1.

When I first started looking at the CELTA course I already had 6 months experience of teaching and a TEFL certificate. I felt I had some of the qualities of a good teacher, especially with rapport and patience, that I had a good knowledge of grammar, and I believed that the CELTA would basically give me a piece of paper that said I had finished an assessed course in teaching that would help me get further employment. I didnt really have many expectations of how much I would learn or how much I would enjoy the course. I am happy to say that the course exceeded my expectations. My method of teaching before reflected the presentation, practice, production model. I was never completely happy with this model and I am really enthusiastic about using different styles such as the guided approach in my future lessons. The most valuable things on the course for me were the input sessions and the feedback from teaching practice. I was eager to include as much as I could from the input sessions into my teaching, from finger highlighting to the best ways to convey meaning, form and phonology. Feedback was essential to my improvements and I always took the feedback into account when planning my next lesson. Observation of professional teachers was particularly useful in the early weeks of the course. I had previously no experience with elementary classes so I was happy that my observation started here. I picked up a lot about how to manage activities and give clear and simple imperatives from Cathy. Information check questions are essential when thinking about classroom management, and I believe this carries on up to all class levels, and I have tried to include these wherever possible.

I also found peer observation helpful in the respect that I was able to analyse critically and think how I would have done a certain task differently, or how that was a great approach and Id like to use more of that style in my lessons.

2. I believe I need to keep working on perfecting how I set up tasks, giving clear demonstrations, clear instructions and checking learners understanding using instruction check questions (ICQs). I have developed a lot in this area. Something I always put in my development goals is the setting up of activities because I see it as one of the most important things. I have started to include lots of board demonstrations in my tasks, which helps, and I will carry on doing this. I always ask ICQs but I still think I could better develop here. I gained value from peer observation with Holly, who always asked good ICQs. Another thing I hope to develop is an increase in student talk time. This has definitely improved since my first lesson and I have developed this area by including more peer feedback in my classes and by always trying to incorporate a free speaking activity. It is an area that I will always be conscious of in class and I will aim to have a high student talking time in all my lessons for the future. Error correction of students is really important for their learning. I tried to incorporate this in my lessons using finger highlighting and holding onto the error finger which I saw from both Cathy and Nicola through input and observation. I will definitely be using this in my own teaching in the future. Not only did it help the student with the problem but it also helped the whole class to spot errors. Lastly I would like to focus on always trying to include key skills in my lesson. For example, if I am doing a grammar lesson then I would still like to include some sort of listening or reading, either for gist or specific information, and some sort of writing or speaking whether that be controlled or free. I feel like I did include a good mix of this

throughout my teaching practice, but the key is for me to develop these to suit my learners so that they get a good mix of all the skills and their sub-types.

3.

I think in some respects the areas which I need to develop will improve over time as long as I do not start to neglect them after the course. In terms of actions for the delivery of my activities I will build on my strengths in lesson planning. My lessons plans are always clear and methodical. By analysing the activities I can include as much information as I need on my plans, including how I would board a demonstration, what ICQs I would ask and anticipating problems. I created a more student centred approach in class, with my efforts including time for pair feedback and more speaking activities. I would like to have the opportunity to use more of the activities that were shown in input for learning grammar and vocabulary. At the beginning of the course I didnt focus much on phonology, but by the end I felt that I had almost mastered this. I will keep going with this and try to involve some pronunciation activities in class such as the matching pairs activities. Since error correction is such a key part for learners development, I really want to train myself to be able to spot learners mistakes. I will focus on anticipating problems that learners may face when approaching new vocabulary. There are many books which helped me during lesson planning for my language solutions sections and further reading will improve this area. My lessons had the strength of always having a good mix of activities that included the key skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. I still felt that maybe my imagination of activities was limited. One thing I could do is make a collection of what works best, and over time try and change them slightly by continually assessing learners needs.

The course gave me an excellent insight into the world of teaching English, and I valued the experience that my trainers had. I receive great joy in teaching and it is something which I hope to keep doing for the foreseeable future. I am definitely interested in continuing professional development and may well look into doing my DELTA after gaining experience, or even an MA in TESOL or Education. For now I will keep building on my strengths and enjoying what I do.