Experiences of a teacher of English

  We well may be finishing one more school year – if you are for example a committed teacher, like most of you are. And we want our dear students would learn a lot, as well as they would be happy.  I was wondering what an ideal teacher should be like. One of the main premises is he or she must be an authority in class. Are you one? Am I one? I guess an authority teacher is the one who achieves their students would actually learn.  I don’t mean those teachers ought to be like a sheer guard in front of a gang of convicts. So let me show you what I’ve seen in some classrooms, and which accounts for being a real authority.  You know, that teacher must treat his or her students in an exquisite way. I mean, they should respect those students in class – I’ve seen it and I’m now thinking of a teacher I had at high school who was an authentic authority – he treated his students – us! – in a tactful way – he never humiliated a kid at all in class. And when he met us out of the...

  Today I would like to point out a couple of points that may help you out, mainly if you are a teacher, like I am.  You know, a lot has been said about the student’s motivation in class, and that’s fine, for our lessons don’t need to bore our dear students and a whole herd of cows alike.  However, if for example a kid in class achieves to solve a math problem, or to write an essay in English (say, his target language), about a given topic, well, he will get perfectly content. There may be nothing better than the student would strive to do things fine, and learn a lot of things from his teacher.  Effort and struggling may also be paramount in class, and alike at home with their homework. I mean, the school and the classroom are not theme parks, as Gregorio Luri says.  Second thing today. I’d also like to pinpoint the use of books, paper ones. Miguel Ángel Martínez-González stands up for the use of paper books instead of a lot of screens. On this blog I’ve said s...

  A lot of us people want to learn a language – I teach English and keep learning it! – and we have to practice all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  For me and many of us listening may be the most difficult skill to acquire, but with practice you do improve a lot, believe me.  Anyway, today I would like to tell you especially about reading. Reading books, articles, websites. And also believe me, it’s a great skill to practice.  Stephen Krashen stated that by reading books you can learn a great deal of a second or foreign language, and I can assure you it’s thus. I have no big problems to read any text in English: fiction, non-fiction … except Joseph Conrad’s books perhaps, for they show to be extremely difficult for me to understand – even I had an Irish friend, Connor by name, who told me also that for him it was tough to understand, and he said that he read like one page per day, of his books. It’s curious, Conrad was Polish by birt...

  Just to halt at times. And have a quick mental look or perspective to your teaching. That is something I sometimes do.  For example I did something of this at Christmas break. We had stopped our English classes for a while. And at home I had a mental peek at how my students were doing, and how I was doing as a teacher myself. Just to detect failures in me and in them. Also to find out what was turning out fine.  And all that is just something simple, even intuitive. It’s like keeping track of how things are going. And all that does not necessarily mean you as a teacher must do something else, apart all your workload, which may be almost huge.  If you stop to think of it, it may be something we teachers may inadvertently do when lesson-planning – even more, it is something we actually do when lesson-planning!  But I mean here to carry it out in a bit more aware way, and like something special at some breaks – Christmas, the Holy Week at southern Spain, and fina...

  I’ve been perceiving a curious fact on Granada streets lately, well, from a few years now. It’s parents with their children, walking or cycling anyway, and they’re Spanish definitely, yet they speak to those kids in English, and these ones sometimes respond in the same language.  I guess Spain is not kind of an isolated country anymore – it used to be one like that after our civil war, in the 1930s and afterward, and now it’s pretty simpler to find young people talking in English on the streets, for example a Spaniard to a foreign person.  And stays abroad now are much easier and more common than forty years ago, so as to speak.  A lot of young parents try their kids would learn English as a matter of fact.  However, today I’d like to point out something I do myself to learn English. On other previous posts I wrote that one way to increase my lexis and subsequently to learn English is what follows, just in case it may help someone.  I read a lot, or quite...

  I’ve written a lot in this blog this far, I hope it may somehow help you teach your lessons. And I’ve also written a great deal on excellence, and we teachers – in principle – wish our lessons help our dear students.  But what if my classes are a disaster, or if some of them are so, or my students put me to the test all the time?  Today I’d like to say something on that. No one is perfect, and what teacher doesn’t have a bad day? Perhaps when you would wish to hit two kids’ heads to each other? I don’t recommend you to do that.  Not long ago – and I currently teach adults – I remember I had a bad day, one of those days when nothing in class seems to work well, or nearly so.  I’m now going to try and say something that hopefully might help out somebody else in our planet. Another teacher I mean.  And I want to point out that all good I have has been received and inherited from somebody else – it’s not my merit.  Some days ago, I was saying, in class I...

  I’m an English language teacher, as you well know. And you may be another language teacher. Even you may be learning English, like I am doing myself. Well, let’s suppose that that teacher ought to do his or her best for their dear students to learn that dear language.  That teacher ought to think how my students can learn best. And each lesson is – must be – a step forward as far as my students are learning English. How are they progressing, since I began to teach them? Do they already master English?  You know, you may rightfully tell me that it also depends – and much! – on them, and you are fully right – it’s them who have to learn, yet I can wonder how I can facilitate that process, that inner process, for each lesson needs to be a step forward.  What can I do for they really would learn English? You know, part of this job is transmitting and passing on the lure and the inner desire to learn English – the more enthusiasm you invest on the task, the more they wi...

  I teach English to adults, but what I’m telling you today I guess it could be also applied to teens.  I just said I teach English, and it’s so, but also I ought to help my students learn that wonderful language. It’s thus because it’s them who ultimately have to learn English, or French, or …  More often now than before I tell my students that they have to be very active at learning English, as old H. D. Brown said (1989). Say, it’s them who have to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. We also in Spanish use that phrase, to pull your chestnuts out of the fire.  I’m not going to do it myself. Better said, I should not do it myself.  Sometimes when at the end of each lesson I assign some homework, I tell them they can do this and this but also they could do that, just if they wish to do. It’s them who have to feel what they need most, what they have to do to advance at learning English.  Moreover, about the graded readers or unabridged novels we read, wor...

  You know what? A couple of days ago I came across a new class of students I have to teach English to. They are adults, with a big wish to learn that language.  I had planned to convey the same messages both in English and in Spanish, their – our – mother tongue. I came to the classroom with enthusiasm, prone to serve those great people.  And you know what I encountered? They are beginners and false beginners! Great students though.  My assistant teacher was with me – he is learning how to teach English and is a native speaker himself, from San Diego, California. Ok, they knew nothing or close to.  I had brought photocopies for them, taken from a textbook of A2/B1 level, this is, low beginner to lower intermediate – more A2 than B1, because that copy was from the very first unit.  But my dear students needed I had to explain and present absolutely every detail from basic questions, you know, present simple with Do and Does, and similar basic stuff. Oh, man...

  Ok, bullying may constitute a problem at our school, among the kids, but ultimately it is not a new problem at all.  And we teachers cannot ignore it or stop looking aside.  However, I guess we oughtn’t to super protect our kids. It’s them who ultimately need to learn how to face the violent classmate. Obviously I don’t mean they have to learn how to hit each other, but, you know, the timid kid should learn how to behave with all his classmates.  This is something Alfonso Aguiló points out as well. And he has educated so many kids this far, and made up and founded many new schools.  So ok, we have to be attentive, and kids also should take care of one another, yet they must learn how to coexist with everyone else.  It also depends on the specific school we are dealing with.  And they must learn also to make friends among other kids. And overcome their possible inherent shyness.  Also we can consider whether our kids are learning how to suffer in...

  Teachers may feel today that there’s a lot of bureaucracy around their teaching, right? And it may be so, I don’t mean the contrary. But why not to take advantage of that lot of bureaucracy?  For example, and we are starting the school year in the north hemisphere, you may have been told to make up your school subject curriculum or syllabus, okay. With such and such points to include in it.  On the other hand you may have made up your own goals for the student classes, because you already know those students or you have past years' experience about what works and what doesn’t work in class.  Let’s see. For your lessons you may take into account what you had thought of about the curriculum, beforehand, plus try and think briefly how to include those new points the school asks you to include. And don’t get choked or bogged down with all that.  Although you’ve been asked to use the school syllabus, on your own you may also consider and bear in mind the curriculum...

  I’ve been teaching English for quite many years now, you know. Something I’ve noticed is the following fact. When you ask your dear students questions as prompts, and speaking is one crucial skill to practice in class, and out of class, you may note something specific. By the way, we English teachers do ask a lot in class. A friend of mine – a head teacher himself – once told me that we are all the time asking questions, you know, and he meant that half-jokingly. Well, some students answer those questions. Most students do answer those questions. But some of them add something else, from themselves, so they facilitate real communication in class, and they say more things about the same point. And others, with a lower level maybe, may answer with something short and that’s all.  I mean, all of them are in favor of lessons and the teacher, but you notice there’re some learners who try something else. Usually those latter students work on their own, more than the students who j...

  A teacher? He or she influences on their students more with their lives than with what they teach to do. Whatsoever they do, well, that is so influential on those kids, or those adults too, if the case.  That is like an eternal truth, one of those that occur all the time. It was taken from college teacher Jutta Burggraf, who lived 1952 through 2010, and which teacher has influenced on so many people. She was like special in some way, you know.  Also something that may inspire your students is the way you teach, whether you really know about the school subject and the way that that ought to be taught.  Something essential too, and which professor Jaime Nubiola states: you must love your students. With benevolence love: by seeking what’s good for them. Also by hearing and listening to them.  If you are a terrific teacher and you do like in Oliver Twist, bad way you’re going. Yes, remember: Oliver Twist gently asked for more porridge, and then something tremendou...

  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...

  I think most teachers are hard-working and committed, as I’ve seen. However, we teachers could fall on the following pit: to think, well, I have such and such lessons to teach, let’s see if I can just teach them and then I will do what I really like to do. Thus we could get alienated with our professional work.  What I mean is that someone could have the mind of just fulfilling my contract and not to move a single finger to do something which is out of my contract.  I know that most teachers exceed their strict contract and do quite many other things, starting with working also at home on planning lessons, making homegrown material, grading tests, etcetera. Also giving yourself to your dear students.  What I mean today is that a teacher is there to serve and help out other people … as most teachers actually do.  I want to see you even enjoying teaching lessons. Let’s go to our post with that mentality every day. And we'll be happier. And when lesson planning y...

  You may be at the summer break now, if you’re a teacher in the north hemisphere. Anyway, I hope this post can help any teacher wherever you may be in our dear planet.  So you may have had a hectic and busy school year, as any teacher has. And you now seek to rest, relax, and rejuvenate yourself, right? Also because you want to start again in fall to give yourself to your work as a teacher. I think you have good ideas thus.  Even more, when the new school year begins, you wish to give yourself to your dear students, as I’ve seen in many many teachers: in class a good teacher gives him or herself to their students so that these ones may really learn and work and study. And they end up tired after the class - the teacher I mean.  As well what about considering to also give yourself – in that way – to their families? Even also to your colleagues the other teachers? The good teacher can be like a light beacon who lights up the place where he or she works, also the perso...

  Do our kids need limits? Our kids at school I mean? Yep, they do. They cannot do all that pleases them and all that they may think of. If you’re a teacher, you may understand what I mean.  Also all of you readers have passed through school, at any grade it may be.  But they are limits that protect those school kids. They are there for their sake. For them to learn. And for them ultimately to be happy. Who doesn’t remember and recall some good teachers we have had, when we were young, or at any other crucial age? All of us can remember that teacher who influenced great when I was a schoolboy or a schoolgirl. They become beacons for our lives. Maybe we are not aware how much they intervened in our lives. Or perhaps we are.  Furthermore, any teacher of kids needs to set some rules for his or her young students, don’t they? To begin with, some days ago a rural doctor who is a friend of mine and he knows some of the high school teachers of those small towns where he wor...

  From here we thank Larry Whitted for his help in class these days. He’s a native speaker – from the USA and based here in Spain – and it seems he’s helping out great in class with my adult students. As well these ones are talking with him so they can practice their English, also out of class.  By the way today I wanted to write about the learning process, of anything you may be learning, math, a second language, history, chemistry … . Okay, when you are learning – and I’m also learning English – you have to take some risks. For example when learning to walk when you’re a toddler, well you’ve got to put one foot in the air to keep walking, and then when that foot is set then another foot in the air. And we’ll have progress.  Also when learning to ride a bicycle, you may fall and fall later on again, but in the end you are able to cycle too.  When learning English, you kind of have to take some risk to venture an expression you think you’ve learned. It’s nice, and we...

 I've written a lot on motivation in the classroom. Ok, but you may find something I'm lately considering about motivation, and which you can find on my new blog, whose link is on the left hand of this very blog. That new post is #4. I hope you enjoy it. Motivation is ok but since we wish the best to our kids, you might find out other perspectives about motivation and love. Have a nice day. And you may leave your comments. Oh, the label where you can find my other blog is called Other experiences.