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ITTT Summative Assessment Ronald Ross / 295075 How Do We Learn Teaching Skills (# 2 in Task Field) How do teachers learn how to teach? The misconception by education students in university is that we learn how to teach in our methodology and pedagogy classes; however, I’d be surprised if any of the hundreds of experienced teachers I’ve worked with in my career would agree. We know now that those classes only got us our diploma and license, and we were all ill prepared for that first year in the classroom, regardless of how well we did at university. Only experience and learning from our mistakes will make us effective teachers. It seems so simple. How do we learn any skill? A toddler learning to walk will watch her parents getting around on their two feet. The parents, whether they know it or not, are modeling for their children. The toddler begins trying what she sees as soon as she is strong enough to pull herself up and stand. She moves her feet, falls, tries again, makes adjustments, fails again, watches the parents some more, takes risks and tries again this way or that, continuing to make adjustments, improve, get a little further, letting go of the furniture, stepping out on her own, falling and trying again. Eventually, through trial and error, minor and major adjustments, she is moving on two feet only. With experience she becomes an expert at walking. It’s how we learn how to ride a bike, swim, throw, catch and kick a ball, read, write, or whatever skill we master. Do we learn by being told? No. We learn through experience. This simple rule of learning skills through experience follows us through our entire lives. Understanding that this is how we learn our skill sets is important in getting through life, and as a teacher I use it all the time in those teaching moment opportunities that arise every day; usually with students, but often with rookie teachers required to observe the classes of experienced teachers. I’ll ask those rookies where I made my mistake(s) during a lesson. Sometimes they are subtle, and they don’t catch it, but what’s important for them to know is that we all make mistakes regardless of our experience. We are never perfect. When it comes to skills there is always room to improve, no matter how many years one has been teaching the same subject and same content. It’s important for teachers to cut themselves slack and to understand that the learning never stops, and our best teacher is experience, time, mistakes, and a leaners attitude. As a coach (American football), I like to use sports analogies with the young teachers who may get upset with themselves over dings on their evaluations. Babe Ruth was the greatest homerun hitter of all time (despite two men breaking his record in the “live ball” and steroid era). Who knows Babe Ruth also held the record for strikeouts? Michael Jordan’s shooting percentage was .497. He missed most of the shots he took. And who knows Jordan was cut from his high school varsity team when he was a sophomore? He reacted to that set-back with a leaner’s attitude. Tom Brady is arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history, yet he was the 199th pick in the NFL draft 20 years ago, and more than ten quarterbacks were taken ahead of him. Brady’s interceptions and fumbles have lost the game for the Patriots dozens of times, including a Super Bowl. But Brady has a leaner’s attitude. He understands, as all great athletes do, that he is continually developing a skill through experience and learning from his mistakes. Teaching is no different. Soon I will retire to my home in Guayaquil, Ecuador, though I will keep myself busy teaching English. I will be a rookie again, replete with mistakes and learning from my own self-evaluations and reflections; from experience. Teaching English to students whose only language is Spanish will be as different of teaching for me as hockey would be for a basketball player. I expect to feel like a young rookie, and I embrace that and am even excited about it. ITTT has given me a lot of knowledge and provided a wonderful course for me. Thanks. I learned a lot. But I know from my own professional (and life) experience that my real learning will be by doing the job in the classroom, making my mistakes and learning from them, being honest with myself and my self-evaluations, and keeping a learner's attitude, knowing that there will always be opportunities to grow as a TEFL teacher.
