Experiences of a teacher of English

  It’s amazing. Or it may be so. Before we said that tablets and computers were welcome in our classrooms, and I’ve said something of the kind in this blog – up to some extent. And now more and more people, and experts, say that those devices may get our students distracted. Plus we should bring back utilizing printed books in class and at home. I plainly agree.  My grandfather used to say, when my siblings and I were starting a new school year, and we were using new books, new textbooks, that it was great to study with such books, and he was right! I can recall for example history textbooks – I did like them – and I liked to have a look at the different chapters or units, and foresee and anticipate what we were going to learn in some months, the French Revolution, or the industrial revolution, or whatever.  We ought to have our students study on such books, and thus get habits of studying in such books. It’s so paramount we’d better get our dear students acquire studying...

  I’m not quite sure but I guess that the school subject of English is in some spreading considered as a mess or a farce, especially among young students. Even more it can be considered as a snap, an easy A, a doss, you understand what I mean?  Perhaps it was like that in the past more than today, where you have to get a specific level, for example A2 through C2. And lately I’ve been teaching English to adults, so perhaps I have a previous perception.  Alike in quite many schools the English teacher, maybe a native one, was like a buddy for some students.  Well, you know, all that depends on the specific teacher: because that teacher can push toward excellence and he or she can teach with rigor. Perhaps also all that was because the teacher in class devotes quite much time to talking or nearly chatting with his or her students.  So for example math can be seen as a more serious subject, but English, where you can spend quite much time to just talking …  Wel...