Experiences of a teacher of English

  Just to halt at times. And have a quick mental look or perspective to your teaching. That is something I sometimes do.  For example I did something of this at Christmas break. We had stopped our English classes for a while. And at home I had a mental peek at how my students were doing, and how I was doing as a teacher myself. Just to detect failures in me and in them. Also to find out what was turning out fine.  And all that is just something simple, even intuitive. It’s like keeping track of how things are going. And all that does not necessarily mean you as a teacher must do something else, apart all your workload, which may be almost huge.  If you stop to think of it, it may be something we teachers may inadvertently do when lesson-planning – even more, it is something we actually do when lesson-planning!  But I mean here to carry it out in a bit more aware way, and like something special at some breaks – Christmas, the Holy Week at southern Spain, and fina...

  I teach English to adults, but what I’m telling you today I guess it could be also applied to teens.  I just said I teach English, and it’s so, but also I ought to help my students learn that wonderful language. It’s thus because it’s them who ultimately have to learn English, or French, or …  More often now than before I tell my students that they have to be very active at learning English, as old H. D. Brown said (1989). Say, it’s them who have to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. We also in Spanish use that phrase, to pull your chestnuts out of the fire.  I’m not going to do it myself. Better said, I should not do it myself.  Sometimes when at the end of each lesson I assign some homework, I tell them they can do this and this but also they could do that, just if they wish to do. It’s them who have to feel what they need most, what they have to do to advance at learning English.  Moreover, about the graded readers or unabridged novels we read, wor...

  Are you a committed teacher? If so, you may understand what I’m saying today.  Look, I think a good teacher must plan his or her lessons, so that these ones may be of good use to their students.  What about thinking of a few goals when sitting to plan next lesson? Just a few of them, with our dear students in mind. Aims or goals are pretty important, if we wish to be right at lesson planning. And you may think of those few objectives, ones that do not block that lesson planning. All the contrary, they will help you find what your students do need now.  What I mean is: I would tell you to think just what they need or what you think is most important now, these days. At other times you will think of other goals with more ample lenses.  I also mean, if your students do see that you have planned your lessons, and you try to follow those plans – well, you may change something on the spot, let’s be realistic if something goes wrong – well, then, more likely the stud...

  I’m back with you again, my fellow readers.  I wanted to tell you something that may be of any interest to you, both if you are prospective or novice teachers, or otherwise experienced ones.  I’ve been thinking lately that, for a teacher, practice and experience are so paramount important. And as well another key point to bear in mind when teaching in the classroom or remotely teaching is that we should have our students in mind when lesson planning.  Something you can do before the actual lesson planning is just to think on your specific and real students.  On a parallel way you may know that when our students have to write an essay, well, you know, they should have a reader in mind.  Equally when the teacher is about to plan a lesson – and every lesson ought to be planned – he or she may think, Well, let’s see how my students are in class and how last lesson worked actually.  And I invite you to write a few points before the actual planning, consid...

  The teacher in a face-to-face or online classroom? He or she must be elegant. I mean they have to be tactful, respectful, loving toward their students. What I mean by loving is one with benevolence love, i.e. they will seek the best for their students.  For example, that teacher has to know how his or her students are at each moment, and whether they feel good with the activity he or she is carrying out before those students.  And this value is obtained through those affection and benevolence love, plus through experience at the classroom.  As well that teacher will try and be discreet, cautious and tactful. And he or she will say things that will not hurt their students.  Furthermore that teacher will seek what builds up their students’ personality, in accordance with what their parents want for them.  I said he or she won’t say anything harming in the classroom. For those people have some or a lot of sensitivity.  Over time that teacher knows how ...

  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...

  At last I’m back with you again, readers. And I’ve recently suffered from Covid-19, fortunately and thank God with minor symptoms. And I’m glad I’m back also with my dear students.  I'm reading and thinking and I was considering that an English language teacher like me has to think twofold. On the one hand he or she has to think that they are teaching a foreign or second language for people, for their students to communicate with other people.  And in the classroom those language teachers will try hard to establish and build up real communication in that atmosphere. And that will be created if that teacher tries hard also to empathize with each and every student he has in front of him. As well he has to be a good listener to what his students tell him.  He will detect whether his students are bone tired, or happy because of something specific that is occurring to them recently, or a bit disgusted with each other, or worried because of exams, or…  Teaching is s...

  Lesson planning takes quite a lot of a teacher’s time. If you teach a language, you may have had the following experience.  A foreign or second language teacher, I think, should foster speaking in the class. A lot of speaking. In that language.  Thus that teacher should plan activities which will make his or her students speak. And not only will that teacher make his or her students participate by uttering and conveying sentences, yet he or she ought to take their students give longer messages, for it is not the same to say a sentence than talking for five or ten minutes. There is a big difference indeed, and our dear students should speak for pretty long periods.  With creativity, imagination, practice and even a bit of fantasy the language teacher should plan his or her classes, so as to give their learners chances to speak.  Well also the other three skills: listening, reading and writing.  Yesterday during the lesson I was teaching I came to think tha...

  I am a teacher. You already know it. I teach English to grownups. And I actually wish they would learn the language. And acquire it. I do.  Yet all my effort would be fruitless unless they my students also wish to learn and acquire it.  For that reason I give them articles from the Web, two of them about learning English. Next lesson I will insist on the following premises.  Who is the student, the learner who REALLY learns the tongue? The one who REALLY wishes to learn. Crystal clear, you know? I’ve seen it this school year. In my students, in some more than in some others. Anyway all of them have improved.  The learner that really learns is the autonomous one. That person pays off. That person will for sure apply all his strength to learning.  If I dedicate my best forces to teaching but somebody would not really wish to learn, my job would be useless or close to that. Well, you know, they my students want to learn. And they attend the lessons. And when...

  Does the teacher have to give contents and knowledge to his or her students? Or otherwise he or she has to foster their students look for those contents and knowledge? Both.  However, that teacher has to give that information, those ideas, concepts, data, notions. They have to give contents and knowledge.  But their students will not be passive. It’s not like a half-robot which gives a lecture to an audience and that’s it. No. In the classroom, both face-to-face and remote, there will be a nice conversation, where the students may ask and comment on some points, with order and agreement.  The students are active in that classroom.  I teach English, as you must know. English as a foreign language, or English as a second language, and this latter case more and more in Spain, for more and more people speak English.  Now I teach online.  And I try to get a lot of conversation arise. I ask my dear students. Sometimes namely or nominatim , and many times I...

Each teacher has his or her own way of teaching, right? Also their own way of planning lessons. I would advise you to plan each lesson, always. Well, a few times one could improvise, and I think every one of us has done that.  Now I’d like to share my experience about lesson planning, in case it might help someone.  At present I teach remotely, by utilizing Google Meet. By the way, I live in Spain but one student joined today’s lesson from Germany, for he is there visiting his daughters. That’s one advantage of remote teaching, yet we would like to return to face-to-face classes not for a long time from now.  Before lesson planning I’d like to re-read a piece from some book on teaching I have in my room, and which ones I’ve read before. Thus I’d continuously learn and refresh from the experts. That means a few minutes and I confirm it makes me improve my lessons. I'd read and shortly meditate on that. It has to do with intuition. Then I think of a few goals, say, three fo...

If we teachers want our students would have success at learning and would actually learn, we can help them out by telling them to study in a metacognitive way.  But what does that mean?  Basically it’s helping them think. Basically also it’s for example a student who thinks of the way he or she reads, studies and learns.  The good student does normally know he or she is a good one. He can reflect about the way he or she reads and studies. And they discard what doesn’t work and take up what works. They also use learning strategies. And they are more or less mature.  And we teachers can teach them or help them read and study. Of course we have to teach and address all our students, from low-achievers to high-achievers.  We teachers supposedly do know how to read and study. Because we have reached to be teachers. So we can teach our dear students how to read and study. On last posts I’ve also talked about reading techniques.  As well a good student can come to...

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...

Two posts ago I told you that we adults have a lot of positive features in our favor to learn a second or foreign language, and we do have indeed!  Also lately I’m commenting on H. D. Brown (1989). You can peek at the last posts from this blog. From that great book now I’m quoting something else about the way we grownups learn that language. Here you are, “It’s not ridiculous, is it, that adults are potentially superior to children in foreign language learning? If we could only harness that ability! Research on successful language learners shows that a significant portion of adult success is attributable to optimal conscious learning. You need to be just childlike enough to relax with the language and not be overly worried about all of its details. But at the right moment, you need to be able to monitor yourself or your language with your zoom lens, then take corrective action. In short, try not to think too much about your language learning process, but allow yourself optimal o...

Do you need to learn a language? I do. English. I’m working on it.  Now I can help you by giving more advice from the scholar we’re treating about on our last posts, H. D. Brown, who is an ace at learning and teaching languages.  So now we could think that children, young ones, infants actually, have a lot of facility to learn a language, right? But if we are adults… So what? Adults have a great potential to learn and grab a language.  Our author puts, “(S)hould you, like a kid, try to pick up language subconsciously? The answer is a qualified yes. As an adult now, you most likely analyze yourself too much. Your tendency is to memorize, focus on grammar rules, translate from one language to the other, and do just about everything except subconsciously acquire it. You’re probably learning facts about the language at the expense of learning to use it. And one sure way to fail at learning a foreign language is not to use it for genuine communication.” (page 21 from the book...

We are just before a new school year or we are starting it. And we may not know how that school year will develop, and whether we will teach face-to-face or remotely (!).  Anyway, we may be planning the curriculum or syllabus. I’m working on it.  You know what? When carrying out that curriculum and trying to think what the most important thing is, I have concluded, very quickly, as if by intuition and not by some deep and heavy and long reasoning, that the most important thing is… that my students should be happy!  They should be happy while learning.  I teach adults, but the same may be applicable if you teach kids. Those students should be happy. Also I should be happy.  When I say happy I mean they should be treated nice by me in the classroom. Only in that way will they learn English, which is what I teach. Otherwise… they would learn less, if anything at all.  I must treat my students as human persons and with all the dignity they deserve.  Also ...

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...

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...

We teachers may be still confined at home. Also our students. We might be working on the end of this school year by addressing our students remotely.  Well, also now may be the time to briefly think of our students and how to really help them, or help them more fully.  When I plan my classes – and this will hopefully ensue next school year – I have to think of the students I have before me in the classroom. I may take into account the syllabus and all the stuff, yet I have real and specific people in the classroom: It’s them I have to serve!  As well – and this is something I’m actually doing – now when confined at home I can think of my lessons in a more detached way, and I can possibly draw conclusions about what I have to change in my lessons.  I’m longing to have my students before me again, though I reckon that my classes take me a great effort.  Now I can contemplate my lessons in a more ample angle of vision. And therefore I can think of changing this poi...

We second language teachers do wish our students would learn that language, right?  In my opinion the communicative approach is the best one to teach/learn a language. Even better we could follow a more eclectic approach, by taking from different language-learning methodologies.  If we want to follow a communicative method we have to create chances for real communication in the classroom.  As well we could try to implement activities where our students have to carry out diverse tasks. In those tasks the students have to use the second language in order to fulfill those aforesaid tasks.  In that way they can learn and acquire that tongue: They have the necessity of using the target tongue.  Thus they will see they are carrying on an activity which is worth to invest their best efforts in: They will feel they are doing worthy and meaningful exercises, and eventually they might get pretty motivated.  In other words: They will feel the ...