It’s been a while since I’ve been in the formal role of “teacher” or “educator” in a classroom setting and to ease back into the theory and practice I welcomed the opportunity to watch videos of a highly-engaging Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) educator named Tanya Cowie.
I was impressed with the variety and number of activities Tanya integrated in to the lesson. She brought props for real-life situations which aided in the students’ comprehension of vocabulary as they could envision using the vocabulary outside of the classroom. To further enforce the learning, when new words were introduced she wrote them on the board, highlighted the number of syllables, and pointed to the items within the classroom. To me this demonstrates that the teacher is extremely invested in the learning of their students. The amount of time and energy invested in this lesson by Tanya is exemplary and it was apparent that the students were acquiring the vocabulary and communication. At the end of the lesson Tanya integrated an exit activity that reinforced the learning that took place within the lesson.
Teaching in a TESL classroom is different from teaching a subject in English. I knew this coming into the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TESL program, but it was when watching Tanya’s videos that this really began to hit home for me. The amount of effort Tanya put into each and every component of the lesson is astonishing and the way in which she was able to pivot to the changing needs of the classroom throughout the lesson is admirable. Students responded to every question she asked, and were even quickly writing down words and phrases in order to ensure they captured each component of the vocabulary. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the class was focused on adult literacy, or perhaps it was due to the high motivation levels of the students in the class. I look forward to exploring and learning more in the observations to come.