On Tuesday November,12th I taught my first English class!!!
Prior to the class I was super nervous. I had to teach the students numbers up to 10,000 and have them able to ask how much an item of clothing is. For each class you teach you have to come up with a lesson plan, probably the most annoying thing so far about teaching, however it is very useful. Without a lesson plan I would have had no idea what I was doing or what I was going to do. Writing a lesson plan, especially for the first time proved to be very difficult. It was hard to come up with activities and it was also hard to find a way to connect each activity so the lesson would run smoothly. Luckily, I had some help from Josh, a previous TEFL student and one of my new friends who is staying at the lodge. The class I taught is considered beginner A, it is the second lowest TEFL class that can be taught, the lowest is Introduction.
I really enjoyed teaching, it was fun. While I was at the beginning of the lesson, I became more comfortable as the lesson progressed. The most difficult thing I found was trying not to talk too fast. When speaking to the class it is important to take a short pause between words and between sentences. I did a decent job taking pauses between words, but I struggled with pausing between sentences because it is something I am so unfamiliar with. Another thing I need to work on is word choice. Because I am so use to speaking with native English speakers, I sometimes found myself starting to say something and then quickly changing it to something they would understand. Overall, I think my first time teaching went really well. It was an important step toward my future of becoming a teacher.
Congrats!