My journey into TESL started with what I felt was a failure on my part. I taught a term position in math and had two students from China that haunted me in my thoughts the entire summer break. They sat in the corner, (self) isolated and exhausted. They were excellent in their computations, and probably expected math to be a place of strength. However, they were confused about what was expected and frustrated with trying to communicate.
I tried various methods to reach them, and developed a relationship with them, solely because they generously saw I wanted to help. We made a little progress, but the feeling I could have done better for those girls and others in my classes really rankled. After some self research, I decided taking the TESL program would improve my knowledge and skills.
When you grow up speaking a language, you don’t really think about the mechanics very much, until you are forced to, usually in school. It’s like you are a savant, you “know”, but you don’t understand why and can’t describe what you do to produce the language properly. This is similar to a “natural athlete” who can’t coach because they can’t break down and describe the technical aspects of the skill. I found out that’s one of the areas I need to improve on in order to successfully teach ELL.
Anything I learned formerly about the mechanics of English and meta-language associated with it are no longer accessible to me. I’ll need to brush up on the more esoteric terms in grammar a good deal before I feel confident on the content. That would not be helpful to my two inspirational math students, but in the long run, will enable me to teach a wider variety of students.
Assessment is another area of the TESL Foundations course that made me pause and think. It is my unwavering belief that assessment should be FOR LEARNING, not for the purpose of the system. (Yes, I’m an idealist and I’m aware all caps is yelling. That needs to be yelled!) Yet, I am painfully aware that we have standards tests and thereare legitimate reasons for the tests. To be trite, nobody wants the surgeon who didn’t pass the test operating on them.
I have serious objections with assigning a number mark to students, because it does not further their understanding. People who see a number or letter think they know what it means, but they almost certainly do not. That letter/percent does not tell you what a person absorbed, how they learned or what they can actually do. Such marks are for systemic reasons, not for people.
Still, we have to contend with these tests and marks because that’s how it has always been done, and at the end of the day, I am an employee as well as an educator. I’m still working this out. Part of it has to do with teaching student how to “play” within the system and part of this is helping student understand that their wonderful, complex learning can never be summed up as a number. (To be continued!)
Finally, the electronic package this all comes wrapped up in: technology! This course, for me at least, could have been accurately titled “Introduction to Techology and Social Media in English Language Learning”. The course was given online, so technology is a given in the design. I had to learn the quirks and qualities of the U of M Learn system. One thing that was a bit of a hurdle is that I had only an iPad rather than a personal computer, which caused a few issues I needed to navigate.
My equipment issues aside, there were high expectations in terms of ability to navigate numerous platforms: Google documents, Photos and Drive (which require a Gmail account) were necessary for uploading on to UM Learn and group projects, as well as Blogger. We were required to join Tutela, Zotero, Twitter and Fligrid, create an About Me profile and engage on the discussion boards in the first week. Recording an audio or video, a screencast, a digital quiz on Kahoot, Quizlet or similar, and a Pecha Kucha. (That’s a minimum of 15 for those keeping score at home, haha. More if you wanted to look at other peoples digital quizzes and comment, as required.)
These probably came easier to people who were previously in online course or who are digital natives. I can say it’s very helpful to have learned the Google applications, I previously had only used a Microsoft version of the same type of thing. The different educational apps are always interesting. Twitter proved to be a surprisingly useful resource. So I am very thankful for that part, for sure. I keep reminding myself learning takes place outside the comfort zone. I’m proud of myself for that and glad the course pushed me into it.
However, I did and still do have reservations about being involved in the more social platforms. In fact, it led me to also stop participating in a couple of social platforms I previously used. Part of it is concerns about privacy or it’s lack for participants in a class. Mainly, it’s just not how I want to spend the very little free time I have.
The high degree of technology did however, clarify my thinking about use of technology in the classroom. It’s a tool. As with all tools, it should be used to help, mainly to remove barriers, like distance, time constraints, access to information and the like. It should not create barriers. For some of my underprivileged students, extensive technology would pose problems as its cost means they cannot access it. So my tests on whether to use technology are now: Does everyone have access? Is the probability of improving learning worth the time invested and/or possible risk? Is the technology integral to the learning or motivation? Are there alternatives to using it? What’s my back up?
Seven more courses to go.
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