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Unit One covered the basic attributes of a good teacher and a good learner, as well as why students choose to study English. The chapter started out by stating that a good teacher is one who is passionate about teaching, but is most concerned with his or her students' learning. This quote resonated with me because the ITTT TEFL course is my first introduction into the world of teaching and I hadn't yet thought about teaching from this perspective. I want to teach English for the same reasons many people want to learn English: I want to travel, I want a career that I enjoy, and I want to improve people's lives. This quote put into perspective for me that if I truly want to pursue teaching I need to be prepared to put my students' needs ahead of my own. The chapter began by describing the roles of a teacher. It said that the successful combination of these different roles is what makes a successful teacher. A teacher must take on the role of manager, organizer, assessor, prompter, participant, tutor, facilitator, model, and observer throughout the course in order to meets the various needs of students. Though each role may not be used every class, it is important to be flexible in shifting between these roles to fit various activities and to interact with individual students. This section helped me establish what I perceive to be my greatest strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. My understanding will help me to emphasize my strengths and improve upon my weaknesses in the classroom. The chapter continued with a discussion on different attributes of learners. Age was the biggest divider for students, as the unit described adult learners as more fixed in their learning styles and expectations, whereas young learners could be more flexible in these areas. The remaining attributes that differentiated between students, as listed in the unit, included: amount of learning experience, motivation, nervousness, language awareness, life experience, culture and first language, and language level. In my opinion, it is necessary to be familiar with these differences because a teacher needs to be able to understand her students as individuals in order to help them learn. This section helped me understand what to look for in my students so that I can motivate each of them.
