This month, we interview Merran Harper, former Head of School at Utahloy Language Centre in China. Merran completed Lexis Education’s Teaching in English in multilingual classrooms (TEMC) Tutor Training. In this interview, she shares her experience becoming a tutor and delivering the course to her colleagues.
Did you find the tutor training to be valuable?
Of all the professional development I have ever done, the Lexis tutor training is the most valuable, informative and practical. It has changed the way I view curriculum development, unit preparation, lesson planning and teaching pedagogy.
In what ways did it impact your own teaching?
The training helped me to be more targeted and intentional in my teaching and assessment tasks. When interacting with individual students, I am able to provide specific feedback to meet their needs as I better understand how to scaffold EAL students’ learning.
When you ran the participant course, did you and the participants find it to be engaging?
Teaching English in Multilingual Classrooms is a highly respected professional training at our school. It is used to frame our curriculum planning and classroom pedagogy. All new teachers receive training and appreciate it for its practical support and for the demanding, but engaging content.
Did teachers use their understandings from the course in their teaching?
TEMC principles are widely used across the school, from implementing the school wide, standardised, clearly defined text types, to specific classroom practices such as student grouping. TEMC helps teachers to explicitly implement a functional model of language in their classrooms.
Would you recommend the tutor training and/or the participant course to other teachers? Why, why not?
I would highly recommend the tutor training to teachers. It enables teachers an in-depth knowledge of EAL learners and practical planning and teaching strategies. The tutor training allows teachers to support their school and colleagues within a well organised, sequentially structured framework.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Merran.