Experiences of a teacher of English

Warmers are necessary at the beginning of lessons. For both the teacher and the students to warm up into the class.  It can be something like rearranging their desks after the previous lesson, this is, to set their desks into neat rows again, for so it becomes easier to set class discipline.  Even the students could stand up when you the teacher enters the classroom.  Also an activity as a warmer can be suitable. Something to warm up into the class thread. If you teach a second or a foreign language, you could ask the kids questions in that language, kind of something as a routine.  Something which could calm down the kids and which could attract their attention.  Even a game sometimes, for which you have examples on post #259 from my blog – you can type “#259” into the search box and you’ll find some 100 games. Or click on the tag "games..." below. Over time you will see which activities are more useful to make your students get focused int...

Expert in communication José Ballesteros De la Puerta (2002) states that the best way of learning is fun. Or that you must have fun so as to learn.  On the other hand in this blog I have said that learning and acquiring a language is something so serious and stern, although on post 259 and others I have written about games for the classroom.  Apparently they’re opposite, but going to the head of the matter they’re sort of complementary.  When the class-period is easy and the students are focused and concentrated, we can have some fun, why not? Even from time to time the teacher ought to break the ice so for the students to relax. / Photo from: kids-music-class bigdave1996 blogspot com

A few years ago I was teaching English in another summer course, namely at Asociación Cultural y Deportiva Alayos , with venue and see in Granada, Spain.  Now I remember one day at class: Rafa was answering a question from me. The class were games in English. You can see post # 259. Ok, he answered me in English, but in a plainly naturalistic way, like another language he also knew.  For him there were two languages, spoken in different contexts. He was some ten years old then. Awesome.  Of course I was trying all the class be in English. If they answered in Spanish I pretended I didn’t speak that language – obviously most of them knew I was Spanish, but as if by that time of the day I just spoke English. The thing worked good, thank God. / Photo from: Cute-Little-Kids-In-Classroom www desktophdphotos com

I implement many games with my young students and it turns out okay.  I’ve written a lot about games in this blog. Even you’ve got a list of more than one hundred games on post # 259.  An expert on learning languages is H. D. Brown, about whom I’ve also written on many posts. I’ve learned a lot from him, for my classes, since I came across his ideas at the beginning of my research for the doctorado (it’s the following step after your college graduation, in case you wanted to carry on your university studies and research in Spain some 20 years ago).  He states  Virtually every strategy or gimmick that has been mentioned so far in this book can become a little game. And remember, games are fun. You can take a lighthearted perspective on this language learning process of yours by thinking of it as a game. So, go for the gold! (page 71, from A Practical Guide to Language Learning. A Fifteen-Week Program of Strategies for Success . I published a paper in a u...

(picture from www oldskoolanthemz com) Ok, you win. Here you are. I hope this long list of games be any helpful. I'm convinced we teachers have to help out one another. This is the work result of quite a nice number of years teaching. Excuse me for the formatting errors: I copied from a Word document. Updated April 9, 2010 Apéndice 6 Games for classes Aunque hay un apartado de este libro dedicado a la explicación de cada juego, en castellano, me ha parecido conveniente componer este guión de juegos. Ahora los coloco por orden de dificultad, o prefiero decir de desafío, para los alumnos. Se puede aprender una lengua jugando. El juego es una imitación de la vida, y más en el caso en que los chicos tienen que utilizar inglés para comunicarse en clase. They are really fun, both for the teacher and the students. Besides, they practice real communication in English. Give them points for the scoring. They are just set on a list ---further developments and variations might be applied. They...