Reflections on Training

This is kind of week late but I just wanted to do a little conclusion on Summer Institute, or training.

My first day of teaching was a mess. I was so nervous, I forgot to do part of my “introduction to new material” so I just stuck it in at the end. I didn’t even have a good grasp on the difference between the “group practice” or “independent practice.” Just a side note, I’m putting all these in quotes because in teacher land, these have all become acronyms. INM, GP, IP, CFU, EFL, TAL, etc, etc have become a part of our daily lingo. So if I drop one of these without explaining further, it’s just because we don’t even laugh at how ridiculous they sound anymore.

But yeah after that first class, I was like, eh not bad for my first time. But I was observed by my PM (almost forgot, program manager) so we debriefed that night. It was a really constructive meeting, and he said a lot of positive things. But somehow I broke down crying and pretty much didn’t stop for the rest of the night. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself, I felt like my Chinese sucked, that I wasn’t even fun or creative, and my kids probably didn’t learn anything.

Well luckily something changed because the average test grade went up 22 points between the diagnostic and the final. I know 22 sounds like a lot, but I should note a) my kids were smart, as well as angels in terms of behavior, b) their diagnostic average was 45% so they really didn’t have anywhere to go but up c) on the diagnostic a lot of kids didn’t fill out the essay even though I’m sure they understood the question and could’ve at least written something.

The Chinese teacher for my class had all the kids write letters to each teacher. Results were pretty hilarious. My favorite was the following backhanded compliment: “I think everyone likes the science teacher best, but Ms. King is my favorite.” They all also felt the need to tell me my Chinese sucks. Fair enough. But the overall sentiment was that I made English fun in a way they had never experienced before, and they liked the fact that I jumped around and danced. Teaching is a little like entertaining sometimes.

Anyway, I really felt like I had made it when I was having dinner with a friend. I was expressing concerns over potentially skewed results and nerves about teaching at placement. He stopped me and said, “Aubrey, you are an awesome teacher.” I was floored. Go tell someone they’re awesome at something.

Lots of room for improvement going forward however. I’ll write a post on my placement soon, I’m here now!