Warm-up for busy teachers

Hi mates,

If you are on that bad hair day and you cannot think of anything to set the mood to start the class, share this post with your students or display the collage I made with some of my favorite English memes. Just have your students telling their favorite one and say why. I've done it with some of my students and it proved to be a high energy activity. Have a try!

The X-ray of successful English learners

Hi fellow teachers,

Have you ever considered how the study habits of your students can affect their level of ability and performance?
So on this post, I will share with you relevant research information about it. Researchers have categorized students into 4 different groups:
1) the weekenders: if you belong to this group, you only study on the weekends. So, keep your eyes wide open because this habit may make you lose motivation as you feel you can't learn at the speed you want to. You are probably binge studying and this does no good to your motivation and performance.
2) The 9 to fiver: if you show this study habit, you usually study at work, at those short moments you get some free moments. No good! Studying requires a specific moment of concentration and attention and your work environment is not the best place.
3) Daily students: if you take some minutes every day to study you are on the right path to succeed. You will see more positive results in your performance and that will make you feel more motivated towards learning. Beware that a 15-minute study routime is good enough! Remember, don't binge studying.
4) Daily student at bed time: according to research, students who take 15 minutes studying English at bedtime are the ones who show better performance results. Studying at bedtime is a brain-friendly habit so why not giving it a try?
Check below a graph which contrats your studying habits and your abily.

CULTURE: The right pronunciation

Hi fellow teachers and students!

For today, I will talk about the pronunciation of a word I am always correcting in my students. The word is CULTURE. And this is a word we tend to use quite a lot!!!

Below, I send a link with the correct pronunciation.

https://youtu.be/KPGF6aLxfQc

Lesson plans. What I planned vs. What happened

Do you know that only 8% of New Year’s resolutions are only?  41% of tasks on people’s to-do lists are never completed. 

Plans are regularly ignored or discarded as life happens. Plans don’t tell you anything except people’s intentions. But my goal today is not talking about your personal plans and resolutions. My point is to make you reflect whether your lesson plans make part of these statistical figures. So I invite you to answer the questions below:

How often are you capable of meeting your lesson plan? I hope more than 41%!!!!!!! It's advisable that teachers can accomplish their lesson plans something in the area of 80%. If you are writing your lesson plans and not accomplishing it on a regular basis....there is a couple of thing you had better take into account:

Does your lesson plan fit your students' interests and not yours?

Are you attentive to your teacher talking time? The overall TTT during a class should be 30%

Are your instructions clear enough so that you don't need to repeat them many times?

Are the group arrangements effective? Sometimes I see teachers tendind to teacher-whole group format too much. This arrangement can be very time consuming if you want everybody to have a say. 

And last but not least, disruptive behaviour... I dare say this is reason number one for teachers losing focus and energy in class...so if this is the reason for you feeling frustrated about not meeting your lesson plans needs, ask for help to find the best strategy to solve it.

I hope I shed some light on this topic for you... And remember....the reason your lesson plan is not working may not be the lesson plan itself...there are other things to take into account. 

Count on me if you need help. I hope you enjoyed the reading. 😀

Levels of Fluency Explained

Hello,

Many of my students have a wrong idea about what and how long it takes to be fluent. They think they will just be fluent when they achieve C2 that is mastery in the language. So my purpose here is to provide you and your students with a brief explanation on the topic.

According to this table (Common European Framework for Languages), there are six levels and there is also an expected score for Toefl and IELTS.

A1- basic user (you are studying the basic strutures of the language. Listening and speaking are limited to class situations.

A2- you already know how to communicate in the present, past and future. Your vocabulary is very limited, though. You are still a basic learner.

B1- Here you are already considered an Independent User of English. You can talk  about several topics with retrictions in vocabulary and  grammar irregularities.  Your answer to questions are short and direct. Good news: now you already pursue the minimum to work in a bilingual environment.

B2- if you achieve this level, you are  valued by employers. You can talk about several topics fluently but the vocabulary you use is still simple and can be improved.

C1- this is the level most students want to achieve. Here you are extremely valued by employers and you have what it takes to be a university student.

C2- this is mastery of the language and here you have full command of it. This level is required mostly for professional who want to be an English teacher.

My advice: never quit your studies before you achieve B2, so that you don't miss the fluency you have just acquired 😉😉😉