During this difficult time, our teachers have truly been our heroes! They have stepped up and delivered the most engaging and thoughtful lesson plans for our students. They are keeping our EC Montreal students connected and progressing. We have decided that we want to hear from our teachers about how they are feeling with the English and French online classes and how they foresee the English as a foreign language industry going forward. We will be introducing you to a different teacher’s perspective every week.
This week, we want to introduce you to one of our English teachers; Mariella Gaffrey. This is what she had to say about her experience and how she is contributing to the well-being of our EC Montreal students.
How long have you been teaching at EC Montreal?
I have been teaching for more than three years at EC Montreal. Since May 13th, 2017.
What do you enjoy most about teaching in the EFL industry?
I enjoy being able to use my skills to help students succeed in an ever demanding global community. I use my communication skills to help them improve speaking with their peers and also to teach them that the goal is not about speaking perfectly, it is about getting the message across and understanding each other. I also feel that because of my background (my father is German and my mother is Japanese) I grew up in a special environment that helped me develop understanding and empathy for the students’ learning process.
I enjoy meeting and helping people from different countries grow. It is truly an awesome experience to see the student’s use the language and feel empowered by learning. I also relish being part of the learning experience. Every lesson, I learn more about how to help the students’ in their learning process. I feel that my job, in this aspect, does not have any intellectual dead ends.
On a personal level, it is a job that it gives me so many emotional rewards. I enjoy the challenge of creating new activities and scenarios to help my student’s learn better. I never use the same lesson; I enjoy taking an idea and making it better every time by adapting it to their needs.
What are some benefits of online lessons?
Some of the benefits are that I noticed that the students are becoming more independent about their learning; they are realizing that doing the pre activity task and the homework are part of the learning process. And if they skip this, it may hinder part of the participation or the understanding of a lesson.
The students have become more communicative and great listeners because of some of the limits of online classes. They take more time to check what their partners say and they have learned to react and comment on topics during the speaking activities.
They have also learned how to figure out what language means by sharing and problem solving together by using target questions that I provide to help them through the process.
What changes do you foresee with the classroom experience when we do return to our onsite classes?
My predictions are mostly positive concerning the classroom experience when we do return. Most of the students that I teach, have expressed that they are eager to see their classmates, and their teachers. And, that they miss the face to face interaction with the speaking activities. I feel because of these reasons, that students will not take their learning for granted and that we can expect that they will take their learning more seriously.
I also predict that some of them will be more aware of the independent work that they need to do in order to progress. Hopefully, they will take more responsibility for their learning and be more curious by studying by themselves.
I also foresee that due to the COVID-19 we will probably have smaller classes – maybe 6 students maximum – where teachers will have to be even more attentive to the performance of each students. This is a good thing, since the students will feel that they get more attention and teachers can adapt quicker to their progress.
What are your thoughts on blended learning?
I have experienced blended learning once in my life. I was when I was living in Japan and I took university classes in Japanese –which is not my native language. I had online group sessions with my classmates every afternoon and then I had on-site classes with the class and the teacher. I found that blending learning teaches you to become flexible and understanding. I feel that if specific objectives are set in place during the online sessions, students will understand what is expected from them and this will help them understand what they are doing or not doing to progress. It can also help them participate actively since online demands more attention and the need to do something quickly. Online sessions could be used for brainstorms or sharing information. Onsite classes could be used for creating group projects, and working together with the support of the teacher.
I feel that it could be beneficial if the material is well planned out with specific and targeted objectives for each person and activity.
What initiatives have you implemented to help keep students motivated and engaged during this difficult time?
I have tried to make all my classes feel like the most enjoyable time of the day. We begin the class by asking about each other, and actually saying hello. Even though the students are shy, they show their faces and smile and say hello to each other. They have understood that our class is like a small community where we can learn and share with each other.
I give them overall objectives and then they share if they have specific troubles or they would like to be challenged.
During the class, they have a daily skill that they need to practice. This is shown on a powerpoint.
Some of the skills we have been working on are: (Pre-Intermediate- commenting on what your classmate says, reacting by saying (Oh no!, Oh my God!, No way!), Asking follow up questions, paraphrasing what a classmate said to show understanding.
We have feedback sessions at the end of the class to talk about our progress. I change the questions depending on the grammar target or skill set. Some of the feedback questions are:
• What is something you did well today/ this week?
• What is something you would like to practice more?
• What is something different you would like to try for next week?
• What is something new in your learning you tried this week?
• What is something your classmate did well?
I also take the time once a week to give them personal feedback. I write this in their chatbox. I tell them what they do well and what they can improve, and some exercises that they can try to do this.
I try to make the classes a place where they feel supported by their classmates and by myself. I feel that they love it because we laugh, and they have shared so many interesting stories and learning moments with each other.
How do you see the EFL industry changing going forward?
I can only see the EFL industry changing for the best. I am aware that there is going to be an adapting period for all of us (staff, teachers and students). I feel that learning a foreign language is always going to be a must in the working field. I feel that most companies are going to try using blended learning for health reasons and also to help the students learn better by adapting to the current situation.
What changes would you like to see going forward?
I would like to learn more about online teaching. I try to use online videos to teach myself other ways to use Microsoft teams, but not being an expert and not being able to share with my co-workers has limited myself in this domain. I would also like more accessible material to access online (in the eventual situation that we continue the classes online).
I would also like to have more sessions where I can exchange ideas with my co-workers and the staff.
If the classes are smaller, it would be great to have extra time each week to speak to each student that would like more feedback on their progress and that this time be accounted for as “work time” for teachers.