Mebane, North Carolina TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

The unit began with an overview of ways a teacher can communicate with behavior -- voice, eye contact, and gesture. Then, we moved to class arrangements. First, the unit addressed ways that students can work, ie. as a class, as individuals, as pairs, and in small groups. Both benefits and drawbacks of these different styles were addressed. I did feel that the sections on working as a whole class missed that students can feel "lost in the crowd" during these sorts of lessons. In my albeit limited experience thus far, students can't just "tune out" or fall asleep during other forms of group work, but they often just let the other students do all the talking when work is done as a whole class. I appreciated the information about seating arrangements, as my current position does not allow me to experiment with seating arrangements. But, maybe, that's not bad! Then, the unit addressed writing on the board, with suggestions on how to reduce time with your back turned to the students. After a short segment on giving individual attention, the unit discussed teacher talking time (TTT) and student talking time (STT). There are reasons that teacher talking time is important, for instance as a model of English for the students and for feedback, but obviously the goal is to increase student talking time. Finally, the unit discussed maintaining discipline and the issues that may arise as well as the constraints which teachers must remember they are working within.