For this reflection, I’m delighted to welcome Jo Szoke. Jo is a teacher trainer, online and AI teaching specialist, educational consultant, and teacher implementing coaching methods. Her book with Zsófi Menyhei, “AI Literacy in the Language Classroom”, published by Delta Publishing, is available now. You can find her blog at Short and Simple English.

Lots more prompts like this are found in A Reflection Journal For Teachers – available as a pdf or in print at taylormadeenglish.com/reflect.

(Text version below)

Failure is an interesting concept. Especially, when you’re a teacher trainer who also teaches on a regular basis. I keep telling my trainees that making mistakes or not knowing a certain word or expression is not the end of the world, where what I personally do when I teach a lesson when not everything went according to plan is beat myself up for it. Or when I’m learning a language, I know very well that language learning is a process, which is full of ups and downs. I also know about the concept of interlanguages.

Still, all of this goes immediately down the drain when I forget the conjugation of a verb in Russian. I apologize profusely to my teacher knowing well enough that perfection is not only impossible, it’s also irrational to expect. I wish I could be as kind to myself as I am teaching my trainees to be to themselves. I think this double standard can be found almost everywhere in life. There are people who are harder on others than on themselves. That’s not kind but at least they can be content with their knowledge and skills. Sometimes I wish I was them because while I strive for perfection, I tend to lose sight of the process.

Lots more prompts like this are found in A Reflection Journal For Teachers – available as a pdf or in print at taylormadeenglish.com/reflect.

Share your own reflections with your wider teaching community by sending them to me. Email me at t.made.english@gmail.com and I’ll share your responses to the prompts in this book.

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