Introduction

    Hello, I am Arzuv and I always wanted to be a teacher. However, before I started to the university I did not have enough idea or philosophy about how kind of teacher I want to be. Now, I want to be a humanist teacher. I decided it after I have observed some of my instructors, that is, their teaching style and personality. I hope and a bit sure that I can manage to be that kind of teacher and be helpful to my students.

My teaching philosophy

I have always had an enthusiasm for teaching that is being a teacher. When I started going to school my grandfather gave me some nice notebooks as a present. I was very happy because my grandfather was a school principal and I always tried to do my best to make my granddad and parents happy. 

That enthusiasm and desire to be a very nice and respectful teacher like my grandfather bring me into this career.My main teaching philosophy is having communicative, learner-centered, and friendly environment, and using technologies and also applying my own method according to my learners’ needs.  

Firstly, my teaching philosophy includes providing students with a supportive learning environment by helping them achieve communicative competence through meaningful and enjoyable activities. Secondly, I believe that when students are given importance and respected they will learn more actively and they will be more motivated. I will do it by giving chances to choosing discussion topics or listing classroom rules all together and etc. Thirdly, my philosophy that by providing students with a friendly that is stress-free environment, I mean that I can help them to reduce learning anxieties in order to improve their learning progress. The other significant feature of my teaching philosophy is the incorporation of technology and media-based instruction in the classroom. For example, I will use PPP, Task-based learning, movies, YouTube, and etc. to make my lessons more appropriate to digital age learners. Finally, a teacher needs to keep an open mind about the different teaching approaches, methods, and techniques however, all of them have advantages and disadvantages so he or she should select parts which will be helpful. I will do just like that. I believe that with more experience in teaching ESL, my teaching philosophy improve for the better.

First impressions

    During my first day at METU College I was both excited and anxious because I went there for the first time and I was alone. I went there early to meet my mentor teacher and then to observe her lessons but it was an exam day and their lesson hours were changed a bit. I had a difficult time to find my mentor teacher and classes. Also, I had to wait until the exam was over. Then, I met my mentor teacher (I even do not know is my mentor teacher was male or female as the name was Ekin Tekin) and we talked about routine and also about our department and Yasemin hoca. Then, she showed the way of school’s library and said that I can wait there. She was very busy in that day and breaks were too short at least it seemed me like that. Moreover, during break the corridors were full of the students who were taking their books or notebooks from their shelves and it was hard to walk there.

     I went to the class during the break and it was after lunch. In class, which was 5D, two boys were playing with bottle that is, they threw it to a dustbin like a basket ball and then take it out. They were enjoying and they played it like 4-5 minutes but I could not tolerate and said to them “Is not the dustbin dirty?” and they said “No,” and then they started to ask me questions like what is your name, where do you study, and etc. Then, the lesson began and I introduced myself to the class, and during the lesson I was so impressed that all students spoke English with the teacher and each other and they were used to it. Besides, there was another thing which drew my attention students sat like the groups (3-4 students in each group). I liked it so much and it was very practical to do group works. I decided that if I have chance I will make my students to sit like that when I become a teacher and have my own class. The another thing which was new for me the teacher let two students to look at the dictionary when the students could not understand a word’s meaning and then she make those students’ to write on board both definitions of that word.  I really liked that idea because students are active and also they learn how to use dictionaries in a useful way, and also they learn all meanings of the new words.

     During that lesson my mentor teacher said that we will control them together so you can walk and see their performance during the group or writing works. Also, she said to the students “If you have questions you can ask to Arzuv teacher”. When the lesson was over the teacher gave a kind of punishment letter to one of the students who were playing with bottle. Then, I understood that he was naughty student and that is why the teacher made him sit near her.

      After the lesson my mentor teacher gave me my internship kart and we talked about our private life a bit. I liked her personality and her teaching style. Then, I asked her “Is there anything that I could do or help like homework check” and she gave me students’ writing homework to check. I went to school’s library and looked at the students’ writings there. Then, my mentor teacher came and I gave writings and it was end of my first day internship at METU College. 

     To sum up, it was nice, that is, I had not needed to be worried and a bit scared about going there. After the first day I realized that I will gain knowledge about many things from my mentor teacher which will be very useful my prospective teachings.