Today was my first day as a teacher at a new department in my school. My students are mostly older than the students I’m used to teaching, with ages varying from 14 to 18. I’m also teaching at a higher level now than I did the past five years.
Things that caught my attention:
- No need to tell anybody to sit down or to get their books.
- No need to explain and instruct everything in baby steps.
- Independence and resilience. If they don’t know how to do something, they try to find out on their own, (quietly!) ask a neighbor and keep going at it until the task is done.
- Silence. When working you can hear a pin drop. It kind of makes me nervous…
- General knowledge. Ask them a question and they have lots of associations.
I talked English 99% of the time in all my classes. They weren’t used to that, but they were still able to follow the things I said and the instructions I gave them.
If this day is any indication of what working at my new department is like, I think I’m going to like it very much.