Experiences of a teacher of English

  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...

  I think that in nearly all classes of students we can find like three groups: high-achievers, average students, and low-achievers. And I believe we teachers have to help all those three groups.  When teaching kids quite many years ago I was said by the assistant principal or headmaster deputy I ought to give material and opportunities to high-achievers, so they would not feel bored.  I taught and teach English. Also low-achievers have to be aided. I as a teacher cannot confine to hand out their graded tests or exams to the kids in class, and then also give out a low-achiever’s sheet with a super low grade, and there you are! Something else must be carried out with those kids.  The superintendent or gamekeeper of the place where I live was a bad student, and his dad told me to please help him. Eventually he stopped and gave up studying, and, well, he is a great professional now as a gamekeeper.  Ok, let’s turn back to the topic. Those kids may present several d...

  Today I wished to tell you about several points I consider as paramount.  First, what the teacher does influences upon his or her students. Even I would say that that influences both if he or she does something in the classroom and even in their private life. We teachers transmit and pass on what we are. What we are, I insist on purpose.  So if a teacher is nice, kind, committed in her profession, respectful toward her students, growing as a person and as a professional, and quite some other good things, well, she will do a big good to those students.  Otherwise if that teacher carried out his job in a sloppy way, he would not attain and accomplish to teach well, and likely he would not educate his learners, the persons that have been entrusted to him by their families. That person could do a big bad to those persons. I retain the positive: if a teacher strives to do his job well, he will do a big good to a lot of people.  Another issue, connected with the pre...

  The teacher. The teacher has to wish to make up a classroom atmosphere where the students – most of them may wish to learn and work – can find and encounter the ambience where they can actually learn and work.  That atmosphere is one where delicacy, culture, respect, civilization, working minds, can be encountered. The students thus are serene and peaceful to learn and work. They are thus treated with those delicacy and respect.  The teacher in the meanwhile manages to motivate his or her students. And these ones also want to get plunged into the topic they are dealing with in the classroom.  But if the teacher is harsh and covetous and he just tries to get a jail-like behavior-management, and he just shouts at his students… well, he will not make up that culture atmosphere where his students can learn and work peacefully .  These students are assisted to make up and take up virtues. That word comes from a Latin word,  vir, which means strength and fo...

  For teachers it is important to assess and evaluate their students’ learning, right? Also his or her own teaching, right?  In the first case, how can we assist students who have to retake an exam and catch up on the materials they missed?  Well, let me see. They are students in need of extra work, extra learning, extra studying. We could split the class up into two groups: special objectives – during the regular classes – for those who passed the exam but still can learn new things or deepen into what learned. And also objectives for those students who failed.  Even the students who passed could help out their classmates by monitoring them.  This is it: they could sit with their peers and teach them.  And thus we have that some students are assisting their peers, and that counts as something very educative and formative: helping others.  As well in that case we teachers might assign some extra grading to those students who have been helping their cla...

As I’ve already told you, both teachers and parents wish our students would learn. Well, and most of students as well.  And these students need abundant time for studying. Just them. They should have some place and abundant time for studying, researching and writing their activities. Just themselves, as I just said.  I can recall with joy and gratitude when I was a student at high school and we the students did have a study hall or a library to study on our own. And we carried out and accomplished high school and after that, college.  Perhaps sometimes there might be a teacher or a monitor in charge of taking care of that study hall and he used to work on his own stuff, but also as I said, it is convenient students on their own would learn how to work, study and write their activities.  It is so because it’s them who have to realize they have to study on their own, just because they wish so, it’s them who have to learn how to work on their own.  When there were ...

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...

To be a teacher? It’s so great – it may be tough, though. But I retain that being a teacher is great. You have some students with you in the classroom, and firstly some families you have to attend to, properly. All this is pretty human and humane.  That teacher eventually gets interested in his or her students’ progress and learning and becoming great citizens.  I say with Aristotle that we teachers have to love our dear students with benevolence love, which as you know or may know is seeking what’s good for those students.  That teacher does not confine to plan his or her lessons, yet that person tries hard to think of each student and his or her progress, as much as possible, or at least that teacher thinks, when planning the lessons, what those learners do need most, at such and such circumstances.  Even Carlos Cardona in his Ética del quehacer educativo states that there should be certain friendship between the teacher and the students. These latter ones permit ...

Second or foreign language teaching is one of the school subjects where we teachers can find most varied levels within a classroom.  Coming to the root of the point every student has his or her own different level of English or the taught language.  Although we may try to place each student at his or her specific and precise level and class, in any class we teach we will likely find varied and various levels.  And the high-performing students ought not to get bored. And the low-performing students ought not to be left behind. And every student has his or her own experience at learning and acquiring the language. What to do?  The answer is not simple. Something I do is trying to combine different leveled activities in the classroom but the solution is not accurate and definitive sometimes. Well, we can try that, trying also to get feedback from the students: Are they understanding me their teacher?  As well something else we can do is get...

Remember that I teach English as a foreign language.  In our classrooms we may find some few high-achiever students, some low-achievers and the rest could be medium-achievers or average students. On this post I’m writing about high-achievers.  These students have some common characteristics, by means of which we may know that they are that kind of learners. They’re marvelous people but also medium- and low-achievers deserve all our attention and respect.  High-achievers are in some way conscious they’re good students and they see themselves as such. They’re creative learners and can reflect about their learning ways.  They usually are positive, optimistic and joyful students, this latter case being: the older the more they can be joyful I’d say, from my experience.  These students, if treated in a correct way, can help his classmates. As well we must be careful with them: they might get bored in the classroom, so we could think of delive...

  I know you’re committed teachers, and good ones too. We must know that work that is carried out well has a special force. Sooner or later this work and this force stand out among our students and that work is respected or will be so, sooner or later, I’d say. Even though we may have disruptive students, which is the case for many teachers in Spain. I’m referring to secondary education, mainly. Even there has been violence in some high school centers. Recently. I’m thinking of a specific school here in the province of Granada. Even there has been some case of maltreating teachers, but in the end peace has arrived. The thing happened among very few students of that center. It was something exceptional and unusual anyway. And yesterday or few days ago I read on the paper that at another school from Spain the students are performing some drama plays, in order to stop bullying. Thus the students become more roped in the center routines. That’s another example of work...

  We teachers have to learn to work as a team. It is necessary, just necessary. Collegiality is an art that we have to learn. It means we must work also as a team, taking the other teachers into account. Beginning with our colleagues that work at the same department, for example foreign languages, which is my case. Collegiality is an art that must be learned. You do not improvise working as a team: it is something you learn over time and together with your colleagues. It comprises learning to listen to the others, maybe changing our mind about some viewpoint if necessary, sharing opinions and viewpoints, counting on the best each teacher can pose and propose. It’s wonderful to be able to count on other teachers. When I started to work as a teacher (1993) my department head and some other few teachers monitored my learning to teach. It’s marvelous to have other teachers you can lean against. / Photo from: BBC. London Bridge. To build something great it is not en...

  Our students should be educated in both freedom and responsibility. There are few rules. Also there’s a schedule or timetable. They’re treated as persons, with freedom and responsibility. In that way they can grow without stridencies. In that way they can learn and study just because they want to, helped by their teachers. Why a schedule or timetable and a few rules? For their happiness, ultimately: we want they should grow up in an atmosphere of calm and fortitude. If there’s a problem we will correct that kid aside; in other words we’ll try he should realize about what’s wrong. With freedom and responsibility they can learn, work and study in a nice and pleasant way: they wish to learn. All of them feel at home, and the school is a prolongation of home and their families: those parents entrust their kids to us teachers: they don’t delegate their thorough education in our hands but we help those parents and families educate their offspring. Students love their li...

  Should students in some way decide about the class of students’ internal affairs? In a former school I taught there was something nice, kind of a student council, and I think that was okay. The members, three students, have some decision-making competences. They were chosen by their classmates, at the beginning of the school year. So they were kind of three representatives. They met with their head teacher or a class teacher every two weeks or so to deal with students’ stuff they could help out at. Since they had a vision the teacher hardly had they were useful to govern a class and help out their classmates. For example they used to talk, at those meetings, about kids they could see they had some academic problems, or about some insane atmosphere there could be among the students, from time to time. Or they collected their classmates’ distress about any school subject way of conducting by any teacher. The rest of students knew and agreed those points would be ta...

  I usually write about what we teachers can do in the classroom, and that seems okay, right? But we should also consider we are not alone before our nice hard-though work. We can count on other colleagues and companions. I do know there can be teachers who hinder and trip up other colleagues, but as well I know we can count on others for fulfilling our nice work. Also we often can count on the department head. I could tell you about when I was starting my career as a teacher: I could count on the teacher head, the principal, one foreign language coordinator we had, some colleagues with more experience: had I listened to them more carefully, I would have improved much better. Alike we always can count on the Other, on God himself. I could also tell you about this point, only if my experience were not so personal and interior. With our companions and with God we can reach farther. Remember we are not alone at school. We can count on our comrades. Hopefully! We together...

  I wrote about good and autonomous students on last post, #3207. Something else can be said. When students become good ones, because they have adequate learning strategies and they’re aware they’re competent students, they become happier. Okay, then they may also become good helpers and they can assist their classmates in a more thorough way. And they become happier, and you can see this on regular days. Someone is happier when he’s open to help his fellow people. It is also something you can see and spot on regular days, on any ordinary day, as I said. I’m referring to something that is written inside each person, something natural, some tendency toward that helping others. In case they’re rather selfish, could we not advise them and suggest them how to help their classmates? If they give that step forward, for sure they’ll become happier. Something concrete and specific? Put some high-achievers sitting next to low-achievers, in order to assist them. I’ve seen nic...

  Most of us may be convinced that having small jobs in the classroom is beneficial to our students, is this so? I’m persuaded yes. With those tasks our dear students gain responsibility, and you may agree that all of us desire students be responsible. With those small jobs our students grow inner. Our students may think, Okay this is my business and I have to carry it out. In some way or other they may think so. We also get a classroom that is neater and tidier if we implement those jobs. They feel the classroom and the school as something of their own. This is something so educative, and besides our students may love those tasks. This is my experience. We teachers have to learn how to delegate our exhaustive work in our students’ hands: we cannot do everything. As well in that way we construct the classroom with material which is essential for our teaching them. Anyone can think of a nice list of small jobs. Some examples: getting chalk for our still-existing chalkboa...

  I see you teachers are enthused with teaching. Enthusiasm plus optimism plus seeing things from a positive viewpoint is great. Remember that my optimism is also hope: the foundation is God himself plus the great potentialities of the human person. This transcendent view of things also provides a rope to grasp for nice and positive everyday living. God has a superior and great love to us all. The one like all dads and moms on earth can have. And about human potentialities I’ve seen it along my career as a teacher. When we treat our students as better than they are or seem to be they become greater. Now I’m thinking of high-achiever students: in English – the subject I teach – you have to think of them very much because they could become bored in the lessons if you don’t give them superior activities. All this without forgetting our low-achievers. High-achievers can help low-achievers: they can repeat a question or prompt from the teacher in their own words in Eng...

I read it in Pope Francis some time ago. He proposed not to talk bad about anybody. I liked it and think it’s okay with the school too. Somebody told me also not to talk bad about anybody at the school. Or otherwise it’d be better to correct what’s wrong personally to the person who did it wrong. We can teach our students to conduct in that way. It has to do with bullying. The point is teaching them to be honest and honorable with everybody else. It would be much better for them to correct things to their classmates, in a peaceful and not humiliating way, plus aside and apart. For example when they detect there’s a bullying thing arising they could turn to the offender and tell him not to carry on in that way. Experts say that bullying must be stopped by students themselves. And how can the teacher find out something ugly is starting to arise among students? I learned something in the school where I worked until 2002. We teachers in charge of a class had a council of th...

  I’m reading an interesting book about what Pope Francis is doing in favor of immigrants, the homeless, girls that may fall in prostitution networks… He has done quite a lot for them and keeps doing things for them. Something else could be done by us teachers. I live in Europe, the target and finish of many immigrants that travel across the Mediterranean Sea to find something better than in their origin-countries, submerged in endemic wars. Many of them die on the way here. Something may be done. For example I know many teachers and young people that invest their free time by doing things in favor of for example the elderly: old people that live rather lonely. And they are doing something great! Summer is coming, and also I know teachers who are volunteering for English camps for boys or for girls, and that’s great too. Also some of those teachers are assisting at urban summer camps, as well by doing things for kids, like for instance teaching English as a foreign ...