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 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...

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, ...

On last post I told you that communication in English (the target language) is one of the main goals in my classes. Communication among intelligent people.  Also I told you we teachers should know our students to make them talk at the discussions about the points they know from their experiences. I teach adults at present.  Okay, then, I can tell you that also those discussions help me learn about my students, as may happen with your classes as well.  The point is to have our students talk about what they know about. Or about what they’ve been working on – think of the flipped-classroom model, on which you can see further by clicking on its label from the right column of my blog. You decide if you could implement it or not: it might work with you, maybe yes, maybe no...  We as teachers may in the classroom show a serious and affectionate attention to what they may be talking about.  In teens’ classrooms we should take into account that n...

  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...

  Homework? It’s essential. If I had kids as students I would assign and set some homework. It is useful. I teach English, as you may know. At home the students could write compositions or focus on already corrected-by-me compositions or essays. Or also they can read and re-read some text we’ve worked on at the classroom. Etcetera. Only we teachers should realize that they have other school subjects and must also do homework for those subjects… At home they can sediment what learned at school. However, if we follow the flipped-classroom model the homework would be so different: The kids search, read and visualize material at home and they bring that material to the classroom to discuss about it, said in a rather simplistic way – that’s the core thing I think; well also I’d add that the teacher help the students get and obtain something more specific, more defined, at the classroom. At home also they can visualize tutorials and can work online. In that latter case ...

  Our classes should be interactive. Not just attending them, writing or typing some notes and passing the exam. What about reading something, like a book, journal, article from the Internet, and also discussing about the issue in the classroom? Of course the teacher should present some point, but the students also and this makes them protagonists of the classroom and they can present some point too. This demands some nice effort by them. Okay, you can try and find out what is best for your lessons and students and their needs. However if the students take a positive and active position they will have to use nice learning strategies, like planning their work, summarizing and synthesizing, interacting with their classmates, learning how to talk in public for their classmates and the teacher to be able to understand what they just presented. Thus the class will be some nice discussion about topics and their inherent points, and our students will strive to learn active...

  Oh, you know, I’m not sure at all but quite many people now bet that the flipped-classroom model is okay for learning. You may know about it. The students would firstly read from the Internet about some topic they have to learn about, and they’d do so at home, and also they would kind of visualize the topic also at home, as I said, or in libraries. And in the classroom they with their teacher and their classmates would gently discuss about their findings. Some people state that it’s a revolutionary way of learning and it’s great, in few words. But I put a question: is it not okay first for the teacher to say something about the topic or topics before the kids seek and search for stuff about those issues? Anyway their teacher could help his students look for valid material, this is, he would help focus the topic or topics, because on the Web there’s plenty – actually too much about this or that theme, is that right? I think the teacher should assist in some way the...

We want to educate our young people and we’re after it, okay. We want young people to be free and responsible, and that’s okay too. We put them in charge of small jobs in the classroom and in the whole school, and that seems nice too. But we grown-ups have to remember that they still need our guidelines and clear prescriptions, they need some clear vision of life from us adults. We may want to educate them inside the flipped-classroom model but they need our criteria to research and orientations to find the right material as well – well, a correct flipped-classroom model anyway presupposes and assumes our adult help and supervision. And all that because they don’t have firm criteria yet: they’re making them. If they have clear vision of the “game”, we can allow them conduct on their own, but up to some extent: as I said they still need our adults’ firm and clear criteria, and they expect a lot from us: orientation, in a word. They should not decide yet what the subject syllabu...

  We teachers have to take advantage of our students’ best chances for learning creativity, this is, to learn in a creative way. We could facilitate our students enough time for creativity, and so foster and boost their creativity whenever it’s simpler to provoke. Sometimes our students are about to show their creativity, and we teachers should take advantage of those times for our students to learn in that creative way. For instance we can set and assign project-works by teams, I would advise of three people, as I’ve said on other posts. Specifically our students might have got to search information and stuff about specific points within the school subjects: math, science, literature, history, chemistry, physics, sports, catechism classes, mother language classes… Well namely it’s like flipped classrooms: the students have to research about a specific point, topic or issue, and after that studying process, they will present their results and those topics themselves t...

  American expert Marc Prensky states that we teachers have to be like our students’ coaches. All knowledge is in the Internet, and we have to teach our students practical things and how to better the world and their own surroundings. You may agree or disagree with this scholar, but I’m telling you something about his proposals, worth to consider and think of them. We may be asking our students which school subject their favorite one is, but we should ask them what their passion is. Those students could tell you their teachers don’t know what their passions are, and they should know them... We have to extract the best from our students. Our students should embark in bettering our world and our surroundings, like for example a girl might design and construct an app to call the police in case of gender violence. Some other experts state that we teachers have to foster and accentuate creativity both from us teachers as well as from our students. And I’ve written quit...

  I’m briefly saying something about something else I’ve already said. Second or foreign language students should be autonomous learners, although they also need presentations by their teachers, presentations about what their teachers know and may be an expert on… Okay, students currently have all in their textbooks, iPads and the Web. They should investigate and research on those topics their teacher could present, and subsequently present them to their classmates. Maybe sometimes. We teachers should take more into account what our students can say about their own education and learning processes. I don’t discard presentations, you know, but sometimes students might find those topics on those resources I just mentioned. Maybe kids should be even more protagonists, with their teachers’ help and assistance of course. So let’s not “interrupt” our students when they’re learning on their own... Some of these ideas were taken from New Yorker Marc Prensky, some from other a...

  You may have clearly noticed that when our students are motivated and even enthused, they learn better. Smiling by you helps, as I said on the previous post. Also you may have noted that the way you present something, for example even if you’re enthused, your students will follow and listen to you better. I would say we teachers should be enthused about what we teach. Maybe it isn’t an explosive enthusiasm, okay, but as you like or may like what you teach, you will pass on that liking to your students. Little by little you’ll gain them for learning. It’s so, it’s like that, and you may know it. Recently flipped-classroom methodologies are being used and implemented: at the classroom they do exercises and work on texts students may have found about in the Web, and at home they will revise, deepen into and study what they’ve learned at school. The more they work, study and research (with your help and assistance), the more they will like what they’re dealing...

  I’ve already written about the “flipped classroom”, and you may know about that new interesting way of learning. Instead of the traditional way of teacher teaching and presenting the contents of classes, the students would get the information from the Internet, encyclopedias, books, surroundings and thereabouts, from people that know about the specific contents, etc. Is then the teacher an unimportant person? Not at all! The teacher could filter the information that is meaningful, really interesting and relevant. Also he would lead up the way to the convenient sources and would in some way help find the best contents for the unit or topic. The teacher keeps being of a paramount importance! He also provides a critical eye: he can tell about the relevance or not of some specific sources. The class is then a working group or team, together with their dear teacher. This latter one can set the student working teams or they all can discuss in the classroom how to make u...

  We teachers teach our students, and we should present our school subject contents, okay. But remember also that we teach our dear students for them to learn how to learn: our students would learn how to learn, how to become autonomous learners, how to wish to learn! There’s a teaching methodology, which is called flipped classroom. You may have heard about it. Our students would search for the contents of our school subject – science, English, math, physical education, Christian roots of Western society, etc. – and also for the different topics or units of our syllabus. Okay then. The students, on the next step, would present their results before the rest of their classmates, and these ones would learn from them. However let’s remember we teachers, in my opinion, and I’ve been a teacher for a nice number of years, also should present topics ourselves, for example a grammar point, like the usage of present perfect in order to convey our experiences, in English, the t...

At college, Albert Einstein found a professor that was open to his students’ suggestions about the syllabus or academic year’s planning they would immediately start.  Thus he could orientate his likes and future professional career, according with his trends and tendencies.  I’m not sure this way is the best, but at least it was opened to the students’ preferences. Oh, this reminds me of flipped classroom: kinda the students prepare the stuff they’ve gotta learn on their own, before the teacher would present the stuff.  In some USA schools this system is working fine, as far as I know. / Photo from: MartianDiff_PIC3 nerdist com. notice the person on the circular part of the spacecraft, the one isn’t dressed in a spacesuit, can you see it?

We teachers can teach our students how to get the most from studying, from their personal studying.  If they have got to study a History unit in English, the target language, first they could read for the gist.  Then they can read and study and get the most important points, and turn them into a summary or an outline.  After memorizing it they should read the whole unit or text so as to revise.  If they follow this scheme, they implement various learning strategies and they mature, also as persons. / Photo from: study hall www landmarkeast org

Flipped classroom.  It’s a new discovery about how to learn.  First the students prepare the topic by researching about it, and then they present it in the classroom.  And after that the teacher assigns some homework, but to be carried out in the classroom. He sets something that can complement what the students have made.  How to do this in an English class, with a communicative methodology? Basically the same as with the other school subjects. Yet this can be done in a class with students of a rather high level of English, or the other language they’re learning: students who can speak for rather a long time, with some fluency.  Just try and see to it how it turns out. Ask the students what they think about this system. There are videos in YouTube, for discussion. / Photo from: teacher-students vw2kped org

“Flipped classroom”. It is a new trend and tendency which is being carried out in some schools of the USA.  The terms are inverted. First, teams of students prepare some new material to present in the classroom, like a grammar point.  Then the teacher acts as a moderator and facilitator of new points in the classroom, and may play a video.  After that the teacher assigns “homework”, but to be accomplished in the classroom.  As I said, it’s being utilized in some centers and it is turning out good. Now what I don’t know is how we can combine “flipped classroom” with the communicative approach or methodology: here first the students listen massively to the teacher… / Photo from: celtslineup www historic-uk com. the photograph is merely an illustration

Scholar Susana Pastor, from Universidad de Alicante (Spain) states that in the communicative and functional-notional approach or methodology of teaching/learning a language, like English, the teacher is a facilitator of the process of learning a language, a second language.  The protagonists so would be the students, who are the people that work with the language.  This has something in common with the flipped-classroom theory: the students search and research about the language, and the teacher, as I said, facilitates and conducts that getting knowledge.  I personally would have to research further because we’re talking about learning a language whose first principle is listening to the teacher and teaching/practicing the four skills of any language, namely, Listening, then Speaking, Reading and Writing.  Thus, how can we overlap the flipped-classroom theory with the communicative approach?  I would have to carry on with this researc...