It was a total
disaster that I did the workshop at MY school more than five years ago. Well, I
completely nailed it today, with my colleagues participating in a wide variety
of tasks targeting reading comprehension.
The Complete Flop
It was painful to
recall what happened then. The lack of immersive activities left the
participants not engaged. I lectured about principles and ideas throughout
almost the whole workshop, without providing authentic experiences in the real
class. What's worse, I spoke only in English, and it was a monotone delivery
for sure.
The Dramatic Comeback
Today's workshop,
on the other hand, was undoubtedly a victory over my self-doubt. My colleagues
were paying attention to my task instructions in English. They ran through
hands-on activities that required collaboration and production, including
running dictation, mind mapping, gallery walk, information gap, and so on. Some
quickly thought of variations of the original tasks based on their classroom
settings.
Throughout my
presentation today, I felt relaxed, confident, and focused. My colleagues'
participation and engagement contributed a great deal to the smooth delivery. I
even cracked them up with some jokes. The stern-looking director was there the
whole time, smiling and recognizing the value as a teacher trainer for so many
years.
"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick
ourselves up."
After the
disaster, I've been working hard on both delivery and teaching innovations at
workshops. Gradually, I got the hang of it and have
received numerous invitations since then. People appreciated the hard work that
I put in my English presentations outside of my school, but I could not get
over the defeat whatsoever. Well, it felt so great for my colleagues to bear witness
to my transformation.
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