Experiences of a teacher of English

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Once a teacher set as homework to find and write fifteen or twenty words about the topic of the unit they were going to start next.  The students would copy them from their course book and activity book. If they learned them, they would gain a positive grade.  It’s a way to enhance vocabulary. And get to know the contents of the next unit: they would find their course book as something meaningful and interesting.” / Photo from: thinkonline smarttutor com

Teacher A said to teacher B, “We use verbal tenses to convey our messages.  A brilliant teacher once taught me three steps to teach them. They’re in accordance to the four skills.  Briefly: they listen to the teacher say meaningful things in such or such verbal tense or say any other grammar point.  Then, the students say meaningful examples with that verbal tense.  Afterward they read examples aloud written on the chalkboard.  Finally they copy those examples and use the grammar point for writing other meaningful messages. Create in class the need of communicating in such verbal tense.” / Photo from: www greaterhomewood org

Teacher B said to teacher A, “A game they love and which enhances their vocabulary is as follows.  You elicit letters of the alphabet (also vowels!) and write them on the whiteboard.  Many of them will want to say a letter themselves. After that, they tell you words that are built with some letters on the board: they can repeat the same letter.  They get so focused in the game. All of them will want to say words by using those letters on the board. Easy when they’re tired, and you too. Easy since they’re 10 years or older.” / Photo from: 72 41 47 51. school kids  

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Young children need visual aids, like posters, flash-cards, puzzles, plasticine, puppets, colors.  They cannot think of abstract grammar sentences and phrases.  If you use those aids, English is learned through images. I remember that once I was teaching kids of 6. The topic was flavors. I ordered the ladies of the dining-hall to prepare some salt, sugar, chocolate, orange, lemon.  The kids were eager to participate.  I was beginning my career then and classes were not very good anyway. The subject was about our daily surroundings, in English.  One kid had to close his eyes and let me know the flavor he had tasted. It was funny to see their faces when they tried sugar… or salt.” / Photo from: thejuicymamas com

Teacher B said to teacher A, “In our classes there’re immigrants’ sons, mainly from Bolivia, but not only.  I was going to say something about this enriching value – people from different countries working together – but most of them (15 years for example) have lived in Spain all their lifetime.  Some years ago the kids from South America worked and played together with the native kids from Spain. There weren’t serious problems of adaptation, or there were few cases. Did you have?” / Photo from: fs huntingdon edu.  

Teacher A said to teacher B, “The curriculum or program of the school subject of English must be practical, although you've got to follow the rules of your school and of the department, and might think you're constrained. You specify a planning with your initiatives as well: it’s you who’s going to teach your students.  It shows a general view of the subject and the goals you want to achieve with your students.  It should help you fulfill the periods you think appropriate, by terms for example. Then you will plan each unit, and each class.” Thank you, Studies Weekly, for including me in your circles. / Photo from: homeinthetrenches com. two children studying

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Also there can be good humor at the tutoring sessions with the student or his family.  You naturally – nothing special – show willingness to listen to the kid, and try to solve his problems, and get the most and best from him. Maybe one first question didn’t hit the target, so you ask for pardon and then you hit the right target with a second question.  All of this is love of benevolence.  Something must be set clear: boys should have a male tutor and girls a female tutor.  In tutoring sessions, in the end, you and the kid could achieve intimacy: kids like to be listened to by an adult, they can say things about their families, ask you about a baby's origin, give vents to traumas, why they didn't study for the test, etc.” / Photo from: forloveofchildren wordpress com 

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Assessment should be continuous.  The teacher tries to assess every day the effort invested, the communicative competence, the grade of knowledge the students have gotten, the summing or subtracting grades of the homework, participation in the classes.  As much as possible the teacher should measure all this and what he thinks should be evaluated. All of this is like a mirror also for the student.” / Photo from: www bealcityschools net. teacher tracking student’s work

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Do you keep on learning as a teacher, and as a teacher of English?  To be a good teacher implies staying alive, in the sense of renewal and recycling thoughts and methods.  And you’ve told me you carry on learning words and practicing speaking when you have the chance.  Each class should be planned and ought not to be the same note planning as last year, and next year. The students are different and have different needs.” / Photo from: cdaclass org. two student girls

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Good discipline and a sound management of the class carry us all to good humor, or at least this latter one is more likely where there is that discipline and sane conducting.  Everybody there can work and talk in a nice atmosphere.” / Photo from: schoolsofthought blogs cnn com classroom geography teacher students   

Dear Sirs and Colleagues, I would appreciate you send me an email address to contact you. Thanks in advance. Best wishes. / Photo from: blog oceanconservancy org. capitol

Teacher B said to teacher A, “The student’s family has a lot to do with his studies and specifically with learning and acquiring English.  There are several points here, from negotiating a schedule of work and study, to create a quiet atmosphere at specific times.  I would advise the student’s computer ought to be in a place of the house which is common or a zone where the members of that family can pass by. So, we would gain two positive points: we help the kid not to be distracted with something in the Internet, and we help him to use it with clean sites, etc. – unfortunately there are not morally positive contents in some sites, as everyone knows.” / Photo from: www adelaidenow com au. mom and kid with schoolbag  

Teacher A said to teacher B, “As you can see, lately I’m speaking about learning vocabulary.  A technique the student can do is to think of a similar word in Spanish or his L1 anyway.  In formal English for example some words have a Latin origin and so they’re similar to words in Spanish. However the student should exert effort to memorize the usual English corresponding word.” / Photo from: publicspeakingguy com. young people talking           

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Teach your students to understand or approximate the meaning of a new word from the context.  As an example you can ask them about one of those words, which you think it’s new for most of the students.  This inferring the meaning of a word is very appropriate with texts. The context of sentences around can make to infer the meaning of the new word more or less.” / Photo from: www facebook com. a coupé car    

Teacher A said to teacher B, “A dictionary is like a private teacher. At home and at school our students can learn words, and find out what that word means.  Using dictionaries demands practice. We’ve got to join the alphabetical order with the dictionary.  One game you can do in your classes is a competition to learn who the fastest is by looking up a word. Also the teacher can use a dictionary and a student times how many seconds it takes to find a word. They like to compare the teacher with them students.” / Photo from: www csmonitor com. kid using a tablet

Teacher A said to teacher B, “What makes us different from animals is love.  God created man and woman. He wished someone else be happy: man and woman.  When loving we are wishing someone else be happy. We wish the best to someone else.  Love is something only human people can have. And angels.  One important point here is that we can forgive another person. Like God, with whose love to us can forgive us and our sins. As well, we have been raised to the category of children of God.” / Photo from: www unitedwaydenver org. williams family. kindergarten school readiness denver colorado   

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Reading books and now e-books influences on the way a person is.  That person has read these ways of being from books, and has not read those ways from other different books. That specific reading influences in his biography.” / Photo from: latimesblogs latimes com. man reading a book

Teacher B said to teacher A, “We can recall the words we have learned by using them in communication, drills, naturalistic conversations in class, etc.  In that way the students can see that the words of the unit are meaningful, and this reinforces their learning those words. We remember the words we use.” / Photo from: www ukessays com. free writing essays   

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Our students have been studying English for years perhaps.  In order to work with vocabulary, at the beginning of a new unit you can ask them what words they know about the unit topic. Besides you get to know how much they know.” / Photo from: www reviews66 com. weather forecast tools     

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Intimacy. Privacy. Consider always that we as teachers are working with people, with persons.  This profession as a teacher is of the most profound ones: we are ‘dealing’ with persons: family and parents, teachers, and students.  We are laboring with diamonds or emeralds. Each person is unique and has a lot of things inside, within. We teachers have to be careful, for we are stepping by stealing into the persons of our students, their parents, our colleagues…  It’s very crucial to labor with persons, who have their feelings, biography, insights, concepts…  We’re responsible of exerting a powerful profession, willing or not. We’ve got to try to become better and better.” / Photo from: www mathsciencesuccess org. 

Thank you. I have peeked at your circle. I have got to gaze at it more carefully. Thanks again, and welcome. /Photo from:  www buildbetterschools com. m artinez. public education  

Teacher A said to teacher B, “We’ve been speaking about learning new words in the last posts.  Obviously vocabulary is important: if you have the words, it is simpler you can have the messages.  This is the point now: the goal of the school subject of English is communication. And the goal of communication can be: cooperating, solving problems, sharing experience, arranging plans, loving, teaching, learning…  And the ultimate goal is transcendent: all of us to arrive in and be happy in Heaven or Paradise.” / Photo from: www volstate edu. math + science = success  

Teacher B said to teacher A, “You can assign as homework to read part of a new unit from their course book, as for example the first three pages, with a dictionary.  The next day you can write on the smartboard sentences you’ve invented with blanks where the students have to use one word from the course book unit. In this way they will appreciate the need to learn new words.” / Photo from: www 123rf com. two women in a shopping mall downtown looking for clothes  

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Tell your students that the more new words they learn, the better they can convey their thoughts.  Also they’ll become better players in the vocabulary games. The point is you should create the necessity of using words. Games can be by groups or individually.  You have competitions and other games on post # 259.” / Photo from: www mathsciencesuccess org

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Tell your students they ought to invent their own and unique way of learning many words.  In this way they will have some initiatives and they will see they themselves are learning, on their own.” / Photo from: www comingsoon net. pixar animation movies

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Memory can be trained marvelously.  Alike, when you have struggled to learn words, for a long time, your memory gets expanded.  On the other side there are people that have a photographic memory (maybe the former ones) and they can remember the word, its meaning and its spelling.” / Photo from: blog citizenschools org. public speaking  

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Learning words is evidently essential in learning a language.  But you’ve got to use that word – otherwise it finds lonely in our brain and it flees…  Something I have done sometimes is using the new word in class itself with my students.” / Photo from: www hablayapanama com. tasks-method. two girls speaking

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Sometimes some people ask me if I can think in English, and once I gave the example of reading a novel: while you’re reading a novel in English you’re thinking in English.  There are other fields: if I’m dreaming that I’m teaching a class, then I’m thinking in English too.” / Photo from: serc carleton edu. student thinking whilst he’s making a composition or an essay or a story.   

Teacher A said to teacher B, “How learn new words in English by a Spanish person?  One way is reading. Reading every day makes you get new words.  Reading books, e-books, graded readers.  Or you can learn one word or expression each day. However reading for leisure and for longer periods of time, like 20 minutes for example, will make you learn several words. In this way you’re piling words and words, which you’ll retrieve almost nearly unaware.” / Photo from: conflictingclarity blogspot com. young man reading library

Welcome to my blog, Isaac Vidal Martínez, and many thanks for having included me in your circles. I have included you in mine. I have peeked at your site: it's outfitted nice. / Photo from: www talkingpoint org.

Teacher B said to teacher A, “I’m glad about the fact that more and more women devote a lot of their time to teaching.  This effort is enriched by femininity.  Women are after the little. And also have a big intuition. It’s another way of thinking, feeling, loving, working, providing to everyday labor, which become more humane.” / Photo from: tucsoncitizen com. 2-Meghan-L.-Stern-Kenyan-teachers-Lawrence-2nd-from-left-Collin-Maguire-550x412   

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Grammar is like the skeleton the students need to learn in order to be able to communicate their thoughts.  Syntax, morphology… they are indispensable for learning and acquiring English or other languages.  The student should dedicate some time to read, understand, and learn the morphology and syntax of the target language. As a result, the teacher has got to present a grammar point in classes; or he can ask for volunteers to prepare material for a presentation to their classmates.  The procedure can be carried out individually or in groups of 2 or 3 students, maybe 4 (as you decide since you know your students).” / Photo from: harifomtheworldday wordpress com. weather forecaster    

Teacher B said to teacher A, “In the classroom there should be an atmosphere of work, serenity, and moments of peace and quietness, whilst the students are reading, writing, thinking, creating.  Also for you teacher to be able to observe them, gaze at them, contemplate them, think about them, think about each of them (or at least some of them).” / Photo from: theconversation com 

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Teaching as service to society – it sounds great.  You know, each and every job or profession is service to people.  And today’s Western society needs outfitted and professional and profound services. Also any other country’s people in the world need services.” / Photo from: www tellmemore com. communicative approach to teaching languages

Something now about warmers or warm-ups. I have written about them: you have the numbers of the posts on post # 1297.  Warmers rope the students in the class of English, right after the math class for example.  They take some 5 minutes approximately. You can ask the student how his vacation was; or a question in which he has to use the last grammar point you’re studying lately.  They’re so helpful, and they create an atmosphere where English is the vehicle language.  Albeit he uses the language bad, the important thing is Communication. Also you can say the correct form for him to repeat it. / Photo from: britishcouncil org. esol (English for Speakers of Other Languages)

amen abdelsalam, I am so sorry for the dire straits you Egyptians are suffering these days. I pray to God for all you people. My back-up.

Right now I have no time, but I will say something soon about the importance of warmers. I'm trying this very morning.

You can find more about warmers or warm-ups on posts # 132, 149, 215, 259, 594, 619, 904 and 1296. You can type those numbers on the Search box of the blog. / Photo from: www telegraph co uk

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Each and every class is important and should be remarkable.  From the moment the class on the schedule [= timetable] starts. Have them sitting properly, and getting quiet.  Move your arms as if giving instructions to the students to be attentive. Now a warmer (or warm-up), about the grammar point they’re learning; perhaps with flash-cards; meaningful questions to them in any case.  All that operation should take about five minutes or a bit more. Starting a class well entails it’ll be meaningful and important to them. An edifice is built brick by brick. Learning and acquiring a language is built with the bricks of classes and activities: each activity is a brick laid.” / Photo from: www chinaelg com. flash-cards

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Grand teachers and professors in history have taken little things into account.  Little things are so important.  Those great teachers have focused on little things. Great projects need taking care of little things, and focusing upon them. Like human love. This latter one is built up by taking care of little things, like for instance remembering that today is the anniversary of our marriage (I’ll buy some flowers), or today is my eldest daughter’s birthday.” / Photo from: animaltheory blogspot com. images german shepherd pet dog     

Today I wanted to thank you readers for following this blog.  The aim of this blog is you.  I would be happy the blog please you and teach you some trick or whatever for your classes. You are the reason why I try to post every day.  You all are the protagonists.  And besides I would thank God our Father, with his love of a Mom and a Dad, for all his help. I would like this blog please him too.  And his mom, the Most Holy Virgin Mary, who is also our Mom. Turn to her to ask her for whatever you need. / Photo from: theconversation com. working in the lab