Experiences of a teacher of English

  Lesson planning takes quite a lot of a teacher’s time. If you teach a language, you may have had the following experience.  A foreign or second language teacher, I think, should foster speaking in the class. A lot of speaking. In that language.  Thus that teacher should plan activities which will make his or her students speak. And not only will that teacher make his or her students participate by uttering and conveying sentences, yet he or she ought to take their students give longer messages, for it is not the same to say a sentence than talking for five or ten minutes. There is a big difference indeed, and our dear students should speak for pretty long periods.  With creativity, imagination, practice and even a bit of fantasy the language teacher should plan his or her classes, so as to give their learners chances to speak.  Well also the other three skills: listening, reading and writing.  Yesterday during the lesson I was teaching I came to think that, ok, I am speaking to my st

  Sorry for my silence these last days. Today I wanted to write about two points: classroom behavior management and lesson planning for English or any other language lessons.  I have already told you that I’m reading Jeremy Harmer’s The Practice of English Language Teaching , which is a major work and a must read if you teach English or other languages.  Recently I have read about problem behavior in the classroom. And the main point is that if you want to teach successfully, peacefully and serving your students, you have to engage them. If these ones are immersed in the class, you for sure will have fewer problems.  We teachers have to manage the classroom, but always having in mind that we have to respect our students: the problem is their behavior and attitude, not the person. We don’t go against the person.  And it’s practice and experience what will lead you to manage classes better and better.  When some problem arises in the classroom, well we could stop talking and look at the