Experiences of a teacher of English

  So yesterday I wrote to you something about determining some goals for our classes (I mean groups). Summarizing and insisting on purpose: When thinking of goals they should be few , and they should serve the purpose of helping me, who is the one that will refer back to those goals after having applied them and while applying them. It is not something just for the principal to learn, but they have to be useful to me! Intuition, after this school year: I do know what is good for my classes (groups). Plus I will NOT dedicate too much time to determining those goals, just the necessary one. Those goals must be practical!! I have just transcribed some notes about those meaningful, significant, and helpful goals. I hope this article be any useful to you, committed teachers and all others that drop by my blog! Sorry for my mistakes and errors while writing in English! / Photo from: passarello_la_crecida_del_rio_sena_paris_francia_el_24_de_enero_de_2018

  We are about to finish this school year or we have already finished or anyway we will finish soon. We can behold the school year. We can draw conclusions. We can handle intuition. Intuition about what our classes (groups) need. Is this so? As I’ve already said we should have goals for our classes (groups). Quick-view goals. Goals we can apply at once. Goals that our classes (groups) need. We should have those goals in mind. What I need for that class (group) is this or that. Just one thing. Or two at the utmost. We should draw goals for our classes (groups). Those goals will determine my lesson plans. They should be few and brief. They should be practical. Easy to deduce and apply. Few ones. They should help me, plus I do not draw those goals just because my principal demands so. They are for me and my classes (groups). Of course I will let my boss learn about them if necessary but they will help me first of all. And they refer to mid-term periods. Or some wee...

  Some days ago I read something like: The key to success at education and teaching is a motivated teacher. And I agree so much. Also I have seen it. Motivated teachers make education something successful. I’ve seen it. If the teacher is motivated, there will be success at teaching. We teachers have to fulfill our duty as such teachers, because we’re paid for that… but up to some extent we must also be “volunteers”: we teach because we wish so and not only because we’re paid. I’ve seen it, as I said. In that way teaching becomes something of an art. I ought not to be kind of obsessed whether I’m paid okay or not. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean we should not be paid accordingly to justice but we must love our job as teachers. I’ve written quite much about this on this blog and I believe in that: a motivated teacher likely has success at his teaching and his educating persons. Have a nice day! / Photo from: Madrid Time Out. An enamored eye can see beauty wh...

I hope to post so soon. I couldn't last week but I will be with you all pretty soon I hope. Have a nice day!

  We teachers have to value and recognize our students’ effort and struggle. Also when assigning them their final grades. We teachers have to put in their shoes. Well, we teachers may be tired and exhausted this far of the school year. Also they may be (likely) tired and exhausted. So let’s value and recognize their work and effort this far of the school year. Even when addressing the whole class in the classroom we could be nice and kind and so value and recognize their effort. We have to empathize with our students. Come on, there’s little left of the school year now! Let’s make the sprint of the race and set the last bricks stones of the beautiful building of the school year! Let’s explain this to them, with further nice words. For us teachers this is one more year and for our young students that is a paramount year in their growing up! We are educating people, we have human beings in our hands! Their education is up to us, though primarily and mainly in their pa...

  Experience counts for quite a lot. Also if you try to do your best as a teacher you have a lot won. Also if you try to behave and conduct the best you can, you have a lot already won. Also if you try to be the best citizen you can, you have a lot won. Also if you try to be honorable, you have a lot already done. Because teaching is educating people, educating them to be honorable citizens, right? And experience is already quite a lot. When you have experience you can dominate teaching quite well, and then teaching is like an art. Also teaching is art from the beginnings. It has a lot of a humane activity. It is art, a fine art, in some way. Now that we may be about to finish the school year we can make some self-examination: what did I do well? What did I do wrong? What can I do better? And draw some nice serene conclusions. Have a nice week! / Photo from: ayuntamiento-herrera-del-duque-6945637 Ayuntamientos de España. Now in the north hemisphere we are no...

  What to do at the end of the school year, when we may be exhausted, weary and even a bit sick? It is the time when we may be at the countdown. It is a relief my students are great, simply great. Also my head people are also great. It is the time of fortitude too. You have got to resist until the bell time, at this palestra of life. Obviously I’m not telling you family stuff but also there you have got to have fortitude, for the work can become greater too. And for the summer? More work plus a kids summer camp of English. You know, I don’t want to complain, just you may have to exert your best fortitude, which is a case of regular and normal administration. And I believe you may get more strength for fall, for when back to school in fall. Why getting more strength? Because you relax and rest when you change your work and the regular scenario where you exert your daily work. I’m happy anyway. Also I count on the Other, on the transcendent, on God himself. He is ...

  Good rapport between the teacher and the students. You may feel you must be a bit kind of a sergeant with your students, but… I’d say to you to be prudent. In order to achieve to be human and demanding at the same time you need to put in your, in our students’ shoes. Affection and prudence are vital. We need to be delicate and affective but at the same time we should not be our students’ buddy. Ours must be love of benevolence: we seek what’s good for our students, and so we are prudent when treating our students. And how to manage the classroom? Well, you know, I could say too many things but some point is: Let’s be serious with our students and not lenient at all. If we respect our students we will more likely be respected. And that’s it. If we are serious and formal at our job, we will transmit and pass on seriousness and commitment at working in the classroom. It’s my own experience. Have a nice day my colleagues! / Photo from: list_autumn Hiroshima. Fe...

  We are sometimes worried and concerned about classroom management, right? Even more deeply, we may be worried and concerned about our dear students’ behavior and conduct, right? I can tell you that in the previous school where I taught, in another city of southern Spain, we used to nicely track our students, our dear students, and as well we had individual tutorial interviews with each and every kid. And even more: we used to have periodical interviews with their parents and so we could pull the cart in the same direction as those parents pulled the cart of their kids’ education. We were so seriously concerned about those young people’s education and growing. It was pretty sound when we met together, the teachers I mean, and used to talk about each individual student: we told what we knew from them form an exterior viewpoint, nothing from what the kids told us at those tutorial interviews. You know what? I miss those teachers meetings: they were great! We had ...

  The lesson in the classroom is the teacher’s palestra or arena, in a positive way I mean. It is then when we have to fulfill our teaching goals and also educate our students. Fulfilling our teaching goals and educating our students are interwoven and bound. We want to fulfill some teaching goals but at the same time we pursue to educate our students as honorable citizens. And all that takes place as a single objective: teaching and educating. Even more, we can ultimately consider them, our students, as children of God. And we can count on God’s grace and help to achieve the nice goal of educating our students as His children. We may have planned the lesson but we have to make good use of time and of opportunities in the classroom: it’s then when we have to achieve those teaching goals plus educate our students! As well we have to win and defeat our possible laziness: it is then when we have to apply what we may have learned from great experts at teaching! And th...

  If the teacher teaches from what he has inside, he will likely have success. And his students will likely learn a lot. He will teach in an easy way what maybe needed a big effort to learn himself. I mean, he will make things easy although he may have invested a big effort and a long time to learn himself. On the other hand, if a teacher tries to teach what he does not have yet, he will likely fail. The teacher must be an expert at what he teaches and also he must be an expert at teaching that. Because of that the teacher should dedicate time at learning about what he has to teach plus at learning how to teach and how to manage the classroom – experience will teach him all that also. Even I would say that the teacher should like what he teaches. Otherwise he might not teach well. On the contrary if he likes the matter he teaches, he will pass on and transmit that enthusiasm to his students. As well the teacher must know that the more he knows about the subject he...

  “Respecting other people makes us more respectable.” I wrote that note some days ago. I know that if we respect and treat our students nice we will likely be more respected. If we treat our students with seriousness and respect we will likely be more valued and respected. Because we give to others what we already have. What we do not have we cannot give to others. Politeness and respect are paramount at treating students. Also inside a family. I’ve seen that when there’s love and politeness and respect between wife and husband that marriage and that family will likely be happy. We must learn how to learn about ourselves. If we’re tired, weary and nervous we should not argue. A friend of mine used to say that when you are under those feelings you should not quarrel with other family members. That incident may have no importance, you can tell yourself: now it is not the right moment to argue: that has no importance or very little, I will wait to be more serene to ...

  We are teachers. Busy ones. But we have to keep on educating and forming us ourselves. It is a life-long learning. We have to read on teaching, education and family. Books and websites in accordance to human dignity. Okay, but does that reading really educate and form us? Does it remain from what we learn and read? I would say yes. Among other reasons because at the moment of reading we are using our mind, and that does leaf some mark. We as teachers should keep on reading. And we foreign language teachers also have to keep on learning and acquiring the language: it is a life-long learning. So if we think and ponder and study and memorize, reading does teach us. Because you live through an experience, a lively one, and that leaves a nice mark. Have a nice day and weekend, and pray for me because it is my birthday! / Photo from: Airliner-5 NewsRead in Airbus 380

  As you well know, busy teachers, we must have lesson plans. Also we may have midterm-goals. Okay then, what about letting our students know about all those goals and objectives…? So they might also cooperate to reach those goals. We can try and see. This is so if there’s rapport between them and us teachers. More often than not, our students may understand what we want to reach together with them. Even more: we can help them to learn what they can reach, what they are able to reach. Give it a try! You may be encouraging them to reach farther! / Photo from: Quora. Our students may be like airplanes which can reach so far!

I'm about to post soon. I'm back to Granada in Spain. All was good, fortunately. I have stuff to tell you, soon as I said. Have a nice day!