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Message board > success!
success!
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Mariethe House
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success!
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I got a mail from one of our young members showing how discouraging our job can be, how tiring , how little rewarding at times, how stressful, how depressing , How guilty we can feel if we are not succeding all the time etc... etc... And of course we, and especially our dear young colleagues forget the times when their lessons went well, and how happy they made the kids feel and how successful they have been and they are, most of the time....
So, my suggestion is , from us, the oldies,( or if you don �t like the word, the more experienced teachers), to encourage, some not so confident teachers(members) to write about one or more of their SUCCESSFUL times in front of kids, here on the forum!! 
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6 Jun 2009
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Lana.
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Where are those whiners, give �em to me, I �ll teach them right back to their senses!.. Arrr..
Seriously though,
it is true that we should always remember our good days, keep them fresh in memory, praise ourselves, value our own efforts, and remember that we �ve got a really heroic job, especially those of you teaching kids, mine are adults, but then there are other issues...
Funny, how sensitive teachers are and how easily we get upset and tend to dwell on the negative...
Something practical:
1. Make photographs of whatever is going on during a "good" class, print it out big, frame it, frame the whole lot of them, hang them on the wall for yourself and for those kids to see every single day that English learning is fun, smiles, rewarding, uniting and God knows what else.
2. Educate learners about education. Give them a few practical examples of how much was achieved during the class, during the week, during the month, during the semester, during the year. Make them see how demanded English is around the globe and how good it looks on a CV.
3. Be practical and realistic. I personally never expect 100%. I �m very happy with 80-85%, and if I have 90%, I say "Man, I �m good".  
4. Every group of learners is unique. Only you know them best. Not their parents, not their sisters and brothers, not the Headmaster, not the Principal, not the clever professor who wrote volumes about young learners, but you Teacher.
Recommendations from books don �t always help. Be open-minded. There is no just one way to follow the syllabus. Be aware of what they like and what works good for them and apply it.
5. Be strong. Have a good breakfast with carbs before the class. Have a good lunch in between. Chill out in the break. Zone off, forget about them for a few minutes. Share with other teachers at school or in this forum.
It used to be hard for me at the beginning, somehow I went out there in front of 16 adult tired people at my first ever group class and showered them with grammar.
Give it time. Give yourself time and space. Be easy on yourself, don �t do too much self-criticising. Do a little and improve. But don �t make yourself miserable.
6. Personalise your workspace. My husband recently gave me a present of a little metallic Walli-e. How I love the sight of him, I stuck two pens in his "hands" and now he is in the classroom with me all the time.
You can bring photos of your family members, friends, cats, dogs even, keep them safe as your own little secret and somtheing that warms up your heart, or keep them out in the open, so that everyone can see that the Teacher is just like everyone else, has loved ones, has friends, and most importantly has other people and interests in his/her life apart from Little Hungry Sharks (students), so they (students) will have a more balanced idea of you. And it might help to establish a more even and repectful relationship.
Good luck, all you Young Teachers! |
6 Jun 2009
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ants
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Those are some very good and very encouraging tips, Lana!!
They even help teachers who have been teaching for years...like me!!
Thanks for sharing them!!  |
6 Jun 2009
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Ivona
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1) Yep, i make loads of videos of my classes because i want to show them to hubby, to my very good online Irish friend, Mr Denis O �Leary, to my other friends who have nothing to do with teaching and watch them just because they don �t want to hurt my feelings , and of course the students at the end of the school year when i burn them CDs and they laugh at themselves and at what they looked like in September. 2) Yep. 3) My dream is that i have 100% apt and talented students, but the reality is different, as Lana said. What should matter is the progress that each of the ss makes, however big/small it is. As i said yesterday in Zora �s thread (So Sad), i want to make them responsible and to take consequences for their actions/non-actions. 4) Yep. 5) Now, i �m not really disciplined when it comes to eating. I forget about it in the heat of creativity and exchange of positive vibes with the kids. That �s what nourishes me. 6) Awwww, i have the Irish postcards stuck on my locker ... Yes, i �m enthused with the country. Though, when i hear about how much it is rain-sodden, it makes me think ...  7) Tell your ss you love them. Whenever they do their best to perform a task, even while they �re doing it i stop them to say, "Oh, and btw, I love you ..."  8) Always personalise the example sentences that you do in class to practise a tense or any other grammar point. I found out that one of my ss was in love with another girl from another class and I practised �going to � with them saying: Joca and Aleksandra are getting married next month. He �s going to wear a black suit, and she �s going to wear a white gown. They �re going to invite 200 people. And so on. Their imagination ran wild, lol! It was the giggliest class ever! And they talked about it for ages! (Nebal, you see how i � seduce� my students into doing things they don�t feel like doing?!? ) 9) ALWAYS give a chance to lesser students. They often feel castaway. Lol, i �ll give you a link to see a vid of two ss of mine (they �ve just finished 8th grade) during a remedial last year. Btw, the two boys were the ... umm ... most kynesthetically intelligent boys in the school and could never ever sit still and were constantly labelled by other teachers as �horrible � and �terrible � and �unbearable �. But look what they were able to do when given a chance and attention. It was the first time actually that they were producing longer sentences. After that remedial, they kept chasing me in the hall asking for more, lol! http://www.mediafire.com/?mlynomqd0gvAnd also, take a look at what another normally intelligent but forsaken-by-the-parents-and-others student did, when he was given a chance to show the world he could be good. (you can read more about the boy here: http://www.eslprintables.com/forum/topic.asp?id=8487) http://www.mediafire.com/?hcgii4bnqgq10) There ARE times when i think that all i �m doing is futile and that no one recognises it, but then ex students meet me in the street or send messages through other people to thank me for making them learn. Isn �t that just wonderful? Oh, oh, and the famous disappointing awwwwww when the class has finished! Ahh, it fills my heart! 11) Sing and dance with your students about "What a wonderful world this could be"http://www.mediafire.com/?muzyzxmymjqi could go on, and on, and on ... but will finish it with a Happy Ending from the New Year �s performance 2009. http://www.mediafire.com/?2uz10nhumzl (part1-me going ty ty ty) http://www.mediafire.com/?yzokzz3w4qd (part 2-a little bit of me and the song) (i�m the one that comes out last to get the applause and gleam  ) (hope you can open MP4 files)
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6 Jun 2009
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Nebal
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Dear Mariethe,
How are you?? I feel happy to see u here in the forum!!!
Your topic is really interesting.
For me, a successful school should have a healthy combination of experienced teachers and new teachers. The experienced teachers give the schools stability and serve as mentors to the new teachers. The new teachers bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm.
I �m a new teacher. This is my third year in teaching. I don �t know how many years it takes to become an experienced teacher, but what matters is to what extent we are devloping . Every year I try to evaluate my teaching, spot my points of weakness and strength.
I have found that each individual learns differently, and that I can �t entirely please every single student ( esp. when I have 120 sts. ,30 in each class). As a teacher, I have learned that students learn not because they like me, though they do. I learned to use a variety of mediums like visual, audio, and so on when teaching.
I strongly believe that students learn from each other also. hence, I always encourage class discussions and refer the questions asked by students to the others in the class to answer. Thanks for god, there �s always one or two genius sts. who can give somehow correct responses.
To cut it short, success in teaching, as in most areas of life, depends almost entirely on your attitude and your approach( Sense of humour, positive attitude, high expectations, consistency, fairness, and flexibility).
What matters at the very end is that I could leave a trace in each student, a trace that can lead them to take the right way.
Love,
Nebal |
6 Jun 2009
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Naranjas
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Ivona, that �s great! It reminded me of the happy moments I had last week. We have a big and green school territory and I asked our manager to let me and the students make a lesson outdoors. I prepared a treasure hunt with instructions in English and woke up an hour earlier that morning to hide them. And the prizes were just sweets. You should have seen the speed with which my weekest boys solved an English crossword!!!! And they were the first to find the "treasure" and they were so happy!!! I had a great "Thank you" when seeing their happy and proud faces!It �s a pity I didn �t make any photos... And next week we are going to finish your comics-photo project and I will probably share the result with you! I am feeling really well in the end of my first teaching year though it �s start was more like a nightmare. I wish all the other "starters" luck, confidence and patience!!!! |
6 Jun 2009
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Ivona
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Ahhhhh, Naranjas! That �s just superb!! See? It �s all about �seducing � the students, or better �tricking � them! lOl  Just like you trick a baby when it doesn �t want to eat and the spoonful suddenly becomes a helicopter that flies into a cave, i.e. baby �s mouth! Vroom, vroom!! I can �t wait to see the results of the project! Gz, i never thought i would get as excited as this now. Woo-hoo! ... Ahem. 
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6 Jun 2009
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Mariethe House
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now, Ivona will you tell the old experienced teacher what this comics-photo project is all about!!You little nitty gritty secretive girl!!
ANd NAranjas, what a good idea this treasure hunt is!!
And maybe I secretly started this thread , not for the reason I said but because I want to LEARN about all of you young and energetic and creative young people! Aren´t you amazing!!
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6 Jun 2009
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manonski (f)
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Naranja this is a great idea. I do it inside the school but never outside.
One year, as a final school activity before the summer break, some colleagues and I did a similar thing for the whole school. Older students were partnered with younger ones and the students (about 350 students at the time) had to walk around the streets in the neighborhood to solve riddles of all kinds. We even enrolled people who lived around the school to help us out. It took a whole afternoon but the kids really enjoyed it. |
6 Jun 2009
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johanne23232
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HEllo Ivona, just to say I watched your videos and they were great. One can tell how creative you are and how your students must love you....fantastic work, you must be very proud. I �ve been on a sabbatical year and you make me miss my work!!
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6 Jun 2009
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QueenJade
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Hi!! What a great post!!
Ivona, sometime ago there was another post someone started about how frustraiting it is when you have been teaching a structure for so long and suddenly students come up with odd, terribly incorrect sentences!. And you replied something which is great! and I wanted to know more about it!
You mentioned and showed how you introduced your students to �past simple, � for instance, without saying they were learning past simple. (something similiar).
Where I work, (which is a public school and we don �t have more than 1 1/2 hs of english classes per week!!).. Students are used to being taught like this: �Well, today we are going to start with .. present simple... here are the auxiliaries!...etc..etc..! I feel soo bad for this! Because every teacher they had before did it that way and it�s difficult not to do it this way because students are sooo used to being taught is such a boring and structured way, that they just expect the same thing all the time. To be taught the rules, and then use them! And whenever I tried to do it differently they were confused and didn �t know what I was talking about!
Do you have any tips, ideas to share about this?
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6 Jun 2009
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