Experiences of a teacher of English

  Each of us teachers have to address a class-group, right? However we teachers should address each student, also in order to dissolve the “mass”. We shouldn’t address a “mass” of students, as if the class-group was that “mass”. We can accomplish this goal by addressing each of our students by looking in their eyes, as though sweeping the class, when talking to them. Looking in their faces in a sincere way. We should know each student and consider that each one is unique! We can have large classes but we don’t have “masses”. If we conduct in this nice way we will diminish disruptions: each and every student will feel unique and “alone” and addressed. Looking at their faces, with true love of benevolence and affection, diminishes disruptive students, for sure! / Photo from: XVIII-Regata-Illes-Balears-Clàssics www masmar net. The picture is just a nice illustration

  Sometimes classrooms get untidy: spare desks or some other furniture, card boxes… and in this way I assume we can’t teach nor educate our dear students. I say “dear”, although sometimes our students can upset us… Anyway we have to love them with love of benevolence. It’s difficult students grow up in a nice way if they’re surrounded by disorder and untidiness. Also class management gets more difficult if the classroom is messy. So let’s dedicate some time to think about all this, and we can get advantage of this situation to educate our students in neatness and doing things for other people, their classmates! Students grow up in an appropriate way if the atmosphere is not strident and gaudy. Even they can’t learn and acquire English if there’s this kind of disorder. / Photo from: working in the laboratory. The picture shows a tidy atmosphere

  I taught private tuition yesterday, for the two brothers – one is ten years and his brother’s twelve. They show some problems relating grammar and vocabulary. I can speak freely about them because you don’t know them and will never meet them. So those are some of their problems. I’ve contacted one of their teachers at school – the younger’s one. And so I’ve learned about the younger brother’s stuff. Thus I’ve changed my private classes into classes-tutoring sessions – I talk for long with each of them too. I wish to get close to them: one is in his puberty and his brother is in his pre-adolescence. And I’ve thought to be myself in those classes. In this way I guess I gain empathy with them. The elder brother I guess doesn’t like being told many things by an adult, like me. But if you treat him with sincere affection and love of benevolence I’ve seen you can approach him pretty nice. / Photo from: www technovera in. the picture is an illustration, which tries to ...

  I’m telling you all an activity I implement in my classes with senior students. I’ve done it today and it worked! Basically I ask them to tell us about their professional careers, before they got retired; just that. And with my help and their classmates’ the thing goes smooth! / The photo is just an illustration

  We teachers should bear in mind that we have to educate thorough persons, also upright and honest ones, amid our students. So we need ethics, among other values. And that ethics has to be based on metaphysic principles: so as to go to the root: in order to reach the value of being, we are beings. In other words we need to base ethics in God, because we cannot have a lasting ethics without God. And also we can consider that we educate from love, love of benevolence, this is, from loving our students. All this may seem little practical or pragmatic maybe, but we have to dig deep, so as to found a firm, solid and strong basement and foundation for the paramount building we want to raise. / Photo from: www playbuzz com. Pope Saint Paul II is a giant reference about values, isn’t he?

  With my adult senior students I usually implement the same routine, and it’s okay with them. Basically I hand them out a worksheet from time to time. We work on it from different attack points, also here basically the same as always. When we’ve worked on the same worksheet for a rather long time, and they master the vocabulary and the phrases of its, we change into the next worksheet I’ve composed for the time. My students like this way of conducting, and are pretty motivated and even enthused with the worksheets, and also with talking with American volunteer girls, at conversation sessions along the week. As different from other ordinary people, my students have lost any fear to speak in English, and they do so even before the class and even after the class. It’s so wonderful to teach them! The worksheets are about given topics: At a travel agency, At the airport, Common and useful phrases, Stories I compose myself, etc. / Photo from: vincent van gogh www taringa...

  I generally prefer single-sex education, to be honest. English school subject is one with many variations from one student to others: they may have many varied levels of English. And my experience is that there are more girls that get better grades (or marks in UK) than boys. Besides if we have only boys (for example), we avoid the problem of them trying to show off before girl classmates. If we have only boys, we can focus on more restricted varieties of levels amongst them. It’s one more option, and now I remember an English teacher (he’s British and Spanish too I guess) that also told me he preferred single-sex education. He was a teacher we hired as a summer English camp, some years ago. / Photo from: women-hand-holding-umbrella-walking-in-the-winter-rain-on-a-street-in-Shanghai-city www magic4walls com. the picture is just an illustration

  We remember the new words that we use. So as for our students to learn a new word we could advise them to use the new word into a context, into a sentence for example. Or we can ask them in class to think and say an oral sentence. This usually works fine. It’s a learning strategy recommended by great Rebecca Oxford (1990). / The photo is just an illustration, one I used hundreds or thousands of posts ago.

  Acts of piety and devotion, on regular days, help us be contemplative of our Father God... In the middle of the street. For us ordinary people. They are the main things to do every day: attending the Holy Mass, saying the rosary, reading the New Testament for a few minutes, visits to the Eucharist tabernacle, where Jesus Christ is hidden, present though. We don’t lose time by carrying them out! And they really don’t subtract us time for the work, the family… all the way around: they help us carry out all those things. Be sure. / Photo from: www injuriesandaccidentsnyc com

  Joy and gladness attract. Definitely. We teachers should be joyful and cheerful. If we‘ve already gotten a nice class management and discipline among our students. Being happy and working hard and well give a big professional prestige. And this prestige will be a big push for our students in their intimate process of learning and acquiring English! / Photo from: NASA-Astronaut www bandwidthblog com

  We teachers should seek our students would gain maturity, which means self-control of passions (in general, all what you endure and suffer from), and to have an equality of mood, over changing and unstable and fickle moods. And this through daily classes... plus tutoring sessions. So henceforth passions are tied tight. What’s more: we have to help our students they wouldn’t seek themselves in a selfish and egoist way, but think of others, and first of God. This takes them to be audacious and face up fear, or wrath, which are other passions. / Photo from: jorge_saez www btzentro es endurance

Oh, I forgot it, Jesus Christ is true God and true man. / Photo from: The Crowning of the Virgin Mary, by Spanish 17th century painter Velázquez. She's the mother of Jesus Christ, the Person at the left hand. The Most Holy Trinity is crowning the Virgin Mary, who is mother of God. In God there are three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, here in the form of a Dove.

  Christianity is not just a morality but a person, Jesus Christ, and his life in us teachers, students, etc. Things that way turn out better at school and everyplace. / Photo from: www montevideodiving com

  We teachers should know we can count on God to carry out our great labor. We are not isolated beings, but children of God! Cheer up, Come 'n! / Photo from: 63-09-011 people praying

  An African friend of mine, who is a French teacher from Togo, based and married in Granada, Spain, told me that when an African person arrives in one of our Western countries, that person notes and notices that we all are serious on the street, and on the other hand in Africa you can easily see smiling people on the street. That’s so, though life in Africa is sometimes tough for ordinary people too. They too know how to smile. / Photo from: thumbsup hindtrospectives wordpress com

  The words have not been invented yet, I guess. The words to mean and signify that we are and feel and live as children to God. / Photo from: ocean-encounter-kenya

  News about schools often are negative and even awful, like for example when unfortunately somebody kills some people in some school. But today I wanted to briefly talk about you teachers. You aren’t news maybe, but your daily hidden labor is just something grand. Thank you very much, nice teachers. You’re assisting and serving us with your great effort and concerning and commitment. You’re building up our society. Thank you very much again! Go on the same way, my dear colleagues… / Photo from: Profesor-de-universidad-sonriendo-delante-de-una-pizarra-con-operaciones-matematicas ingresos-online info

  The school where I taught in Jaén until fourteen years ago had some strong favorable points. Look. The students did have individual tutoring sessions with a teacher; we had teacher meetings at assessing and evaluating periods; etc. I want to focus on those aforementioned points. We could listen to each student, and each student could feel being assisted and listened to! They could give vents to their troubles, problems, distresses! And we teachers, by sections or academic years, could listen to what the teachers in charge of each class wanted and wished to communicate with us the rest of the teachers of that section. In that way we also nicely prevented from school failure, which is somewhat frequent in Spain, I mean, more than in other European countries. In few words, each and every student was followed and tracked by an adult, who also tried to be in frequent and close contact with their parents and families. It was a family school, so as to say a suitable ...

  I have a student that looks rather sad, just sad. He is so all the time. He is a student taught by me at private tuition. I usually wonder about his being sad or the kind. I often think about what to tell him or ask him – tactfully. Well, you know, I don’t know whether I will be able to help him be happier by now, but I shall try to listen to him. And to pray for his being sad. He was a student of mine last year too. And I’ve gotten being stunned at what he can remember from my classes and tutoring sessions of last year, like for example my angel’s name: he can remember quite a lot. I guess he must feel accompanied by me, and listened to as well. Maybe one day he can smile. The point here I guess is to listen to what he tells me about. And hopefully he’ll get assisted by me. Also I’d like to contact his dad: I think to remember he’s also rather kinda sad, so it may be something of the family. I will let you know after tomorrow, about my findings. I won’t let...

  We non-native teachers of the English language should create and build an immersion atmosphere of talking in English in the classes, and that’s okay, but since I’ve seen many teachers that don’t do that way I would advise them to make up and create such an atmosphere inside them: I mean they should immerse themselves into English – otherwise they won’t be able to make up that atmosphere in the classes: you can give what you have in your mind, and you cannot give what you don’t have! There are anyway many a teacher that use English as the vehicle language in their classes, but unfortunately there are also many that insist too much in just translation from English to Spanish. Any solution? For instance they could listen to live radio programs in English from the Internet… In this way they will be able to pass on that like for English to their students. They can find many radio stations in English if they type “Mikes Radio” on a browser, like Google. / Photo from: www ...

  To grow up with human values and virtues is a nice point, yes sir! We teachers and parents, shoulder to shoulder, as we say in Spain, must try hard but nice to help our kids to grow up as firm as a good oak. And where are our kiddies going to learn those values and virtues? First I shall tell you some of these values and virtues, I shall remind you of some: generosity, honesty, joy, solidarity, charity, fortitude, politeness, hard-working power, kindness, and those were some of the nice virtues I can remember just on the spot! Oh, and let’s set nice examples to our kids: their eyes are pretty open to capture all we do, all we think! Now in short words: they, our kids, will learn those habits first at home, and at school at the same time, so let’s be prudent and accomplished, if we want to have accomplished workers, and citizens, to say it in one word. / Photo from: 28thstreet2010

  The first and main educators are our students’ parents! The school is a nice subsidiary help. Because parents don’t need to know about chemistry, the history of the Ancient Egypt, biology… What I mean is they entrust their children to their teachers in order to be instructed at those knowledge areas. When teaching those things the teachers anyway are educating too – think of the way those teachers consider work and life... But those parents (and also other family members, like elder siblings) keep on educating them for life now and their future lives. Parents are the first and main educators, and have the corresponding right to choose and select the school they wish for their kids, don’t they? Think that that school may have such or such teachers, and the parents may wish their children should be taught by them. / Photo from: street-musician-021 www spanishdict com. the picture tries to be a nice illustration

  It’s interesting for us teachers that we should help our students form their will. Their will is going to be essential to become accomplished citizens! And the will is formed and educated through repetition of actions, good ones, which make up their personalities. We teachers have to help them choose what is good and do it with freedom, discernment and the subsequent responsibility. This latter one will help them become thorough citizens, ones that will lead society, and all this is in our hands, teachers! And has to be in their hands alike, because they have to be the free subjects of their own will and actions... All this is to be treated at tutoring sessions but also at everyday classes, tomorrow Monday's classes for example! / Photo from: gente-en-la-calle medicinapreventiva info

  We teachers have been entrusted with the children of some families, maybe the better families we may know, if we may talk about “good” and “bad” families at all! We teachers have in our hands a nice number of kids of whom we’re going to form and help to make up their temper and personality – not less than that…! And we help to “make up” their characters, their tempers and their personalities on the daily conducting in the classroom… Those terms aren’t synonymous, similar they are though. Whatever we do, whatever we don’t, in the classroom, even in our private lives (!), influence pretty much in our dear students’ lives… Be watchful, for I might say further on this interesting topic on upcoming posts! / Photo from: Tom-Klocker-Snowboarding-Teaches-You onboardmag com

  The point with private tuition is the student must learn how to study English, and that’s it! So these classes are like individual tutoring sessions. And we have to apply the correspondent therapy. For example we teachers shall teach him how to face up with a textbook which often is difficult to study. Studying English needs particular learning strategies. For instance I make him study in the classes proper, and in this way I try to make him learn how to learn! At those sessions I ask him if he has homework and tests. Another interesting point is to find out his teacher’s cell phone, for me to contact him and ask him what the student has to invest a bigger effort on. / Photo from: www dublinschool org. the pic is just a nice illustration

  We teachers should foster and enhance our students’ concerning about environmental friendship. The planet belongs to everybody and so we should take care of it. In the school subject of English we could work on texts about this topic, searched in the Internet. As well we could teach our students not to drop any wrapping paper or cans when making an excursion: we can collect and gather those things: plastic and metal cans last for thousands of years! Also we can teach them to use only the necessary water, and so avoid spoiling that precious liquid. Also we can teach them to have social concerns: about the homeless for instance. In the previous school where I taught we used to make visits to poor families. / Photo from: pixabay com

  We English language teachers should make up an immersion atmosphere in English, right? Something which could help us is on the one hand to try to imitate a native speaker, if we aren’t English speakers, and on the other hand a bit to exaggerate the accent, this is, to play with the accent, and trying to sound very native-like! Maybe you don’t know at what a level you can imitate those English native speakers! You might catch yourself sounding very native-like, even more than what you can think of… Many people, most of people can imitate quite much that way. / Photo from: japanese customs www pinterest com. You think she’s Japanese?

  I’ve seen in your eyes you’re in love. Today I wanted to tell you that joy and happiness and the great things of life, the grandeur of daily life attracts our students, who get more prone to work and learn and acquire English. If you arrive at the classroom with a big smile, one that can hide your sorrows, you’ll pass on your students a grand resolution to make good use of time, of the time allotted to learn and acquire English! / Photo from: Las Meninas, by Spanish painter Velázquez, 17 th century. Museo del Prado, Madrid. It is a famous painting in the history of fine arts.

  We teachers should remember to leave a way out to escape when correcting a student in private, aside. Look! The point is to avoid to beat him too much: let’s leave him a way to apologize himself! This is a humane way of correcting a kid or a senior student. Let’s facilitate him a way to apologize himself and facilitate him to be honest and sincere too, by for instance presenting him all possibilities and chances. For example, when asking if he got to understand a class in English, let’s give him the ugly and awful answer alike: “Did you understand the class? A lot, very little, nothing at all, so and so, fifty and fifty…” / Photo from: www victoria ac nz

  We English language teachers –and any school subject teachers-   should have a humanist view and perspective, so as to involve English learning for instance into something more global, this is, any school subject should be taught by a teacher with ample lenses, from a humanist point of view, right? We teach people, persons, and anyone is unique and susceptible to be treated as such… We teach intelligent people, with a uniqueness suitable to take care of. For example we should keep discipline in classes but also let’s remember any student has his own needs and keeps being free: discipline and class management should entail the fact that we teach free people, free persons! And they may behave as they feel better.   / Photo from: www biketourbuzz com. it's just a picture as an illustration. the landscape is Mediterranean, with plenty of olive trees, like in Andalusia tourbu

  We teachers shouldn’t confine our labor to the specific school subject: math, English, science, literature, history, biology… but we ought to have ample lenses and a comprehensive view of teaching and learning. We should be experts in humanities. Because of that we could read literature classics, plus sane philosophy or humanities, as I said. We should be human and humane, as I’ve also said in some previous post. We might consider the student as unique, also as a person with freedom and a subsequent responsibility. Sometimes this just implies a sane laughing in classes by the teacher… if we have gotten the necessary discipline and class management, which also entails a humanist point of view! Also this teaching entails a consideration of the student as a person, with his biography, and not just an individual being or number to be taught!

  Enjoy teaching in English! Yes, enjoy classes – I mean it! Make up an atmosphere of immersion, where you speak in English all the time, or 99% of the available time. Enjoy imitating a native speaker, though you keep being yourself of course… It’s something expert H. D. Brown used to advise. In this way your students will feel they’re at someplace where English is the naturalistic way to communicate. And this may take place whatever level your students are: adjust your speaking to that level. The point is you should speak in English all the time, trying anyway your students would understand you or mostly. Have fun yourself! I try it so and the result is pretty nice! You can get something similar, I assure you! / Photo from: Spring Landscape Wallpaper masbradwall com. the pic is just an illustration

  We English language teachers can raise our students’ curiosity about how we say some common Spanish phrases in English. For example “How do we say such and such expression in English?” And you may think of phrases like “¿¡De verdad!? ¿Lo dices en serio? Despedir del trabajo. ¡Me pones de los nervios! No me extraña. ¡Por supuesto! ¡Ánimo! ¡Sírvete tú misma!” I’ve worked out on this issue with my senior students and has turned out nice: they were curious about how we say certain things in English. If any of you are interested in learning some common phrases in English (or in Spanish), let me know, and I will post 2 worksheets! Anyway I can give you the previous idioms as a tip right away: “Really? Are you serious? To get fired. You’re driving me crazy! No wonder! Sure! Cheer up! Help yourself!”/ Photo from: www bikeroar com. the pic is just an illustration

  Can we use our students’ native language to reinforce and enhance and clarify what we teachers say in the foreign or second language, which we’re teaching? I confess I lately use Spanish (both students’ and my language). Shouldn’t I? Because I try to get my students into immersion in English (the target language)... I assume not, but something I would do from now on is to speak all the time in English, and would clarify if it’s necessary, very necessary, let’s say; otherwise I will say all in English – I guess my students should think in English! I right now make up that resolution! / Photo from: www panoramicvillas com. the picture is just an illustration