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Each of us has our own story to tell especially with the different experiences that we have with the different people, classes, and countries we have been in order to teach. In this summative task, I am discussing some of the topics which are related to my personal teaching experience which include, teaching classes containing a wide variety of ages, it will also touch about the teaching styles, roles of the teacher in the classroom and how I motivate students to reach that level of interest to make the learning more fun and engaging. Teaching classes having a wide variety of ages is quite challenging and exciting on my part. Challenging in a way that I have to be more creative in executing my lessons in such a way that my students would enjoy learning. I have to be more flexible from teaching young learners to adults. Actually, I currently teach in this kind of set up here in Japan. At first, it was kind of hard for me because I used to teach junior and college students when I was in the Philippines and their age gap is not that far, but in my present job, I teach from pre-school students to adult students. It is really exciting on my part because I am able to learn and use different teaching styles. It is also exciting because I am learning different ways of motivating students and my roles as a teacher also changes to the type of students I am handling. For pre-school kids, I always take the role of being a controller and as a participant in such a way that I am in complete charge of the class, what kids do, what they say and how they say it. As a teacher, I assume this role when I teach the kids new language and how to accurately reproduce it while giving them a lot of time to practice and enjoy what is being taught. I also play as a mother for them to let them feel that they are loved and well taken care of. With junior students and adult classes I usually take the roles of being a controller, prompter, resource, assessor, organizer, participant, and as a tutor. The difference depends on the level and the type of lessons to give. For Junior High School students, the curriculum includes developing all the major skills in English, however in the adult classes which I handle; it solely depends on what kind of English they want to learn. In my case, I teach adult Business English classes and Snapshots which include daily conversation series to help clients/ students socialize and interact in natural conversations with native speakers. The other reason why I find teaching classes with wide variety of ages exciting is, because I may be able to shift my personality from young to adult way, and I also have that chance to review the basic of English and strengthen my foundation to better improve my English skills and teaching strategies in a different group. Teaching is learning twice. I learned from the kids and adults and vice versa. Speaking of the teaching styles, teaching classes with a wide variety of ages also vary. In here, there are factors to be considered which include, age, number of students in the class (which is in my case I mostly have private lessons with adult clients and three to five maximum students in junior classes) and what type of activities am I going to give based on the need of the students and the target objective for the day. When it comes to motivating students, I always see to it that they are having FUN in the learning process, for I believe that as we are enjoying with what we are doing, the higher the chance to learn more and easier.
