Experiences of a teacher of English

  Both a novice teacher and an experienced one as well must know that it’s the active student the one that really learns, for example a second or a foreign language. I have seen it in our school.  Students should not confine themselves to solely and superficially fulfill what their teacher sets as homework for example.  Successful language learners are the ones who actually wish to learn.  Otherwise they could pass the school subject of for instance English, yet they would not actually learn and acquire that language.  They do not confine to merely attend the language lessons and see what their teacher will say in class: they attend the lessons with the desire and will of getting the most of each lesson. And they will do more than the sole set homework.  They are autonomous learners.  And they work on the course-book on their own and not only on the set activities for homework. Even they access the Internet in search for videos – really useful ones – w...

  We are starting a new school year, is that right? Or maybe not and we may be at mid-school-year in the earth southern hemisphere. Never mind. It doesn’t matter too much.  If you are a teacher and wish to be a really good one, and perhaps you’re searching for something useful on this very blog (if possible) or somewhere else, well, I’ll try and help you out. If possible.  Actually we teachers have to learn from each other.  Also because we may be wishing to develop as teachers and get a better job as teachers, or just we want to become better professionals.  So thus let’s learn from other teachers. Furthermore, I would tell you that a novice or an experienced teacher alike should have something in his hands to learn from. As well our students and their families would appreciate.  Any teacher should have a book which we can learn from. Always. A book to learn from. Or a website to learn from. Or another teacher’s blog to learn from.  And then each bit ...

  Here I am again with you.  Man is a person who naturally tends to work. We have been created to work. And also naturally we tend to work better and better, with perfection. Not with some insane perfectionism. But with perfection.  So we teachers naturally would wish our students would learn. Right?  And now in the northern earth hemisphere we are close to finish another school year. And we may be tired. Our students may be tired. So we foreign or second language teachers have to pull our students upward, until the school year is over. Even we could think of the work our students might carry out through the summer.  I was thinking that one way to help our students to reach the end of this sort of race is assigning to work on texts of their interest. It’s something I do myself. And those texts can serve the purpose of prompting a lot of spoken language in the classroom.  We for example English language teachers might be expert at arousing to provoke convers...

  Time flies. And thus we have less than three months left of classes. Today I wanted to give you five more points or tips about our lessons, in case it might help you to attain successful foreign or second language classes. I teach adults, yet all this may be carried out with high school kids too.  1. Next Wednesday one student will give an oral presentation – a simple one – on phonetics, phonetic transcription and the IPA, or international phonetic alphabet, because a learner of for example English should know how to interpret the phonetic transcription of a word he might look up in a dictionary.  2. We have no course-book properly, yet I use a B1 textbook to find and learn about examples of activities I could implement in class. B1 is lower-intermediate level.  3. I take texts from that book to implement listening activities, for my students need to practice that language skill. I carry out lead-in activities before the listening proper, and follow-up ones always....

  I am again with you all. And enjoying teaching my students. Adults. And one year ago we began online lessons, English lessons. Now this school year classes are face-to-face again. And my students are great people. Yes, they are. And very willing to learn English.  We have gotten some nice rapport in the classroom.  From the teacher’s angle, experience is showing it is paramount. With experience you get the right way to treat your students. In a nice way. With experience you learn how to treat them, what they can like and what they don’t. You learn how to treat them in a nice way.  For example at the end of a lesson often I let them know what has worked fine in that class, kind of, Well today we have had some nice discussions and like a get-together to talk about this, about that, you have my congrats, people . And thanks for your cooperation to the class . And, you know, they like that and also they thank you for the lesson. And then we say good-bye in a cheerful w...

  On my last post I said that in a foreign or second language classroom our dear students should participate by speaking for quite long periods. It’s not the same to say one sentence than speaking for 5 or 10 minutes. And if we want for them to learn and acquire that language, well then they should give long oral presentations. And lose their natural fear to speak for those allotted minutes.  Expert teacher trainer Mary Jane Amaya taught me how our students can prepare that very oral presentation.  Basically and trying to remember I can describe the preparation process as follows.  First the student has got to choose his or her topic. They can do it by brainstorming possible topics and then choose their favorite one. Of course you can teach all that nice process by carrying it out in the classroom with the class of students as a whole.  So after that brainstorm they can vote or anyway select one topic.  Then they can again brainstorm possible points about t...

  I like to be a teacher. I do. I’ve been one for a number of years. And I guess a teacher should train himself or herself for ever. You never get a perfect teacher. The teacher’s training and learning and education never ends. And we have a new school year ahead of us.  I would tell you that a teacher should always have a book to read. A book on teaching, education, the character’s forge, or the like. Always in accordance to human dignity. For the teacher has to educate his or her students, and if these ones are kids, well, the teacher has to educate in accordance to their parents. Also that teacher could prefer to learn from the Web, from other teachers who post on the Internet: there are so many websites that have a treasure about teaching!  At present I’m reading Jeremy Harmer’s The Practice of English Language Teaching . The third edition, namely.  Well, you know, I’m re-reading it, because I consider I can still learn tons from him.  If the teacher keeps s...

I have some nice remembrances and memories about when I was a kid and carried out my high school period. I can recall the so many hours I used to spend at the study hall of the youth center I attended.  It had a nice library. And that center monitors aroused and waked up my thirst for knowledge. Also its teachers did.  Also I have some nice memories about my school teachers. Most of them, maybe all, were good teachers, both male teachers and female ones. They gave us knowledge and contents, and as well aroused our thirst for learning.  That’s the teachers’ mission: both give contents and wake up the students’ hunger for learning. Thank you my dear teachers. Most of them may be retired or they have departed.  And libraries are in no way obsolete.  Okay, we have Internet browsers, yet libraries are necessary still, and hopefully they will keep being so.  Think of the good that libraries can make to students, more if the books are in accordance to human dignit...

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...

We teachers seem to work for those low-achiever students who deserve our attention, both at face-to-face teaching as well as at remote teaching. Well, we also take care of high-achievers, right?  At present I’m reading a book about history geniuses – awesome. Michelangelo, Diego Velázquez, Isaac Newton, Thomas Alva Edison, Albert Einstein, Antoni Gaudí, Steve Jobs, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Gerardo Diego…  Well, you know, quite many of them and others… were rather bad students at school! Are we not having geniuses in our classrooms? We may have some…  What I mean is that our schools should also foster our dear students’ creativity. Do our schools kill creativity? What are our schools like? What do they resemble?  Because of that we have to assist and attend high-achievers.  Quite many years ago – and I teach English – my school assistant principal told me to hand out extra worksheets to the students that finished before their classmates and eventually got wit...

Committed and constant teachers hit the jackpot of teaching well. They may be very good teachers.  Those professionals also are continuously open to learn how to be better teachers. They wish to serve the school families and their children alike. They are open to learn new things, because they know they are not perfect.  Thus they turn to reading from books how to become better teachers. They’re open to read books and perhaps also from websites, blogs, and teachers forums. It’s so because they wish to hear from other professionals. They’re prone to trust in and rely on what other teachers say, also on those other teachers’ experiences.  They want to learn from their best colleagues throughout the world. They’re open to receive correction from other colleagues. And they react in a nice way to those corrections ultimately. Maybe at first they feel some harshness when corrected but ultimately they react well.  As well they’re prone to learn from the par...

One teacher used to be so involved and committed within the lesson that he transmitted and passed on his interest to his dear students.  I wrote that sentence some days ago, still in April. And it could be something real in the lives of many teachers. Maybe in yours too, for some of my readers are good teachers.  We may have behavior problems in the classroom, but bear in mind that if you get so committed in the lessons you will likely win the “game” ultimately and your students will better as students and thoroughly as persons and citizens. Also because you may be seeking to get to know your students more and more.  Our students may be kids or adults, but if we teach and work from our very interior being, we will likely transmit and pass on our interest in our school subject to our dear students.  Remember what I told you on the previous post: We attend each class as a work session about that subject together with our students. We therefore try to i...

I’ve been posting for ten years now. And you readers have made this possible, otherwise I’d have stopped posting long ago. Thank you very much for paying me a visit to my blog.  Also I owe my students the experiences they’ve given me: I’ve learned a lot from you too. I come to class to teach… and to learn as well.  There should be loyalty between the teacher and his or her students. The teacher comes to school to give him or herself to their students: each one is a unique diamond in need of making it better. Because learning hopefully makes us better persons.  If the teacher tries to do his or her best, he or she is being loyal to their students. Thus I will hard try to say the truth always: I have to be loyal and faithful to my students.  I have to try hard to work my best possible, and I must try to be the best person ever: I owe to my students.  And what to do with our flaws as teachers? Well, we have to rectify our behavior and do ou...

We teachers should educate our dear students in working well. Both if they have to write essays or to research about some issue or topic. Those are examples of chances when our students have to learn and acquire how to work well.  We have to teach them how to write neatly, and also by reading the exercise instructions well, if the case. So, first they have to read the instructions carefully, and then respond to the requirement of the instructions.  Reading and understanding those instructions are half of the work carried out! As well those young people will be instructed at writing neatly since when they are young children.  Regarding researching about a topic when they’re older, they will be taught to research on the Internet, for instance.  They will learn how to select the appropriate information and discard unimportant stuff. For that they’ll be trained at viewing websites. And better if they carry out that research inside the classroom, ...

Non-native teachers that teach English for example – or another language – have to maintain that tongue alive and fresh. How? By reading books or e-books in that language plus listening to a radio station on the Internet.  As well a learner of a second or foreign language can learn and acquire it by reading and studying grammar books and the linguistics of that tongue. I have a nice experience about that point. And it has helped me a lot.  Also the learner can play with the language, read in it, stop to think about it, more reading and studying, reading carefully, being curious about points about English – or another language, etc.  Yet in the classroom I advise you to teach with a communicative approach and methodology. English is learned and acquired by communicating in that language. I also have a nice experience about that point: my students can communicate in English because they have spoken a lot in it. / Photo from: YouTube

It's great we teachers get in touch through forums on the Internet to help those who truly want to learn!  Yet from time to time, even often, we can find students with serious shortcomings or deficiencies, right?  Those kids that cannot implement even the simplest activities I mean.  I’m thinking of some example I’ve faced. I think now I would approach that case in a different way and mode. That happened many years ago.  Those kids may need psychological help. Those kids may suffer from their own failures.  The first approach must be given from affection and professionalism. Even those kids may reach far when adults. Now - and always! - they deserve all our affection and dedication, although we may have many more students.  At tutoring sessions also we can help them great. Just smiling and with small laughing with them at those meetings may help them great too. We have to find their strong points, because they may have hidden re...

I hope to post so soon. I couldn't last week but I will be with you all pretty soon I hope. Have a nice day!

I'm about to post soon. I'm back to Granada in Spain. All was good, fortunately. I have stuff to tell you, soon as I said. Have a nice day!

  Most of you, my teachers, are committed ones. And you try to do your best and you work hard. You give the best from you to your students. Very well. And you get tired, eventually. You must rest and relax. When you’re tired you can view beautiful landscapes from the Internet. They will make you rest and relax. What is beautiful makes us rest and relax. In Spain next Thursday and Friday are holidays and vacations: we celebrate the Holy Week and Easter, namely the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Have a nice long weekend! / Photo from: 4250207-spring-wallpaper

  We teachers should take into account that we have to invest effort in making our students become autonomous learners and with their own engine to boost some nice learning. We might think we could go slower if teaching students to be autonomous, but in the long run we gain a lot. Autonomous learners are like locomotives. They can assess themselves and they’re aware of their own learning process. What to do to achieve that? If they’re mature enough – our students I mean – we can devote some few lessons to reflect upon this point and to work on learning and studying techniques. You teachers likely are experts at studying, researching and investigating, for you’ve passed through those learning processes. In few words, let’s dedicate a few classes to ponder about learning, studying, reading and researching. We also should teach our students how to select material from the Internet, because they may encounter so much information that they could become overwhelmed by...