Leadership and teaching English as a second language

[Barcelona747]

I am a former Spanish teacher who switched to ESL last year. My first year was challenging and rewarding. A big surprise was the way I had to step out and into roles that were in the area of leadership. It is interesting that school principals and superintendents receive training in leadership but teachers (the 'troops on the ground') do not. I think that whether teachers recognize it, many times each day they practice leadership. This is a point of study for me this this. How do you practice leadership or see others practice it in the profession of teaching English as a second language?

[Paula]

I agree that teachers show leadership;

You can see this in presentations and to an extent we lead meetings when we are in class.

This is especially the case when dealing with a group of business people.

Good luck with your work

Paula

[birbi]

hi there!!!

my experience of showing leadership in teaching starts with simple things.... having to fight to get materials back in the resource room, make sure the Ss tidy up before they leave the room, establish the rules with the Ss, and overall fighting to get it my way with temperamental teenagers (eg manage to still do one hour of lesson on the last day even if they've been promised a little party at the end) . Also selecting which complaints to listen to and how to deal with them. (eg is the activity really tedious or is the student moaning just lazy and unmotivated?)

Getting them back on track when the little 'diversion' from the lesson plan becomes side-tracking is the time when I have to lead them back on track.

And let's just remind ourselves that education is just this : educare in Latin means exactly to lead, to show the way,which should be the fundamental principle of 'teaching'.

Gd luck with your studies. very interesting topic

Rose