May 29th, 2014
Unlike my first two teachings, I was really nervous this time. Maybe, it is because it was literally my final
teaching as a student. The idea that this is my last chance to cover up the
teaching skills which are problematic for me was very discouraging. I won’t
have another chance to practice my teaching skills. I mean, of course, I will
continue to develop myself as a teacher when I am pursuing my career. When I
become a teacher, I should be perfect and this was the time when I learned how
to do to that. When I have my own class, it will be a good thing because we
will have our own class culture and everything will be settled then; but I know
that when I make a mistake in the beginning there is no turning back. At least,
I feel that way.
When I move to the lesson, I can say that I wasn’t
completely happy about it. It was a writing lesson (postcards) and there was a
reading activity in the pre-part. Students were supposed to read the postcards
and answer the questions in the chart below. It was a total chaos for me. They
didn’t understand the instructions. I have always had that problem. I would
forget the instructions part and distribute the handouts and they wouldn’t
listen to me. Yet, I made sure of it this time. I believed that I calmly
explained what they are supposed to do while showing the postcards and charts.
Then, I arranged the groups and started to distribute the papers. Some students
insisted that they want to be with their friends in the group but I didn’t let
them. While I was distributing the papers, some students were asking their
friends what they were supposed to do. After I explained it one more time, they
began reading. However, some students were standing and having conversation. No
matter how I tried to make them sit and read the postcards, they weren’t
listening to me. I was going to each group and following their work. They were
so slow. Since there was only one chart and they couldn’t write quickly, that
made them slow down. I need to hurry because that was only the pre part. I told
them to go back to their seat because this activity is over and we are going to
answer the questions. There was another problem waiting for me. Their groups
split and they couldn’t read each other’s writing, even their own writing. We
lost so much time with that. This was the worst teaching that I have ever
experienced. After this part is over, things got nicer. I explained the instructions
and I asked them “Is it clear” a couple of times to make sure of it. I showed
the fictional places where they pretend to be writing from. That was the moment
I caught their attention, I guess. They were excited and enthusiastic about the
lesson, which flared my enthusiasm to teach. I told them they can ask me if
they don’t know a word, which was a huge mistake. I wrote each and every word
on the board thinking that I was helping them, but I wasn’t. Actually, I knew that
I should lead them to use dictionaries and find the words they need on their
own. Yet, our mentor teacher does it all the time. Once, she warned us about
how we should use the board. When students ask some words, she would tell them
and write them on the board randomly. And she said “don’t write like me, be
organized.” She said nothing about the vocabulary part. Then, I thought it was
okay to answer students’ questions. When I was in Ankara Gönüllü Takımı ( a
voluntary action to help the poor kids with their lessons) when my students ask
me each and every word in his course book, I wouldn’t tell them directly. I
would tell him to look up in the dictionary or make use of the words which he
already knew. By making connections…. And I knew this when I was a sophomore.
Sometimes, we learn good things from our mentor and sometimes we don’t. I
cannot completely blame her but the fact that she was the one who says I can
fail a class observation in a job interview with this attitude has really
shaken me.
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