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One of the most acute lessons I?ve learned from taking this course is regarding my own needs as a student; that is, if I ever take any other kind of course, I need to do so in a classroom setting, with a teacher. It was pretty unsatisfying to be reading about and planning fun, dynamic lessons for a classroom while staring alone at a computer screen for (well) over 100 hours. I know that I did my best, but I can?t help thinking I could have gotten much more out of the course by taking it with other students and participating in classroom activities and discussions with them. This course was a great refresher for grammar. I like being able to use the correct grammatical terminology, and it?s become easier for me to explain the rules when asked. I?ve already been able to put what I?ve learned to use with Korean teachers, who ask me a lot of questions about grammar and syntax. If I teach adults in the future, I will feel much more confident about addressing and explaining grammar issues to them. With regards to my teaching, the lesson-planning parts of this course have helped me the most. Being able to more clearly identify the parts of a lesson and their purpose has made it so much easier to structure lessons. For example, during my entire first year of teaching, I was unclear as to the purpose of a warm-up and how it related to the ?engage? stage, and I wasn?t giving my students enough opportunity to speak during either. Before I started my second year of teaching, however, I began this course, and with the new knowledge I?d gained about lesson planning, I was able to start that job off on a much better foot. If I do teach adults in future, I will be a much more effective teacher than I was last year. In many ways I am (luckily) a natural teacher, but since I did not major in english education I?ve been making plenty of mistakes. This course has helped me identify the things I?ve been doing right and why they work, as well as the things I?ve been doing wrong and why they don?t work. I?ve received good reminders about things like classroom management and encouraging students, and learned a great deal about student evaluation that I wish I?d known last year, when I was required to evaluate my students and didn?t have the faintest idea how. I look forward to applying this new knowledge if I have to do student evaluations in future, although that will be unlikely at my current school. I found the section on teaching business english especially interesting. I knew nothing about it and it sounded very intimidating, but after completing the unit I think I would be confident enough to apply for a job to teach it. Overall, taking this course has given me more conviction that I am a good teacher. Ironically, I need to use very little of my lesson-planning skills in my current job, although I am able to apply most other things I?ve learned, and I still strive to improve my teaching any way I can. But in the near future (just a little over 6 months), I will be leaving this job to move back to the States, where finding a job is going to be far more difficult. Taking this course has opened up my options quite a bit?not just because of the new skills I?ve gained, but because I have much more confidence in my ability to teach.
