I would definitely say that I was nervous about having to videotape me teaching, but I cannot say that I expected things to go anything at all like they did.
To prepare for this day, I worked on a lesson that would hopefully improve the students’ pronunciation. I own a book “Pronunciation Contrasts in English” and it has not only minimal pairs, but phonological information as well as a small sampling of languages that would have more trouble with any particular contrast. Using this book, I made a spreadsheet and eventually whittled down the content to a manageable ten contrasting consonant sounds. After doing three of them in class, I was afraid that I would totally lose the majority if I continued.
I knew I had to prepare something, even without the video assignment because the actual teacher, Rocío, was away at a conference. I did not know, however, that a co-worker of hers would be filling in for her. Here, I would like to point out that if you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all…
Following the whole class pronunciation fiasco, we split into three groups like we normally do. During this semester, I have been working with the advanced group. This would not have been good film, so “the fates,” or “destiny,” or whatever you want to call it had me work with the beginners. I had no idea where they were in their book, which they had just started using this semester. As is evident on the video, I am not entirely sure that they did either.
Watching myself on the video was a somewhat awkward experience. Maybe it would be better to say that I was watching myself be awkward on the video. After seeing what I look like interacting with the students, I feel like I could work on my classroom management skills. Conversely, I also feel like not being so authoritarian contributes to an overall positive affect in the classroom. These are not mutually exclusive, plus, with these being adult students, I think a delicate balance is the answer.
I think that one of my biggest strengths is my positive attitude. I keep smiling and laughing while using my sense of humor to engage students and (hopefully) keep class more enjoyable. In my experience, class is infinitely more fun and interesting when the teacher wants to be there and actually likes teaching.
I believe that one aspect of my teaching that needs improvement is my ability to stay focused. When covering certain areas of English, I find myself providing too many examples or too many exceptions to the rule. I need to focus on covering the topic and making sure that this particular concept is grasped before I start piling on more information.
After watching the video, I feel that how I view myself teaching is pretty similar to what was actually on the video. (I did not realize, however, how much background noise there is in class). It seemed like so many things were going awry that day: Rocío wasn’t there, her “fill-in” wanted things her way, we ran out of coffee cups, we didn’t have our normal snack food (because Rocío brings it), the door that has the extra tables and chairs was not unlocked for us, and I worked with a different group than usual. Despite all the things that go wrong and all the problems or issues that arise in the future, I will be able to adapt and improvise workable solutions.
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