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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:
Creating Materials While creating materials may seem like a daunting task to first-time teachers, it actually presents an incredible opportunity to provide students with focused, fun resources that are catered to their exact needs. Creating additional resources for the classroom may be a lot of work, but it pays off in the long run.
There are many benefits to using resources created by the teacher. First of all, the teacher has complete control over the distributed material, meaning she can choose what to include based on her expertise of what will prove to be the most beneficial for her students. The teacher can cater to the students? needs. For example, if the students are business professionals, the teacher can choose texts and create worksheets focusing on business terms that pertain to their specific field of work. Also, the teacher can choose texts that pertain to students? interests, such as current, local events. If the class takes place in a remote location that may not get much media attention, the teacher can adapt local news articles into English texts to use in the classroom. Creating materials in this manner can better serve the students in the class.
Naturally, the teacher is required to be creative in the creation of materials. In most cases, teachers must learn to be extremely resourceful so as to take advantage of the resources available without spending a fortune on the creation of new materials. For example, recycling used items and bringing in props to use as visuals can be a good way to use ?real life? objects within the English setting. The students will be motivated by the fact that they are working with real items. If the teacher is artistic, drawings can come in handy to help illustrate certain words or actions. The teacher can also take already existing texts and create worksheets to go along with these texts. Worksheet exercises can take the form of fill-in-the-blank sentences, matching, crossword puzzles, and short answer questions. Because these materials are created by the teacher before class, the teacher has total control over the grammar and vocabulary being highlighted in each exercise.
Another good way to create materials is to involve students in the actual creation of materials. This is beneficial because the students get good practice in the creation of the materials, but they also feel a sense of pride when these materials are used over and over again in the real classroom setting. A sense of authority and ownership over the language develops in the act of creating reusable classroom materials. For example, the teacher can provide students a list of vocabulary for which they draw a picture and write the word on two separate cards, creating a matching game. This game can be used from time to time as a review of vocabulary. students can also be included in the creation of posters to be hung around the classroom. By including students in the process of creating important materials, students take a sense of pride in their work.
Overall, creating materials that suit the class is a beneficial exercise that results in hardworking, proud students with excellent resources to help them learn efficiently.
