Yesterday, I had an observation in my work from HKU. Here is the email I wrote to the Professor observing my class:
Thank you for your comments about my reflection and I would like to share what happened after you left.
After you left my collegue asked me about my observation and she said she had been noticing a few of the things you mentioned. We talked about some of your findings and also about the things she had been noticing about my lessons. She had been stressing how every lesson I do should have some kind of reading exersize so the students are reminded of the vocabulary, sentence patterns and grammar items. She also talked about the need to be more visual in my presenting of the language items. She has been working in the school for a long time and has gone through a lot of Native English Teachers and she notices how we tend to rely more on the listening (telling) rather than on the visual (writing on the board and such) when asking questions and elicitating responses from students. I had always been warry of that because it causes more robotic responses but she stressed how important it is for the students in my school, to be able to see the language as well as hear it.. As Native English Teacher’s we are lucky enough to co-teach with the local teachers but sometimes those local teachers do not give us any feedback. When we are lucky, and I am, we do have some Local Englsih Teacher’s who tell us how the lesson is going and how it can be strengthen.
Yesterday helped me emencely because the observations sparked a conversation. I was able to write the reflection easily becuase I was able to have this conversation with my cc-worker. In the end has shown me some of the weaknesses in my teaching and shown me how to become better in my craft so I can help the students I have.
I just wanted to write to tell you how much I appreciate you coming yesterday
Thank you