Teach English in Changgou Zhen - Beijing

Apart from the finer technical points of the english language I have learned an enormous amount on what it means to be an effective teacher, what activities I can and should use, and how to have control of the classroom without exercising dominance. This course has given me a strong grasp of the technicalities of the language that I already naturally use, which will help me break down and explain the language at a level my classes will be able to understand. More importantly, I have learned how to create positive classroom dynamics and how to change the dynamics when I need to. I learned that it is vital to motivate students and to build rapport with them, and the various things that I can do (activities, games, questions, open discussions etc.) to help make that happen. I also discovered what materials and activities work when teaching new materials and how to pair students according to their language levels so that they benefit most from the lesson. My personal goal from all of this is to incorporate as much variety as possible in my lessons, as was shown in this course. This means using a variety of lesson types, including straight arrow, patchwork, and boomerang lessons, and within those a variety of activate ideas (role plays, miming, charades, story writing etc.) and study activities (sentence writing, reading, crossword puzzles, gap fills etc.). Finally, the most important thing I will be aiming for is clarity and variety in my teaching materials. That is, consulting many different sources beyond the course book for lesson ideas and examples and using as many of the available resources as possible to present a catered lesson to the interests and learning abilities of each class.