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Unread Jul 13th, 2007, 12:30 am
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Whistleblower Whistleblower is offline
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Join Date: Oct 30th, 2006
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Question My Worst Lesson - Any Advice

I had a really bad lesson yesterday. I thought I would provide some insight into the lesson as I would like some feedback and how to ensure it doesn't happen again.

There were two students I was teaching yesterday. I shall refer to A - the intermediate student. B - the beginner student. They were complete opposites. You could taste the bitterness in the air. Anyhow, I started the lesson as I always do with some small chat to relax the students and ask how their day was and what they will be doing later. Student A was pretty good and was able to communicate effectively. Student B has some difficulty but I gave him a chance to communicate.

Anyways, the student B was not meant to be in the lesson. His English ability was below the standard for that level but I persisted and was keen to finish the class.

The class seemed to go on for such a long time (in reality it was 60 minutes) but the pace was very slow to accomodate Student B.

At the end of the class and completing just 2 out of the 7 activities, Student A seemed upset that the lesson hadn't gone according to plan. She was upset that a beginner student was in her lesson and I had to apologise to her. I recommended that I would go through the lesson with her in my spare time to allow her to ask any questions and feel satisfied after a poor lesson.

Student B was recommended a level change and that was that. I felt rather guilty that the lesson wasn't up to my normal standard and felt sorry for the Student A who seemed to waste her time telling the Student B what to say.

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Does anyone have any advice on how to handle the unexpected in a lesson? It seems my worst performance as a teacher since I started teaching and I can't seem to remember such a poor lesson compared to this one. I would appreciate any advice anyone can throw my way.

Can anyone remember their worst lesson? How was it? What did you do to learn from it?
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