I'm a Teacher Now

Thursday was my first day as a teacher. I gave two lectures to two different groups of students, both of which are composed of more advanced students. For these groups, I'm expected to prepare them for a college entrance exam known as TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) which is intended for non-native speakers of English to prove their competence to study in foreign universities. Since it was my first time meeting with these students, I wasn't expected to do much besides give a small presentation on myself and answer questions about my life, home, hobbies, etc. My fellow teachers told me that the students were eager to see me and meet me but were, all the same, very shy. So, as part of my first day, I also had them introduce themselves and I tried to elicit some participation. In general, I was pretty impressed with their language skills. But it was also somewhat expected as they were handpicked from among the best of the third-year students. I prepared a PowerPoint presentation with pictures documenting my life, but it didn't work on the first computer in my first class and the second class didn't even have a computer. As a result, I did everything from memory and the class was maybe a little less exciting than it would have been otherwise. Regardless, I consider it a success and I think the students had fun asking me questions about America, stereotypes, and my education.

I had three classes on Friday. One was a small group of advanced second-year students and the other two groups were composed of "bachelors" students with beginner/intermediate English skills. This this time, my presentation worked and I got to show off some pictures to illustrate my life and American culture. Many of the questions they asked were similar to those on Thursday, but there was a clear drop-off of language proficiency with some of the students. I'm fairly certain a number of them barely understood more than a couple full sentences and understood almost none of my questions. This didn't come as a surprise though since many have probably never heard English spoken with a true American accent. Also, as with most language courses anywhere, many of them are there because they have to be or feel obligated to be there and really have no strong desire to learn English anyway.

Now that I've given my introductions, the real, scary work begins. I have to begin planning lessons, topics, activities, and homework. This is my first time with a class full of real students dependent on me for an hour and a half of guidance and learning. Life as a student seems so much easier now...