Experiences of a teacher of English

So we have said that we are about to start a new school year. In some way we have already started it, for we have thought of nice and convenient goals for our students.  The main star this year may be reading. I mean, we are going to practice all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Yet I want to especially foster and inspire Reading.  This latter skill helps learn the target language, English in our case. It’s my experience. I also learn English, like my dear students. And reading provides with the language and other cognitive subskills that foster a deep learning.  Namely I will encourage my students to purchase graded readers, in accordance to their levels.  Some learners of mine have A2, but most of them comprise B1 through C1 – I’m referring to CEFR levels of a language, where CEFR stands for Common European Framework of Reference for languages. A1 and A2 are basic, B1 and B2 are intermediate, and C1 and C2 are advanced. I will tell m...

We are just before a new school year or we are starting it. And we may not know how that school year will develop, and whether we will teach face-to-face or remotely (!).  Anyway, we may be planning the curriculum or syllabus. I’m working on it.  You know what? When carrying out that curriculum and trying to think what the most important thing is, I have concluded, very quickly, as if by intuition and not by some deep and heavy and long reasoning, that the most important thing is… that my students should be happy!  They should be happy while learning.  I teach adults, but the same may be applicable if you teach kids. Those students should be happy. Also I should be happy.  When I say happy I mean they should be treated nice by me in the classroom. Only in that way will they learn English, which is what I teach. Otherwise… they would learn less, if anything at all.  I must treat my students as human persons and with all the dignity they deserve.  Also ...

We may be starting a new school year or otherwise soon we will start one. And we want to be good and competent teachers, right?  In order to be that good teacher we have to devote some time to train ourselves, although we may be hectic. It is a matter to dedicate ten minutes every day, perhaps between two activities. It is a matter to create that habit.  And that habit I would say is reading. Reading about the discipline we teach and how to teach it, perhaps in the new normality we live in because of the Covid-19 pandemics.  Among those reads I think we could read literature classics: They were written by some of the best minds across history and they provide with human values every teacher should have.  Also we could read from other teachers who post and contribute to websites on the Internet.  As well we need some philosophy: That discipline exists to aid each human being how to live wisely. Always in accordance to human dignity.  Why should we teachers r...