Anonymous

Skills

- Able to adapt existing educational materials to ensure they are suitable for varying language levels in the classroom, and adapt them to match examination standards. - Able to design original materials to deliver relevant and engaging lessons that will benefit student engagement. - Able to use E-Learning tools to support learning in and out of the classroom. - Able to work cohesively in a team with other staff members, collaborating to share information and concerns about struggling students to ensure student progression is prioritised. - Able to communicate with students from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, as well as language ability. - Able to deliver online and face-to-face lessons that are effective for student progression, building on existing student knowledge. - Able to conduct, mark and provide detailed feedback on mock and real examinations. Provided clear feedback that prioritises what will specifically increase a students grade. - Able to schedule meetings with students to discuss progression, provide advice and offer support. - Actively inputs examination data, writes up student reports and takes note of any student concerns, discussing them with the relevant course coordinator.

About

The majority of my teaching experience has consisted of exam preparation, particularly on pre-sessional courses and IELTs preparation courses. I have taught both in classrooms and online, utilising E-learning environments such as Moodle, Google Classroom, Padlet etc. to provide students with well designed, easily accessible learning materials that they can access both in and out of the classroom. For example, during my online lessons during one of the pre-sessional courses with MMU, I often used Padlet as a shared working space for students to collaborate and submit a piece of written work, and then provide each other some feedback using the marking criteria. This pushed students to act as the examiner and consider what the marking criteria requires of them. During my time on the IELTs preparation course, I taught two mixed classes of varying ability and nationalities. This challenged me to adapt the provided textbook exercises to not only be engaging, but also appropriate for all the language levels in the class. Again, the utilisation of E-learning materials was useful in these scenarios, as the Padlet feedback method was an effective homework task, and quizzes on platforms such as Kahoot were a fun but easy way to recap previously learned materials, and allowed me to include some questions appropriate for multiple language levels. Experimenting with different types of learning tools allowed me to adapt my teaching style and materials, and provide feedback to the course curriculum. Not only have my previous roles allowed me to develop my material creation skills, but it has also provided me with experience in conducting examinations, marking and providing feedback to students under intense deadlines. Particularly on the pre-sessional courses, which were rather intense regarding marking, providing detailed feedback and learning what to prioritise to help the student develop and succeed in their exams effectively was a key skill. A lot of this experience came from collaborating with other staff, listening to their advice and observing the feedback they provided and how they prioritised the student needs. This collaboration and the opportunities for observation also allowed us to identify students that needed additional support, and we did this through keeping a log of student reports and concerns. Perhaps my biggest achievement during my career has been consistently developing a fantastic rapport with students on my courses, regardless of the cultural, linguistic and ethnic background of the students. One course I taught consisted of Turkish Ministers and refugee students of varying nationalities. As a class, we developed a friendly, warm learning environment where students communicated in English to exchange culture, food and make friends with one another. Overall, my experience as a teacher of English as a foreign language has made me committed to improving my standards of teaching. I often seek out advice from my senior fellow staff members and strive to improve my teaching to ensure I can deliver the best possible standard of education for my students.