Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.
Preparation
In January I spent three weeks volunteering as an English teacher in my town. I've been thinking about becoming an English teacher for a while so it was a good opportunity to see what it's like. The students had all just arrived to start a new life in the UK and they had a range of levels from beginner to intermediate. They came from a variety of countries and had very different backgrounds and experiences.
For me, the most important thing was the relationship with the students. I was nervous at first and did not feel confident about speaking in front of people. However, I found it easy to build good relationships with the students as a class and as individuals and I soon relaxed with them. It was a challenge to encourage the lower-level students to speak in English, but at least they understood a lot more at the end of the course.
At first, planning lessons took a really long time and I was not happy with the results. Classes seemed to be too difficult for some students and too easy for others, who finished quickly and got bored. I found it was better to teach without a course book, adapting materials I found online to suit their needs. I learned to take extra activities for students who finished early and that was much better.
I still need to continue improving my lesson planning. I would like more ideas for teaching mixed-ability groups and I want to plan the whole course better next time. That way students have a focus for each lesson and a sense of progress and of what they've covered. I'm also going to put more confident students with beginners when they work in pairs so conversation activities give everyone more chance to speak and students can help each other.
Overall, it was a really positive experience and I learned a lot. I've decided that I would like to become an English teacher in the future.
Tips
- Reflective writing is more personal than other types of academic writing. You can use the first person (I ... , My ... , etc.) and explain how you felt.
- Think about the experience in detail. Explain what went well and what was challenging, and say what you learned in the process.
- Use a structure:
- Short introduction to the situation
- Evaluate the most important things about the experience, including solutions to problems
- Say what you would do differently next time
- Say what you learned overall.
- Keep the focus on your learning process and what you will do better in future.
In my job I have to assist clients with legal obligations regarding health and safety at work.
At the beginning I wasn't very confident and I only told them the main things but over the years the others could become a problem.
Now I have learned to say everything, even secondary things and above all I have learned how to say it.
In Jun 2016 I spend three months on teaching my three juniors which they had just started their bachelor degree of IT as I was almost finished my master degree of IT.
I have gathered my three students and talked to them about importance of computer courses and they have to start from now to educate their selves as I will help them by teaching them the fundamentals of hardware, software and networking so this will help them to develop their understanding from now and do not suffer too much later.
Anyway, I started to learn them computer hardware, I faced a lot of difficulties to let them pronounce the computer's components and explaining every part of the components separately in deep details, However, I scheduled my class and planned to make the class very simple and funny for them in order to attract their attention and focus on the lesson then the plan success, they become very active and participating in the class, implementing all tips and tricks I teach them regarding computers' issues and troubleshooting, after two months and half they mastered computers' hardware, software, and some networks connectivity. I was very proud of myself because I have seen my efforts on my three students college's results, we did it, their understanding for the syllabus was an excellent as subjects scoring was higher than other.
Finally, learn from mistakes, working very hard, searching about the topic, planning and scheduling, spending more time about specific matter, all are keys that lead to success.
What's up?
I'm Lara and i'm from Argentina. I have always like all about English: movies, music, series, books, videos. In high school is was a really good English student. I got a little rusty now so my challenge is re-learning and upgrade my level by self-studying. Wish me luck. I don't know if this text is completely well written but i will sometime. I hope everyone has a nice and productive learning experience. Saludos desde Argentina
Hi, guys.
My challeging learning experience at the moment is trying to study two languages at the same time.
I am studying english, but I already finished my course, but I've noticed that I need to have more contact with the language, besides , have to train more and do exercises.
The other language I am studying is spanish, it's been kind of difficult, because I am studying on my own at home, that's why I use many apps or websites to improve my accent and the flow of my speaking and listening. :)
This week I had my first presentation in English at the college. During the week before the presentation, my group and I practiced together to do it well. We prepared a short class. The day of our presentation was very good; we thought we did great. However, at the end of our class the teacher gave us very negative feedback, saying that our class lacked creativity. We were very sad and could’t understand very well what the teacher said. The one thing I'm sure of, we did our best and the fact that it was our first presentation in English, the teacher should mention the good points not only the negative parts about it.
Next time I’ll try to be more confident with my english, and ask the teacher what are the good points about the presentation you saw? you can mention those, isn’t it that right?
My last challenging experience was learning English,because I live with my parents and sister and I dont have own room,so I must learning in living room and it is so difficult.They are constantly going back and forth and I very rarely have some time for learning in calm.
Hey guys!
I've been trying to learn English since I was a teenager. At that time, even though I took classes and studied a little, I don't think I did my best. I wasn't really motivated. A few years later, I'm trying again to regain that knowledge and go further.
Hello,
I move to London when I was 16 and I joint to college to learn English. At that time I wasn't really focusing well with learning and I never imagined that I would struggle in the future with this language. The challenging that I face nowadays at work place to complete my patient's notes and at the university to understand the subjects. Finding difficult to put into my own words when I read a context and struggling for my assignments. I choose this platform to improve my writing level and stay more focused with my study. Therefore, I decided to spend everyday at least an hour to improve my English level.
Thank you.
Lalitha
when I was going to start learning programming 2 years ago, I spent a vast changing process. At first, I didn't know anything about it. actually, something would attract me to it. at that time I was working as a full-time sales expert in a big company. As a result, I didn't have enough time but I decided to start learning for 30 minutes in the morning.
In the beginning, I would take a lot of time to understand the concepts and also much time to review the concepts which I had learned before. Sometimes It was so tedious and frustrating because I would spend a lot of time trying to understand a concept but after a week I would really forget the details.
As it turned out, I found out I had to take notes and make a plan to review them every two days.
Another problem was that I was short of time. I couldn't get around to reviewing the notes steadily. none the less I would use all of my free time including weekends and my two days off in a month. but a situation came up to me caused I had two hours of free time a day at work. this happening was a gift for me for my passion and persistence.
I continued this trend for nine months. My mind had become sharper and faster in learning and analyzing new concepts. my mind had nothing to do with one last year. On the one hand, I had fallen in love with this new skill, and on the other hand, I couldn't find in my heart to resign.
What it boils down to is that I was wondering whether I stayed on at my job or put my back into my favorite skill in order to become a specialist in it.
To cut a long story short, I decided to resign and study focused for a while. this decision improved my efficiency and made me use my intellectual capabilities to the maximum.
It was one of the best gifts that I had ever given to myself. I allowed myself to do what makes me happy and alive and enjoy doing it.
Hello Ensiye,
I just wanted to thank you for your contribution and applaud you for your efforts. I'm so glad it worked out for you.
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team