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. 

week 6

My reflection on my first teaching experience

The first strong aspect of my first teaching is classroom management. I did not expect it as even my mentor teacher has classroom management problems in that class usually. I had had many concerns before that teaching but thanks to God the students were so nice, respectful, and active. The other strong aspect of my teaching is I am getting used to teaching that is I can say I am making improvement. For example, while pre-reading I asked to students some questions and students answered but one student, who is very lovely, said ‘comedian’ instead of clown and some of the students just began to laugh, I immediately said ‘O you mean clown who is very funny’ then he said ‘Yes, clowns are funny and I like them’ and other students stop laughing, and that student was very active during my teaching.

The thing which I am very happy with is I was so relaxed or calm. Before my teaching I was a bit nervous or stressed but when I began to teach I feel like a real teacher. I think, it is because of my mentor teacher, who lets or says to me to walk around while they are doing group works and lets me to prepare the short activities and games and make students do or play them. Also, students are respectful and willing to participate to the lesson.

If I had a chance to re-do my first teaching, I would redesign my post-reading activity. Actually, it was taboo game but some of the students were confused about pointing part and I have to admit that they were right as pointing part was a bit confusing. I think, the name of the game confused them, that is, they thought they would play it only with their group members but it was whole class game. Therefore, if I had a chance to re-do it, I would prepare taboo cards for all groups and make them play within their groups.

Another thing which I would change is a rewarding part. After, students had finished the game, I wanted to give chocolates to the winners and also to whole class but my mentor teacher did not let me, because it was forbidden. I had not known it and I was a bit sad and also students. After, the lesson the teacher explained why it was banned (some students may have allergy or some kind of diseases). In short, if I had known about it, I would gave different things which are not eatable.  

My mentor teacher mentioned that the preparation of the lesson was good. Also, she said that I have had a good interaction with the students. I hundred present agree with her because I felt like their real teacher as I said before and I have had a good interaction during the lesson. Also, the students were great; for example, when I ask question like ‘Do you like circuses?’ most of them answered ‘Yes’ and before I asked ‘Why?’ they explained it. Moreover, my mentor teacher said that I had a good time management and I used transition between the activities. I am very happy with them especially about the interaction with students and transition between the activities. However, she said that my tone of voice is low. Whenever, I hear it (all of my micro-teachings and teaching tasks I hear it) I smile because I used to hearing it. Most of the time I think that I should speak louder as it will be good during my teachings but I cannot do anything about it unfortunatelyL

To sup up, I am very happy with my first teaching and I hope after my second and final teachings I will have the same happy feelings.

Some of my materials that I used in my 1st teaching:)

week 5

Observation

During the last and this week’s observations I tried to learn students’ names. I wrote most of their names on my notebook and also I wrote an adjective near each student’s name in order to not confuse the names. For example, in 5D there have two students whose names are Zeynep and I wrote Zeynep 1 (hard working) who usually does homework and actively participate and Zeynep 2 (dancer) I have seen her while she was dancing very nicely in the break so I remember her as the dancer, and also Naz (blond) or Bora (lovely). This technique really works:)

The first and the second lessons were homework check as usual and the last two lessons were very beneficial both for students and for me (as I did not know some vocabulary like juggler). The mentor teacher writes every day’s plan on the board like 

                                                                                                      Today’s Plan

                                                                                                    - Power Point

                                                                                                    - Mind Map

                                                                                                    - Notebook Record

                                                                                                    - Homework

and it is very useful I believe as students know that lesson’s plan and when they finish each of them they draw a smiling face near them. After, students found that day’s topic, that the teacher explained it with some sentences, my mentor teacher showed several videos. After each video students supposed to say word such as juggler, human statue, or magician. Then, the teacher asked them to go to the book and discuss key words with your peers. Also, she asked to them what other performances do you know and students answered. After all she wrote all vocabulary or performances on the board and students wrote them down on their notebooks.

Then, she gave homework and their previous written homework. The last few minutes she asked to students ‘What did they learn?’ or ‘Which words did they learn?’ and I think it is a very meaningful and useful closing of the lesson.

The last hour of a week which I observed on Wednesday, my mentor teacher towards end of the lesson make them play a ‘Musical Ball Game’. I very much liked that game and I will definitely use it whenever I teach grammar topics like can/cannot and do/do not have to because it was very fun and very effective. The ball was made of papers which have written sentences on it; for example, my mother does not have to____________. The teacher plays a music and students give or through the ball each other. Whenever the music stops a student who has the ball should read the sentence and fill the blank.

To sum up, during this week’s observation I have learned lots of things which will be helpful to me in my prospective teachings and I am very happy with it.