It is always interesting to say the least whenever you get used to doing something and then you have to change your role. After teaching for a full 2 years non-stop, coming back to uni feels... weird. Like if I had gone back in time, but not really?
This Wednesday we had a presentation in class - nothing much, it was supposed to last around 5 minutes. Like I said in my last blog post, I've been teaching for a while, so you would say one gets used to having an audience in that context. A class full of 20, 30 students? Sure! Bring it on! Teacher mode: activated.
The thing is, in this case, you're not the teacher anymore - you are talking to your peers, you have a teacher evaluating your work. Here come the nerves, the shaking, the "will I do it right?". For me, something that really helped ease into it was the context for the presentation: we had to explain a methodology using a methodology. Basically, we had to see our classmates as our students for those 5 minutes.
Our group talked about Total Physical Response. This is a methodology created by Dr James Asher, based on how children learn they native language. Basically, they learn vocabulary by associating it with gestures or movements (if you're interested, you can check out this article from the British Council!). We made our whole class of grown adults play Simon Says. It was a sight to behold! Another group taught us about the Audio-lingual method by repeating a tongue twister and a short conversation, others had prepared a Kahoot. I genuinely think everyone had a great time.
So, here we are, most of us already with teaching experience, back in the role of students in order to become teachers.
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