Mgr. Bronislava Kořená 9/2019, Brno Nicola Catherine Fořtova, B.A., M.A. MY TEACHING PORTFOLIO 1 Abstrakt Tato práce „Mé učitelské portfolio" je rozdělena do dvou hlavních částí. První teoretická část popisuje autorčiny zkušenosti s „vyučováním" a shrnuje její hlavní poznatky a přesvědčení. Druhá část se zaměřuje na praktická cvičení, která autorka ve výuce používá. Abstract This final piece of work "My teaching portfolio" is divided in two main parts. The first theoretical part describes the author's experience with teaching and summarises her main findings and beliefs. The second part focuses on practical exercises, which the author uses in her classes. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Theory of teaching 3 2.1 Observing the theory of teaching as a student 3 2.2 Observing the theory of teaching as a teacher 5 2.3 My teaching principles and beliefs 6 3 Practice 9 3.1 Pronunciation 9 3.2 Grammar 12 3.3 Vocabulary 14 3.4 Speaking 17 3.5 Writing 20 3.6 Listening 20 3.7 Reading 23 4. Summary 24 5. References 24 2 1. Introduction This final piece of work introduces my history of learning how to deal with my students, catch their attention and support them in studying. I started studying „teaching" as a student and I continue doing it till now as an English teacher. My work also includes my main teaching beliefs and principles and describes some practical activities that are working well with students of English as they develop their four skills and help them to understand the basic systems. 2. Theory of teaching 2.1 Observing the theory of teaching as a student I am one of those students who were looking forward to starting their school years. I enjoyed the smell of books, packing my schoolbag and the satisfying feeling when having finished my homework. At the beginning I did not perceive „school" as something obligatory but amusing. I liked watching my teachers teaching us and giving us marks and then I copied their acting at home. I learnt everything via pretending to be a teacher. I had my little class full of teddy bears and it was my mission to teach them well about animals, seas, letters and numbers in a way they would enjoy and understand. I understood going to school and learning as a natural part of my life. The great change came when I started studying at the local grammar school. I started to feel a kind of a pressure from our teachers. Suddenly there was no time to teach my teddies and I had to sit down at the desk and find the fastest way to learn great amount of terms and numbers. I felt like a memorizing machine. After each exam I could forget all gained information as I would not need them and learn another even greater portion of inputs. There was no time to think why I was learning those names and years or realize how they were connected, what their context was. I started to perceive "school" as something obligatory rather than amusing. 3 I suffered mainly because I did not understand the context, I did not see the interconnectivity between our school subjects, how I could apply them in my future. I studied like a robot. I did not study to discover how the nature works or to understand the acting of humans during the centuries. I studied to success in my exams. We were the "Meotar" generation. When I was a student so called overhead projectors were very popular. Most of our teachers used them to display the whole content of their lessons on the wall and we had to put down these texts quickly and memorize them later. Our teachers were satisfied with themselves because they prepared effective well-structured lessons with no errors from their side and they always finished on time. But did they think about our neck pain?! I have the visual memory when I see something, it is much easier for me to understand how it works. Unfortunately, most of our teachers did not use various sources to enrich their standard lessons. They would not show us many pictures or would take us to galleries, museums or just do a quick tour of the town to show us different types of architecture. I know, I know, very time-consuming. If there was homework to create something, I always loved it. I let my fantasy fly and enjoyed the process of creating something extraordinary at least in my opinion. How disappointed I felt when I discovered that my master piece was not accepted. My teachers preferred more down-to-earth products and would squeeze you so you could fit into their box. I would like to also introduce a couple of teachers I liked and whose methods provided an inspiration for my future teaching: One teacher taught us via telling stories. History in her presentation was the longest-running soap opera ever. We were always looking forward to the next lesson to find out the end of the story. Our biology teacher was an extraordinary man, he managed to open a biology classroom full of small animals like rabbits, birds and insects etc. Since this grand opening learning about animals was not something virtual but real as you could watch them and see their daily needs. There was one teacher whose subject I did not enjoy very much. Her presentation was boring, her subject was boring, anything about her or her subject was boring. BUT getting good marks was relatively easy as she provided us with well-structured lessons that made us clear what the most important information was. She was very organized, and her teaching method was based on rules and systems so you could never get lost. All above stated teaching methods have influenced me, shaped my attitude to teaching and helped me to evolve into a liberal teacher whose mission is to try to break the authoritative standards in teaching and promote the individual approach to students. 2.2 Observing the theory of teaching as a teacher I started my teaching career at the age of 20. Finishing the first year of studying the English language at the Faculty of Art successfully made me dare to ask for a job as an English teacher. My only client was a lady in her 40s. I applied all gained experience when I was a student to her and it worked! We dealt with the grammar as long as it was necessary, intensively revised. We discussed her favourite topics and we laughed! Her main goal was to learn the English language, so we did. I thought I was able to teach so I kept on teaching individual lessons. After two years I accepted a job as a secondary English teacher at a nursing school. That was a considerable change. I had 15 teenage individuals at once instead of one adult. I had a pack of children with no motivation instead of one sophisticated person who knew why they needed to learn languages. I had a school year plan full of topics and grammar tasks to be completed within 9 months instead of a plan of "I want to speak English one day." I did not give up as I knew that my teaching methods had worked with individuals, I just need to apply them on a larger and different age groups. I went through my memories when I was at their age. I remembered that I hated when my teachers treated me like a child. They did not accept my young extravagant ideas and considered being different to be weird. I had poor motivation for learning difficult subjects as my teachers' answer "you might need it for your job" was not satisfactory enough. I commemorated teachers with no sense of humour or ability to surprise us. 5 To catch their full attention, I needed to imagine myself being in their shoes. I promised to make them feel accepted and to be dealt with as equal partners including keeping the rules. I realized that they must enjoy their lesson and be an active part of it. I shall not forget to listen to their needs and promote their ideas not mine. My general teaching methods were based on my personal trial and errors. I never received any special education in training until I started the DPS course in Brno which was a new and strong impulse in my teaching evolution. It made me revise my previous methods and improve them or even change them. 2.3 My teaching principles and beliefs 2.3.1 General teaching principles and beliefs My general teaching principles and beliefs are based on my own experience as a learner and a as teacher. When teaching I always imagine myself being a student and ask myself: • What would help me to learn this? • How do I want my teacher to communicate with me? Answering these above-mentioned questions helps me to create lessons that are tailored for students with individual needs and realize my job is to give a basic impulse to my students that would lead to greater achievement of theirs (Vygotsky's ZPD). I would like to introduce the main general teaching principles and beliefs I apply in my classes that are a combination of different approaches and theories of teaching and learning: • To prepare a successful lesson plan with appropriate activities I need to understand my students' learning needs: EDUCARE? (Petty, Geoff) Explanation: the students need to know what and why they are going to do.