Dear Colleagues,
Hope all must be in good spirit.
It is really unbelievable that we have completed 6 weeks in the course on Web-skills.
Courtney is opening her lessons one by one and putting us into new areas of teaching.
This week's topics have allowed us a little time to breathe and reflect on our project.
I was a bit exhausted in my examination assignments. Made myself free and I thus began to dream about my blog-post. Here is my new post:
I have used the flashback technique to narrate my experience as an English teacher. I went back to my post-MA days, when I was too young to handle a large class of 150 students-really notorious and unruly studying commerce and having little interest in English language.
I completed my MA with English literature, as a fresh university graduate with a lot of dreams in eyes to achieve higher goals and taste SUCCESS in all possible ways.I got the first job in a degree college in my home-district of Odisha, the eastern state of India on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. I joined as the eleventh and the most-junior colleague in the English department of the college.
I was asked by my Head of the department to teach English language to the commerce graduates.
I entered into the classroom and found 150 students sitting before me in the gallery sitting with blank eyes and no texts. They looked at me with excitement but I could see a feeling of mischief in their eyes too.
It was a mixed feeling and I began to deliver lecture with the two basic aids: chalk and a huge black-board on the wall. The method of teaching is popularly called "chalk-and-talk" method, or more commonly, the lecture method.I was absolutely made assured soon that my lecture is going out of the students' mind.I was feeling helpless and searching for new ways how to deal with them and my core subject in order to make myself a successful teacher and popular too among my young undergraduates.
Now after two decades, I use laptop, projector, white-board and marker-pen for imparting lessons.
The number of students remains the same in India, but the multimedia has been a blessing in disguise to all teachers.
The twenty-first century teachers have learnt how to make use of the modern gadgets inside the classroom.
The freely available/downloadable materials on the WWW and the back-up facilities in the class make the learning of modern students interesting as well as enlightening.
The word "Infotainment" as a blend of two words-Information and Entertainment-has become the KEY to Success for all teachers including the English language ones also. Now I do a little search on the Net and prepare some power-point presentations before entering into the class. The students expect some audio-visual presentations from us and I try to fulfill their desire. The class-room becomes an interactive one in order to prove itself as a language class-room, unlike the traditional class-room of my teachers who used to lecture a lot and we were left as passive listeners and note-takers without any chance to ask or respond in the class room. The teachers were respected as learned professors, not to be asked anything by us. What a change and what a new scenario after a gap of twenty years!
Hence I have become a university professor teaching post-graduates as a teacher-trainer using multimedia, not merely chalk and mouth/self-voice only.
Hope all my colleagues would give their comments on this post of mine, though a bit autobiographical.
However, the topic is relevant and forces us to ponder over and find out the solutions along with an awareness of challenges.
Best wishes to all, because in India we have now a festive season, namely Happy Deepawali, when we light the lamps and burn fire-crackers to drive away darkness, evil forces and bring success as well as happiness.
Sincerely,
Mahesh
Hope all must be in good spirit.
It is really unbelievable that we have completed 6 weeks in the course on Web-skills.
Courtney is opening her lessons one by one and putting us into new areas of teaching.
This week's topics have allowed us a little time to breathe and reflect on our project.
I was a bit exhausted in my examination assignments. Made myself free and I thus began to dream about my blog-post. Here is my new post:
I have used the flashback technique to narrate my experience as an English teacher. I went back to my post-MA days, when I was too young to handle a large class of 150 students-really notorious and unruly studying commerce and having little interest in English language.
I completed my MA with English literature, as a fresh university graduate with a lot of dreams in eyes to achieve higher goals and taste SUCCESS in all possible ways.I got the first job in a degree college in my home-district of Odisha, the eastern state of India on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. I joined as the eleventh and the most-junior colleague in the English department of the college.
I was asked by my Head of the department to teach English language to the commerce graduates.
I entered into the classroom and found 150 students sitting before me in the gallery sitting with blank eyes and no texts. They looked at me with excitement but I could see a feeling of mischief in their eyes too.
It was a mixed feeling and I began to deliver lecture with the two basic aids: chalk and a huge black-board on the wall. The method of teaching is popularly called "chalk-and-talk" method, or more commonly, the lecture method.I was absolutely made assured soon that my lecture is going out of the students' mind.I was feeling helpless and searching for new ways how to deal with them and my core subject in order to make myself a successful teacher and popular too among my young undergraduates.
Now after two decades, I use laptop, projector, white-board and marker-pen for imparting lessons.
The number of students remains the same in India, but the multimedia has been a blessing in disguise to all teachers.
The twenty-first century teachers have learnt how to make use of the modern gadgets inside the classroom.
The freely available/downloadable materials on the WWW and the back-up facilities in the class make the learning of modern students interesting as well as enlightening.
The word "Infotainment" as a blend of two words-Information and Entertainment-has become the KEY to Success for all teachers including the English language ones also. Now I do a little search on the Net and prepare some power-point presentations before entering into the class. The students expect some audio-visual presentations from us and I try to fulfill their desire. The class-room becomes an interactive one in order to prove itself as a language class-room, unlike the traditional class-room of my teachers who used to lecture a lot and we were left as passive listeners and note-takers without any chance to ask or respond in the class room. The teachers were respected as learned professors, not to be asked anything by us. What a change and what a new scenario after a gap of twenty years!
Hence I have become a university professor teaching post-graduates as a teacher-trainer using multimedia, not merely chalk and mouth/self-voice only.
Hope all my colleagues would give their comments on this post of mine, though a bit autobiographical.
However, the topic is relevant and forces us to ponder over and find out the solutions along with an awareness of challenges.
Best wishes to all, because in India we have now a festive season, namely Happy Deepawali, when we light the lamps and burn fire-crackers to drive away darkness, evil forces and bring success as well as happiness.
Sincerely,
Mahesh
4 comments:
Hi Mera:
I got engaged of your accounts from the beginning to the end of your post. The way you give details of how you started, your progress and changes, the way teaching in classes have changed during these years have made me think of my past as well and how we have changed our methodology using whatever technology is at hand for the benefit of our students. Now with a vast number of technology tools there are available on the internet, it is a crime not to take advantge of them to help students develop their skills in learning the language. This Webskills course with Courtney leading the group has just broaden our horizons to a new dimension, giving order and improving organization when using these tools. I'm happy to hear you have made good use of technology in class and made students feel motivated combining two elements you mentioned in your post: information and entertainment. You have made a great job.
Regards
Mahesh,
Thank you for taking us back through time with your teaching experiences. You have painted a clear picture of what teaching was like for you when you began and what it has become in this advanced technological world that we all live in.
I'm so glad that week 6 inspired you to think back over the years and truly reflect on where you started and where you are now. It sounds like you have come a long way and that the attitude and approaches that you bring to your teaching benefit your students.
It was truly a pleasure to read your account! Here's to many more years of "infotaining"!!!
Dear Courtney and Xtian,
Thanks for having a look at my post and giving your valuable comments.
I like them and motivated well.
Sincerely,
Mahesh
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