Experiences of a teacher of English

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “One of the big things of the Internet is that I’m connecting with teachers of English all the world wide: it’s something pretty good. I tell other teachers about my experiences and also learn from them – otherwise I’d tend to do the same things all time in my classes! Also I learn everyday and literary English. My students, for example, can benefit from some relationships with other youngsters from other countries, by using English when typing. We did this activity some years ago in my school. It was great. Here the thing is my students’ parents and I are concerned with – we do recognize the Web has many big good things, more good things than bad ones –is that some of the relationships some kids could start and hold, through some social network, may be not appropriate, as everyone knows. Like I’ve just said, we aren’t any against these networks. Let me think. A few parents and I were talking last week about that one of the mai...

Each academic year, in May, when I was teaching in a former school, we teachers planned an excursion with our kids to a one-hour-travel shrine of Our Lady, to say the rosary and to spend a nice day in the countryside. I remembered those excursions with joy. In the south of Spain, in May, it’s spring though I would affirm it’s like a first summer – it’s hot. The kids were studying the so then 8º EGB (equivalent to K-12 if I’m not wrong; 13 and 14 years old anyway). My remembrances are positive in general. You spent a day in a different context from school, and you all had fun. The boys got to know you out of the classroom, which is a good thing. One year one of the kids caught a few crayfish in a nearby brook. We relaxed and took something to eat, which the ladies of the dining-hall had prepared for us teachers, like they were our moms. We ate something in the shade. The kids spread over there. It’s interesting to observe that at that age the kids were – roughly speaking – either like ...

One day a student of a teacher of English, while at home, sitting in his room and gazing at the park through his window, where at that time some kids were playing and some mom was pushing their baby buggy, then he made his mind as follows. My job now is studying, ok. I’m going to simply need English in a few years, say, two or three. Now I’m 17. I’ll need to be fluent at speaking in English. I think the word that fits here is commitment. I’m the protagonist and engine of my actual learning English. I have this compromise with myself, my family, my school, my country, ultimately the whole world. I’m part of the future. I cannot defraud and disappoint society, also because of the money my country and my family have invested in my education. I’ve got to pull off the best from myself. All right, let’s start by making a practical plan of homework for today. As well, tomorrow in the class of English I will try to contribute more by speaking and by listening to my teacher and classmates . / P...

The girl of post # 797 used to keep a diary about her learning at school. One day her teacher of History wrote some notes about her on the tracking academic form. She has a few but significant flaws at retaining important info about the period we’re working on. If only did she learn a method to study... Tomorrow in class I could speak about techniques to face the unit and the texts. I’ll also ask for suggestions from students – they like to tell how they study and how they can help one another. A few of them fail just because they don’t know how to study properly. Something else for me to remember, which called my attention: another girl once suggested that she thinks she could pass the subject and learn about our past by counting on two things: effort plus God’s help . / Photo from: mentalfloss com. dance class

A girl of 15 wrote one day on the diary she was keeping the following ideas. She used to write it in English, so as to practice. My teacher of History – I would say – insists too much on the things I do wrong in my study of History. It’s fair and just to say he also tells me the things I do well. The thing I want to pinpoint here is that I must think I CAN study and learn History; as well and as a result I CAN pass the subject. If a student doesn’t think he or she can actually improve and pass a subject, he or she more likely will not pass the subject – and learn the contents of the subject too. Summing up: I have to think I can pass History because I’m going to study harder... and with a real interest in getting to know how people lived in previous centuries, which is interesting. / Photo from: travelinos com. alnwick castle outside

Very helpful. Come on over to see the following site. In it Shelley Vernon offers us many games for teaching English, in a fun, relaxing and effective way. www.teachingenglishgames.com . I'm so grateful to her. I recommend it to you, teachers. Thank you again from here, Shelley. I also publish a comment by toddy: ( / Photo from: absolutgranada com. Alhambra. I live in Granada, Spain, as you may know) . English the basic steps with the ten steps are really marvelous and great .No-matter it needs some time to be clarified and understand with a more ease Speaking English UK By toddy on 794. Importance of teaching values on 2/16/12

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Last academic year I taught a small group of four students. They did need to study useful basic grammar to be able to communicate in English, plus lexis, read stories, drills, practicing naturalistically, etc. And they did need to learn how to study also from their textbooks. Eventually it was like I had to teach four private classes, all at the same scheduled time! One day I was helping the oldest student with his irregular verbs – they’re so necessary to learn because we use them a lot in our everyday conversations. I also was heping another kid with his corrected and graded last test. Oh my! What to do? It was driving me crazy. One idea, however, came up: I asked the student of the test to explain to a younger student what errors and mistakes he had done in the test. In this way the student of the test became so aware and enthused with explaining to the other student about his errors and where they were. He got pretty focus...

Today you have a post by a teacher, published in the web site of British Council – BBC, www.teachingenglish.org.uk , and a reply by me. Here you have them, if they be of any use to you. / Photo from: forouniversitario net. estudiantes atentos en clase. Importance of teaching human values to the students. A teacher affects eternity. How morals ethics and values can be incorporated in the pedagogy is a question that has disturbed me for long. Your views shall be highly appreciated and shall go a long way in making this world a better place to live in. Thanks. Hi dr vipin oberoi, I’m glad to see you write about something so essential in our daily teaching. I’m trying to give you some points you could think of, if any useful. 1. Whatever we, teachers, do or whatever we don’t, that influences and educates our dear students. We teachers are in front of our students and they ‘observe’ us. 2. Oh, first premise. The stud...

On February 10 I received the following interesting comment to post 790. I thank you, reader, very much to send it. As well thanks for the suggestion; I’ll think of it and take it into consideration. – You know? I just read it again: I’ll have a try next Wednesday. / Photo from: morenglish es. Spanish kids learning English. “I am a student currently majoring in English Education, and I really enjoyed your idea having the students engage and communicate. Although a fun twist to this lesson would be to use it as a sort of ice breaker for High School students." By Anonymous on 790. A naturalistic way of learning English? on 2/10/12

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “In my opinion, definitely it’s a great and essential idea today here in Spain and in other countries (I guess), more and more, subjects different from English should be taught and learned in English. For example it’s becoming more and more frequent today that in Spain students attend classes of History, and Science, with textbooks in English, or by means of portfolios or dossiers made from here and there – complementary topics to one another. This may mean like a change of mind: English is not only a practical subject to actually learn English, but a vehicular language for other subjects. I’ve met teachers of secondary education in Spain that were studying the level of C- 2 in order to facilitate themselves with the instrument, the terms and grammar to teach those subjects. C-2 level? It is the highest level of English within the Common European Framework. Believe me, it’s worth to invest the effort, both by us teachers and b...

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “I’ve learned from what you told me last week. That you think of your students also out of the school sometimes, like when returning home from the school. You think of what this student or that one needs, their advancing, the reason of that behavior that day... Nonetheless you try hard to live your life; well, teaching English is a big part of your life. You also think of what you can do to build up your love to your wife day after day, how to be nice at home, and not only with your students and colleagues, how to help your eldest daughter, who’s going to get married soon, how to meet ends this month. I’d tell you you take into account, you bear in mind both groups of people, school and family, because of the love you have to them. I can say this because I know enough about you. Like I said, sometimes I learn from you, and not only nice things we can implement in the classes. Great.” / Photo from: gardening shecknows com. girl ...

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “In these years of my career as a teacher of English I’ve been creating a scheme that has happened to crystallize. This general scheme is: I try to teach and lead the learners’ process in the following sequence: first, learners respond with words; then, they say sentences – and phrases; after that, we hold conversations. This scheme is kind of inherent in any conducting of my classes, it’s implicit in my daily conducting, not something to follow to the letter. This big scheme is the materialization of my teaching goal; it’s a sequence of steps in communication: words, sentences, conversations. However, this big scheme is something I don’t necessarily follow. Fortunately life is varied, and each student and each group of students are unique. So it’s as a scheme to take into account, just that. As you can see, the goal is communication, by means of words, then sentences, then conversations. In other terms, the use of words, sente...

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Realia (real objects) for learning English? Pretty useful, I’d tell you. Try and use them sometimes. Now I remember two cases of my own. Last year, one day of February, one of my young students - 9 years – had to learn the word ‘swing’, ok? I was trying to explain to him the idea of something swinging. Soon, it happened I remembered the golf swing! Ok, I taught him how to swing, with an imaginary club. As well I brought something relaxing in the class. Kids that age simply need to move around and do actions. These latter ones make them learn words and phrases. We repeated the swing. I’ve got to say he learned swinging pretty well, in my opinion; he’s so smart a kid. He enjoyed the class and ‘swinging’ got stuck in mind. Amusing. Something else in short. One of those days I was teaching a class with adults, some sixty-something years. There happened to be a chess board and its pieces in the library where we used to have the cla...