...I think it all started while taking one of my inspiring walks and it so happened that the road I was in the habit of exploring pretty much on an everyday basis—well, at least three times a week—lay along the university grounds, a spot that holds a special place in my heart. Every time I was taking a stroll passing the uni my heart started to pound a bit more intensely, just like being in the presence of a lovely lady that is returning your affections in a slightly amusing way.
I had nostalgic musings, woolgathering about this academic territory - a place of my ex-scholastic adventures, so I decided to enter this University again—this time, in a new role—and stop being carried away by the overwhelming utopic sweet drowning and actually go there rather than passing it by, drooling endlessly - in other words, I decided to give teaching a shot.
Another reason - I was a musician who had been fantasizing about teaching English for a while trying to figure out what he got a kick out of more - teaching or music. So I was lucky to be accepted for a master’s course in this magical setting - university, which, in its turn, was lucky to have acquired such a creative, spirited chap as a freshman student :-)
During the first year we were given students to flex our teaching reflexes which meant my dream was going to come to fruition and I was about to experience what it felt like to teach at university. I had about fourteen classes, my curator was Ksenia Andreevna. In the lessons we were exploring speaking (in English :-),
discussing creative ideas, phrasal verbs, collocations, translating and reading as well, incorporating movie script technique - one of the little inventions of mine :-). The course was successful - we were able to delve into the discussions even deeper by using phrases from these stories and magazines:
- ‘My Body and I’ (from ‘You magazine/Solo’)
- ‘From Scholar To Entrepreneur’
- ‘Looking Forward To The Time Of Our Lives’ (from ‘The Independent/Independent on Sunday’ by Celia Dodd)
- ‘Anita Roddick’ (from ‘Good Housekeeping’ the extract from the interview by Geraldine Bedell with ‘Anita Roddick’ entitled ‘Love and Work are the Only Important things in Life)
- ‘At a Dinner Party’
- ‘About A Boy’ (2002) screenplay by Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, Peter Hedges, story by Nick Hornby
expanding on the ideas that were relevant to the moment when the students were improvising (within the given topic/question) which is a very good technique to develop speaking skills because questions asked are usually, in one way or another, connected with the author’s experience and contain excitement and
curiosity of the author which allows to keep genuine interest alive in the form of a conversation in the classroom and observe the new knowledge coming out creating new signature way of thinking which allows students to use the language in a way that coexists in harmony with all their individuality and way of life.
In this picture - me and my classmates graduating in 2020 (not long after defending my work—“The Magic Of Being Creative or Unorthodox Ways of Connecting Your Passion In Life With English”). Our dreams have come true :-)
Photo credit Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
The Magic Of Writing 2006 - 2023 Doggedly Extracted From The Adventurous Midst Of Turquoise Imagination Via Sergey Denisov
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