So firstly I’ve been apprehensive as to how I approach this final post and I have attempted to start on several occasions, only to delete everything and not think about it for a few days. How can I summarise almost nine months of experience in a few hundred words when so much has happened? I finally found the strength to conclude this journey, so here it goes!

I thought the best place to go back to was the beginning and look at my initial post from back in October 2019. Back then I wasn’t sure what the end of the Diploma would look like and I asked myself; what kind of teacher do I want to have become by June next year? From the final paragraph of that first post, I can see the key areas which I wanted to achieve and I believe I have achieved:

‘I hope to achieve this by researching and trialing techniques and methodologies in classrooms that are new to me, as well as striving to understand what aspects of grammar and materials are more conducive to effective learning goals being achieved by my students.’

The ELT Methodologies module (TE710) has really opened my eyes to not only the history of English language teaching approaches but also to alternatives. It was during this module I really resonated with demand-high teaching and dogme; the former is a staple of my teaching practice, the latter being implemented more frequently with my growing confidence and experience. Of course they may not be two methods, rather two approaches but it has  expanded my practical teaching repertoire nonetheless. I have definitely found my teaching style to have changed for the better and my confidence has grown. In fact, on other outcome I wanted to reach was making the leap to truly becoming a great teacher. To my surprise, the Professional Teaching Practice Module (TE719) actually went really well. My overall grade was a distinction and I did not think I would achieve anything to that level, and I couldn’t have delivered lessons of that calibre without the content from the different module and the support of my university colleagues and lecturers. Although my final observation was the one with the lowest grade, I am still very happy with how it went, as not only did I have one observation less than expected but it was an online one-to-one lesson, so given the challenges I was faced with, I think it went well. I was just a bit disappointed that I couldn’t build on the exponential success of the other three observations but regardless, the feedback from all of the observers really gave me that much needed confidence boost with my teaching.

The biggest surprise for me was the English Language Materials module (TE714), which far exceeded my expectation of its impact on my teaching. Before starting the Diploma, I read the module description and found myself not particularly interested. My perception of the word ‘materials’ was that of textbooks and worksheets but I have learned that is so much more. I’ve realised the importance of meaningful, principled evaluation of materials and how being able to identify and evaluate effective factors in materials not only allows for a better learning experience but also helps develop teaching skills. To understand the process behind materials allows not only the effective selection of published materials but also assists in the creation of meaningful original materials, which we explored in a project on the materials module. Collaboratively creating a set of materials from the ground up, delivering them and then analysing them with our own framework was such an eye-opening process and it has completely changed my perspective on what materials actually are and I feel much more encouraged to create my own tailored, unique materials for my learners.

The last part of that initial post that I have underlined above ‘materials are more conducive to effective learning goals’. The focus on long-term learning goals in particular has been most interesting, as I have all too often taught in days or weeks but have rarely focused on the learners’ needs on a long-term basis. Both TE714 and TE710 have made me think about the learners’ continued development beyond the classroom and after the end of their course. Before I would just say to students ‘keep reading/watching TV in English’ but now I am able to recommend resources and more principled techniques in order for them to effectively continue to learn and develop their language skills. Not only that but I’ve started to look more at the long-term developmental goals of teachers too. We are always learning and there is no room for complacency I think. A professional in any industry should always look to be aware on current practices and affairs within their chosen profession or industry and I believe EFL is no exception. In the last year I have grown more as a teacher than I have in the last two years without reflecting on my own development and practice. It is this that is giving me some thought into exploring the route of teacher training. When I was a seasonal ADoS, my favourite part of the job was helping teachers, particularly novice teachers fresh off the CELTA or CertTESOL. I’ve always tried to help these teachers because I did not have much support when I was in their situation. However now I feel equipped to not only support novice teachers but also experienced teachers (though tentatively with some of them!), giving them some new perspectives to look at their own teaching after having many years of experience. But the concept of training new teachers from the ground up sounds fascinating and will be a new way to teach, while actively applying the theories and experiences explored over the course of the Diploma.

Of course, there have been some experiences which were not ideal. I am disappointed about what happened to the Second Language Acquisition module. With only the introductory input session to go from, I am finding completing the assignment rather difficult and I do feel like there is a big gap in my knowledge. Funnily enough this was the module I was looking forward too most, so I think I will have to continue to study in my own time to fill in the gaps. And of course everything has shifted online with the outbreak of Covid-19 at the end of March, which did makes that physical sense of community on the course feel lost and though many of my colleagues stayed in contact and supported each other, I am really more of a face-to-face kind of guy and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to come to the University of Brighton to study rather than the alternative of studying online. But it couldn’t be helped and I fully understand. One positive that has come from it now is that I am no longer afraid of the concept of teaching online myself! It has taken a whole to get used too it and I still prefer teaching face-to-face. But on the whole I believe I am getting there with my online teaching and actually the first couple of online seminars before my own first online lesson really helped ease my fears about it all.

I want to conclude this post by showing my appreciation and saying a big thank you to all of the lecturers and trainers across all of the Diploma and MA modules. This was absolutely the right course to take and the course at UoB was well structured and very informative.
It has had and will continue to have an impact on my teaching and I’m looking forward to where I can go from here with this knowledge. Will it be training? (Maybe) management? Or take a step back and focus on just teaching to the best of my ability? I also want to say how brilliant all of my Diploma colleagues have been and it was really nice to meet all the students from the MA course too and share all of our knowledge and experience together. The end is always difficult and I hope everyone goes on from here to do wonderful things. This is the end of this chapter but I have a feeling it’s about the be the beginning of another!