March 3, 2011
My experience as a language student/teacher
I have been studying languages since forever, and I still am. I believe that language learning is a lifelong process. I want to think that, at some point, those languages became part of me. When I realized that, I thought it would be great to find a way to share them. For the last four years, I have taught English/Spanish to teenagers and adults. I enjoy teaching very much, and I learn a lot from students. In my opinion, each student or group of students has something to teach you. I hope I never learn everything about teaching. I mean... I know I won't. Hopefully, I'll get to teach so many students that I'll be able to keep learning about this wonderful profession.
Check this out!
I want to share a link to a website that is, in my opinion, a very useful resource for ESL teachers. Check it out to find articles, teaching materials, job lists, and lots of stuff related to our field.
The site is called "Dave's ESL Cafe", and this is the link:
http://www.eslcafe.com/
The site is called "Dave's ESL Cafe", and this is the link:
http://www.eslcafe.com/
February 3, 2011
Our experience as Master´s students
One of the best things about this degree is the Practicum which we all consider very useful and some of us think it should last longer. Also, studying a little bit of Psychology was very interesting since most of us have no idea on that, that could have lasted longer too. Another interesting subject is the one that teaches us how to teach the different skills like listening, speaking, etc. because it´s very useful for the teaching practice.
Most of the other subjects require quite a bit of work outside of classroom and the tight schedule makes it very difficult and stressful to comply with all of them. Some of us consider this whole degree as a mere introduction to teaching. There´s too much theory and too little practice. And the theory itself we see very briefly so even if we consider some of it interesting and possibly useful, we don´t have time to focus on it and it´s extra work for us trying to explore it in more depth.
As in everything else in education, there´s room for improvement. So, innovate away or innovate your way!
Most of the other subjects require quite a bit of work outside of classroom and the tight schedule makes it very difficult and stressful to comply with all of them. Some of us consider this whole degree as a mere introduction to teaching. There´s too much theory and too little practice. And the theory itself we see very briefly so even if we consider some of it interesting and possibly useful, we don´t have time to focus on it and it´s extra work for us trying to explore it in more depth.
As in everything else in education, there´s room for improvement. So, innovate away or innovate your way!
February 1, 2011
My experience as an English student
I was raised bilingual in Spanish and English, therefore I had a higher level than average. English was obviously very easy for me in school but I thought it would be helpful for my writing and reading skills.
When I think about it now, I think my teachers should have given me extra readings to do to then comment them. This would have been a good chance to take good advantage of my time in English class and learning something I didn´t know. Instead I sat there like one more student and had to follow the speed of the rest of my class mates, which was just boring and a waste of time. Some teachers also expected from me to follow the book and just write answers and vocabulary that had been seen in class. In other words, I was expected to forget all my "extra knowledge" in the classroom and only to remember what everybody else was learning. This means, that if I ever wrote something in American English, the teacher would consider it wrong because it wasn´t what we had seen in class. Obviously I didn´t give into that but didn´t feel like making a big fuss about it either. In my opinion, teachers who did this were those who had less knowledge of English and were uncomfortable with the fact of having a student in class who could feel more comfortable with the language than them. Maybe I was more familiar with the language since it´s my second mother tongue, but I always felt I had a lot of things to learn in regard to English, just like we had a lot to learn in Spanish. I wish someone would have thought of this and had thought of an alternative for those who had a notable higher level than average.
When I think about it now, I think my teachers should have given me extra readings to do to then comment them. This would have been a good chance to take good advantage of my time in English class and learning something I didn´t know. Instead I sat there like one more student and had to follow the speed of the rest of my class mates, which was just boring and a waste of time. Some teachers also expected from me to follow the book and just write answers and vocabulary that had been seen in class. In other words, I was expected to forget all my "extra knowledge" in the classroom and only to remember what everybody else was learning. This means, that if I ever wrote something in American English, the teacher would consider it wrong because it wasn´t what we had seen in class. Obviously I didn´t give into that but didn´t feel like making a big fuss about it either. In my opinion, teachers who did this were those who had less knowledge of English and were uncomfortable with the fact of having a student in class who could feel more comfortable with the language than them. Maybe I was more familiar with the language since it´s my second mother tongue, but I always felt I had a lot of things to learn in regard to English, just like we had a lot to learn in Spanish. I wish someone would have thought of this and had thought of an alternative for those who had a notable higher level than average.
A very interesting website on teaching for the 21st century
I found this great site from the United States of an organization called "The Partnership for 21st Century Skills" that provides tools and resources to help the US education system in promoting 21st century readiness for every student. I think we can all learn something from them so I strongly encourage you to visit www.p21.org
eTwinning
http://http//www.etwinning.net/en/pub/index.htm
The eTwinning project aims to encourage European schools to collaborate using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
It's a very innovative project since it inserts the New Technologies and the Collaborative Learning in an international context.
Here is the Homepage including information of the new projects started in 2011.
I encourage you to take advantage of this platform because it can be a powerful tool for you as Foreign Language Teachers!
The eTwinning project aims to encourage European schools to collaborate using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
It's a very innovative project since it inserts the New Technologies and the Collaborative Learning in an international context.
Here is the Homepage including information of the new projects started in 2011.
I encourage you to take advantage of this platform because it can be a powerful tool for you as Foreign Language Teachers!
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