Experiences of a teacher of English

  For those of you who are in the northern hemisphere I wish you teachers all a nice back to school.  Today I’d like to say something about classroom management. I do know how some teachers have to struggle to keep a working pace at high school, at the classroom. I’m typing something that might perhaps help you out, if Granada now earthquakes let me write – I mean, we are okay, just we’ve have ten days of some small earthquakes, a few bigger ones. My mind goes to Venezuela, Colombia, Perú and Indonesia and their people, and I keep praying for you all.  Well, I guess in class the main point is the teacher achieve to keep his or her students working, studying, learning. And a lot of you teachers already are attaining this, and you could tell us and share with us about that point.  I’ve already written a lot on classroom managing in this blog, and clear is it that you cannot be those young people’s buddy. You cannot enter the classroom and, so as to gain your students, ...

  One month ago I wrote down a note that said something like “The teacher’s function is to get knowledge into his or her students’ minds.” In fact it was taken from a book I was then reading, by J. B. Chautard, which book was published about a century ago, and it has been published into numerous editions ever since. Actually the note was in Spanish and it sounded kind of “La misión del docente es que los conocimientos penetren en las mentes de sus alumnos.”  And I guess it’s just great, and nowadays we should say the same about our function as teachers. Well, you know, you teacher may feel some burn-out or you may be hectic, or even alienated, yet just let me tell you something which might perhaps help you out somehow.  I consider the teacher as also – or primarily – source of knowledge. For that aim he or she ought to continuously keep learning and reading about the subject they teach. Just a few minutes per day, or half an hour if attainable.  And then we have that...

  We well may be finishing one more school year – if you are for example a committed teacher, like most of you are. And we want our dear students would learn a lot, as well as they would be happy.  I was wondering what an ideal teacher should be like. One of the main premises is he or she must be an authority in class. Are you one? Am I one? I guess an authority teacher is the one who achieves their students would actually learn.  I don’t mean those teachers ought to be like a sheer guard in front of a gang of convicts. So let me show you what I’ve seen in some classrooms, and which accounts for being a real authority.  You know, that teacher must treat his or her students in an exquisite way. I mean, they should respect those students in class – I’ve seen it and I’m now thinking of a teacher I had at high school who was an authentic authority – he treated his students – us! – in a tactful way – he never humiliated a kid at all in class. And when he met us out of the...

  I’m an English language teacher, as you well know. And you may be another language teacher. Even you may be learning English, like I am doing myself. Well, let’s suppose that that teacher ought to do his or her best for their dear students to learn that dear language.  That teacher ought to think how my students can learn best. And each lesson is – must be – a step forward as far as my students are learning English. How are they progressing, since I began to teach them? Do they already master English?  You know, you may rightfully tell me that it also depends – and much! – on them, and you are fully right – it’s them who have to learn, yet I can wonder how I can facilitate that process, that inner process, for each lesson needs to be a step forward.  What can I do for they really would learn English? You know, part of this job is transmitting and passing on the lure and the inner desire to learn English – the more enthusiasm you invest on the task, the more they wi...

  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...

  A teacher? He or she influences on their students more with their lives than with what they teach to do. Whatsoever they do, well, that is so influential on those kids, or those adults too, if the case.  That is like an eternal truth, one of those that occur all the time. It was taken from college teacher Jutta Burggraf, who lived 1952 through 2010, and which teacher has influenced on so many people. She was like special in some way, you know.  Also something that may inspire your students is the way you teach, whether you really know about the school subject and the way that that ought to be taught.  Something essential too, and which professor Jaime Nubiola states: you must love your students. With benevolence love: by seeking what’s good for them. Also by hearing and listening to them.  If you are a terrific teacher and you do like in Oliver Twist, bad way you’re going. Yes, remember: Oliver Twist gently asked for more porridge, and then something tremendou...

  I’m not quite sure but I guess that the school subject of English is in some spreading considered as a mess or a farce, especially among young students. Even more it can be considered as a snap, an easy A, a doss, you understand what I mean?  Perhaps it was like that in the past more than today, where you have to get a specific level, for example A2 through C2. And lately I’ve been teaching English to adults, so perhaps I have a previous perception.  Alike in quite many schools the English teacher, maybe a native one, was like a buddy for some students.  Well, you know, all that depends on the specific teacher: because that teacher can push toward excellence and he or she can teach with rigor. Perhaps also all that was because the teacher in class devotes quite much time to talking or nearly chatting with his or her students.  So for example math can be seen as a more serious subject, but English, where you can spend quite much time to just talking …  Wel...

  I think most teachers are hard-working and committed, as I’ve seen. However, we teachers could fall on the following pit: to think, well, I have such and such lessons to teach, let’s see if I can just teach them and then I will do what I really like to do. Thus we could get alienated with our professional work.  What I mean is that someone could have the mind of just fulfilling my contract and not to move a single finger to do something which is out of my contract.  I know that most teachers exceed their strict contract and do quite many other things, starting with working also at home on planning lessons, making homegrown material, grading tests, etcetera. Also giving yourself to your dear students.  What I mean today is that a teacher is there to serve and help out other people … as most teachers actually do.  I want to see you even enjoying teaching lessons. Let’s go to our post with that mentality every day. And we'll be happier. And when lesson planning y...

  I teach English to adults, as you know. And I would like to consider each lesson as a study session with my dear students. It’s an occasion for us to learn English. To learn new words, phrases, some syntax. Plus an occasion to have nice discussions about the topics from the textbook and from life itself.  If I consider that lesson as a study session, I will not get a bit nervous for acting in public, because on the other hand I like studying and learning English.  Even more, in that way I can have sort of a contemplative attitude in class, and that will positively influence on my students and my students’ learning and acquiring that target language. It will.  Something essential – you know – is planning that lesson, and there will be activities we carry out on the spot, and others that they, the students, will carry out on their own, working silently, and thus learning and acquiring English in some likely peaceful and quiet atmosphere: this latter is also essential...

  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...

  Believe me, it’s something great to teach English to both kids and adults, and to help them learn and acquire it. It’s great, tiresome though. Well, which job is not something tiring?  We cannot, however, as teachers confine our work to just teach English, or any other language. We need to be aware that we are facilitating some people would talk to some others. There is the core point of the issue. We are connecting people with one another.  We have to bear in mind that our job is that great: one person communicates with another one. We teach English for practical purposes, communication in a word. And communication is something so human! And in class there must be that communication, between the teacher and the students, and among them all.  We do not confine to teaching language facts, although we have to also teach them. We are making up bridges among people. And that’s simply great. Isn’t it?  Thus let’s have in mind that we are treating human people, huma...

  One issue every teacher thinks of from time to time, or perhaps often because that teacher may have that kind of problem, above all if he or she is beginning their career as a teacher, is how to manage classroom behavior.  Today I’m trying to say something, apart from what I’ve written so far on quite many posts. You may find more under the tag or label management of the class .  The main point I think is important is to have the clear idea that both the teacher and his or her students are in the classroom to work, as said in plain English. They come to the schoolroom to work. The students to learn, to learn by working, and their dear teacher to teach them and help them become full and honorable persons.  So the main concern of their teacher ought not to be classroom management, but how to have those dear people to work and learn.  Nevertheless if some problem comes up in class, some behavior problem I mean, that teacher might say or show something, depending ...

  Are you a second or foreign language teacher? Well, you may have realized the fact that that school subject is different from others.  We are dealing with a practical subject, a very practical one indeed.  We teachers do not confine to teach language facts, but we help our students would speak in that language, English for example. Even lessons are conducted in that language.  We do not confine to explain some concepts, like grammar patterns, and subsequently our dear students learn and study them and eventually they will have to pass an exam or test.  We teach them to use the language. And in class we carry out some practical activities, so our dear students partake a lot: both teacher and students are the lesson protagonists.  Well, by the way, we must expose our students to much English, by us ourselves as teachers plus from videos and audios.  Dick Allwright said that in class there must be “exposure, motivation, and opportunities for use”. Those...

  Some days ago I wrote as a note something like, The teacher is source and resource . And I guess it may be inspiring for teachers, novice teachers, and prospective teachers. Let’s see.  Also today I wanted to add something to what I posted last June 24. It is that when I read books to learn and acquire English something I sometimes do, and which may help out other learners, is that when I finish to read and study a few pages, every day, well, I then go backward to what read and randomly pick up such and such and such words and phrases and as they are isolated I kind of take a mental photo of those words and phrases, and, you know, I think I get those terms stuck in mind and memory.  In that way after you’ve read quite many days you may have a rather ample vocabulary.  Well and now let’s go to the teacher as source and resource.  Each and every teacher may be like someone original and unique: he or she may give a brilliant something: hit on the nail of solving ...

  A teacher needs to have enthusiasm for his or her teaching. And they will show that enthusiasm when teaching, at least sometimes it will be shown.  Now I can remember a teacher, some weeks ago, one who teaches English, and one day in class you could notice his eagerness when writing on the whiteboard and trying to explain something in English.  I know some of you may have disruption and discipline problems in class, and you may be fighting against that problem, but what I mean is that a teacher oughtn’t to have lukewarmness and indifference, and feel kind of well you are there to fill out your lessons with a minimum effort, and you’ll be paid.  You cannot be one with indifference toward your teaching and your students. And I know that most of you teachers are committed and try and do your best in class.  Notice that most of times your students get motivated if you also are so.  One should not teach with some paper notes which are old and getting yellowish...

  Let’s see. Do we really want teaching quality? We do, I guess. It depends mostly on the teacher’s quality. If we wish to improve our classroom teaching, well, we have to better ourselves as teachers. And I do know many of you are trying and working on it.  If we wish our schools improve, then let us improve as teachers ourselves. And that is fulfilled on regular and ordinary days, like today!  Now I’m reading a book on Spanish teacher and teachers’ teacher Tomás Alvira (1906-1992). And he stated that quality on education (and we as teachers are also educators) is accomplished through quality on the teacher.  A teacher needs to gain virtues, or values, like a strong will, imagination, dedication, a thorough personality, a strong vocation, attention, motivation to also motivate the kids or adults …  That teacher ought to have a nice and strong will, otherwise how is he or she going to get their students interested in the school subject?  Something else. A t...

  I wish my students would learn and acquire English, and you also wish that from your students as a teacher.  You know, those learners must be willing to learn that language, no matter their age, yet above all if they are kids from some ten years of age – before that age they are pretty naturally willing to learn.  Of course they must be that willing if they’re teens or adults.  Only that way can they learn and acquire the foreign or second language. The more willing they are, the more language they’ll learn and acquire.  And learning and acquiring a language is not just attending some classes and just sitting there and just see what the teacher does. You don’t learn English that way at all. It entails your whole self. It’s not just sitting and listening to some audio. It’s not like learning math or history – and in no way do I despise those subjects. It’s what scholar and expert H. D. Brown used to say: you must involve your whole self: physical, emotional, me...

  If you know about teaching and learning another language, you may know that some experts have said that that teaching should be student-centered, right?  Yeah, I can see the point, but to achieve that, the classroom has to be also teacher-centered.  All of us teachers want our students would learn for example English, and to attain that goal, well, the teacher is a central piece in that classroom.  Most students who have gotten to learn and acquire that second or foreign language, well, mostly they have also had good teachers.  If we wish a number of learners in a schoolroom will learn a tongue, we have to get very good language teachers.  No good teachers, likely no good language learners.  Behind a good learner often is a good teacher.  Well you may also have a good student with a poor teacher, of course, but what I mean is that we have to invest on getting good teachers if we want those students will attain to learn English.  And that go...

  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...

  As you may know, I have greatly written on this blog about foreign or second language autonomous learners . And that’s ok, for it’s them who really really really learn and acquire that language.  Today I wanted to say, however, that the teacher is just necessary and essential too.  Furthermore I would say that the language lesson has to be student-centered… but also teacher-centered.  We have to recognize that a good teacher may well help and boost his or her students’ learning.  I have learned a lot of English over time, yet I am very grateful to my teachers over the years: they were just so great, and have helped me learn that tongue.  As a matter of fact a teacher also may excite and stimulate his or her students’ eagerness for learning the language. It’s something of what I try hard in my classes to adults, and these ones are great language learners, yep they are.  As well the teacher may shorten the way to learners, because he or she may provide...