TA#5 -- Stephanie

It's the last week of CIES and everything is getting faster and faster it seems.  All my CIES classes are filled with students and teachers, all trying to simply keep their heads above water.  In Listening Class, students are evaluating the teacher, studying for the final exam, turning in every last assignment, and finally, struggling to get through this one and only academic listening passage of the term.  The teacher, for her part, is having to keep one step ahead of them--in four different classes that are all in the same boat.  From my perspective, it's daunting.  And incredibly exciting. It must be Hell trying to get through enough semesters and/or years until the ending chaos of it all hardly even catches your notice, yet that is exactly the place where all my CIES teachers are now.  One day, God willing, that will be me doing the incredible job I've seen them all do this term.  I just have to remember that they were all once as green an untried as I am.

 Like language learning, teaching (for me, as I've come to understand it) is also a process that takes time and commitment, time and commitment, and even more time and commitment.  If anything, I think that's the most valuable thing I have learned out of this entire TA process.  Likewise, giving up at any point along the path is not possible if you still want to obtain your goal.  All to often, we humans think we can have it all / do it all overnight.  I mean, isn't that what TV and the movies tell us? But it's not true...and it shouldn't be true.  Teaching someone is a powerful thing.  Hopefully, we will all be able to mold someone or help someone find --and commit to-- the path to get them to their goal.  (And hopefully many, many 'someones'.) For many students overseas, the ability to logically and financially use their new command of English is the difference between getting a great job and getting a ok job.  In some countries, that could be the difference between having an enjoyable life or merely surviving. It's for this reason that I'm glad learning to teaching, and learning to be a better teacher, is a process that requires so much from us.  How else could we realize what we are doing is so special and potentially can mean so much to so many people?  Overnight success would only alienate us from our student's struggles.  For me anyway, it's my very struggle --the challenge-- that keeps me interested and keeps me here.  This is what I learned as a TA this term. 

Today I taught the doctorial students in Dr. Grill's ITA American Pronunciation class how to play Taboo.  Not just how to play the game, but why I can't say enough about it's ability as a language game to teach a second language learner valuable and practical  recall skills and, more importantly,  how to talk around a problem such as limited vocabulary.  The students liked it so much that it was difficult getting them to stop.  :)  Dr. Grill was so impressed by them that she is now going to try and buy her own set so she can introduce all her classes to it. Yes, many of the students need English for future jobs, but let's be real, you need to be able to have fun with your new language if you are going to keep using it.

Tomorrow I will continue to work with Victoria to craft the final exam for Listening, assuming of course, that I succeed in finding a suitable YouTube clip tonight for the dictation part of the exam.  I will also work with Alex to grade the Speaking Presentations which are acting as their finals.  This will be a huge challenge because I'll have to grade the Speaking Presentations using my archenemy the rubric.  No worries, the struggle is only going to remind me of what the students are also going through.  At any rate, I've learned that time and commitment can overcome just about anything.  Even rubrics....I hope.   :)