I didn't know what to expect during my first class. It was my first graduate level class, and I was very, very surprised at the amount of interaction between the Esther and the class, and as the class went on and various methods were mentioned, they stuck in my head because Esther was not only teaching them to us, she was USING them. Simultaneously, it was wonderful and fascinating to see a professor using the material being taught in class. My undergrad degrees were in foreign languages, so I saw the material being used on a daily basis, but there was little "practice" being taught. Spanish doesn't have a lot of "theory" attached to it, and one could argue that there is no approach to speaking Spanish, you just do it.
I had a few emotional breakdowns those first two weeks of class, caused by the amount of work I had to do for each of my three classes, and I had to do it with the spare time I had after working full time and being a decent member of my family. A large contributor to that pool of stress was my looming presentation on the assigned readings for the week. I was well aware that during undergrad, I put work off until the last possible moment. I work phenominally well under pressure, but I knew that had to change for grad school. All of that led me to volunteer for the first presentation.
I liked being in front of the class. I like giving presentations, and I love being able to interact with groups. I thought the presentation went relatively well, but Esther gave me some advice that will help me hone my technique for next time. I'm aware that I don't work well in groups, and that habit reared it's ugly head during our presentation. I didn't let Veronika talk. I got nervous and mildly inspired, and I led the class on a wild goose chase of a discussion. During all of that, I nearly forgot there was someone else who was supposed to be helping me present.
Hopefully, I'll have a better APPROACH and METHOD for next time. :-)
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6 comments:
I'm glad you realized that I was demonstrating some of the approaches we were reading about. As for Spanish, there were approaches being used, you just didn't read about them in the classes you were taking. I'm sure that students in MODL 4/560 did see them being used though.
You did well for being the first person to present, and we always learn from experience, so good things ahead!
I really enjoyed your presentation and I liked how you opened the presentation with a clip from the movie. It got the class not only relaxed but engaged so we were resdy to listen to your presentation. I agree about Spanish, often times I did not realize what method they were using but I knew there was a method especially with Professora Contag. I do not know what you and I will do for our presentation because you and I LOVE to talk. I also can identify with the level of stress you were feeling. Graduate School is no walk in the park but you will do great.
The most important possibilities of graduate school are developing yourself as a personality, polishing your language skills, being creative, learning new useful things, and enjoying life. So even when you are reading a textbook for class at 3 A.M. think about it in a positive way and don't get too stressed out. As for the presentation, it was PERFECT! Positive thinking. And the next one will be even better. That's what this class is all about: improving yourself! And even while preparing a presentation for class, you can TEACH it to the class, and even use one of the methods, or a combination of them, that we have learned so far. That would be interesting to try.
You did a great job in last week's presentation, i believe. I like it because of two reasons: 1st, you started the presentation with a very interesting topic-related video taken from a movie, and more wonderfully, it's about my country! 2nd, you brought up an issue which is relevant to every student in the class: the advantages and disadvantages of native and non-native teachers in 2nd language teaching.Though we did not have enough time to go through all the pros and cons that each type of teacher posesses, the question aroused in me a lot of thoughts about my future career as a non-native teacger of English... and i thank you for that.
this is other step of one thousand steps for your success. Great effort gives great cultivation. Just count till thousand.
Your presentation was good and intersting. You not only presented your material but also engaged us by asking us to give our opinion and idea. That's great.
Great presentation. I think the short video clip connected with the class.
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