I must confess I always enjoyed writing different comments and notes related to my teaching experience. I can remember when I started to keep a register of those comments and helpful notes on a notebook I religiously treasured. It happened in the early years of my teaching profession. I was not very concerned about an impeccable format. I just thought it might be helpful with the ongoing work. Moreover, I really felt it as a pleasurable activity!
I used to write e.g. on students' attitudes, the way they reacted to my interaction with them, the teacher-student relationship, the classroom environment, some of the strains of teaching, positive points of my students' learning, other challenging facts throughout the lessons.
Later, in the 1990s, I was absolutely delighted with an extraordinary Book I still recommend to all Colleagues: "Diary of a Language Teacher" by Joachim Appel. It is a personal account of his first ten years, I think, as an English language teacher. Readers are exposed to some extracts, different episodes, exploring and interpreting the experience narrated in the episodes in the light of research findings. This book tries to put language teaching into a wider educational perspective.
In fact, it was a source of inspiration for the following years of my teaching profession. Now , as a retired teacher, I regularly write on teaching and language education issues, which provides me further developmental experience on a par with an ongoing Learning.
Maria
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Hello Maria
I liked your blog entry! It links in nicely with my article on professional development in this site. As I write I see that 'writing' comes pretty high up as a choice for teachers who have voted in the poll on 'which professional path do you follow'. It is good to see that so many teachers do write about their teaching, and I am sure most of them do as you do, writing notes on their post-class impressions, not only about what worked in the class but also about the students' reactions, the challenges and the strains, as you put it.
Another unsung area of writing is that of lesson plans. A piece of advice I wish I had received as a novice teacher is to keep a file of all the good ideas I used in class, with the aim of perhaps one day putting them all into a coursebook, thereby becoming a rich and famous coursebook writer. Don't we all think, many times in the year, that we could have written that unit better ourselves?
Jenny
Hello Jenny,
Thank you very much indeed for taking your time on reading my blog entry.
I feel very honoured to have you here encouraging our activity, and we all certainly enrich ourselves through your suggestions, your viewpoints, your expertise. It's also amazing your wide work experience, having delivered many conference papers in Britain, Ireland, US, Greece and Spain! I guess you must be very busy preparing one further paper for 2009 Cardiff IATEL Conference. I look forward to visiting the Cardiff Online Website. I believe it will be an added value to our personal and professional development.
As you certainly know, APPI will be hosting the Annual Conference in Lisbon(on 30th April, 1st/2nd May) focusing on this main theme: "The English classroom revisited". It would be great if we could meet by then! Think about it.
Best wishes,
Maria
Dear Maria,
Thank you for your post. I will read the book that you suggested. Indeed, having a diary can help me reflect on the development of my teaching skills.
Nahla
Dear Nahla,
Welcome to our blog! :) I am so pleased to meet you. Thanks for your interest in our suggestion!
I guess you are so dynamic and very much committed to your professional tasks.
As you have mentioned in your profile, teaching literature is one of your interest areas. Well, why not joining in here the ELT Online Reading Group? :) Therein you could participate by reading, interpreting, and exchanging your views on short stories and poems regularly posted. You could combine your pleasure of reading with expanding your knowledge about literary works , and interacting with colleagues from different cultural backgrounds. Do not miss it! We also want to learn from you.
Cheers,
Maria