382. A school... of fish


Just to thank HeatherA for following my blog. I just wrote some words of gratefulness on the website of British Council, but as you receive new RSS, you'll see this appreciation by me. I'm afraid you may have not seen my gratefulness on British Council website, because I've written it right today, June 22. Picture from www phillaird com

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3709. How to Be an Authority in Class?

  We well may be finishing one more school year – if you are for example a committed teacher, like most of you are. And we want our dear students would learn a lot, as well as they would be happy.  I was wondering what an ideal teacher should be like. One of the main premises is he or she must be an authority in class. Are you one? Am I one? I guess an authority teacher is the one who achieves their students would actually learn.  I don’t mean those teachers ought to be like a sheer guard in front of a gang of convicts. So let me show you what I’ve seen in some classrooms, and which accounts for being a real authority.  You know, that teacher must treat his or her students in an exquisite way. I mean, they should respect those students in class – I’ve seen it and I’m now thinking of a teacher I had at high school who was an authentic authority – he treated his students – us! – in a tactful way – he never humiliated a kid at all in class. And when he met us out of the...
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3125. Working as a Team in the Classroom

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  We teachers should be updated about education trends or research trends, more if they seem okay. What I mean is that quite many teachers are trying the following working scheme. The class plus the teacher would be a working team. Anyway this does not mean the teacher is secondary or minor role, or he cannot present topics, like for example grammar patterns. The point is roping the class into a process of learning: the students also are the main characters at this play. The teacher would boost their learning, for example by making them participate more, and also by doing everything that would put them as protagonists of the lesson, together with their teacher. In other words the teacher would foster and boost his students’ creativity. In the lesson there would be the teacher’s creativity plus the students’ creativity too. The class with their teacher is like a work-team or group. The trend is creating thinking classes, thinking individuals. / Photo from: arion2render...
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3708. When Was the Last Time Our Students Read a Full Book?

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1851. Each student is unique himself

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The point is helping each student in your classes as the way they are.  Or in another way, students are diverse, right? With weeks passing you get acquainted with each and every one of your students, and you get to know what you can expect from any of them.  Also think of high-achievers: they oughtn’t to get bored.  You could think you cannot be after each one, for you have many students in the classroom, but with a spark of love of benevolence and patience you can more or less treat each kid as he is.  I mean not to make as many classes as students ther are, but the premise is treating each kid as he is, even demanding more than what you guess at first. / Photo from: entradasalhambragranadaalbaicin Alhambra 2013 iaa es. I live in Granada, where Alhambra palaces are
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3236. Training for Exams? What to Do

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  Maybe often we have to train candidates for B2 or C1 levels of a foreign language. Those levels are upper-intermediate and advanced respectively. How can we sure we’re doing well? We can imagine we ourselves have to pass those levels and we’ll know what to do! And we’ll have clear ideas that we have to practice listening, speaking, reading and writing, plus grammar and vocabulary. What would we do to train those language skills plus grammar and vocabulary in order to pass an exam? And so we will be able to train our candidates for those levels. Thus when planning our lessons we could think: What have I to do to improve for example at speaking or at listening? And we’ll go for it in a practical way. For me listening and speaking are the most demanding and difficult skills to improve. As well we can think about what we did when we had to pass B2, C1 or C2. This latter level is the highest one in a language, and when we get a thorough C2 level, that means we are biling...
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