Experiences of a teacher of English

Teachers are important. We teachers are important for our students’ learning. We are important, if we help our students learn. Also our students need to hear us if we prepared ourselves great in order to teach well. They need a model.  Anyway, we teachers have to help our students learn. According to Professor Ken Bain our college students should have more opportunities. We teachers may tend to punish or the sort when our students do not know the answer at an exam and they fail. They heretofore fail.  Those students should have more chances to learn and try anew. Come on, you tried but should work and learn more, we could say to our pupils. And then you will try again, after some time of working hard.  Our students should learn by a creative process.  They could try and study humanities if they are studying engineering for example. They can benefit from those humanities. And the other way around: They should study science if they are graduating at hu...

Reading may be so motivating. For our students and for us their teachers. As well reading may be a skill that makes you learn a lot of a foreign or second language.  I’m a foreign language teacher: I teach English to my countrymen Spanish people. And I can assure you that you learn a lot by reading. Also you acquire the language: you learn it in a not adverted way: you internalize a lot of language without being aware of that fact.  Currently I’m re-reading some English literature. It’s great. And I’m learning a lot. Now more than when I read it for the first time.  Something to bear in mind: we have to accept that we learn little by little: a language is not learned by big chunks or by vast lots. Little by little. And if you’re enthused, much better. Just dedicate some minutes every day.  By reading a lot you are creating and building up the language sense: you are able, you become able to discern whether something is English-like or not, you c...

We teachers wish to have peaceful classes with our students, right? At the same time we may wish for them, for our students to participate actively in those classes, also right?  Something else to bear in mind: We have to love our students with benevolence love.  Not because if we love them we will have no problems, but we have to love them in a generous way. That is, benevolence love is to seek what is good for them. We love them, we have to love them in a generous way, as I said.  We in principle should seek what their parents want for them. Okay then, otherwise if we do not love them, we may be failing at something essential, and besides and moreover we may have discipline and behavior problems. On the contrary, if we seek what is good for them, we will be interested in seriously helping them. Each and every one of them.  A teacher who attends his classes but at the same time he just wants to fulfill his strict obligation, well then, he may start ...

We teachers – we have a great profession! – have to correct our students, for we want to educate them for life, don’t we? Nevertheless also we have to reckon their work and let them know about what they do well and correctly! That counts for much and we will be boosting their learning!  I can assure you it’s so, it’s like that, I’ve seen it in my students and in other groups of people. Positive motivation, positive intrinsic motivation can multiply what they do correctly.  Furthermore that is a way of making them repeat what they do well. And they, our students, will do better what they already do well. And we’ll cover their error and mistake gaps.  It’s not flattering, silly adulating, it’s kind of recognizing and noticing what they do well.  We will not be all the time flattering our students. However, when they are doing something right, we can just say some “Yes…” so as to pull our students toward doing things correctly, and toward letting them c...

Teaching is… great, once again. And watching and observing how our students are progressing or not very much… - so far - is also great.  We have to plan our lessons with our students in mind. But I can also see and perceive that I have to keep on improving my teaching. Once and over again and again. No problem. If you've been teaching for some quite many years, you can discover and find out what your students are in need of.   Well, my students try to do their best. I teach English as a second language. This morning my students were saying what some words meant, from a worksheet with sentences and one longer text. That was one of the activities we were carrying out.  That was good practice and I intended for them to notice and reckon that: that was good practice.  For next class I will also say what those words mean, and thus I can mold the exercise for my students to have some more examples to imitate or to build up their definitions upon, ...

Teaching is great, as I’ve already said. Several times. I’ve said it several times. Ok.  When teaching a second or foreign language we teachers have to create the atmosphere of communication in the classroom, even at the school corridors and halls. Communication in the school, that’s it. And communication in that language we’re teaching.  But also we have to give our dear students language facts: vocabulary, grammar points, curious and interesting points about the language.  And we should carry out activities where our students have to interact with us their teachers and with other learners as well.  This morning I observed some of my students dialoguing in English at the beginning of the class. English is our common target language. They were talking about their yesterday’s experience at speaking with some American volunteers, young ones, who offer conversation sessions for my learners. These latter ones are adults, mostly retired people.  ...

Teaching is so great. But it entails a big effort, right? In the classroom and out of the classroom we teachers have to strive to treat our students in a nice way.  If the teacher really wishes his students would learn, he has to put all his self into action and that entails a big effort, as I said.  The teacher, however, cannot teach as a mad man. He has to treat his students in a kind way. For that reason he has to teach whilst he’s thinking how to teach.  For that reason he will teach in a serene way, thinking of what he’s doing.  I had a friend who used to think while he was teaching. He was thinking and teaching at a nice rather slow rhythm. Not very slow, anyway. He did like that in order to be able to think while teaching.  Also because of that he achieved to address each and every student, while he was presenting some issue. And he got to make his students contribute to the class by intervening a lot. His students intervened a great ...