Experiences of a teacher of English

Teacher A said to teacher B, “The best discipline is having your students wishing to learn.  The best discipline is self-discipline.  Try to make each student embark in their personal pathway to learn English or any other modern language. Make your students reason about their process to learn and acquire the language.  Let them say out how they are going to work in the class. Although you may think that what they’re saying is too obvious or childish, accept it.” / Photo from: gubematrix co uk. running track    

Teacher B said to teacher A, “A practical activity to keep your students silent and easy is dictation: they focus on listening to you plus writing on their notebooks or sheets.  In order to keep discipline in the classroom the point is they should be working in something specific: exercises, listening, speaking, reading, fill out the blanks…” / Photo from: news fitzrovia org uk. playing chess   

Teacher A said to teacher B, “It is very sensible and sound to educate the kids within the family and the school in the values and virtues of willpower, honesty and sincerity, generosity, and loyalty and faithfulness, according to expert Julio Gallego Codes, a Spanish scholar.” / Photo from: manacled wordpress com

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Although the class-group is like a mass of people, I would advise you to address each kid, and when explaining something look in their faces.  Instead of trying to pacify the whole class-group, address one kid at a time: address one of them for example and the rest of the class-group will start to lower their voices and will start to be silent and still.” / Photo from: www colourbox com. playing drums   

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Traditionally the teacher in the school and the classroom was the protagonist or main character, and the students confined their actions to listen to the teacher’s wisdom, isn’t so?  Now I think, ok, the teacher talks and his students listen but also all the class (teacher plus students) is more similar to a work group where the teacher is a facilitator, main engine of force, helper of the students, who embark in the process of learning English or another language.  The students need this facilitator.  However the teacher keeps being necessary for the kids to present things: grammar, vocabulary, usage, idioms, colloquial language...” / Photo from: www southatlanticfirerescueexpo com. pipes and drummers   

Today I have translated a remarkable text by Spanish scholar Julio Gallego Codes, from his book about Our children’s studies and working ( Los estudios de los hijos ). It could shed some light to us teachers and parents. He writes about us Teachers.  The teacher is prone to help children, teenagers and youngsters. This is a pedagogical love that essentially means that the teacher is prone to thoroughly fill the lack of maturity of students, and aid in their possibility of development and growing up. This being prone to help them implies a capability of certain psychological view and understanding each youngster. / Photo from: www cricketwalker com. girl playing guitar

This is a continuation of post # 1390.  Thus, when we have awful classes – this may happen to anyone - , on the next day you should specify which students committed the outrageous occurrence: probably they are fewer than what you had thought.  Now, if it is possible – you ought to do it albeit it may be disgusting or you are short of time – talk with each kid, individually and briefly: you can ask him what the wrong thing was (make him think and say what happened, on his own).   Often he will recognize the bad action or whatever it was; leave an exit way to him instead of you getting cross; have him recognize what the clever thing ought to be: you know, the reprimanding and scolding should be educative: the kid may repent from the outrageous action or whatever, or at least he gets warned for future.  Well, this obviously is a suggestion (that has worked sometimes). / Photo from: www old-picture com

Teacher  A said to teacher B , “Your students must listen massively to learn words and useful idioms.  Now for your students it is a silent period (for example at the beginning of the academic year) and you also use expressions that appear in the course book, in the unit you're working on.  The students ought to be attentive and focused.  They will understand more and more.  Make references to objects in the classroom as well, to your drawings on the chalkboard, like people (just puppets), use photos with flashcards, use realia (real objects), and little by little make them convey sentences or just words; they must listen a lot, and you can ask them in order to start to speak in English or the target language.” / Photo from: jacksonville com. mail carrier 

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Do not me worry too much because in your opinion today’s class was awful.  Don’t break down. You did your best.  You are a new teacher and experience will show you many tricks to manage the class. Moreover, not just tricks but a philosophy on your own.  Tomorrow will be different. A bit or a lot better, precisely and just because things did not turn out so well today.” / Photo from: www worldcarfans com. a citröen c4 cactus

Teacher A said to teacher B, “If you do your best by teaching, day after day, trying to improve and do a service to your students, and you offer your work to God, you may be doing something holy, something saint.” / Photo from: www theepochtimes com. girl playing violin

Teacher B said to teacher A, “If possible, and it is possible often, enjoy teaching, with your effort and struggle to make your students learn the process of acquiring/learning a language, in this case English.  Enjoying a class is not hindered by the effort you’ve got to invest.  It isn’t fun sometimes or often but the point here is that you are trying your best, and this is gratifying. Even more if you do it for your students and their families, for the school, for society, for your country or nation, for human kind, for your wife and children, for God ultimately.” / Photo from: tlc howstuffworks com. teach kids to play tennis

Teacher A said to teacher B, “All right, drills are necessary for learning a grammar point.  Nevertheless in tests for example tell them to use that grammar point into a story of a certain number of words, like 80, 100, 150. Think for example of the third conditional: If you had been here then I would have told you I would die for you .  Or: If more reinforcements had arrived in time, then we could have stopped the assaults of those radical followers to the American embassy in Paris .” / Photo from: writing wikinut com. rainy day in park

I have arrived few hours ago from an excursion to the skirts of Alayos, in Sierra Nevada (province of Granada, Spain).  Now I’m ok but it was tough to me. It wasn’t a clutch anyway, rather a peaceful going up and down. Extenuating up to my strength now anyway, so my friend and I had to stop and come back to his SUV car, a nice BMW. I was done.  The views were wonderful.  The swimming I usually do has helped me in the thing of going up and down.  My friend was wearing trekking boots, but I had Reebok sneakers. My boots were seriously damaged the last snow in Granada, about a half year ago, so I threw them into a garbage container a few days ago.  Summing up, it has been alright altogether. / Photo from: objetivogranada ideal es. montes de Alayos, Sierra Nevada, Spain. Now they don't have snow; other mountains have some in the Sierra Nevada ridge

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Insist to your students that the best discipline is self-discipline.  They’ve got to learn it on their own, but with your help. To be a teacher is something you learn. To be a student is something you learn. The ball is on their roof, not yours. Insist on discipline, so as for them to acquire it. Your plinth is your natural and/or acquired authority, a serene one, even nice and kind, also peaceful, learned through the years or months you’ve been teaching.” / Photo from: www taninga net. phoenix park dublin ireland images. This park is or was the largest in Europe    

Fun really is not something necessary: we have learned many a thing just because we had to.  If besides it is fun, that is okay, but classes are not necessarily fun - they ought to be relaxed, focusing, engaging the brain, with rigor, with sense of humor, with discipline, with your personal stroke, with their personal stroke. / Photo from: www arthandle com. arctic caravan

Teacher B said to teacher A, “So, you know, there can be 4 steps for learning a grammar point.  First the students listen to many graphical examples conveyed by you. Then you ask someone to respond with that grammar tense for example. After that you ask others to say a sentence with that grammar point, as the first student did.  Then they and you both say more examples and you write them on the chalkboard. Later one by one, some students read out the examples.  This activity could take some 15 minutes the first day with that grammar point.  Last they copy or invent to write further examples. Tomorrow implement the same process.” / Photo from: www trinityp3 com. printing costs more than ink on paper  

Teacher A said to teacher B, “My students like games, they like learning and acquiring English through games.  Sometimes we play games.  Their eyes are open as dishes. It’s something as if by magic: they’re so focused, even more when the games are by teams.” / Photo from: www theguardian com. emma shaw painting a mural  

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Treat each student as he is, or even better than what he’s like.  You have people, persons entrusted. Their families have entrusted them to us, with the idea they were doing the best, with the best teachers maybe. We cannot frustrate them.” / Photo from: hechingerreport org. rebecca

Teacher A said to teacher B, “A learning strategy can be when the student faces up a text or a diagram to study, and translates those ideas to his own and unique way of understanding and learning by heart.” / Photo from: www froufrouandfrills com. a beautiful fall landscape

Teacher B said to teacher A, “We can have the best teachers in the world, unless the students work and study and apply learning and communicative strategies, we will get scarce results.  The teacher is good, tentatively if he or she makes their students struggle in order to learn and acquire English or any other modern language.” / Photo from:  www bbc co uk

Teacher A said to teacher B, “That student is so bright because at home there’s an ambiance of fulfillment of duties for love to one another.  The parents are: he’s 44 and she’s 42. The relationships at home are steady, even peaceful, except for the younger children: 1 year, 2 and 8, who naturally are playful.  However, their elder siblings help their dad and mom with the toddlers' education . Someone strange could see there’s a high estimation of work and study, and sane games.” / Photo from: eorganic info

Teacher B said to teacher A, “She tries to educate her students in their will, within an atmosphere of fortitude. She cuts off any sign of selfishness and egoism among her students [So far on this post the ideas are taken from Julio Gallego Codes].  She proposes a list of small jobs at the beginning of the academic year. She then reads out the list in the classroom and the volunteer or volunteers raise their hand.  The small jobs are like: erase the chalkboard at the end of the class, ‘foreign affairs’ (go someplace in the school to say a message to some teacher), take care of the bulletin board, remind of setting the desks into straight rows, go to get more chalk, three representatives of the class, turn off lights at the end of the class, water the plants, open the windows to air the room…” / Photo from: cobbcast cobbk12 org

Teacher A said to teacher B, “A teacher once talked to a student’s parents, and told them that albeit their son had a low level of English he had struggled at the extra school class of English.  He had been so attentive and he wanted to participate quite often. The group was small, some 4 or 5 students about 12 years old.  His mom became so excited when this report was given that she praised the teacher. This latter one said that they, parents, were ‘guilty’ for having educated their son that way.” / Photo from: www classroom-teacher-resources com. student raising hand    

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Oh, what linkers and conjunctions? The ones you use for example.  A sample of them: however, though, although, albeit, nevertheless, nonetheless, therefore and henceforth (they’re formal), and, but, on top of that, all in all , etc.” / Photo from: blogs puyallup k12 wa us. student writing

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Assign from time to time as homework to write a composition: either fiction or a non-fiction essay.  Set a number of words.  In order to learn, in the classroom, compose a story with them. Elicit 3 words that are going to be included in the story, or do it yourself.  In the classroom compose from a sentence to a text sometimes, with coherence and cohesion, with linkers and conjunctions, step by step. Now whatever they do will be a text, ok!  Some people prefer to previously write an outline; others prefer writing according to what comes up to their minds. You may not care about that latter point, and you shrug if questioned by you yourself.” / Photo from: www aucegypt edu. frustrated writer no text    

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Math is important for everyday life; which is more, it is necessary, as Julio Gallego Codes puts. He’s an expert in education and learning strategies.  We have played math games in the class of English: mental calculation. You teach how to say + ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ -.  I have played with children. For example I say out a sequence of math operations while they’re listening to me. When I finish I say ‘.. make…’, and then they say out the answer. It’s fun.” / Photo from: stateimpact npr org. WendyPedroso   

Teacher B said to teacher A, “One activity for older students or advanced ones is to compose and invent a resume (or Curriculum Vitae ).  You give them clues about some points of that resume.  Then, the student has to present the resume like he was [ sic ] about to apply for a job. The student ought to include his or her strong points: things he or she is good at or aptitudes they have.” / Photo from: www sofeminine co uk. girl typing her resume

Teacher A said to teacher B, “At the extra-school classes of English we used to do homework and play games in English. In the part of homework they had to do some exercises, for instance drills.  They came up to my table sometimes and told me they didn’t understand such or such exercise. Ok, read – I told them in their L1, namely Spanish – read the instructions in your course book as many times as you need to understand it; study the example; look up the words of the instructions in the dictionary.  Then, they went to fetch the dictionary. At the beginning it was a bit hard to find a word in the dictionary. I assisted them by for example showing them that the words appeared in alphabetical order.  I don’t understand the exercise is not the right answer: read and read the instructions of the exercise. It was like: find out who the bad guy is.” / Photo from: southernorderspage blogspot com. large family. they help one another

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Have your students prepare a topic for presenting it before their classmates and you, teacher.  Tell them to prepare something of their choice, or carry out a brainstorming on the smart board, and each of them will choose his topic.  It isn’t the same at all to say one sentence than speak for 2, 3, 5 minutes. You can say a lot in 20 minutes, or whatever the allotted time is.  Give them a dead line date for the preparation, which can be in accordance to the class-list or randomly.” / Photo from: www sergiofuentes net. korean students

Teacher A said to teacher B, “It’s a sound idea to have a graded reader for using it one day of the week.  Students love to read stories, if chosen well.  When I was a kid myself I used to read classics that had the format of comics.  The first premise when implementing this activity is for the students to delight and understand the story.” / Photo from: www mguhlin org. tablet

Teacher B said to teacher A, “Look. Our goal as parents and teachers isn’t merely to teach our kids math, the history of the Roman Empire, and How to write an essay.  Those things are ok, but the aim is to get educated people: people who can solve problems and troubles, people who can face up the contemporary epoch, people who can influence positively in society, people that can work as a team.” / Photo from: maxamedsaleebaan wordpress com 

Teacher A said to teacher B, “The only adult person your students can observe for hours are you and your coworkers.  You bear a sere responsibility. You’ve got to set an example to follow. Their expectations are great.  When the teacher treats his students with commitment and love of benevolence they allow being educated. The students are young but not silly, and they appreciate you, teacher, because you trust in their learning and acquiring English.” / Photo from: www clm-granada com. Centro de Lenguas Modernas, where I got the C2 level of English, and many American students attend to learn Spanish.  

Teacher B said to teacher A, “When I taught English at another different educative center we used to split the class of English into two parts: the first one for the homework of their schools, and a second part for games in English.  The games appear on post # 259.  In this way I could help the students with the school subject of English, and also we could play games in English with the vocabulary from their course book plus speak in English. The thing turned out well: they reinforced the subject of English, fulfill their homework, and play fun games with the words and grammar they were learning at their schools.  My classes were in the evening, after school, maybe after some soccer practice, maybe after learning how to play a musical instrument, maybe after their classes at the parish to make the first confession and receive the first Eucharist Co mmunion.” / Photo from: www checkit alexng net

Teacher A said to teacher B, “The messages and instructions you teacher give to your students ought to be repeated on different days.  When the students listen to an instruction several days, they really realize of it and so they can carry out that instruction more smoothly.  An example can be when you elicit features about a text they’re going to listen from the course-book CD. The first activity can be a lead-in activity prior to the actual listening.  After you have repeated this sequence, with the time passing, they become more prone to tell you things related to such or such topics before the actual listening.” / Photo from: www frazercenter org. children listening to story 

Teacher B said to teacher A, “In the school where I taught before we teachers used to have an evaluation session about the grades our students had gotten and about any other aspect that could be significant for the boys, every 2 and a half months, approximately.  His tutor told nothing about what they two had talked at the tutoring sessions privately.  We all were the teachers of the different subjects each and every boy had.  We said both positive and negative things about what we had learned about him in an assessment period. The goal was positive: the boy’s improvement.  It was interesting to listen to the veteran teachers say good or negative things about the boy. The atmosphere was one of excellent respect toward the boy.  We also counted on dating with his parents – better if both the dad and the mom could attend the meeting with the boy’s tutor.” / Photo from: www telegraph co uk

Teacher A said to teacher B, “In early October I will start the classes of English for adults and retired people.  I’m thinking I will start the first class in English, from the very beginning. I will try to create an atmosphere of immersion in English. The first conducting by me will be in the target language: introducing myself, asking them their names, and the first activities taking stuff from worksheet # 153, which is on post # 1334.” / Photo from: classifieds echinacities com. adults learning modern language

Teacher B said to teacher A, “In the school subject of English or any other language students do not learn as they do with rivers and ridges of mountains, battles and the syntax of their mother language, but what they learn is to communicate in that language.” / Photo from: footage shutterstock com. stock footage young female Caucasian surgical student using wireless tablet while skilled medical professionals

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Something important for our students is that they have to use the form of past simple of both regular and irregular verbs when talking about the past (last summer, yesterday) ‘Yesterday I WENT to my grandparents' house.’” 

The three great essentials to achieving anything worthwhile are: first, hard work, second, stick-to-it-iveness, and third, common sense. Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931)  / Photo from: www digitalqatar qa. girl with tablet