TESOL Xinyi

I loved having the opportunity to learn from this unit because it also confirmed some things that I had learned from when I took a class on providing a natural educational environment effective for learning at Kent State University in North Canton, OH. Learning about different seating arrangements and their advantages/disadvantages has been very helpful. For instance, having learned that the horse-shoe/circular desk arrangement (my personal favorite for smaller classroom sizes) provides an environment in which students can feel more comfortable and less dominated by their teachers, it seems beneficial to me for the simple fact that students have more opportunity to interact with each other and constantly focus on the subject material on hand without becoming bored and losing interest. Likewise, having learned how to provide effective discipline in the classroom through this unit, I feel as if I am ready now ready to stand up in front of a class and provide for each student a more comfortable environment set up specifically for their encouragement and language learning. The reason why is because I know now, for instance, that keeping calm and responding to each individual student after class to enforce discipline is effective because it minimizes the opportunity for feeling low self-esteem in front of other classmates and also allows the problem behavior to be dealt swiftly and in a loving manner that builds character and reinforces a good purpose for continuing to learn.