TEFL Poy Sippi Wisconsin

Through this course I have learned how to write clear lesson plans and how to structure lessons in a way that encourages motivation and learning, by effectively using warmer, engage, study and activate phases. By actively writing lesson plans I have been able to get a lot of ideas for activities from the course, as well as come up with my own ideas that I will use in the classroom. I found the unit on effective use of equipment very useful as I have previously not had much experience with equipment and I feel I will now be prepared to use overhead projectors, video, computers, video cameras and dictionaries effectively to complement course books and worksheets, if given their availability. Knowing how to perform an effective 'needs analysis' and how to use it to plan a course syllabus will be a valuable skill that I can use if I gain employment in private training, business english and even adult education. I now also feel better able to develop placement tests and methods to determine the level and progress of students, which is important in public school situations where students are at different levels. The suggestions on how to handle mixed classes are very sound, several of which I have already been using. I have learned a lot of useful points about classroom management, especially ideas to manage large classes and to deal with discipline in the classroom. I plan to use some of the warmer exercises and the strategies for large groups, such as appointing group leaders, choral drilling and pairing stronger and weaker students together to help bridge the gap between differing abilities. Unit 19 has sound valuable suggestions about how to identify the cause of problem behaviour so that I can then address it though attention, consistency and increasing motivation among students. All of the units on grammar were very useful to me, since as a native speaker I often don't even notice the rules and exceptions, they just come naturally. By describing the rules and uses and planning lessons around the grammar points, I feel much better equipped to teach them and to understand the difficulties that learners may have in grasping them. I feel more confident in writing worksheets and tests that will help to consolidate language points and demonstrate students' progress. I hope to learn the skills that will help me to teach children by completing the young learners course.