Today, Kathy and I began two days of team teaching focused on ITELS Writing. Working with another TRU TESL Teacher has been an enjoyable experience as it provides an opportunity to discuss and plan our approaches to lessons. At first, when assigned to a team teaching experience I was nervous and tentative as I prefer to work independently, on my own time, and at my own pace. Over the past couple weeks it’s proven an effective and supportive way to approach the practicum experience.
Over the past couple of weeks, Kathy and I have created a wonderful bond. Early on we took time to get to know each other and the reasons we chose to enrol in the TESL program. To my surprise we have a number of similar reasons and have often joked about our desire to pack our bags and head to Japan to teach English. This common drive and understanding of each other as individual teachers has benefited our team teaching experience.
After our successful lessons last week, Kathy and I were excited to start the next two lessons. The opening lesson focused on introducing the IELTS Writing Task #1 while the second lesson focuses on breaking down the task into separate chunks to provide students with an opportunity to focus writing. This first lesson ended with providing students with twenty minutes to write a complete answer; an answer that would be used to reflect back on the following week to compare and identify writing progression.
While overall the first lesson went quite well as many students participated through engaging in the online chat or turning on their cameras and/or microphones, I did note a high amount of “teacher talk” taking place. Working in this online environment can be challenging. In times of uneasiness or silence we often revert to an approach where the teacher talks and students listen. Kathy and I have brainstormed ways in which to more engage students in the lesson and I’m looking forward to trying new techniques in the coming weeks.