Leadership Habits For Language Instructors

Community of Practice, Leadership, Reflective Teaching 0 comments

Ceiling at Le Pantheon, Latin Quarters, Paris, France

Photo by Jonathan Acuña

Leadership Habits

For Language Instructors

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Post 329

One of the most interesting parts of being part of a community of practice is the chance one has to share with other members. Because of this symbiotic relationship that can be created among the member of this type of community, people can discuss “issues” pertaining the “tribe.” Recently, our lead teacher came up with an intriguing topic linked to attrition, student involvement in learning tasks, and motivation. And due to this lively and fruitful discussion with team peers, I bumped into an infographic, whose leadership principles I modified to link them to language instructors and to our empathy with our students.

Part of my participation in the community of practice’s discussion was to ask peers the following question: “How would you transform these features into a language instructor/leader's behavior to help learners grasp the gist of the content in class and in a course?” BBy answering the question, educators can -for sure- become more aware of their interaction with their students and how they are making them feel when being in class. Here you have mine!

- Make decisive decisions to always have students motivated in and out of class, especially when one teaches online students who happen to be in another country.

- Take immediate action when you feel one of your students feels like dropping out of the course. You can “rescue” a great student from failing because of things that can be talked over.

- Follow S.M.A.R.T. goals on your lesson plans to see them materialized in your students' performance with your language coaching and guidance.

- Be productive with your learners, not just busy especially when a learner reaches out for you and your help. Working on an online environment can make learners feel “isolated” and the helping hand of a teacher can be what is needed.

- Live out of your comfort zone and make learners feel that they are important to you as much as their learning. Creating a human bond with the student is a great way to make them feel comfortable with distance education and self-regulation.

- Make things simple to foster learning and enjoyment while learners are with you in class. Making things difficult for them can be counterproductive for the instructor and for the learner as well.

- Measure and track student progress especially when grading oral examinations and writing tasks. Discussing with them what they are doing well or wrong can be very productive for the learning of the student and for one’s teaching.

- Have positive outlook despite the mistakes students make because you can help them improve. A bad attitude on one’s part can make our learners run away from class and from all course-related activity.

- Learn, evolve, grow, and develop yourself to better cater for student learning needs. Every single class one teaches can also provide us with something new we can learn to become a more seasoned, round-up professional.

- Be consistent, character, credible, trustworthy because learners do rely on you. Feeling betrayed by a teacher can be one of those “traumatic experiences” learners will have trouble overcoming.

- Connect, care, and communicate with your students especially when you feel they are to drop out of the course, or they feel they are having a hard time trying to understand basic concepts or content of a course. We have all been in that position when a helping teacher can help us become successful in our developing of new skills and linguistic competencies.

- Walk your talk, otherwise students will not believe any word that comes out of your mouth. What you will tell them you will do for them, do it. Don’t make them feel betrayed.

What you have found here is just a mere reflection of a teacher’s beliefs in terms of leadership in the online classroom. You can complete them otherwise to have your teaching principles and habits shine among your statements. And if you are wondering about the colors, it is simple: a) black is what is stated in the Infographic (Improveon 2018), b) my writing in blue was what I originally shared with my peers in our community of practice, and c) dark green is what I, after reading my own ideas, wanted to share with my blog readers because they are part of what I believe as an educator.