Experiences of a teacher of English

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “The academic year’s coming to an end. A few years ago, in the middle of May, one family asked me to teach private classes of English to their eldest son. That implied we were in the countdown of the term, and the final exams were near. I held a first interview with him. I was tired of the year, I told him. What’s more, I could actually teach him few classes. What to do, by me, enough to help him pass the subject of English? Ok, I told him (in Spanish), I can help you with your English just a little: now, more than ever before, you must take the best from you, so as to assist me to teach you and so help you hit the target of a positive result in your final exam. He had to exploit and utilize his human personal potentials at studying. He had got to help me in my teaching him... I guess this thought pushed him up to carry on more focused in the way he was studying and learning. It was true I was done, and I frequen...

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Joy also at school is a necessary value and habit (virtue) for everyday life among the people who meet there with one another. Joy is important for today’s human person. It helps people to join up with others. A colleague of ours, a teacher of science in English – her high-school ( instituto in Spain) is bilingual – told us that above all her female students turned to her between classes to just tell their things; I think happy people attract others. Joy facilitates being able to live together, to create a community of living together, working, teaching and learning. Think of that other teacher over there: he got a good rapport in his classes; he was demanding, humane, and was respected because of his committed teaching career.” For this post I took some idea from pedagogist García Hoz. / Photo from: poplicks com. students with laptops   

On coming days I hope to write you about private classes, and the value and virtue of joy, within the teaching/learning community. This joy is also like a consequence and result of striving for teaching and learning well. Sláinte! [Cheers!, in Irish Gaelic] / Photo from: goeco org. bolivian kid    

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Our teens, our adolescents, seem they rather prefer not to depend on us, adults - firstly on parents, also on teachers. They are discovering their ‘ego’, their ‘me’ as an independent person. They trust in their friends more than in their families. Some moms claim: Now my son doesn’t love me any more, what’s going on!?, and they get so down. Teenagers wish to look different than when they were children; they wish to sense so original, so authentic; they look arrogant. These things are because they feel a great insecurity, and they want to say Here I Am! All this is not always that way. No, no. What does our adolescent kid expect from us? He or she expects us to help him or her concerning their capabilities and capacities as singular persons! They expect to be helped as persons, with their personal traits. Don’t get upset when dealing with them: they depend on you, teacher, on you, parents and families. According ...

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Try to provide your students with some words they can need to describe a word, or to speak in English during the class. For example, if they’ve got to describe ‘freedom’, you can give them words like ‘opposite’, ‘I do whatever I want to’, ‘respect others’ liberty’, ‘choose the best’..., or lesser [fewer] words than those, if you prefer so. Alike, when one student wishes to intervene in the class by explaining something... great!, let him speak, and help him to convey his message with some word given by you. Albeit their English can be broken, there exists communication in English. Bravo. Otherwise if someone would speak in their L1, this is, in Spanish, you may let her go on, but after that, gently ask her to say the very same thing now in our also dearest English. Something else, you, respect and accept all the short messages and attempts they do to talk in English, like some beginning of a sentence in order to e...

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “I’m glad with my adult students of English. All of them are now retired, but so eager still to actually learn that language. In today’s class they’ve been speaking in English from the beginning, when someone was telling something to someone else about Granada’s soccer team, which stays in the Premier League or Spanish First Division for one more season, after the summer. Maybe the first student began by speaking in Spanish, his L1, but I gave him a slight prompt to him to shift into English. Some of his classmates contributed to the discussion by speaking in that language. I’d say about 90% of classes now are in English, and it’s them who just wish to learn! They’re the protagonists of the class (plus by me as the teacher). Something that helps, that adds is that a nice number of the students have an advanced or upper-intermediate level of English: if they speak, they help to some way stir up the class to speaki...

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “I do know you’re a novice teacher, and a rookie among the students of your large classes, and that you think all’s going bad, and... etc. But I also know you’re striving to improve teaching and have the teens actually learn English. Don’t me break down. Sláinte! The beginnings of our career (of any career) are tough. Each thing you do in your classes, however, with your effort and God’s help, is a step forward – hopefully. With some perspective of weeks and months and years you will see both failures and successes in a more objective view. Don’t think now this is not your career, at least try more and more. As well don’t let successes put you up onto a plinth where you consider yourself as someone, say, like an ace at your profession: remember you’re beginning. Somehow celebrate your success, but don’t let it go to your head.” / Photo from: ? . Sláinte , you may know it, is an Irish (Gaelic) term, like ‘Cheers!...