Experiences of a teacher of English

Each teacher has his or her own way of teaching, right? Also their own way of planning lessons. I would advise you to plan each lesson, always. Well, a few times one could improvise, and I think every one of us has done that.  Now I’d like to share my experience about lesson planning, in case it might help someone.  At present I teach remotely, by utilizing Google Meet. By the way, I live in Spain but one student joined today’s lesson from Germany, for he is there visiting his daughters. That’s one advantage of remote teaching, yet we would like to return to face-to-face classes not for a long time from now.  Before lesson planning I’d like to re-read a piece from some book on teaching I have in my room, and which ones I’ve read before. Thus I’d continuously learn and refresh from the experts. That means a few minutes and I confirm it makes me improve my lessons. I'd read and shortly meditate on that. It has to do with intuition. Then I think of a few goals, say, three fo...

Everyone may agree that the teacher has to have his or her students think. Their students have so to think and think quite a lot. Lessons also have to be active. And the students have to be active, not only by doing things but also by thinking for a lot. Well, thinking, reading, studying, and doing exercises – it’s up to the specific subject.  When both the teacher and his or her students are engaged in an activity, either by doing something or by thinking, discipline is much easier.  The students are busy, focused and concentrated on carrying out something.  By the way, the teacher has to provide with knowledge and contents, but also some of those knowledge and contents may be gotten by the students’ work. The teacher has a primary mission in the classroom and in the virtual online lesson, but he or she has also to make their students think, discover, find out, research, deduce and induce, infer, draw conclusions, read, and study. Little by little, okay?  When all o...

If we teachers want our students would have success at learning and would actually learn, we can help them out by telling them to study in a metacognitive way.  But what does that mean?  Basically it’s helping them think. Basically also it’s for example a student who thinks of the way he or she reads, studies and learns.  The good student does normally know he or she is a good one. He can reflect about the way he or she reads and studies. And they discard what doesn’t work and take up what works. They also use learning strategies. And they are more or less mature.  And we teachers can teach them or help them read and study. Of course we have to teach and address all our students, from low-achievers to high-achievers.  We teachers supposedly do know how to read and study. Because we have reached to be teachers. So we can teach our dear students how to read and study. On last posts I’ve also talked about reading techniques.  As well a good student can come to...

A good student is someone who makes himself or herself. You are not born being a good student. You grow as a student on your own plus with adults’ help: your mom and your dad, and your teacher.  The good student, when he or she is somewhat mature, realizes he or she is that good student. He or she can study, learn and read on their own plus with their teacher’s assistance.  And for example that person, that kid, knows how to use meta-reading. I mean, that learner can reflex about the way he or she reads. And improves. And knows how to improve. On their own and with their teacher’s help. And utilizes learning strategies.  The difference between a good and a bad reader can be: the first one knows how to get the main ideas or information, and knows how to relate what read with something they knew before. And makes what read and learned as something of their own. That person starts to store and stock up a lot of knowledge, and knowledge upon knowledge.  And he or she can...