Experiences of a teacher of English

Parents should talk about sex with their kids, before a rascal friend would tell our children about it in a wrong and confusing way.  The point is telling our children about sex in the context of husband and wife’s love.  Also the point here is not just confining to explain biological topics but, as I said, in the context of love within marriage. In the context of love between parents, which is where the spouses express and show their mutual love, to each other. / Photo from: father-son-talking www lds org

Now I would like to add something to the previous post.  I said youngsters have high ideals, and this is not just good, but excellent.  They should focus on studies and learning, but let’s promote and channel and direct their ideals into something grand, like fighting for peace – a fight of peace and love of benevolence -,  helping the poor with visits to poor families,  visiting shacks – we teachers will accompany our students -,  taking care and being environmental friends,  taking their friends to the holy sacraments…  Let’s channel their ideals to initiatives by them – they can have better ideas than us adults – and others like assisting an elderly center,  taking food to poor families,  cooperating with Caritas (in Spain),  giving a meal with the spoon to a disabled old person in an elderly center, etc.  The more I write, the more ideas come to mind.  Also youth is an age when we could encounter God...

Some posts before I said teens are capable of great ideals, right?  Now I would like to add that we teachers and parents should help them focus those desires of changing the world into carrying out their studies and learning at the classroom.  That’s their job or profession now: attend classes and learn at school, and at home or at libraries invest the enough time to digest what they have been explained at school by us their teachers plus the specific texts we have worked on at the classroom.  With a more peaceful mood and pace.  In that way too within years they’ll be capable to face up with daily stuff, with lives as professionals. A kid that studies now will be capable to afford many daily problems. A good student now: more likely he will be an upright and honest person. This is from my experience with the young. / Photo from: magoosh com

Pope Francis also has said something concerning our families, which is encouraging (the translation into English is by me):  The Family of Nazareth pushes and involves us to discover again the vocation and the mission of family, of each and every family.  So those very words aren’t exactly from the Pope, just a version by me. Pope Francis said that message on December 14 th , 2014. / Photo from: large-family www babble com

Reprimanding? Ok, but teach him how to improve, how to better, how to solve the problem; never an excuse for you to vent your sorrows and the bad side of your way of being. / Photo from: teacher-with-student simpson edu. In no way do I try to show a disruptive student on the picture: she looks marvelous, doesn't she?

In Christmas we Christians celebrate something just paramount.  There is one God, ok? but three Persons in it: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Ok, the second Person, who is God, took our human flesh and incarnated: Jesus Christ, some 2,000 years ago.  He worked with his hands, and was one of us, equal except he didn’t commit any sin.  He died on the Cross but resurrected on the third day, on Sunday.  His message, his commandment, is we should love God with all our effort and will, and we too should love other people, as we love ourselves. Merry Christmas and a nice 2016, my readers! We keep in touch. 

Hoy dejo hablar al Papa Francisco, sobre una cosa muy bonita, sigue leyendo; da qué pensar. Viene al pelo de la situación que estamos atravesando, en oriente y en occidente.  “La  alegría de los hijos estremece el corazón de los padres y vuelve a abrir el futuro.  Los hijos son la alegría de la familia y de la sociedad. No son un problema de biología reproductiva, ni uno de los tantos modos de realizarse. Y mucho menos son una posesión de los padres…  No, los hijos son un don, son un regalo, ¿habéis entendido? Los hijos son un don. Cada uno es único e irrepetible y, al mismo tiempo, está inconfundiblemente unido a sus raíces.”  De la audiencia general del 11 de febrero de 2015. / Fotografía:  japanese garden www japanesegardenpasadena com. Es una mera ilustración bonita. 

In our center we let the students manage their freedom. It is a way to make them feel free and responsible.  We aren’t all the day long over them: we allow them manage their actions.  And we educate the kids in personal conversations or tutoring sessions too.  The first place to let kids manage their liberty is at home, within the family. And secondly it is school.  So we try to contact the parents and we call them to the school, to talk with the kid’s tutor. We try each family educate their kids in freedom and responsibility.  And it works, at least on our side, the school.  We advise the parents and families to have their children short of money too, instead of covering their whims and desires. As I said it works good so far. / Photo from: freedom www bluelight org

If we want and wish that our school would work good, we should take into account that the order is not students, teachers, parents and families, but first parents and families, then the teachers of the school, and then, only then, the students.  It was the way my school worked, the school where I taught until 2002.  I have learned that that is the correct order. The correct order to take care of. It works! / Photo from: talking-to-kids www pbs org

In the school where I worked till 2002 we had tutoring sessions, a time for listening to the kid and his stuff, a time for letting him giving vents to his problems.  How important it is to learn how to listen! If the kid felt he was being listened to, believe me, you had gotten it.  For a kid, if an adult listens to him, likely, with the teacher’s help, he can achieve to help the student to mature.  Often, after a wrong move by the kid and maybe others else, so alone or in league with others, you had to learn what question you could ask him and in what mood.  Nice things those tutoring sessions, believe me. / Photo from: www responsiveclassroom org 

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada fue el pacífico conquistador español de Colombia, que no permitía a sus soldados y capitanes tratar mal a los inditos.  Estamos hablando de 1538. Conquistó con poca sangre, y decía, “todo hombre tiene natural inclinación a ser amigo de quien le trata con amistad…”. Esto se puede aplicar a nuestros alumnos: aunque sean maleducados y problemáticos, si les tratas con buenos modos, respetándoles, a la postre podrían tratarte bien.  Porque tú les tratas bien. Prueba a ver. Pero con disciplina y afeándoles que se porten mal.  Ponte serio: es un disgusto para ti ese comportamiento. Y una alegría la respuesta acertada de aquella chica. Alábala discretamente, con suavidad, no exageradamente. / Fotografía: iStock_adult-group www facultyfocus com. No me aclaro con la foto: ¿Son todos profesores? ¿Un profesor con sus alumnos? ¿Pero y las personas mayores que hay detrás? Bueno, yo qué sé, es simpática y ya está. 

Regina Pacis, ora pro nobis. Queen of Peace, pray for us your children!

Oh, what do we do with such a worksheet?  You know, we work on it in different ways, following a plan usually.  The students basically learn useful and helpful expressions and phrases.  We read the worksheet in different ways, first I read it out myself. Another thing we do is making up summaries of the story, or change the end of other worksheet stories, guess the end… / Photo from: window-cleaning expressservicegroup com. this picture is just an illustration

From: City Lights (1931). Sorry for the formatting bugs, I just copied and pasted the worksheet, but the result is not the same as on a sheet of paper. Worksheet 182 (21/11/2015) Revision of last year. Useful expressions 1.     I want to check out if I have got all the worksheets. 2.     We will go to the airport to pick up Sarah. 3.     We have a booking, room number 231. 4.     He is staying in a single room at the hotel. 5.     Let’s hope so. 6.     I don’t think so. 7.     The Three Wise Men gave presents to baby Jesus: gold, frankincense and myrth. 8.     Oh, have you got an umbrella? It’s drizzling. It won’t last long anyway. 9.     We assumed her first name was Irish and the second Christian. 10. We were an overwhelming army for the Nazis. 11. My companions ducked or jumped onto the ground. 12. It’s a quart...

Young children and toddlers have a mental potential that, if stimulated, can give a lot...  A young kid two years old is capable to read.  A doctor told us this at a lecture, a few days ago.  He finished his degree of Medicine when 19 years, and reached the doctoral dissertation at 22.  So the thing with toddlers and young children is making them move in the classroom, so as to connect their neurons, and thus they can input and intake a lot, like English for instance. There are two ways of naming things, in English and in Spanish, though they aren’t aware of this phenomenon; for them it’s something natural. / Photo from: toddler-teeth www orlandofamilymagazine com

We teachers should realize that adolescence is an age, among other traits, prone to ideals, to change the reality at their negative strokes and elements, to think in grand, to donate themselves to ideals or to specific people.  Teens feel a vast change in their interiority.  They don’t know how to behave, they mind their friends’ opinions and classmates’ ones a great deal.  We teachers have to empathize with each of them, being comprehensive and prone to understand them. Make good use of the tutoring times as a momentum to leak their interior wounds, together with their parents, with whom we will try to arrange dates.  Kids expect a sure line from us teachers, and coherence, and we have to provide and offer values, Christian values, I would say. Or in other words, offer Jesus Christ, true God and true man.  Oh, they're open to encounter love, love without surnames. / Photo from: Frudlyn wallpapercave com fall landscape

I'm writing among shades and darkness, for the lamps of the study hall don't work - we're up to it. My affective greetings to you reader. If I can I will post later or tomorrow. Such is life!

It’s well known that some students have problems with studying from their textbooks or e-books or notes.  You have the solution.  At tutoring sessions we could ask the kid about the way he studies. It is a great momentum and chance for helping him at this skill.  We can listen to the way he studies and recommend some tip or even a technique for studying.  Some students do not know how to face up a textbook and its texts. And you can be the best help, because you have passed through this hard point. You’re an expert at this area, at this skill. Thus the student won’t lose any more time by hanging around the book or the unit. / Photo from: studying www hercampus com

If somebody wants to learn English, French, or other languages he must wish so with a pushing resolution, which he must renovate and renew afresh every single day.  Only so can he learn and acquire English, French…  That attitude must be suitable to be seen actually by other surrounding people.  Otherwise he doesn’t really wish to learn and acquire those languages. Do you wish like a freaky of other human areas? Not that much? So you will not learn and acquire that language. / Photo from: urm org

Yesterday I attended a lecture by Dr. Kovacs. I will try to pass you on some of the marvelous and amazing things he said, like for example the fact that a child of two years can learn to read, and read actually, and so he becomes more autonomous for his growing up and discovering things a child that age can like, namely mom and dad, and others.  Before the actual speech, a counsellor of the city hall, as an introduction, said that we teachers do not just confine our labor to teaching and instructing, but also to giving values and fostering virtues.  By the way, a child aged two can be stimulated so early as to be able to recognize the letters and so to read a text. / Photo from: getty_rf_photo_of_toddler_scribbling www webmd com

We teachers should love our students with love of benevolence – to wish the best for them – and with affection too.  Treatment with them should be full of affection, kindness, politeness, and likely, with time passing we will get affection back from them.  This doesn’t hinder from class management and discipline. Just these two latter elements can build up a sincere affection from both students and their teachers.  Affection isn’t a strategy for encounters, but it springs from an inner convincing thought and attitude of ours.  All this stuff is inspired from Miguel-Ángel Martí.

If you’re training candidates for example for B1, B2 or C1 or whatever level of English within the Common European Framework for languages, why not conducting all the class in that language?  Yes, also announcements, arranging dates, logistics… all that is real communication, which complements the stuff proper of those levels of official examinations.  If we do so, our students will have a pretty chance of real communication in the classroom.  Thus we could “live” in that language, and we’re offering a naturalistic context for also real communication: it may be one of the best ways of training, right?  From the very meeting at the beginning of the class to saying good-bye, and recesses too. / Photo from: o-TWO-PEOPLE-TALKING-facebook www huffingtonpost com

A few hours ago I’ve come from the center where I teach English.  I’m not a native English speaker, as it’s clear enough. Yet we have gotten some volunteer girl or girls for the students of English could have conversations in that language.  She or they are Americans.  It’s a nice chance for listening and speaking with a native speaker. However few students of mine wrote their names on a sheet of paper I handed out today for them to write their names, if they would like.  Next Monday I will insist on this nice chance, and will say further things to attract them to this great opportunity.  I join our neighbors’ sorrow for the victims of terrorism – I live in Spain, so next to France. I pray to Saint Mary for peace, for French people, and for a nice conviviality among so different people. / Photo from: Eiffel-Tower_10 cheapvacationholiday com

Students attend classes at school, as the most normal and usual thing in the world.  Yet, what do they expect? And what do their families expect from the school, from the teachers?  If we solve this question we can deal with the ethics of the teaching profession and job.  Well, they expect the teacher should know about his school subject, kindness and politesse by him, teaching competence, happiness – a deep one, nice treatment to the students, discipline and a sane class management.  All this has been inspired by the reading of a doctoral dissertation by Christine Wanjiru Gichure.  I would like with this post to implement my job as a teacher and writer, and therefore wishing peace in the Western society and in the Eastern society too. / Photo from: young woman with laptop English teacher visual stage www young-germany de

In Spain we have about 50% of unemployment amongst the young – about 25 year-old people or younger. We are diminishing unemployment in general, but here on this post I wanted to refer to the young.  Some wise people think that is so because our professional training and degree are looked down in practice, in real life.  If we achieve to re-organize that vocational training we shall have better results.  Traditionally professional training – “formación profesional” – has been undervalued: it was for low-achievement students.  By pushing up and increasing up the social value plus bettering the programs of those studies we could get better results, and corporations and firms might hire more people, and as you all know, professional work is a paramount point in people’s resume or CV (“Curriculum Vitae”). 

After massive and intensive reading, like a novel or from their e-books, the students of ours can win flying-in-the-memory words that get stuck just to memory as I said, and which they don’t know their meanings: it is the time to look up those words in online dictionaries like Wordreference: they can gain and memorize words that will facilitate their communicative competence. / Photo from: campos-eliseos París

We teachers, even more in parents’ case, can fall in a fault for becoming superprotector parents.  Many families in Spain now have a single child, or two at the most. We have a problem of the pyramid of population: if this situation keeps being so, within twenty years there will be a lot more oldies than young people (!).  There is no population recharge.  Many families, this is also true, are sacrificing and giving up having a newer appliance or a car for having more children, or moreover they have to cut off vacations for a bit or concerning the destination.  In other words they are open up to receiving the kids God will give them, coming to the head of the problem.  Children in large families could learn better, from their brothers and sisters alike; this is taken from experience, from life as such – I know many families this kind. / Photo from: 143StudyAbroad www hercampus com

We teachers can teach our students how to get the most from studying, from their personal studying.  If they have got to study a History unit in English, the target language, first they could read for the gist.  Then they can read and study and get the most important points, and turn them into a summary or an outline.  After memorizing it they should read the whole unit or text so as to revise.  If they follow this scheme, they implement various learning strategies and they mature, also as persons. / Photo from: study hall www landmarkeast org

Before facing up a new class-group the teacher should learn some points about his new students, like social family neighborhood,    learning aptitudes,  learning strategies they use,  level of English they have – I refer to their communicative competence, aptitudes concerning the four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing, personality,  their behavior and attention capability,  previous grammar and vocabulary knowledge, etc.  This has been inspired from Spanish scholar José Bernardo Carrasco.  The main premise, let’s remember, is we teach and help people to communicate with one another in English, French, etc. If we are in mid-academic-year approximately it can be nice to take these points into account and assess our students. / Photo from: Seattle-Learning-Center-Science seattlelearningcenter com