Teaching can be a rewarding experience. It can also be equally trying. Over the past ten months, I've taught English, Spanish and German classes in a variety of settings: at a university language centre, private lessons in my home and the homes of others and online classes and tutoring.
Teaching online has been my least favourite method as I crave human interaction and enjoy connecting with my students.
Face to face interactions do have their challenges though. Sometimes students are rude. Sometimes they're distracted. Sometimes they simply don't want to try. And sometimes they're too impulsive or too passive. At other times those interactions are rewarding. Sometimes I see that light-bulb moment. Sometimes they're eager to learn.
I haven't had much inspiration to write lately, as the majority of my time is spent teaching or doing mundane household tasks, but I thought I'd share a few things from my classes this past month.
Tutoring online has proven to be a good way to earn a little extra cash, especially in American dollars, from home in between other things. The majority of that time is spent helping students with Spanish, but occasionally, I help out with German as well.
As for classes at the language center, this past month I taught a Beginner 1 course and Elementary 2. Beginner 1 is exactly what it sounds like, the first month of lessons which teach the subject pronouns, the verb "to be", colors, numbers 0-100, how to introduce oneself and the most immediate members of a family. Sometimes the enrollment is low, but with 35 students on my roster this month, it was a challenge to keep them all busy, yet not too bored as some students pick up on English quickly and others do not. My Elementary 2 class was the opposite, with usually only 2-4 students showing up to class, so group projects and games were limited.
As for private students, I've had quite the menagerie since I began teaching and would say that that continues to be the case. Ranging in ages from eight to about fifty years old, I have students who come for two hours a day to others who I teach once a week. Of the eight private students I currently teach, some are brilliant language learners, while others wish only to translate or impulsively respond hoping I'll give them the answers. My lessons range from teaching adverbs while including dinosaurs in the sentences to spark interest, to pure grammar, to pure conversation to reading and deciphering news articles. It depends upon each student's aims, needs and interests.
While teaching prive lessons has been quite the learning experience, has been a great source of income and has kept me busy, I look forward to receiving a visit from my youngest brother in one month and saying Adios, Auf Wiedersehen, and Good-bye to those classes and spending more time with him :)
Teaching online has been my least favourite method as I crave human interaction and enjoy connecting with my students.
Face to face interactions do have their challenges though. Sometimes students are rude. Sometimes they're distracted. Sometimes they simply don't want to try. And sometimes they're too impulsive or too passive. At other times those interactions are rewarding. Sometimes I see that light-bulb moment. Sometimes they're eager to learn.
I haven't had much inspiration to write lately, as the majority of my time is spent teaching or doing mundane household tasks, but I thought I'd share a few things from my classes this past month.
Tutoring online has proven to be a good way to earn a little extra cash, especially in American dollars, from home in between other things. The majority of that time is spent helping students with Spanish, but occasionally, I help out with German as well.
As for classes at the language center, this past month I taught a Beginner 1 course and Elementary 2. Beginner 1 is exactly what it sounds like, the first month of lessons which teach the subject pronouns, the verb "to be", colors, numbers 0-100, how to introduce oneself and the most immediate members of a family. Sometimes the enrollment is low, but with 35 students on my roster this month, it was a challenge to keep them all busy, yet not too bored as some students pick up on English quickly and others do not. My Elementary 2 class was the opposite, with usually only 2-4 students showing up to class, so group projects and games were limited.
As for private students, I've had quite the menagerie since I began teaching and would say that that continues to be the case. Ranging in ages from eight to about fifty years old, I have students who come for two hours a day to others who I teach once a week. Of the eight private students I currently teach, some are brilliant language learners, while others wish only to translate or impulsively respond hoping I'll give them the answers. My lessons range from teaching adverbs while including dinosaurs in the sentences to spark interest, to pure grammar, to pure conversation to reading and deciphering news articles. It depends upon each student's aims, needs and interests.
While teaching prive lessons has been quite the learning experience, has been a great source of income and has kept me busy, I look forward to receiving a visit from my youngest brother in one month and saying Adios, Auf Wiedersehen, and Good-bye to those classes and spending more time with him :)
Your teaching experiences sure have been varied but that keeps it interesting. It will be so nice for you and Ryan to have the time together. I'm glad he can come.
ReplyDeleteAl says he understands your feeling about the teaching. He loved the part about the light bulb moments.
Delete