3406. Humor in the Classroom Is Necessary!


When teaching adults we can allow us teachers some sense of humor in the classroom. 

Also with kids, of course. 

At the beginning of last school year I started to teach grown-ups at another school. 

I started firm, cordial though. I started in English all the time of the lesson or closely, but I tried to be cordial anyway. Anyway… I noted they were so tense, so much that I realized I must break the ice. 

Speaking all the time in English – the target language – may be so tense and demanding for the students. So one day I told them in Spanish – our mother tongue – that we were not going to pass public examinations – “oposiciones” in Spanish – and they had a small laugh, also me... 

Well then, it meant a transition or turning point. Since then our relationships have been much closer or cordial, and we both students and I make up a working team. 

Sense of humor is necessary, plus some smiling. Also with kids, but only when the class routines and discipline are set up in the classroom, I would say. / Photo from: paddle-and-trek Alaska Shore Tours. Breaking the ice...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3658. Language Facts or Communication in Class?

  I teach English to adults. It’s so great … and demanding.  Adults have some characteristic way of learning the language. For example they tend to focus on specific grammar patterns and ways of saying things in the target language. Well, it’s something I also do when learning that language myself. And it is something I cannot change. It is something we can take advantage from, anyway.  Even in that way they can learn quite a lot. You know, it doesn’t matter they would ask me questions in class that show they are focusing on grammar. It’s ok. It’s ok ever if also we as teachers facilitate there is plenty of communication in English in class.  I mean, do not confine as a teacher to teach grammar and language facts, but provide a lot of communication in class.  When some newcomer arrives at one of those groups of mine – and I’m thinking of one specific group – that new student says kind of, Oh I can see my classmates have a lot of fluency while in my case … Why do the other students have
Read more

758. Irregular verbs now and then

Image
One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “English irregular verbs are an interesting grammar point Spanish students have to study year after year, increasing the list of them each academic year. Quite many more verbs of this type existed in Old English, before the 11th century, perhaps most of the English verbs then. In other words, the way each verb took the form of past simple and past participle was more complicate than the simple – ed ending. With centuries passing, fewer and fewer verbs remained as such ‘irregular’ verbs, in fact those verbs native speakers used very often. Because of that those verbs remained being ‘irregular’, while most of the English verbs, roughly speaking, were taking on the regular form of – ed for past simple and past participle. This can be due just to linguistic evolutions that actually occur in every language, with the language common people speak, year after year. Beside the fact that many words, so verbs too, were entering in the E
Read more

2064. Connecting people from different countries

Image
Something we teachers of English or other languages have to bear in mind when teaching adults is that the students should learn and practice communication, and we shouldn’t confine our classes to give them facts of the languages.  Also in kids’ case.  The point isn’t for them to know information about the language, yet to learn how to communicate in that language.  Thus we could plan our classes with that aim.  I state all this because we could dedicate a long time to teach facts, information, something nearly dead, say.  In this way, besides we contribute to connect people from so varied countries. It’s something brilliant, isn’t it? / Photo from: people-happy-cheering bachflowerssingapore wordpress com
Read more

2065. Teaching grammar with meaningful examples

Image
When presenting a new verbal tense I have said once at least that the teacher should proceed according to a logical process.  1. Saying sentences by using the verbal tense – the students listen to the examples.  And here is the main point: those sentences should be meaningful ones for them, not about things which are out of their worlds.  2. The teacher asks questions to be answered by the students, using the verbal tense – be patient at this step; think for example of past simple: you will have to wait for a while until they start to say correct samples.  3. The teacher and one student that understood the grammar of the verbal tense write sentences on the chalkboard or smart board. The students read out the sentences, by turns or as a chorus.  And number 4 is they write sentences with that grammar point, both on their tablets, and on the chalkboard, by turns and in a volunteering way. I’ve learned this process mainly from Mrs. M. J. A. / Photo from: happydoll
Read more