What Do You Teach?

Does it matter? Well, yes, I suppose it does, but not in the way you might think. Until now, my answer has always been "algebra". And then I wait for the inevitable comment: "Oh, I was never any good at math!", or even "Yuck, I hate math!" At least they know that algebra is a branch of mathematics. However, this is not the kind of conversation starter that makes either party feel comfortable. In fact, it is often a conversation stopper. Check out the pie chart, third from the top on this blog.





Now I have a new answer: I teach people. I haven't tried this one out yet, but I expect it will at least lead to further conversation. Because I am preparing to teach  adult newcomers English as a second or additional language. Before that, I was teaching beginning college students mandatory algebra courses, and before that, it was Basic Chemistry. I have also volunteered to work with high school biology students, before I ever took biology myself. There was also a semester with some middle school students as a volunteer listening to them  struggle to read. When I was a substitute teacher for schools in Winnipeg and Manitoba's Interlake, I  was with students of all levels and most subjects, including a multilevel one-room school and French Immersion chemistry. It was this experience that taught me how to be a teacher.


I learned some valuable techniques from other teachers in their absence, including what not to do. Some teachers had contingency lessons prepared for a substitute to use, because the flu doesn't always give you enough warning. I copied those lessons and kept them with me for the times when the absent teacher had noting prepared. I found out quickly that a substitute's worst nightmare is a class full of teenagers with nothing to do. A general biology teacher left a couple of pages of fill-in-the-blank questions quoted directly from the textbook. I did not copy that one. Those students were bored, and I was appalled that the teacher thought that was all they were capable of. I have many more stories, and I wish I would have written them all down. Perhaps I should go back to substituting, so I can get some more material for my best-selling memoir! (How else is a teacher going to get rich?)

Today marks the end of the focus on grammar. (I had to mention it somewhere.) I expect I will be back in the New Year to write about Assessment and Resources. Until then, I will leave you with some more wisdom from Mr. Schultz. I have a piano lesson.
-Vicky Isliefson

#CdnELT #grammar #teachingenglish #LINCChat

Schulz