that I was assigned to teach. To support their learning, I employ the Socratic method in gradually unraveling learning. Instead of giving answers directly, I let the students discover for themselves by giving scaffolding questions. On days when I had to teach grammar, I employed the inductive method through student participation. I asked the students to give me sample sentences that we would use to discuss grammar concepts.
​
For evaluation, I assess student learning by giving activities from the Cambridge student book. If there is none, like in my first reading comprehension lesson, I create my own guide questions that target the learning objectives to see if they understood the material.
Time management & organizing activities
Future Integrated School allots only 40 minutes to each class. This made it possible for a straightforward way of teaching – fit for EFL students. This makes each lesson less complex and dense. I tried to make my lesson plan in consideration of this time constraint. Therefore, I considered the time when choosing supporting activities, even in the lesson plan-making process– by choosing activities that are engaging and also time-bound. However, this has posed a challenge for me as I was used to teaching within an hour. I had one lesson where I couldn't do the evaluation part. This experience has taught me to manage my time better by sticking to the expected time for each activity.
Classroom Management
Students in middle school have a lot of energy and are usually more oriented towards their peers. My strategy for maintaining order in class is to establish a classroom rule early on. In my case, I told them to remember this phrase, "When someone else is talking in front, we listen." If at any time they become unruly or an individual violates this rule. I gently remind them of the classroom rule and let them repeat the aforementioned sentence. I aim to positively support my students while maintaining discipline and order through positive reinforcement and indirect confrontation to lower the affective filter.
Problem-solving
Teaching in another country with another language with a different school culture and curriculum was bound to have some problems along the way. However, these problems and challenges will only allow one to grow. As mentioned earlier, one of the challenges I encountered was the time constraint for the class. I solved this problem by making sure that my next lessons were well within the time. Another one was the language barrier between my students and me. I was used to teaching ESL instead of EFL and was more trained within that bounds. This was my first time encountering a lower English level than Filipino middle schoolers. To remedy my lack of exposure to these kinds of classrooms, I learned to modify my expectations and aim for a more simple way of teaching. For example, in teaching grammar, I had to assume that they did not know foundational concepts (e.g., the definition of nouns and verbs). I would have to make sure my motivation preps them for the bigger concept by giving a short review or smaller pieces of information to them explained in the simplest way. ​This taught me to adjust to the level of my students and to quickly adapt the new school curriculum and culture. I was able to go through all of these with the help of some of my dear co-SEA delegates, who kindly gave me their most effective practices and advice. The advice of my supervisor, Mr. Marcelo, also helped me to adjust my teaching practice to execute my lessons better. I got through challenges with the help of others and I acknowledge that. Therefore, I learned to be open to learning which helped me solved problems along the way.
