126 Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together
Some general points of good practice I find very helpful in almost all teaching
situations include:
✓ Plan ahead. As far as possible, think about where your course is head-
ing and what possible pitfalls you may encounter along the way. This
means knowing where you’re teaching, what equipment and resources
are available, as much about your students as possible and any personal
considerations that may affect your teaching (planned absences, for
example). In other words, try to prevent problems before they happen.
✓ Ask for and welcome feedback. The students have their own opinions
about how well you teach, but many teachers are too proud or scared
to hear them. One of the dangers for teachers is that they can become
over-confident because the students appear happy in your class but, to
be honest, students don’t always have a measure of comparison. You
can encourage constructive criticism though by designing feedback
forms that ask for specific information. The results of the feedback guide
you on changes necessary to make your teaching of the course, the
course materials, or any other area under your control more effective. If
you invite a colleague to watch you occasionally, his advice can help you
to stay on track professionally and avoid getting stuck in a rut.
✓ Start off quite strict and ease up later if you can. Set the right tone
from the word ‘go’. Students expect you to be in control, so they won’t
find you unfriendly just because you impose rules. In fact, once they
know the rules you won’t have to keep reminding them because they
remind each other. In this way you’re not cast in the role of the bad guy
and can get on with making the lessons enjoyable.
✓ Start and finish on time. If you don’t respect your students’ time, they
won’t respect yours either. Stick to the scheduled time and apologise if,
for some reason, things don’t go to plan.
✓ Respect your students. Treat your students as clients and remember
that just because they don’t know English doesn’t mean that they’re
incompetent or unintelligent.
Hold your students’ cultures in high regard too. There’s more than one
way to skin a cat and the way you’re accustomed to in your own land is
not necessarily the best.
✓ Maintain a sense of humour. This is one of the single, most important
factors in running a memorable course. Laugh at yourself, laugh with
your students when they laugh at themselves, and laugh just to have a
good time.
