A teacher AND a learner

Specific methods I have experienced as a teacher or a learner

Having been a second language learner myself, I was taught partly by the traditional approach Grammar Translation Method and partly by Direct Method and Audio lingual. I remember I liked audio lingual because I could hear native speakers on the conversations and it felt very real. The grammar translation, I never liked it because it was simply boring and I could not connect it to any of our daily conversations. I also liked the drills and the repetition especially when the teacher would add real examples of daily life sentences that had a connection to each student.

I did learn a lot from all the methodologies I grew up with. For one thing, I always try to connect the content lesson with my students' personal lives. Surprisingly, when they see the connection, they feel it, they pay attention, they participate and they'll get engaged in learning. Lessons with no relevance to students will make no connection and thus we will lose our students right in front of us.

I would know if my method and approach working, when I see my students are learning. If I see engagement in class, full participation, asking and answering questions, follow up, formative and summative good grades; thus, I will know that my approach is working. If I see my students are collaborating with each other, they care about each other's learning, they search for information and use that information, If I see they are knowledgeable about their subjects and are literate, then for sure I know my methods are working. I do need to update myself with new approaches and methods in teaching languages as well. For this, I have also taken courses in Integration of Technology into Schools (ITS) at GMU and am working toward enriching my classes with tools that maximize students' learning. I will also need the support and mentoring of peer teachers and collaboration with other schools to see what is working for students in the 21 st century. We not only need to update ourselves and seek support from our co-workers but also need to be in continuous contact with parents to get to know their kids better and help them with their education.