Celta assignment

"You can't submit that!" said a colleague. Good advice is seldom taken. This is what was handed in.

Written Assignment- to reflect on yourself as a teacher

Part 1

When I first came across Bob he showed an interest in me as a person. Not often do teachers bother. He asked relevant questions and was patient listening to my answers. He made me laugh as he was funny without any hint of malice.

His first lesson with us lasted only 20 minutes. He was very confident in front of the class and he explained 7 different tenses from a text in the book. I tried to understand but it was not easy.

The next lesson involved us listening to a text.  Bob realised we did not fully understand and was smart enough to play it for a third time. It was a shame that nobody had heard of the film we were supposed to give the answer to. I cannot blame Bob for that.

The lesson I remember most clearly was the murder mystery role play. It looked very exciting. However, we found it difficult to get the meaning of the three tenses we were supposed to understand. Nobody had ever put 3 tenses to me before. Bob realised we did not get the correct usage so gave us some drills. It was such a shame as we had devised a brilliant script. I was really motivated to produce my best English ever.

I was sad to see the groups change as I felt happy to be taught by him. He would always ask if we knew the answers and let us work on our own if we did not like our partner. Towards the end of our time together I noticed a furrowed brow appear and a lot of happiness disappear.

He now teaches my mother and she adores being in his class. However, he did make her study a text about schools in Ireland.  There were ridiculously hard phrases and things happen in Irish schools that do not in Bulgaria. She wondered why they were given it.

Part 2

Having come from a mainstream UK secondary schools teaching background, I had a different philosophy regarding the role of the teacher. In the very tough schools the teacher would be trampled upon by the students if certain techniques were implemented which would be required for a CELTA course. A task based approach is fine if students have the extrinsic or intrinsic motivation to learn. Nobody has mentioned how to deal with the problems of disruptive learners. 

My teacher talking time was perhaps my biggest problem at the start of the course, along with echoing. I have been told I have remedied these problems. My explanations are short and sweet and, even if the students do not understand, they will eventually. I have changed my philosophy regarding echoing as I did not believe that it necessarily ate into student talking time. However, as students would tend to listen only to the teacher’s response and not their peers, I have eliminated echoing.

Lesson planning has been a problem for me since the early 70’s. I can reflect and pinpoint exact areas where lessons have not flowed due to plans not being adequate. However, the blame cannot lie solely with a trainee. Cambridge University are of the misguided opinion that the more intense the course the better. This is clearly not the case. We are required to pre-teach students, yet no access to the written assignments is permitted, despite the fact they are easily available to buy on the internet.

Were I to have the chance to teach my lessons again I would make ‘what if’ flexi-planning. This would allow greater freedom for students not understanding or taking longer than expected.  

I would avoid so much monitoring of students’ faces, thereby my teacher talking time would be reduced.  I have tended become entrenched in long explanations.  This has eaten into the time allocated for my production stages. The rules of the game have become clear.

I need to make my lessons more student based, giving students the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning. I, personally, became disillusioned with the input sessions and just sat and waited for the Celta way it should be done, realising very early that my opinion was not important.  

I shall pursue my teaching career by taking steps to re-kindle the enjoyment factor on my part. The techniques learnt will not be forgotten and bringing them into practice will take much longer than a 4 week course. As someone was once quoted as saying  Celta stands for 'cybotically and effectively lowering teaching ability'. I can look forward to taking measures to implement change.  

I shall never become an academic, looking with contempt at the Cambridge dons, locked away in their ivory towers, blissfully unaware of the real world. Smug in their neatly carved monopoly, they naively believe that an intensive course is not excessively stressful to a point where rational judgement has been sacrificed for merely a ‘falling over the line’ attitude. Still, Cambridge get their money, Avo-Bell get their money; what else matters?