A Great Experience...

I was a part of the RAEL program and teaching the workers English was one of the best experiences I’ve had. I definitely underestimated teaching and the skills required to effectively teach students. It takes patience and communication skills. The biggest challenge was getting the students to understand what we were saying if we were giving directions or if we were trying to teach a lesson. We had to make sure they understood the meaning of the words we were trying to teach them or the rules of the English language but we had to make sure that the information we were teaching them was being taught in a way that was appealing to them so that they would enjoy the lessons. The class I had was a basic level class- I along with 2 others taught this class. Another challenge we faced was the fact that even though they were basic level English, they were all still on different levels of basic English. Some students didn’t even know the alphabet and others could somewhat read and write but only words not complete sentences and their grammar was at a very basic level. So what we did was split them up into 2 groups in the class. We had one group that didn’t know the alphabet and the rest that could form words made up the other group. I was teaching the group that could form words and so I focused on their grammar and getting them to read, write and understand sentences. Our first few weeks we spent working on greetings and talking and communicating with others in written and spoken form. Then we went into writing and vocabulary. They were quick learners and they were always willing to learn. They participated in class and sometimes I would write a word on the board and they would take notes without me having to say anything. There came a point where we realized that we should make the lessons more “fun” instead of the worksheets and writing on the board we always did so we decided to play English games and watch English movies with them. They enjoyed this and made me realize that teaching doesn’t always have to be a lesson with set and structured notes, nor does it have to be quizzes and tests. Teaching can be games, as long as they are learning it can be enjoyable and they probably learn more when they enjoy what they are learning. One of the best parts of this experience is the fact that we got to teach CMU workers and now every time I pass by one of my students in the hallway I greet them and they greet me.