Job Discussion Forums

[Novalis]

This is my first post.

I'm wondering how onerous teaching is for a new teacher with no experience. I took a TEFL certificate course last year but find it didn't really give many concrete ideas on how or what to teach. Way too much theory in my opinion. My sample lesson plans seemed to take hours and hours for me to prepare. In fact, I put so much time and energy into preparation I really wonder if I'm cut out for it. How would I manage if I had to create 3 or 4 lesson plans a day, 5 or 6 days a week?

I know there is a learning curve involved here and things should eventually get easier, but I'm interested to know what various people's first years were like. How long did you spend preparing coming up with ideas for the classroom? Having resources like the eslcafe.com on the internet are a boon obviously, but for a noob, the prospect of getting up there and flying blind is still pretty daunting.

Thanks.

[ls650]

[Novalis]

Thanks.

I took the class last year so there's no chance to address it any more.

So what did your instructors say about lesson planning?

If there's no time to plan classes, how did you fare in the beginning? Did you just wing it? This situation might lend itself to desperate last minute, flying by the seat of one's pants teaching. Sounds like a recipe for getting really stressed out.

[Guy Courchesne]

It might depend a lot on where you teach and what's provided for a curriculum...if you're handed something of an ESL series like New Interchange, Headway, etc, then the heavy planning is done for you.

[pollitatica]

The way they teach you how to plan classes in courses like that usually is way too complicated and detailed, not that planning like that isn't useful. But you shouldn't ever "wing it." Plus, after you teach something for the first time, it's easier the next time around.

[tedkarma]

There is a learning curve - and you will get much faster at preparing a good lesson. But, as mentioned above, it is quite unusual in the "real world" to write a full lesson plan for every lesson.

You will develop, most likely, a "quick and dirty" way to accomplish virtually the same thing - all the while keeping in mind method. You will find that after you have taught for a while - you will frequently revisit certain fuctions and will find them much easier to do the second, third, or even fifteenth time around.

Really - your TEFL trainer(s) should have given you the real world slant as well.

[ls650]

[denise]

I remember my first practice teaching session during my TEFL course... I spent 6 HOURS preparing for a 30-minute lesson. Yikes!

Don't worry--it does get easier!

I'll echo the others who have said that although the first time through (which for me implies the first semester, cycle, etc.) may be rough, the second time will be easier, especially if you get to teach the same classes.

As to how to prepare: if you're not sure, ask your colleagues. Don't be shy, and don't worry about appearing like you don't know what you're doing. You're new! Of course you have questions. Assuming you end up with a halfway-decent school or institute, they will be happy to help you.

Winging it can work in certain situations--e.g., if you've got a conversation class full of motivated students and you are naturally outgoing. Otherwise, it's better to be overprepared.

d

[dmb]

This might be of interest.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/teaching/story/0,,1877974,00.html

[Jizzo T. Clown]

My first "job" was working for NOVA, where all of the planning was done for you. The biggest issue then was just getting the timing down--I always ran out of material (or so I thought!) the first couple of weeks. After awhile, I started doing more repetition and getting the students more involved.

My next gig was at EF, where I actually had to fill 2.5 hours at a time (vs 40 minutes), so it took A LONG TIME to plan the first few weeks. After that, planning for me was just a matter of looking over the material before I went into the classroom, determining the goal of the lesson, how I would know when they had achieved that goal, and what I would do if I had extra time.

Now I have to plan six classes a day, and it takes me about 20 minutes. Of course, I don't go over every detail, but as I look through the material, I make a note of potential problem areas.

I find that I never get to everything I plan because the students themselves guide me in where I need to go...rather, I'm not rigidly attached to a particular plan and I'm not afraid to go off on a tangent if something interesting comes up. As long as they're talking...

[saint57]

I believe that if you followed all the methods that they teach you during training you'd burn out pretty quickly. You pretty much need to get the sheet kicked out of you until you just don't care about anything. Only then can you become a true jedi.

"In order to be the best, you must first lose your mind."

Dave Marshak
Ski School

[Novalis]

[fluffyhamster]

Interesting discussion and link (thanks for posting it, dmb).

From the Guardian article:

[JAppleby]

I haven't done any EFL teaching, but I can attest to the learning curve in planning lessons, and that it DOES get easier. I'm in my second semester of student teaching high school Spanish. Last semester it would take me forever to plan lessons, and then I would get so caught up in doing exactly what I planned that I would get frustrated. This semester it is a lot easier. Part of it is the class length--50 minutes instead of 90 minutes.

I'm planning to go to Costa Rica in February and find a job teaching English for about a year, so I hope that these experiences will help me out there!

[tedkarma]