shadowed
Tuesday morning a couple of other Assistant Language Teachers in my area came to watch me teach, supposedly to get ideas about teaching for their own schools. Our lesson was supposed to be a normal one, nothing special, ignoring the visitors as much as possible (previous shadowing experiences have included the visitors as subsitute teachers for a day).
I was nervous about it; it was one 2-hour class, what if my Japanese Teacher of English was completely useless, or nervous, or what if the kids were brats or wouldn’t speak? I needn’t have worried, it went very well.
I have to admit, I set things up a little. First, I requested that the shadowing be held on a Tuesday when I teach with my potentially best JTE, and with the class that I have bonded with most. I also wrote a lesson plan, something I don’t usually do (bad, bad slacker ALT) but I figured would help my co-teacher relax a bit.
Whatever the reason, the day was blessed and the lesson went off without a hitch, and, more importantly to me–since this was not so much about showing off perfection as showing a regular (albeit hopefully good) lesson–I got great feedback.
Seriously, they said such nice things about me I rode the high for the rest of the day. Besides the hot air and warm fuzzies, which I cherished, the shadowers also gave me some ideas and pointers about my teaching style and things I can improve, which I very much appreciated.
The lack of feedback is one thing about this job that has been very difficult for me. Good lesson or bad lesson, good plan or no plan, I never hear back about how I’m doing. I’ve pretty much taught myself everything I know, based on student response, because even when a lesson goes badly off track or I’m standing there floundering, most co-teachers will only ever regard me with silent appraisal? amusement? confusion? thinking about lunch? like I’m an alien that dropped from the sky.
They will NOT, under any circumstances, offer even constructive criticism, and it’s something I desperately needed. So, to have someone pay attention and evaluate with an ear toward my improvement filled a void, and that it went so well just made my week.
To top it off, when I returned to my desk from seeing the visitors off, there was, like a vision in a dream, a bag full of ingredients for Mexican eats* sitting there, next to a little lunch bag with three pieces of homemade cake**. No really. We’re not even talking about how things could have been more perfect. Did I mention it was a great day?
*From an American teacher in Kansas, who visited our school with her exchange students and had me for company in our corner of the staffroom.
**From a teacher who felt the delicious need to repay my previously given omiyage with cake.
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