2021 m. 22 April At the meeting of the Kaunas City Methodological Group of Teachers of Early English Language Teaching, the teachers of English at Milikoniai Pro-Gymnasium in Kaunas, Jurgita Bartainienė, Senior Teacher of English, and Rasa Petružienė, Expert Teacher of English, presented their pedagogical experience and the most successful methods of education.
Jurgita Bartainienė, a teacher with 16 years of experience teaching English to primary school children, notes that distance learning has both advantages and disadvantages. During the pandemic, children learned to plan their time well. After all, tasks need to be done on time. Sometimes left alone at home, without the help of their parents, the pupils learned to be independent and responsible. Distance learning has pushed them to learn how to use ICT tools, educational apps, online resources and digital textbooks. Importantly, it also helps children to develop their creativity and imagination through technology. Students are now able to find the information they need in the here and now, some of them have become calmer, and those who struggled to communicate have become braver.
The teacher provided descriptions of tools for reading, discussing texts, teaching speaking, writing and assessment, with practical examples of their use. He taught the audience to be playful. Every lesson, every topic is a wide field for Jurgita to develop her own creativity, the main goal of which is to interest the modern child. “Sometimes it’s difficult to find the right ICT tool for visual presentation of a lesson topic, for teaching rules, for summarising a lesson or for student reflection,” the teacher emphasises.
Rasa Petružienė, an expert English teacher who presents methods for effective and active learning, noted that the pandemic has changed the way of life and its rhythm, and that her students need more individual, practical tasks, more connections to real life.
She also stressed that the child is shaped by the whole environment around him or her, but that parents are the biggest influences. They are the ones who make a major contribution to a child’s responsibility and thus motivation to learn. Parents help their children with their schoolwork, supervise their learning and help them overcome difficulties.
“Learning in primary school is impossible without positive emotions. A child needs to experience the feeling of victory. The feeling of ‘I can’ helps to overcome all obstacles. That is why I find something to praise each pupil for in every lesson, so that one failure or another doesn’t take away their desire to learn. I teach them to react well to failure: everything is fixable, you just have to try harder. Teacher Rasa mentioned several times that cooperation between parents and teachers is extremely important. Unified teaching methods have a positive effect on a pupil’s willingness to learn. It is important to talk to the child, to know what he/she wants and to help him/her realise his/her dreams. All children are curious and have an innate need to try, explore, learn and improve. “So let’s help each other!” – urged the teacher.
Kaunas Teacher Qualification Centre and the Kaunas City Methodological Group of Teachers of Early English Teaching periodically organise open meetings and methodological hours for English teachers, inviting practitioners to participate in them and share their experience.
Edita Rabizaitė, Chairperson of the Kaunas City Methodological Group of Teachers of Early Childhood English
