Teach English in Shandai Zhen - Huhehaote Shi — Hohhot

Personal teaching experience As a part-time swim coach and a full-time supervisor at my current job, I’m experienced in training and coaching children of all ages and also in working with adults. I have learned that to be a good coach I’d have to have patience. This job really requires me to do so. Children have really short attention span therefore when I am working with them it does get quite difficult to teach them in one session. They tend to doze off and talk about events that are irrelevant to the lesson. Constantly repeating and correcting can be hard work even if its just a one to one session. That is why patience is important and choosing to work with kids as a career, you’d have to like what you’re doing. There’s only so much we can do prevent the distractions. So I would come up with different activities for each session for different levels just so they are not bored and distracted. Ive learned that they will put all the attention to the activity if its a fun one or if were playing games. The students get excited and motivate each other which is always fun to watch. I’d come up with games that would involve each and every one of them, games in which would make the stronger swimmers help the beginner swimmers. It’s a great way to make them more comfortable with swimming without having to worry about being judged by their peers and swim class. Although games are fun and exciting, there should always be time for an educational session. When the students are able to learn and master the techniques, they will be able to be more motivated to come to practice so that they can use the strokes. I always praise my students and tell them that they did a very good job. It is always an accomplishment to me to see them move on up to the next level of swimming which is the competitive level. Knowing that they knew nothing about swimming and to be able to move up to compete is one of the best feelings as an instructor. Its very long process however but it is all worth it. Teaching myself to be patient everyday was also quite a process for me but I’ve realized that if I continue to be consistent with the way I coach my students, they will not fail and each will move every time. No child to me is un-coachable. Just getting to know my students well enough to understand their strengths and weaknesses will help overcome and difficulties. It is important for me not give up on them and I’m always thankful for being able to have the same patience everyday to help them. You will have days that are not so good and sometimes it would feel like you wouldn’t be able to get up and instruct. It is important to stay positive and coach with a clear and positive mind set so that you are able to coach your students correctly. They will not understand why you are looking the way you do when you are upset about something. Professionally, it is best to put the feelings aside and deal with them later at an appropriate time. Same goes for my other job as a supervisor at a coffee shop. Id have to work with college students and adults. This is where also having patience is very important. As a supervisor you are expected to train and evaluate staff. You would also need to do everything and all your duties in a professional manner. Training staff especially new ones can also be a long process but you’d have to learn how to dedicate and manage your time wisely. When dealing with adults you will come across those who share too much personal experiences and sometimes it could be a little bit over board. I needed to learn how to separate business with personal connections just to have some sort of professional boundary between upper management and staff. It can be challenging sometimes because at the end of the day we are all human and we come with feelings. I slowly but surely managed to control that line. It is good to personally connect to your staff but only to a professional extent. When training staff, I would also repeat myself constantly to ensure that they understand. I would guide them and help them when they need help and if they are having difficulty. It is my job to ensure that they learn the objective and duties of the job. I would also hold one to one meetings to make sure that everyone is on the same page and are working well. Adults tend to carry so much feelings into work and they are often tired.Therefore I also try to motivate them to be excited to work. I understand that we all have our days but staying positive and getting work done is all that we need to do to have a productive day in teaching and learning. We will always be able to learn something new everyday if we are open minded to learn from our experiences. Growing up, you will understand we will never stop learning as long as we allow ourselves to do so. I was able to coach and supervise because of experience. All those experiences started with day 1 of not knowing anything about swimming and not having an idea on how to even make a latte. It is a big accomplishment to be able to get to where I am due to hard work and motivation. That is why I understand the importance of having patience with kids, adults, and students. We will all have our first day in learning and it is really nice to have someone who is able to be patient with you and be able to work with you regardless of your weaknesses. This is something to keep in mind everyday as an instructor.