Guidance for 3^rd year students on how to survive first time teaching at school

Almaty 2017

Content

Foreword

1. Motivation

2. Discipline

3. Assessment

4. Multimedia technologies

5. Cultural awareness

6. Imagination

7. Self-development

Reference list

Edward Vyshatytskiy

4Th year student

1. Motivation

D uring your first internship you will definitely meet the students who will simply dislike English as a subject. Their motivation will be faint or even lacking at all. The learner’s attitude toward learning is shaped by their earlier experiences. So, entering the classroom, you will face a range of already formed personalities that are used to behave a certain way.

studying is boring

I’ve no desire at all

WHY DO SOME CHILDREN GIVE UP WHILE OTHERS POWER ON?

As we all know, motivation is one of the most important factors for success in language learning. But what is it?

Moreover, students are also divided by the type of motivation they need.

To sum up, boosting motivation for learning is a hard task. Not because the methodology claims so! It is plainly seen during the internship. The first very week will open your eyes. This section is dedicated for answering the question “How a teacher can instill motivation in a learner?”.

Bright happy future

To begin with, the process of learning should have a clearly shaped aim. Aim that is not ultimately academic in its essence (for example, achieving language proficiency/C1 level), but rather important to every individual learner in a class.

Not all learners know that their English learning outcomes directly affect their progress. As a teacher your ask is to make them to realize this correlation!

So, what is an “important aim”? It is a feasable, desirable thing that people are striving to get. Such aims are both material and abstract.

MATERIAL AIMS (MORE TANGIBLE)	ABSTRACT AIMS
Job, money, traveling (hollidays abroad), international business companies, etc.	Good feelings, friendship with foreigners, a cosmopolitan lifestyle, pride (of knowing a language), etc.

A learner can’t and shouldn’t study without realizing the their own aims and motives. He or she needs to have a kind of guarantee, that there is a “Bright Happy Future” for those who want to master the language.

An example of another student

One of classical approaches in motivating learners in specific environment such as a closely knit collective (class/group) is AN EXAMPLE OF ANOTHER STUDENT. Youngsters are traditionally competitive and tend to “show off”. Of course, a teacher can take advantage of it and try to arrange competitions that would make them compete on the lesson and, possibly, study harder.

However this way of motivating student is not an ideal one. Applying it the teacher can violate the principle of individual liberation and participatory democracy. To put it simply, praising one student you would probably hurt feelings of another student. Do not forget to ensure the equality of all students.

By the way, students nowadays are not simple-hearted. They can easily grasp what you do if you do it in a straightforward way (e.g. “Look at Jake. He’s doing great. Why can’t you be like him?”). You’d better not use this approach at all, because students will find it obvious and manipulative. A possible solution is to emphasize the achievements of each and everyone without any comparative remarks.

Student perceptions of classroom environment

A classroom environment is an important aspect that influences a learners’ motivation a lot.

By classroom environment it is traditionally understood a picture of a room fulfilled with lots of English posters, watching movies and the like. These items and activities are good, indeed, but they don’t affect an audience of apathetic and unmotivated learners.

S tudent perceptions of school environment change only if both teacher and learners make some efforts.

One of the key moments in creating a friendly environment in the classroom is providing of DIVERSITY ON THE LESSON. A monotonous and constant state of learning sessions makes a classroom an undesirable place to be. You as a teacher need to provide opportunities for learning in different ways and for different groups, sustaining an enabling positive learning atmosphere.

If you have noted, there was one curious buzzword “apathetic” in one of the paragraphs above. It has a medical origin and means that someone is unresponsive to and uninterested in what happens around. The way of getting rid of this problem is cultivating a sense of belonging among students and showing them respect.

Teachers’ motivation or a unique theory of excellent teaching

Well, we’ve dwelt on the topic of students’ motivation for quite a while and there is another aspect that is worth highlighting - TEACHERS’ MOTIVATION. Not only is each learner is unique (Bullough, 2011), but so is each teacher (Watkins and Mortimore, 1999). We teachers are not robots doing our job, but individuals with personal will and personal desires. So, it is vitally important to stay motivated (teachers themselves) while motivating others (students).

Since each teacher’s experience is unique, it is therefore possible to suggest that each teacher attains their own theory of excellent teaching strategy. After several years of pedagogical studies you’ve certainly collected your own ideas and beliefs of what the educative process should look like. These beliefs can serve as a particular motivation and ignite the passion for supporting learners with their learning.

I f you still think that you don’t have any particular “beliefs” or “ideas”, think twice. The understanding of teaching of every teacher is a unique due to the cultural, religious, ethical and personal values and experience of learning.

During your internship you can set a good example by simply speaking in English. Make a little introductory speech, be a kind of “native speaker” in an inauthentic environment. That shouldn’t be mechanic, but rather spontaneous and motivated from within.

The section is over and it’s time to summarize everything that will help to keep motivation levels up. 

Firstly, it is necessary to clearly understand: What the motivation is? What kinds of motivation exist? What way of motivation to choose for a particular learner? The students in the classroom are not the same. A trick of motivating someone (a praising, describing future prospects etc.) can inspire one student, but leave another completely indifferent.

Secondly, you can apply various techniques for instilling motivation. Moreover, the more diverse your options are - the better. Emphasize the future success, lay down both material (more tangible) and abstract aims, praise the students, create competitions that will force them to work harder to earn an admiration, create a positive classroom environment, provide a diversity on the lesson and create something by yourself. Only you can decide what to use on the lesson. A little creativity may make miracles.

Finally, students stay in the central position, but it doesn’t mean that a teacher should neglect himself. To work with enthusiasm and inspiration can only those individuals who are themselves strongly motivated for doing a great job.

I hope your first active internship will go smoothly and provide you with an experience that will prove invaluable later on. For me the teacher is a kind of ambassador that represents a foreign culture to young and inexperienced children or a psychologist that deals with human souls.

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts…

(“All the world’s a stage” William Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616)

Anastasia Schneider