to achieve success in professional activities
The article is addressed to young professionals who are starting to work in school. Modern requirements for a foreign language teacher have increased significantly. Therefore, young teachers who want to find their own formula for success in the future should strive to meet these requirements. If from the very beginning a young specialist learns to properly plan his activities, following the specified recommendations, then he will always be accompanied by confidence and success in his work, a sense of professional growth, a sense of satisfaction and pride in his daily work, love and respect for his profession - the profession of a teacher.
1. Effective and correct use of teaching materials by the teacher in accordance with the approved work program. At the start of your teaching career, you should not neglect the teacher’s book, because the recommendations for the lessons indicated in it were carefully developed by the country’s leading methodologists, who conducted more than one study before preparing the publication. It is imperative to use the audio applications provided by the teaching materials during lessons, and also find time to work with a reading book (if it is included in the kit). The practical application of methodological recommendations in books for teachers on teaching materials in foreign languages best contributes to the acquisition of professional experience.
2.Use of modern educational technologies in lessons. Today a lot is written and spoken about new pedagogical technologies. It is important to adhere to modern requirements and enjoy mastering new technologies, replenishing your arsenal of pedagogical knowledge and skills, which will serve in the future as a guarantee of professionalism.
3. A well-designed lesson plan. It is important to learn how to regularly draw up lesson plans, systematically write them and think through the meaning of each stage of the lesson, each exercise or task in the format of developing students’ skills for universal educational activities. Drawing up a plan based on previous records allows you to control the organization of universal learning activities and to monitor well the process of developing students’ universal learning skills. This condition is feasible by combining the two above conditions - taking into account the recommendations of the book for teachers and competent methodological knowledge. It may seem difficult at first, but once it becomes a habit, it won't take much time. In addition, the teacher’s sense of confidence in the lesson, when everything goes according to plan, is invaluable.
4.Development of students’ communicative competence through step-by-step work on all types of speech activity: reading, listening, speaking and writing.The lesson plan must include a variety of tasks that contribute to the consistent development of all competencies within the academic hour. Each foreign language teacher has his own methodological box, which over the years is replenished with tasks for all types of speech activity, taking into account work with teaching materials and the use of technology. This criterion requires good methodological knowledge of the theory of teaching foreign languages.
5. Cultivating a love for songs and poems, for classical literature. In the process of working on phonics from primary school, it is necessary to teach songs and poems as much as possible, train students to repeat them throughout the school year, and arrange performances. If at the beginning of each lesson you repeat a quatrain and teach the next one, then even the weakest students will be able to recite poetry in a foreign language. At the same time, the teacher must have a good knowledge of the technology of teaching songs and poems.
6.Use of electronic educational resources. ICT - teacher competence - this is relevant today. But you should not overuse electronic educational resources, as this makes children just as tired as adults. Wise use of resources will preserve not only the health of students, but also the teacher. If there are tasks in which students ask permission to use gadgets, for example, an electronic dictionary on a mobile phone to translate a word, then today this is quite acceptable. You need to keep up with the times, because an electronic dictionary is very convenient and economical. At the same time, the teacher must maintain control over how children work with the dictionary and how much information is entered.
7.Organization of extracurricular activities in the subject “Foreign language”. Extracurricular activities can be organized in collaboration with class teachers or colleagues. When conducting extracurricular activities, a teacher can also get great pleasure as from his lessons, and also make unexpected discoveries for himself. As a rule, extracurricular activities reveal the abilities of children who are not actively working in class, and this moment is always pleasant for the teacher.
8. Differentiated approach to individual students. In any class there will always be a student who experiences difficulties in mastering one or another type of speech activity. When preparing his lesson, the teacher must think through individual tasks for such a student so that the child can complete this task and feel success in learning a foreign language. From such success the teacher feels doubly successful.
9. Involving parents in the educational process. Parents are always interested in the success of the educational process, so one should not avoid contact with them; on the contrary, one should boldly enter into a constructive dialogue. It is not worth ignoring moments of bad manners in children and fighting alone; you need to inform parents, since education also includes the process of upbringing, accordingly, the teacher, as a specialist in an educational institution, is obliged to work in such situations. It is useful to conduct open lessons for parents, ask them for help, or help with advice yourself. Then favorable changes in the performance and discipline of students will not be long in coming. When organizing non-traditional forms of lessons, parents can help with incentives. It is useful to reward children with sweet prizes or prepared surprises. The main thing is that the effect of surprise brings joy to students, and at the same time increases motivation to learn a foreign language.
10. Teacher’s knowledge of pedagogical psychology and creation of a favorable psychological atmosphere when implementing the educational process, it is undoubtedly an indicator of the professional competence of the teacher. Emotional identification of the class and the teacher is very important. If mutual understanding is established, then, as a result, the quality of the educational process improves. It is important to avoid the so-called “emotional teacher burnout”, to maintain good spirits and come to class in a positive mood, then the psychological atmosphere of the lesson will be favorable.
11.Carrying out systematic monitoring. The performance indicator also depends on how often tests are carried out. It is advisable to conduct a written test or test after every five to six lessons. This does not count dictations and other independent work that can be included in any lesson plan. Thanks to the test work, it is possible to track the level of students’ mastery of lexical and grammatical material in a timely manner. Accordingly, subsequent activities are planned in such a way as to reconsolidate the topics in the study of which difficulties arise, and, if possible, apply other pedagogical techniques in order to achieve the planned results. The test can be checked together with the class in frontal mode, remembering the rules, but after that the teacher must check all the work again in order to track the students’ self-control. Systematic current control is the best preparation for final control.
12.Organization of research and design activities. As practice shows, gifted children are drawn to research activities; when conducting research under the guidance of a teacher, they are able to surprise with their knowledge and hard work. Any student can be successful in project activities if they feel supported by the teacher. It is a great honor for a young specialist who has recently worked on his diploma to become the supervisor of a young researcher or project developer. A teacher’s organization of research and project activities is an important criterion for professional growth. A large selection of topics, especially in the field of regional studies, provides a foreign language teacher with an excellent opportunity to realize himself as a leader in this area.
13.Self-improvement. It is important for a young specialist not only to have academic knowledge, but also to apply it in practice, to be able to analyze each lesson taught in order to further improve his work and exchange experience with colleagues. In the process of professional activity, it is no less important to read methodological and psychological literature, if possible, get acquainted with scientific articles, regulations and new developments in the field of education, and track new trends.
There is no doubt that the school employs people who love their profession. But to experience success, you need to become a master of your craft. By adhering to these recommendations in the system, you can achieve optimal results in students mastering educational programs in a foreign language and, over time, feel your professional growth.
Many teachers naively believe that the bell for class is the moment when students should sit down, calm down, shut up and prepare to listen to their guru. Maybe this is how it should be, but achieving such an effect is almost never possible. As a rule, students make noise for a couple of minutes even after the bell rings. Do you want to fight this? Please, but in this case it is better for you to leave the school immediately, because you will become an enemy to the students. Never try to silence children at the beginning of a lesson! Even if you succeed, you will not be able to establish a good relationship between you and the class. Don't you have anything else to do? Fill out the documentation, open the window and ventilate the room. In a minute, the children will somehow understand that they are actually in class and they will turn their attention from their own affairs to you.
I would recommend immediately getting rid of the illusion that you are able to teach absolutely all the children in the class English. You won't even teach the majority. Not because you are a bad teacher, but this is just reality. You can argue with this thesis, but remember your classes. Fact: Only a few are successful. To avoid wasting precious time and energy, work only with those who are capable and determined to work. Those who are not eager to learn English should be moved to the back desks. Let them just listen. This will be enough for them. For a legitimate C they will learn something.
Children will obey and respect you more if you not only tell them all sorts of rules, but also give them some regional information. A teacher who knows not only his subject, but also a lot around the subject, is always on top! For example, when going through the topic “Money”, you not only teach children to use the word dollar, but also mention such an interesting fact that any dollar issued even a hundred years ago is legal tender to this day. If you know little about the world, then this is a disadvantage for you as a teacher. Work on yourself.
During the lesson, speak primarily in English. Of course, your students don't know all the words you use in your speech. However, soon they will understand you intuitively. Linguistic guesswork and intuition are a wonderful thing that children should master first. After all, in real life they will not know all the words and rules, so they will have to listen and guess. Here a lot depends on your language competence. Do you speak English at such a level that you can speak it fluently? If not, then again work on yourself.
Avoid your own long monologues. There is nothing more boring than listening and listening to what the teacher says. The less you say, the better. Give children the opportunity to speak. In the end, they are the ones learning, not you. And their most basic goal is to learn to speak English. Even if you are asked to re-explain a rule, do not do it yourself. Surely you have a smart child in your class who can explain unclear points to his less smart friend. Ask a strong student for help.
Don't let the lesson get stuck. For example, in the case of the same incomprehensible moments, students may torment and torment you with the phrase “we don’t understand.” Don't get stuck on re-explaining for too long. Firstly, students may deliberately provoke you to explain the same thing multiple times in order to prolong the lesson and relax. Secondly, even if someone is really not particularly smart, this should not interfere with the normal flow of the entire lesson. You may have to sacrifice your personal time and spend a couple of minutes with your less capable student after class or some other day. And in general, it may turn out that all the unclear points will become clearer in the further course of the lesson, for example, when doing exercises.
Stop complaining that you can't find good textbooks. There are none, and this is another fact. You just have to understand that textbooks are not the main element of the lesson, and they are not supposed to teach. The teacher must teach, i.e. You. A workbook is just one tool you can use.
The most important thing is to try to bring each lesson to some result. Those. At the end of each lesson, students should feel that the lesson was in vain: they learned new words, learned to use some rule, etc. Don't plan for too many results. Look at things realistically. Let the result be modest, but it will be real. If you get nothing from lesson after lesson, you will soon receive a negative reaction from the children. They will be the first to tell you that your lessons, sorry, are garbage.
Alexey Ermakov
Just a profession or a calling? Let's figure out what constitutes a truly good English teacher. A teacher who is able to convey his knowledge and make sure that it is understood and accepted by students, who is able to captivate him into the world of new knowledge, to make something enchanting and interesting out of ordinary classes, who is able to turn an ordinary classroom into a place where one wants to return again and again.
And why just " good"teacher, why not" ideal"? Because the ideal does not exist, it is unattainable and this is its beauty. An ideal is a light to which, like a moth, a person can only strive on the path of self-improvement. You may find the perfect teacher for you (which will be great!), but your boyfriend or girlfriend may not find it so perfect. Because everyone has different teaching methods and evaluation criteria; some people like rigor and order in everything, while others like shows, surprises and fascinating conversations in a relaxed atmosphere. However, there are some characteristics and qualities that every teacher applying for our title must have. good».
But first, it is necessary to note that teaching is still a calling. One of our students, having reached the “intermediate” level, decided that he had enough knowledge to improve his younger brother’s English a little (looking ahead, he would have had enough knowledge to start). But having tried to explain the simplest grammatical structures and basic rules, our student was faced with a stone wall of misunderstanding. Not because my brother was stupid or didn’t want to listen to anything - on the contrary, he wanted to! However, it turned out that teaching something is not at all as easy as it seemed at first glance. Our student, trying on the profession of a teacher (albeit at an amateur level, but still), for a week tried to teach his brother the way he himself had not been taught. I used the same textbooks, exercises, tried to copy the style and methods of our teachers - all to no avail. Let's not guess what he lacked - patience, imagination, charisma, enthusiasm, knowledge of psychology or anything else. But it wasn't enough. And then our student truly appreciated the skills and professionalism of the ACE teachers, and thanked them. And he brought his brother to us to study.
This is a story from life, and it clearly demonstrates that teaching is first of all a calling, and then knowledge and experience. However, in addition to a vague “calling,” a good teacher must have certain skills and qualities. We decided to briefly formulate them. So, a good teacher is, first of all:
- Subtle psychologist
He knows when to be stricter and when to let students relax and even fool around a little. He can easily create a comfortable, relaxed and creative atmosphere in the classroom, and help those who couldn’t do it on their own to open up. In the process of your training, he will be able to find and maintain a balance between the carrot and the stick, without extremes, achieving harmony.
- Strong personality.
He must be loyal, but have his own beliefs, attitude and personality. We often encounter a situation where students come to study with a specific teacher. This does not mean that others are worse, it means that the student appreciates the personal qualities of a certain teacher, they are close to him, he is comfortable. And the student wants to learn the language in this atmosphere and with this person.
- Patient and helpful person
Teaching and patience are related concepts. Not everyone succeeds in mastering new knowledge the first, second, or even third time. The teacher should take this lightly, taking into account the characteristics of his students. He must work on mistakes, diversify the ways of presenting information, and under no circumstances shout or get angry at students.
- Professional with deep knowledge of English
Understanding and feeling the language play an important role. Even if the teacher is not a native speaker, he must learn to feel the English language, penetrate it, assimilate and pass through its subtleties, mental and cultural characteristics.
- This is an eternal enthusiast with a twinkle in his eye.
He truly loves his job, it gives him joy to share his knowledge with others and teach them. The joy of seeing your students succeed is a very special feeling. A competent specialist will always be able to instill optimism and faith in students in their abilities, but will never mislead them by promising unattainable results in an incredible time frame.
- This is a practitioner!
A good teacher will not torment you with unnecessary theory, focusing on what will really be useful to you in real life. If you need professional terms, then in special programs of the American Club of Education you will be taught professional vocabulary, and this will be the vocabulary that is relevant today. If you choose a conversational English course, then it will be a real “spoken language”, with all the slang and the most useful phrasal verbs, set expressions, etc.
Teaching is first and foremost a calling. In some ways you really have to be born with it. Experience and knowledge are certainly important factors, but they can be acquired. The talent to teach and a sincere desire to do so is almost impossible to acquire. We wish that throughout your training you will come across only good teachers, among which you will eventually find the ideal one for yourself. And to make your task easier, the American Club of Education has a team of experienced managers who will refer you to teachers in accordance with your wishes and level of knowledge. Well, it's time for us to say goodbye. Good luck in your studies, dear friends! Good luck!
Advice from American colleagues or how to become a good teacher.
I have been working as an English teacher in a rural school for 23 years. I like my profession, I like studying a foreign language. It is especially pleasant that the number of students wishing to become a foreign language teacher among students at our school is increasing from year to year. Probably, this is my merit.
It has long been known that English occupies a leading place in the modern world, and life forces us to learn a foreign language. I really wanted to visit an English-speaking country, to really understand whether you can communicate in a foreign country, at what level of your foreign language.
In 2000, I was lucky enough to visit the United States of America as a participant in the “Business for Russia” - public relations program.
The purpose of my visit is to teach foreign languages abroad. I was interested to find out how they teach there, what forms of work they use, what requirements are imposed on students and, in general, what kind of American teacher he is.
Everything I saw in 5 weeks left me with a feeling of surprise and respect. I visited New York, Cincinnati, Jackson, Vicksburg, New Orleans...
I attended classes at Jackson State University, a private school, and a computer college. I had the opportunity to tell university students about the traditions of Russia. I attended lessons taught by teachers from different countries - Mei Chi from Japan, Carlos Day from the USA, Tinya from Brazil, Oksana from Tashkent. Teachers are called by their first names only. Having attended many lessons, I concluded that we, foreign language teachers, have a lot in common in teaching our subject. The lesson is strictly in the language! Listening to the recording, asking questions about the text you listened to, practicing phonetics, vocabulary, composing dialogues, reading the text by role. Throughout the lesson the teacher is on the move; encourages the student, praises him, admires him, even pats him on the shoulder, although the students’ answers were not always without errors. In short, a friendly working environment was created. I didn't see a single gloomy face among the teachers. Always a friendly smile, intelligence, attractiveness.
I found it interesting that students from different countries had some difficulty speaking English. For example, city is pronounced without [i]. Spanish students and Brazilians do not say the ending ing at the end of a word at all, instead they say, etc.
While visiting Hind Community College, I had the opportunity to speak with faculty members Nell Ann Piekett and Ann H. Laster (pictured above). These women are also the authors of some textbooks in technical disciplines. We discussed many problems of education, they listened with interest to how we teach children English, what requirements we impose on primary school students and high school students. The two hours allotted to us for conversation passed very quickly. And when the questions related to the topic “fathers and sons,” here we also had a lot in common. They also worry about the future of their children, about the spread of drugs, they don’t want to send their sons to war, they, just like us, want a peaceful old age.
So, how does a lesson go in an American school?
The lesson begins with the national anthem, with the student's hand on his heart. The US flag can be seen everywhere: on government buildings and on private homes. I even happened to see a flag in a bedroom in one private house. We must pay tribute, Americans love their country.
Here are their core values:
- individualism,
- patriotism,
- honesty, positivism,
- sense of time (teaching council, meeting is paid additionally)
- ignoring the outside world (America first!)
The schools employ up to 70% women, 80% white, 7% African-American. The teacher comes to class at 7:15, children at 7:45, lunch break 40 - 45 minutes. Reading to yourself for about 15 minutes should be mandatory during the lesson, the lesson schedule changes every other day, for the teacher there is no more than one “window” in the schedule. To strengthen discipline among students, a notebook is kept for those who are late; if there are 5-6 comments, the student may be expelled from school for 1 day. A teacher usually has 5-6 lessons, but not 7 or 4. If the teacher performs his duties well, he is paid an additional 20 dollars. The teacher decides for himself whether he will leave them to the school or supplement his budget. It must be said that the teaching profession in the USA is not highly paid. The salaries of teachers of exact sciences are higher than those of humanities teachers. A teacher's social protection depends on the state in which he or she lives. In Mississippi, for example, there are no vacation pay in the summer, pay only for time worked. I was in practice in July; regular classes were going on at the university.
I would like to introduce my colleagues to “tips for a good teacher.” The school administration introduces you to them when you start working. I believe that there is a lot of good advice here that I have taken for my teaching career.
- Treat the student kindly and do not discuss issues of morality, politics, or religion with him one-on-one.
- Speak correct English, both in the classroom and on the street.
- Help students achieve knowledge through practical examples from life. Don't lecture them. Never give lessons on just grammar or formal rules.
- Teach lessons in a conversational format (i.e., questions and answers).
- During a conversation with a student, give him the opportunity to lead the conversation in a percentage of 50% - he; 50% - you.
- Do one thing, don't take on several at once.
- Never ask a question with the assumption that it will be difficult for the student to answer.
- Never force a student to read or do an exercise if he has not mastered it well orally.
- Never ask a student: “Did you understand?” It’s better to test his knowledge through questions.
- Avoid monotony in questions and answers.
- Talk to students as equals as worthy interlocutors.
- Never interrupt a student's response.
- Never say, “I don’t know.” Instead, say, “Let’s finish this” or “We’ll talk about this in the next lesson.” Give yourself the opportunity to find answers to all students' questions.
- Be proud of your profession, be a professional.
I also noticed what the teachers wrote on the board with markers. What is written is easily erased; in the corner of the classroom there is a device for sharpening pencils.
During my studies, I had the opportunity to purchase books, dictionaries, and various educational posters to decorate my office at school.
The purchase costs in the amount of $100 were reimbursed by the organization that hosted us. I try to apply everything that I saw and learned in lessons on the topic “Welcome to America!”
A Russian proverb says: “It is better to see once than to hear 100 times.” I saw and am very glad that my impressions, my knowledge of US regional studies diversified the lessons, made them more interesting and vibrant. Many photographs, a video film, a lot of impressions, addresses of friends - all this will remain in my memory for a long time.
