948. Verbalizing problems


One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Sometimes a student of ours can have an interior, an inner problem or conflict, and he can suffer dire straits.

Verbalizing, putting the conflict into words, conveying it at a tutoring session can help a lot. The very fact of telling the problem may make it start to solve it – a shared problem can alleviate the weight.

I know you respect your students’ privacy, but also I know that you wish to help them. Sometimes you say to that student that you see him strange in some way, or that he looks worried lately, and that is the trigger for him to shoot his inner problem. That student then can see a way out for his problem by telling it to you. Carry on that way, I’d tell you.

And count on his family: perhaps that problem should be told to them – with the mutual understanding between him and you.” / Photo from: visitphilly com. ethel cee sitting on bench in rittenhouse park. Obviously the pic above has nothing to do with the experience told here  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3678. What to Do to Have Nice Discussions in Class

  I’m an English language teacher. And I consider that my dear students would speak in that language is the main goal, don’t you think so?  They often say sentences in class, if they are at a low level of mastering English. My higher-level ones intervene for longer and we hold nice discussions in class. Definitely I have to have them all of my students would contribute to the class for longer than mere sentences. I must have them speak for rather long.  Some years they have prepared oral presentations to speak for some minutes … or the whole lesson sometimes.  Definitely also it’s not the same to say just sentences than to have some conversations or some discussions.  Lately more than before this current school year I can observe that the textbooks we’re utilizing help out a lot.  By the way, I teach adults and when I ask them, well, I try and ask tactfully, because obviously they have their privacy.  Moreover if we wish we would have discussions in class, they need to have grammar and
Read more

840. Are you eager to learn a language?

Image
One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “One difference in favor of good language learners? I believe a good learner does wish to learn, for example English or Hindi or... This is a remarkable and clear trait of that person. He or she makes good use of any situation where they can speak, or practice in general. He offers himself to some South Korean gang in an ice-cream parlor to help them with their poor English, so as to order some ice-creams of this or that flavor... albeit in the end the assistant-girl also did speak English – this happened here in Granada, near Alhambra palaces. This learner takes notes in his diary or smartphone in English. And he likes to do so. He takes advantage of being on a British Airlines plane to talk to a flight-attendant in English. He listens to something recorded in his iPode, while traveling by bus. He’s not lazy and speaks only in his L1. He does use English, and not only in the cases where it’s totally necessary
Read more

839. Learning to learn

Image
One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “A teacher of math, literature, English... cannot confine his work to pass on, to teach, information, knowledge, math operations, the theoretical part of English..., but he or she has to teach their students to learn; to learn what? That information, knowledge, linguistic competence for communication... Obviously it’s true that the teacher for example tells his students about historical deeds, their connection to our present history, etc. The English teacher’s mission is not just to teach English but also to teach how to learn English, and this latter thing in a practical way: aimed at communication. The point is not to teach information about the language but to teach to use English for communication between, among people. Within this context, moreover the teacher’s role is to better his students, and he himself too. The first showing or sign of this bettering of the student is the learning itself, the fact
Read more

3677. Should I Foster Positive Motivation in Class? Some Guesses

  Today I’m talking about positive motivation and other topics alike.  The first premise is that when our dear students get involved in lessons and the activities we as teachers implement, they will likely work nice and keep on behaving that way. A person who is getting interested in studying something, that one will carry on doing that way likely.  And we teachers I think ought to also give them oral presentations about the topics involved in the school subject we teach. Presentations and explanations alike. A teacher has to speak a lot in class, in a good manner.  If we teach a second or foreign language, we have to give them a lot of correct pronunciation and we must speak for a lot, plus we must have them speak also for a lot, thus the lesson is something like a nice conversation between the teacher and his or her students.  Also we may utilize audios and videos where native speakers talk.  As well in that way we will be getting them involved in class.  Positive motivation helps a
Read more

3011. Teaching with High Professionalism

Image
  When you teach English to grown-ups, you may realize that you have to also talk with them for instance to check out whether they can understand you in classes. And you can do this in English too, at a basic and easy-to-understand level, because there might be (likely so!) different levels of English and different grades of achievement. But if you discern that you need to speak in Spanish (their mother language) about this point you may speak in this their mother language, in a discussion mode, and collaborative too! With adults you have to conduct in another way than from kids, evidently! Although they’re adults likely they’ll put themselves in your hands, and they, well, some of them, will accept whatever you tell them: they will be content with whatever you do in classes. Let’s be honest and morally correct: let’s give them a lot, and avoid giving them less than they deserve. They deserve good and very professional classes, ones taught with a lot of professionalism.
Read more