Noticeable Differences

Posted on the 10 September 2012 by Bvulcanius @BVulcanius

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:

  1. No need to tell anybody to sit down or to get their books.
  2. No need to explain and instruct everything in baby steps.
  3. 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.
  4. Silence. When working you can hear a pin drop. It kind of makes me nervous…
  5. 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.