Category: Teaching

Here are seven mistakes by teachers that cause us to be less effective:
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Attempts to re-create the brick-and-mortar classroom learning experience, methods, and modes to the online environment is a basic error. Is online better than F2F? If you are asking this question, you should probably continue teaching F2F. 

In the first few days of teaching online, we have to build social-emotional skills of learners  to increase their motivation. There is a strong connection between mental health and academic success because poor mental health can negatively influence learners’ ability to learn.

Online learning requires a higher level of student engagement than F2F learning.  So, reduce the number of contents and focus on assignments to help learners achieve the most important learning outcomes. Learners who study fewer topics, but study them in greater depth, are more successful in academics over their peers who study more topics and spend less time on each.
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Attendance is an archaic and almost meaningless metric in distance learning. Many teachers are monitoring learners' engagement and who is submitting assignments rather than daily attendance because not all learners are able to participate in online learning. Besides, many of them are facing additional barriers than others, like caring siblings, Wi-Fi issues, and financial problems. 
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Here are a few engagement measures to consider:

• Are learners logging on often?
• Are they submitting their work on time?
• Are they asking questions and seeking additional resources?
• Are they responding to feedback? 

Writing documents and recording videos with a bunch of instructions for the lesson won't help, especially if the learners will need more input on a topic. Finding the best way to deliver your content and get your learners to understand you in a face-to-face teaching environment can be challenging. Doing that in an online environment can be even more challenging due to different distractions at home. 

Using different content types can help minimize distractions and keep students engaged in the learning content.

Here's a list of content types:

Videos are an important feature of many online courses. Replacing your lectures with self-made videos can boost learners’ engagement and free you up to work with them directly. Video allows teachers to save hours of repetitive teaching. 

​For many teachers, flipping the classroom begins with live recording their lectures. Sending recorded lectures to learners allows them to pause and rewatch if they didn’t understand it the first time. With recorded lectures, learners will be able to pause the video, rewatch the lesson multiples times according to their learning pace and needs. Also, by adding images and sounds, it is possible to approach learners and make them more interested in what is being taught.

Research on instructional videos shows that learner engagement with videos begins to drop after the 6-minute mark,  ​so multiple short videos are better than one long video instead.

Here's a list of free video editors online:

1. Wondershare Filmora.
2. PowToon.
3. Clipchamp.
4. Animoto.
5. Veed.io
6. Motionbox.io
7. Promo.
8. Ssemble.

As your learners are learning from a distance, it is important that they receive consistent feedback on their progress. If they receives a 100 or a 75, that doesn’t necessarily tell them as much as verbal feedback or print feedback, so really there’s going to be an emphasis on teachers giving learners feedback rather than their grades.

​If there is no feedback loop taking place though, learners and parents have no way of knowing what they have done well nor what their next steps are. It also gives the impression that the teacher doesn’t care about the tasks being completed by the student. 

Online teaching comes with its own challenges. Traditionally, teachers develop their courses alone but in online learning, especially for first-time instructors, is a great opportunity to be more collaborative in our approach to teaching. Ask for help. 
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Category: Teaching

1. Word chains
First, T divides the class into boys and girls. Then, T writes a word on the board and asks Ss to take it in turns to add/say a word starting with the last letter of the previous word. Once a word has been given, it cannot be repeated. T asks Ss to stand up when they participate. Only the Ss who are seated can participate. If a S cannot give a word, the game stops and T counts the number of words given. The winners are who have more words in 3 rounds. 
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Example:
sky - yellow - water - red - dinner – rain – night – take – egg – get – travel
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2. Odd-one-out
T writes words in groups of four on the board. In each group, include an odd-one-out word which is different from the others. Then, T asks Ss to tell which one is the odd-one-out in each group and explain why.

Here are some groups of words:

1. father – sister – friend – grandmother
2. peach – potato – cherry – apple
3. banana – peach – apple – tomato
4. donkey – dragon -  cat – dog
5. rabbit – dog – fox – cat
6. tiger – wolf – cow - eagle
7. sugar – river – pencil – bottle
8. camera – fax-machine - computer – television
9. anger – fear – love – disappointment
10. table – chair – fridge – stool
11. bookshelf – table – mirror – chair
12. female – boy – woman – girl
13. shoe – boot – glove – sandal
14. pork – rice – chicken – beef
15. eye – star – level – radar
16. respiratory – intestine – digestive – nervous
17. rectangle – square – triangle – cuboid
18. whale – fish – snake – crocodile

Possible answers:

1. friend – not family member
2. potato – not a fruit
3. banana – shape
4. cat – beings c / dragon - mythological
5. fox – not a pet
6. cow – herbivore / eagle – has wings
7. sugar – uncountable noun
8. camera – doesn’t need electricity / television – 4 syllables
9. love – positive
10. fridge – the others have legs
11. mirror – the others are made of wood
12. boy – different gender
13. glove – worn on hands
14. rice – not a meat
15. star – not a palindrome (word that reads the same backward as forward)
16. intestine – not a body system
17. cuboid – 3-dimensional figure
18. whale – doesn’t lay eggs

3. All the words you know
T helps Ss to brainstorm a list of words about a topic. T writes on the board one by one of the words.
Next, T challenges Ss to remember all the words by erasing them one by one. Each time, T erases a word invites Ss to reconstruct the list of words together orally from the beginning to the end of it. Eight or ten words is quite enough for the game at the beginning. 
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Here are some word lists:
Colors: white, black, blue, yellow, red, green, brown, purple, gray, orange, pink, cherry, fuchsia, cyan, beige, magenta, turquoise, violet, silver, gold, bronze, navy, olive, aquamarine, coral, khaki, mint, etc.
Adjectives: good, new, first, last, long, great, high, little, old, big, small, large, next, young, false, important, bad, easy, weak, early, expensive, cheap, full, empty, hard, late, low, other, strong, true, whole, best, right, free, special, clear, single, wrong, private, public, hot, cold, dead, happy, etc.
Feelings and emotions: happy, angry, sad, surprised, excited, interested, curious, anxious, upset, depressed, bored, confused, furious, bad, afraid, scared, worried, quiet, love, brave, confident, nervous, disgusting, shy, unhappy, frustrated,  reliable, sympathetic, interested, kind, great, lucky, overjoyed, thankful, glad, miserable, optimistic, calm, pleased, inspired,  enthusiastic, annoyed, aggressive, disappointed, guilty, fatigued, dull, anxious, frightened, cowardly, rejected, etc.
Body parts: head, back, shoulder, waist, chest, abdomen, hip, foot, face, eye, eyebrow, eyelid, eyelash, nose, mouth, chin, cheek, hair, ear, lips, teeth, tooth, tongue, throat, neck, hand, finger, nail, thumb, wrist, arm, forearm, palm, upper arm, elbow, armpit, leg, knee, thigh, shin, calf, ankle, heel, toe, etc.
Clothing: shirt, polo shirt, blouse, turtleneck, pants, jeans, skirt, dress, shorts, sweater, overalls, uniform, jacket, coat, blazer, suit, vest, tie, gown, pajamas, bathrobe, bra, underwear, socks, etc.

4. Word finder
T writes on the board a list of letters and T invites Ss to form as many words as possible in 2 minutes.

For example, using these words: T-I-S-O-V-E-L-T
7 Letters: violets & toilets.
6 Letters: olives, soviet, violet, titles & toilet.
5 Letters: loves, olive, solve, stove, volts, votes, stole & title.
4 Letters: evil, live, love, vest, vets, vile, volt, vote, isle, lets, lies, list, lite, lose, lost, lots, oils, site, slot, soil, sole, test, ties & tile.
3 Letters: vet, its, let, lie, lit, lot, oil, set, sit, tie, tit & toe.
2 Letters: is, it, so & to.
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You can use this word finder: ​https://word.tips/

5. Unscramble the letters
T writes a sentence on the board and asks Ss to unscramble the letters of each word to figure out the sentence.

For example:

1. hse si ym steb dfneri
2. hewre rea oyu romf?
3. uyo velo gineta clahoteco
4. ni seca fo frei seu satris
5. tawh idd yuo od tals nedkewe?
6. cone puno a mite, rethe reew rethe tlelit gisp

Answers:

1. She is my best friend
2. Where are you from?
3. You love eating chocolate
4. In case of fire use stairs
5. What did you do last weekend?
6. Once upon a time, there were three little pigs

6. Big strips of paper
T chooses a complex sentence and writes each word on strips of papers, big enough to see the words from a distance. T randomly picks Ss and gives them one strip of paper per S. Then, T invites Ss to take it in turns to come to the front of the class and stand facing the class showing their word card. T encourages Ss to make up a sentence. Ss can move further along or further back in the sentence.

Here some sentences:

1. I like spaghetti for dinner.
2. The black cat is jumping on the table.
3. If you want to speak to me, then learn English.
4. We visited the zoo before it closed.
5. I wash my hands before I ate breakfast.
6. When she was younger, she believed in fairy tales.
7. Polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct.
8. When people tell you what to do, it is annoying.
9. The football match was cancelled, because it was raining.
10. Trixie wanted to go for walk even though it was getting dark.

7. Anagrams
T writes a word or words and asks Ss to rearrange the letters to make other words.

1. Change there into a number = three
2. Change tea into a verb = eat
3. Change melon into another fruit = lemon
4. Change god into an animal = dog
5. Change cheater into a job = teacher
6. Change are into a body part = ear
7. Change flow into an animal = wolf
8. Change raptor into a talkative animal = parrot
9. Change break into a job = baker
10. Change danger into a place where you grow flowers = garden

Leave your comments and let me know what warm-up activities you use in your class. I look forward to reading your ideas. 

Category: Teaching

Giving clear and concise instructions is a vital step in becoming a good teacher. If you don’t give clear instructions, soon you will realize that almost everyone in the classroom is confused. This situation can lead to lesson success or fail. So, here are some tips: 
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1. Make sure you have the attention of the entire class before giving instructions
​Before you start giving your instructions, make sure you have everyone’s attention. Wait until all the students stop talking, are seated, calm, and ready to listen to. 
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2. Use concise and specific commands
Instructions must be kept as simple as possible and they must be logical.

For example:

• ​Now, I want you to get out a piece of paper and put it on your desk.  Once the  paper is on your desk, could you please write down five sentences about what you did last weekend? (Wordy commands)
• Please, take a piece of paper, and then write down five sentences about what you did last weekend. (Concise commands)

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3. Give instructions one at a time
Try not to give students too much information at once. Especially for kids who have attention challenges, try to avoid giving a series of instructions. Instead, create a step by step outline. 
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4. Grade your language
Make sure that you can explain students within the limits of the language which the students can understand. Giving instructions filled with idioms and not common phrases to a group of lower-level learners will destroy their confidence. Instead, speak slowly and clearly with short sentences that convey exactly what you want them to do. 
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For example:

• Get into pairs – You two, you two and you two.
• Pick out - Choose
• Let’s go over the answers – Now, check the answers
• Fill in – Complete
• Come up a poem – Invent a poem

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5. Illustrate or demonstrate the meaning
​With lower-level learners, you may need to demonstrate what you want them to do, along with verbal instructions. Use the whiteboard to illustrate the meaning of such words as choose, underline, and match.
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6. Use sign language and gestures as support
​Incorporating nonverbal communication and gestures is an effective way to maximize time for teaching and learning. Sign language can enhance the learning process by bringing visual, auditory and kinesthetic feedback to help reach all students.
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7. Ask politely rather than barking orders
The tone of voice can change everything, especially when telling someone what to do. Speak at a reasonable volume and use kind respectful words.
Try to avoid imperative such as “listen to me” or “stand up”, we don’t use them in “real life”. Instead, be polite and use request forms such as “Could you please stand up?” and “Can you please listen to me?”.
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8. Give students a time limit
Before you start an activity, let students know how much time they will have. This helps students stay focused on the task and manage their time.
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9. Offer the students the opportunity to ask questions
Get your students truly engaged by giving them opportunities to ask questions about the activity. The better they understand what to do, the greater chance for a successful outcome.
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10. Check for students understanding
Always check that students have understood your instructions before starting the activity. The question “Do you understand?” is as good as useless. Students may be too shy to admit that they don’t understand or may think they understand when they don’t.
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Instead of asking, “Got it?” or, “Do you understand?” You can use the following check questions:

• “How many sentences do you need to write?
• “How much time do you have to complete the activity?”
• “Who is the winner?”
• “If you are “A”, what are you going to do?”
•  “What three rules do you need to remember?

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11. Monitor the activity
If you find that all or most students are off track, stop the activity and give instructions to the whole class again. If only a few students need help, you can assist them individually or in their groups while the rest of the class continues with the activity.
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12. Time to reflect
After the class, reflect on your instructions.
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Leave your comments and let me know what potential difficulties your students might have with the following instructions. I look forward to reading your ideas. 

Category: Teaching

Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This involves understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary. The more listening practice you get, the better you understand the language. Students who lack proper listening skills will struggle to communicate with other people.

Here are the top five most common mistakes teachers make when they are teaching listening:
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1. You didn’t check the equipment before the listening activity
Teachers should arrive in their classroom before the students to prepare any materials and equipment. As class begins on time and when students perceive that there is no time to waste, they will feel a sense of purpose. 
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2. You didn’t use a pre-listening activity
The purpose of the pre-listening activity is to prepare students for listening, to ensure student success, and to get students excited about listening.
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There are 3 ways to pre-listen

Option 2: Vocabulary: Give students the new words to be listening for

Option 3: Predicting: It involves thinking ahead and anticipating information or events

3. You didn’t make sure students understand the instructions
If directions or instructions are not effectively and clearly formulated, there will be a number of students who will simply not have assimilated what is to be done during the listening activity.
There are two general rules for telling what students need to do:

1. Keep the instructions as simple as possible within the limits of the language which the students can understand. Also, think about the speed of your speech.
2. Explain everything chronologically, and only start building on the next step when the previous one is understood. Instructions should always be followed by a demonstration. 

There are a series of activities that help students reflect on the listening experience, these are called Post-listening activities. Most of them focus on these 3 subskills:

• Listening for the gist.
• Listening for specific information.
• Listening for the speaker’s attitude or opinion.

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4. You only played the listening track once
It’s vital to understand that listening to an audio several times helps students to get the most out of it and be able to get the answers. 
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5. You don’t use a variety of listening material regularly
Try to use all kinds of listening materials such as monologues, conversations, interviews, radio ads, speeches, etc. Also, you can use a different range of voices such as male, female, old, young, native speaker, etc. 
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6. You didn’t use a post-listening activity
Remember that a post-listening activity represents a follow up to the listening activity and aims to use the knowledge gained from listening for the development of other skills such as speaking and writing.
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These activities focus on:
1. Content
Sample activities:

• Check answers.
• Discuss what they liked/didn’t like.
• Solve moral dilemmas in a round table.
• Write a short essay based on the information given.

 
2. Form
Sample activities:

• Identify verb forms in the audio.
• Read the transcript and make notes of common collocations.
• Find new words in the audio and find out what they mean. 

Category: Teaching

A New Year is on the way and the possibilities are endless. No teacher is perfect and all teachers have some bad habits. Being a good teacher means reflecting on these and trying to reduce them as much as possible.
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Here are some bad habits that cause us to be less effective teachers:

1. Not willing to learn or change.
Teachers who think they have learned all they need to know, are definitely building a bad habit. The world around us is continually changing, and the teacher’s lesson plans should continue to evolve as well. Teachers should seek ways to integrate technology into their classrooms and try new teaching methods.
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Ways to use technology in the classroom

• Use a digital whiteboard.
• Use spreadsheets to keep track of students' grades.
• Show videos.
• Add visual effects, photos, videos and music to presentations.
• Manage emails and other electronic messages.
• Have a cloud storage such as Google Drive.
• Create a Facebook group specifically for the class.
• Create, host and play games with Kahoot.
• Play podcasts.
• Take digital field trips with Google Earth.
• Use learning apps in the classroom.
• Take formal assessments online.
• Use the flipped classroom model.
• Create your own worksheets.
• Study, review and critique content in websites. 
• Build classroom communities with parents and students using ClassDojo.
• Design and maintain a Blog.
• Use a classroom calendar with Google Calendar.
• Develop a class website using a cloud-based web development platform such as Wix or Weebly.
• Use twitter hashtags to take questions.
• Use online mind maps for class brainstorms like MindMeister.
• Gather student feedback with applications such as Socrative, Google forms or SurveyMonkey.

2. Not admitting mistakes.
It’s OK to make mistakes as a teacher. Everyone does. But once one has been realized, not admitting to it, is no good. Be realistic and admit that we are not a walking dictionary or an infinite database. If you don’t know, just say so, and reassure the student that you will find out.  
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Walking dictionary

3. Yelling at the students.

Yelling rarely produces any good results and almost always results in loss of respect. It eventually will train your students to ignore your regular voice. So yelling begets more yelling, and you have to keep upping the volume and intensity to get their attention. The more time you spend on discipline, the less time you have to teach.

Check out these tips that really work instead:

• Make a call-and-response or clap-back.  
• Teach students to respond to hand signals.
• Turn off the lights.
• Count down to quiet and establish consequences.
• Get quieter, not louder.
• Prevent the yells before they start (identify triggers).

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4. Assuming low expectations.
Unfortunately, some teachers get into a bad habit of expecting too little from their students. A student’s race, social class, academic history, disability, socioeconomic status, or their language should not define their potential to succeed in the classroom. Teachers should have high expectations for all of their students. The higher the expectation the teacher has, the more likely they will teach in a way that challenges and motivate students to do better.

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5. Teaching without passion and empathy.
Teachers don't have to come to school every day with a huge smile on their face. But they should at least act like they want to be there. There is nothing worst then having a teacher in the classroom who doesn't want to be there. Understanding students is very important to teach.  In order to plan how to teach your students in an interesting manner, a teacher needs to know what motivates the students, what background the students are bringing to the classroom, as well as the students’ interests.

​Try as hard as you can to find a way to relate the subject to their daily lives. It will make it much more likely for them to be invested in what you are explaining. Sometimes, some subjects are just not fun, but you can try to create some kind of competition, or game, that can help them to learn, or maybe even use songs or videos. 

6. Failing to diversify your teaching.
Variety is the spice of the classroom. Teachers can easily improve student comprehension by varying their classroom instruction. Students will better grasp the concepts being taught if they can see it applied in different ways.

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7. Assessing infrequently.
Infrequent assessment reduces retention and places immense pressure on students and teachers alike to cover a huge amount of content between testing rounds. Try a 10-question quiz every Friday to gather weekly feedback on your own effectiveness as a teacher.

8. Immediately calling on volunteers to answer a question.
When you immediately ask for volunteers to answer a question, few students will even bother to think about the question, since they know that eventually, someone else will provide the answer. Giving students several seconds to think after asking a question improves their learning.
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9. Not getting to know your students.
Getting to know students too often comes second. Building a relationship with our students takes time. It’s more important than the content. Because you’re not just teaching content. You’re teaching teenagers.
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10. Being inconsistent.
It’s tough to be consistent. But being inconsistent in our classroom management leads to a multitude of problems. The first step into implementing any kind of management tool into your classroom is to be consistent. Consistency is the key, especially for those students who do not have it at home.
Being a consistent teacher means everything that you do in your classroom, such as how you organize your space, your time, your students’ learning materials, and everything else that surrounds learning, has to be in a consistent learning environment. A well-structured consistent classroom management plan is the key to having a successful classroom.
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Do you have any bad habits that you would like to share? Please share your ideas in the comment section below, I would love to hear your comments.  ​