As a teacher and mentor, I believe it's important to stay relevant in the areas you are teaching others about and in most cases that means you have to continuously return back to the student position. If you've been keeping up with my articles and read, " Seven Straight Years of College: What's the Move Now!, " I mentioned my long higher educational journey before receiving my bachelor degrees in English and Psychology with a concentration in Developmental Psychology. When I applied myself to complete these degrees and many certificates; my overall goal was too get enough certifications and three degrees under my name so I can stop having to stay up long hours of the night studying and completing assignments for school. By the time I entered my final year of college my views started to change especially when my life calling and career choice started to become stable. In this article, I will discuss how my experience of wearing the student hat once again is going so far and ways you can continue to grow mentally without having to enroll in a class per say that requires you to complete assignments for grades.
On May 23rd this year, it had become a year since I graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and I've been in the student seat a couple of times since the time I walked across the stage. Currently as you read this article, I am enrolled in a course to become an English teacher to speakers of other languages while traveling and living overseas. The course was apart of a program I signed up months ago around the Fall season. Originally, I was suppose to attend the class in China during the month of August this year, but then the Coronavirus pandemic took place. I wondered if I could get the money back that I paid for in order to be apart of the program or if it was possible to choose a different month to take the class. When I emailed the American representative for the company to learn what my options were, the representative told me that the schools in China were going to open up soon and the only way I could get my money back was if the pandemic worsen. It would be April when the company would tell me about the option to participate in a virtual course that would be available in the middle of month and in May, but there was a catch. Only the classroom sessions would take place online, but would still have to spend two weeks in China to complete the in-person teaching practices portion of the program . I signed up for the May session. I would figure out which month I would complete my in-person teaching sessions later in the coming months.
The first day of class was on Sunday, May 17th, at 8pm Eastern time U.S.A; whereas it was Monday, May 18th, at 8am for the teachers who are currently living in China. During the first session, me and the other students learned that it would no longer be a requirement for us to do the in-person teaching practices in China because of the lack of ability to enter certain borders at the moment while we are currently in a pandemic. The teachers made it possible for us to complete our three teaching practices online along with the other requirements. So far we are currently we have done our second round of teaching practices.
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| Poster and Game created for 2nd teaching practice |
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| Images I drew to teach the new vocabulary words |
The requirements me and the other students need to complete in order for us to pass the course and receive our TEFL certificates were to read seven chapters and complete the quizzes that goes along with those chapters; watching expert teacher teaching videos and completing observation videos about those teachers; two projects; complete three teaching practice sessions and a self-evaluation for each one; a mid-term; and a final exam. All of these assignments have to be completed by June 11th, U.S. date.
By being apart of this class, I am reminded why I couldn't wait to graduate from University last year for the simple fact that I'm up late to attend class and staying up to complete homework assignments. At the same time, I'm learning a lot on how to become a more effective teacher. I now know activities I can use to teach grammar that are both effective and fun. I'm improving how I create my lesson plans by making them more detailed thanks to all the feedback I receive from both my teachers and the other students. Lastly, I'm learning the common mistakes students usually make when they are learning English for the first time. With each teaching practice I have done, I have improved my teaching techniques greatly. My last teaching practice will take place this coming Sunday. I'm hoping for a greater performance than my last.
While I know I can do a lot of things with the degrees and the concentration certificate I have; I know I wouldn't have been aware of the many challenges learners have when it comes to learning the English language nor how I could teach the language to them effectively. My teaching experience in Spain and this virtual class has taught me how I can accomplish these goal. These experiences, has shown me that there are so many things I need to be aware of when it comes to teaching the English language and just teaching in general. I didn't learn or understand these concepts while I was in working on my degrees. With that being said, I want to let others know how important learning new skills are to their personal callings as well.
Learning new skills don't always have to involve enrolling into a course where you have to complete homework assignments daily. You can gain knowledge from reading self-help books; working and living in a different country as I mentioned about my experience working in Spain; participating in an organization; and entering a skill building program which you can gain access too by going on your local library's website and using your library card to sign in. By learning new skills, you simply become someone with many talents and are able to use those skills within your career life. These new talents may also cause you to see the world differently than you once saw life as.
I hope this article encouraged you to further your knowledge on things in your career field or personal callings in life. Let me know what you been during to build new skills while in quarantine.
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