Experiences of a teacher of English

  Some people think kids at schools should have tutors, not only teachers. Tutors with whom the kids could talk, aside the classroom, at individual tutorial sessions.  I used to have this situation when I taught kids, before I began to teach English to adults, some sixteen years ago – I’ve been teaching English since 1993. I think that that thing of having a tutor is something good. Tutors chosen by the kids’ parents, though those ones may propose their opinion about who could their tutor be.  And at these tutorial sessions the kids and their tutors may hold nice and friendly conversations. I’ve seen it, and it works, it does. Usually boys had male teachers as tutors, while also the other way round.  For those sessions there should be confidence and familiarity, and that confidence is only gained by the adult tutor over time. You as a tutor cannot demand that confidence – you conquer it through actual interest and benevolence love. And affection. And when you know ho...

  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...

  I know that you want to become a good teacher. One who makes his or her students think, right?  This latter thing may seem obvious, but do our dear students really think? Do they invest all their cleverness capabilities upon learning in the best possible way?  In order to achieve our dear students would think, and more if they are kids, we have to teach them how to think. If they settle down to study their books, we may be heading in the right direction.  We as teachers may think in a loud voice, say, to teach them to think, in class.  I was remembering that when I taught kids at the first school where I began to teach, we had, in accordance to their parents, there in the nineties of last century, a plan for educating them. It was not one more school subject, like math or literature or biology, but they were weekly sessions about topics where we made them think: ethics, how to solve problems, virtues and values, situations they might face as teens, etcetera. I...

  What are good lessons like? Let’s try and mull something about that question, from what Gregorio Luri states plus my own experience. He is a Spanish teacher, pedagogue, and philosopher.  Some teachers say classes must be fun.  Are you sure? Well, classes shouldn’t be a bore or drag, but fun at all? A bit fun may be okay.  They have to be well taught, for the teacher has planned them nice and competently. That’s the first premise. And planned with his or her students in mind.  And that teacher has to speak well, so his or her students put in and take in good language.  I think that if the teacher acts that way, more likely his lessons will be consistent and interesting. And the classroom atmosphere must be serene, so the students can work, learn, study, and grow up well and with no stridencies. That’s also applicable if your learners are adults, like in my case. In that environment those people can work intensely.  Thus over time that kind of work is ...

  We may be teachers, okay? We may also be educators. But do we know what to educate is? Well, maybe we already know it, or know something about it.  Where I want to aim? Educating is getting the best from my students, yet also it is getting the best to them.  Some people say kind of, Well, we have to get the best from those learners. Yep, but also we have to take knowledge and other things to them.  Otherwise we will not obtain the best from them.  This seems clear in children’s case: we can try and get the best from them, but alike we have to provide knowledge and others to them, because they were born with no knowledge at all.  Spanish philosopher and pedagogue Gregorio Luri puts it in that way: the teacher has to provide knowledge to their students.  It doesn’t seem sound to get some children into a classroom and naively try and get the best from them, like they already were wise people.  Let’s give them knowledge and other things. For that w...

  Assessing and evaluating our students is something of a paramount importance. Is it not?  When I began my career as a teacher I one day set my first exam to my kids. It was a class of some 25 students. You know what? I can recall it as if it was today. Some 60% of them failed! And it was a regular class, not bad, not that bad.  One colleague of ours told me something like, “Even NN failed that exam!? It’s so weird, he’s a clever student! You may expect what his parents will say about that…!”  NN actually was a smart and clever student, and he could hardly fail an exam… I had set a test which could be paralleled to the ones someone could expect at college, but not at early high school! It was me who had “failed”.  Generally if at high school many, many students fail… from a regular class of kids… something about the teacher may be failing.  When a teacher sets a test, an exam, the first point he or she is going to test and examine is himself, herself....

We teachers should wish our students would learn, both contents and skills. Well, and values as well: ecology, honesty, working capacity, generosity, discernment, sincerity, friendliness and friend-making skills, charity, piety, being good citizens, joy, etcetera.  And we’re finishing the school year – in the northern hemisphere. We teachers will achieve all those nice things if we love our students with benevolence love, which is to seek what is good for them.  That benevolence love is a continuation of the love their parents have to them. And the school should be also a continuation of home.  We educate those kids – or those adults – on behalf of their parents, but in their own name if they are grownups.  Alike we teachers will be happy and carry out a plenitude life if we love our students. On this context our labor as teachers is, well, teaching. In other words, presenting those people new contents, plus helping them acquire those skills and values they may expec...

This job of ours, teachers, is so great, you know? It’s hard, sometimes tough, but what job is not hard?  We as teachers have to personalize the education we implement. In accordance to and with the kids’ parents, ok? Because the school is a prolongation of the families’ homes, ok?  Thus we teachers should teach, educate, and love those kids, with benevolence love, which is seeking what is good for those persons we’re educating and teaching.  Thus also we will be recipient to what those students tell us. Aside and individually.  In the classroom or by remote teaching we are the adults they have as a reference… so what a responsibility we have!  We will listen to them carefully and attentively by… how should I say in English? In Spanish we say “hacerse cargo”. I would explain it: yes, here we are: listen to them, empathize with them, reckon what they’re telling us, bear in mind what they’re saying, realize about what they have in mind and in their hearts. With pr...

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...

I have written a lot on classroom behavior management. Angela Watson and Robyn Jackson also have and very interesting stuff indeed.  There should be rules in the classroom. Yes indeed. And we teachers have to distinguish between possible teenager disruption and disrespectful attitudes, which these later ones have always to be cut off in the classroom, with prudence and tact, without humiliating and shaming the kids. Concerning mere disruption, sometimes we have to cut off, some other times it is not essential.  These are some ideas you can find on Angela Watson’s blogs, namely on https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/respond-rude-disrespectful-student-attitudes/   Yet and at the same time we have to educate our dear students on liberty. Why? Because man and woman ARE free persons. Basically and deeply so. And the student has to learn how to administer his or her liberty.  Once I was surprised because my school’s assistant principal told me ...

There is a remarkable difference, if you’re a teacher, like me, or a boss, between auctoritas and potestas .  Let’s go with the second one. I mean, the teacher for example can be like a cop or a sergeant or so and exert some kind of power on the basis of shouting at his students. I have nothing against the police and the army – all my admiration goes to those professions.  But what I mean is that a teacher can try to master his students on the basis of shouting and avoiding any disruption among his students.  However, can that teacher really educate his students?  Much better is whether that teacher has some authority.  The difference is pretty big. Authority is on the basis of really educating those kids or those adults the teacher teaches. Authority is moral. It is built upon some nice mastering of the subject he teaches plus the respect his students devote to that teacher because he loves them and also behaves honorably.  He has gained that authority am...

Now with remote teaching you teacher may be addressing each student, individually or otherwise by groups. Let’s hope the Covid-19 crisis be left behind and die out pretty soon. Thus I pray to God it would ensue in that way.  Face-to-face teaching may be the normal thing anyway in most of our cases as teachers. And we may have small classes or large ones.  What I intend to write today about is that it seems good to address and appeal to each student in a direct way.  We may have quite many students in the classroom but it seems sound to address each student. We don’t address a mass of students but we want to teach each individual.  Our students should not hide in a mass of people. We have otherwise to address each and every student.  In order to do that way we can sweep the class of learners and thus appeal to each student’s responsibility when speaking to them. That is the only way we will achieve to teach and educate each student.  As well we teachers sho...

In Spain, and some other countries alike, we are leaving – little by little, okay? – the thing of being that much confined and cooped up at home – well, we may have done so many things at home and have had more time for spending with our families.  The school year is approaching its end and schools are thinking of ways of closing out that school year, taking into account the families, the teachers and the students. Okay?  I guess we are not having more face-to-face lessons, this school year, but the thing still could change.  Some days ago I came across something from the Web about the English-language teacher’s good qualities. Or the best English-language teacher’s qualities. I post those features for you. They may make us think… Also now at this very special period when we may still be confined.  The qualities of the good teacher appeared on a FAQ setting, by using Google. I guess they’re too fine – have a peer to them. Obviously those qualities could be applied to...

So many good things are happening in so many homes throughout the world, when so many places are closed to fight off Covid-19 or Coronavirus.  For example, so many parents are trying nice to entertain their children. Even more, not only entertain those kids but also try to educate them. For example in Spain nobody can get out of their homes – only in few cases. So many parents are being heroic.  Today I wanted to tell all of you readers that we second language teachers have to provide with many chances in the classroom for real and authentic communication.  We cannot confine to presenting language facts but also we should nicely produce many opportunities for the students to have actual communication.  Are you teaching a second or a foreign language? Yes? Well, the class should be a marvelous chance for communication, whereas the grammar and the vocabulary are just tools for that communication.  Or in other words, those vocabulary and gramma...

It’s their parents who have to educate their kids, okay. And their teacher has also to set an example. Okay too. An example like taking care of our planet. We teachers are instructing those students, in math, the second language, history, biology, minerology, other sciences, literature… And when we are teaching, while that is happening, also we are educating those young people. In accordance to their parents.  We should call up those parents to come to the school to have a meeting about their children.  Okay, well, any teaching action in the classroom, whatever the subject is, should set an example. We teachers are public persons, and thus we have to set that good example. Any teaching action should be educative. Any action in the classroom should provide teaching, promote an aptitude, promote some upright human value.  And it’s so because of the relationship between the teacher and the students in the classroom… or at any other place within the school area. ...

Some teachers do not feel well in the classroom, because they feel somewhat anxious, they say. But, if you let me tell you, don’t you attend the class in order to seek what is good and convenient for your dear students? I would like for you to be somewhat relaxed in the classroom. I apply that principle to me myself. Better said, some sane and nice tension is desirable in order to attain your jobs as teachers of your class-groups. Teaching ensues some easy tension, let’s say: You cannot teach or work anywhere else without some tranquil tension, so as to say.  Those class-groups together with you make up working-teams, where everyone can contribute to the learning processes.  Education is precisely to extract from your students the best from themselves. Education also is leading our dear students toward becoming better persons and ones that can afford their own lives.  As well we have to educate our students in accordance with what their parents wish for t...

We teachers wish to have peaceful classes with our students, right? At the same time we may wish for them, for our students to participate actively in those classes, also right?  Something else to bear in mind: We have to love our students with benevolence love.  Not because if we love them we will have no problems, but we have to love them in a generous way. That is, benevolence love is to seek what is good for them. We love them, we have to love them in a generous way, as I said.  We in principle should seek what their parents want for them. Okay then, otherwise if we do not love them, we may be failing at something essential, and besides and moreover we may have discipline and behavior problems. On the contrary, if we seek what is good for them, we will be interested in seriously helping them. Each and every one of them.  A teacher who attends his classes but at the same time he just wants to fulfill his strict obligation, well then, he may start ...

We teachers in the north earth hemisphere may be at vacations. And we do need to rest and relax, don’t we? I’m after it, I’m resting and relaxing. But we may do other small jobs, like attending a summer camp for boys for a couple of weeks.  They will learn and practice their English with English native teachers. I’m making up some plan to help those kids. Something I must take into account is that they must learn some conducting rules, but ultimately they keep being free persons.  Freedom is a value I must take into account. Freedom has a pedagogic and educative value, yes it has. We monitors have to respect that liberty.  If those kids have freedom, they can likely let us monitors educate them, in accordance with what their parents wish for them. Only if the kids are free, they can better as persons. Because we teachers and monitors have to try to help them become better persons, and that’s what their parents and families wish for them.  Only if the...

Being a teacher is so great a profession. Anyway you always encounter conflicts. Also our students have them.  We adults should have emotional self-control. And our dear students have also to learn how to have that kind of self-control. And they’ll be gaining it over time, with our help and aid as teachers. We’re educating young persons.  We’ll achieve they have that self-esteem by helping them through private tutorials with each kid. I’ve seen it well through my career as a teacher. We teachers gained a lot of confidence with our students over the school year. And those kids ultimately gave vents to their inner conflicts.  That work was carried out counting on their parents, as well through tutoring sessions with them.  Male teachers had tutorials with male students and female teachers did with girls. And it worked and turned out fine. Every kid had his or her tutor.  And we in that way got to quench some bullying, also because we talke...