What constitutes a perfect lesson for an ESL teacher has more than one answer. Obviously when all the students learn what you are teaching them and use it correctly without prodding would be perfect.  However, there are lots of other perfect things that go hand in hand with that.

I would love to give a perfect explanation of a word, a concept, a grammar point, or a way to use something. I would love to set up the perfect situation that makes my students use the grammar and lexis I intended.  Another perfect thing would be for them to ask the questions I am expecting them to ask and can therefore employ my perfect solution.  Another thing that could happen is that I hear errors that they make that can be dealt with quickly and clearly that are either from the lesson or can be dealt with without detracting from the lesson.

Yesterday had elements of all those things, but what stood out for me as the Perfect Moment was that it all fit so perfectly in the time frame I had. Good lesson don’t have a lot of leftover minutes and don’t conclude before all the lesson progression is done.  Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I underestimate them and  they “get it” much earlier than I had planned on and they get through the activities faster and require less feedback.  For those times, I always have stuff we can do that will be useful to them–I don’t want to kill time, I want to use time.  However, not getting enough practice is something I really don’t want.

Yesterday, my lessons were all timed well and we got a lot done. Nothing was rushed, but nothing was wasted either.  Perfect Teaching Moment for me