Category: teacher interview (Page 2 of 3)

Deep down, I have always wanted to become a teacher – I have two younger sisters and when we were growing up I always liked to help them with their homework. Even before that, I remember “teaching” my dolls about order in the room – insisting on proper places for things… However, getting into university – to obtain a teaching certificate – was not an easy task in the ‘80s under Romania’s communist regime, the totalitarian regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu. This dictator constrained the population to live at a rather low standard of life, without any degree of freedom. After graduating secondary school I just went to work in one of the factories in my native town Sibiu. Romania’s economy was characterised by generalised “socialist” (state and cooperative) ownership, excessive centralisation, rigid planning and low efficiency back then. After a year, the December 1989 Romanian Revolution fell upon us, the dictatorship was pushed down and a democratic political system was re-established. Since then I would say that we as a people have encountered both numerous incentives and varied obstacles. We have experienced a decrease of population because of migration and the decrease of birth rate, plus a decrease of accessibility of health services accompanied by limited social policy for the elderly. We are however part of important international organisations like NATO (2004) and the European Union (2007). Back to 1990, it was then when – at the advice of some friends, who were on the same ‘wavelength’ with me as far as the future possibilities in Romania would be – I applied and got accepted at the prestigious Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, at the Faculty of Letters. I graduated 5 years later with a BA in Teaching English Language and Literature. I have been teaching English as a Foreign Language ever since.

Romanian language learners, like language learners everywhere I imagine, can be either demanding or unmindful. I have taught in just a few schools in my life, four to be exact, and they were all good schools with the first type of students. Romanian language learners as I know them are interested in and keen on learning English, motivated and pragmatic, hard-working and studious. Starting learning English at a very early age, at pre-primary level sometimes, and being supported by concerned parents cannot but help spur their pursuit and enthusiasm in many cases. English does open doors for them, doors that were not even foreseen 30 years ago or so, when most students learnt Russian or at times French at school. Nowadays the Romanian language learner is learning English as part of a set of key competences necessary at the beginning of the 21st century. Of course they study a second foreign language as well, usually either German or French, thus developing their abilities for communication and intercultural understanding. In my experience, this competence is better fostered through eTwinning projects. eTwinning is part of Comenius, the EU programme for schools. The portal went live in January 2005, and more than 200,000 European teachers are registered users today. eTwinning is a

virtual meeting point for the exchange of information between European schools and provides numerous tools and services tailor-made for schools to find partners, resources, advice, help, information, and to build eTwinning projects in partnership with each other. I have been involved in a plethora of eTwinning projects for six years, and been an eTwinning ambassador for more than three now. My students have collaborated with many peers across Europe, and each year we plan, implement and develop collaborative projects with European schools, being rewarded in terms of competences gained and skills developed. Students plan, then actively launch into learning, then present their work and reflect on what has been achieved. There are always final products, which are arrived at by creatively employing critical thinking and problem solving skills. It is creativity, passion and the fact that each student is a composer – this is what eTwinning is for us.

At pre-universitary level, teachers in Romania do not have an array of job opportunities to choose from – when they obtain their Teaching Certificate, they can apply and take an exam to work in a state-owned or private school as a full time teacher. As for English language teaching and learning, there are additional prospects over the 12-week long summer holiday, and not only for Romanian teachers, but especially for native speakers I would say – Scots, English, Americans come to Romania and usually teach conversational English to teenagers in summer camps (I also know of native English speakers teaching drama). The incredible diverse Romanian landscape and the relatively intriguing political history here do appeal to many. I have known many such teachers. They are confident and friendly, customarily well-organised, and consistently open-minded team players. They offer Romanian students real-world learning experiences while working on project topics, which can vary widely. And they gain a valuable insight into Romania, its people and its culture.

The lessons I consider memorable are mainly those during which I guide the learning process in such a way that students find out knowledge and how to do this and that through hands-on activities. I believe my students acknowledge them as being memorable too as it is about these lessons that they talk about at home in more detail – parents keep saying this during parent-teacher conferences/meetings. Project work is one of many students’ favourite, and I prepare and deliver countless project-based lessons. One example would be the celebration of Consumer Day on March 12th this year. It was a special day, when my sixth graders did our 2 English classes with three teachers and Mrs Rusu, the librarian in our school. The students had been asked to bring to school ads from newspapers and magazines, and wear T-shirts with ads on them. They also took to school bags with ads on them, and brought pictures of ads in the city on sticks or stored them online. We started the lesson by showing these to everybody on the big screen in the library, helped by their ICT teacher, and then I got the ball rolling and we talked about the advertising business and the effect ads have on everybody. Of course, there are other kinds of ads: there is skywriting, there are ads on the Internet,  etc. So we started talking about video clips. We watched five mobile phones video clips I had prepared, and I was happy that the students realised – when filling in the worksheet prepared for the lesson – that there are three main tricks of the advertising business: catchy slogans, funny jokes and famous people, and that advertising is responsible for a great illusion: the freedom of choice. Still, we must not allow ourselves to be manipulated! We should not just accept everything we see and read and hear as truth! We need to ‘read’ all ads critically, to protect ourselves as consumers. We need to ask ourselves: “Are there not alternatives?” Become a thoughtful consumer and a critical citizen in the future! In groups, assisted by the teacher of Arts, students then tried to draw a few effective ads, by answering these questions: What are you selling and what makes it so unique? Who do you want to sell it to? Why should people buy it from you as opposed to your competition? The posters were amazing! The students drew and/or collated suitable images, and wrote as persuasively as they could – persuasive skills, just like critical skills, are essential for anybody to participate in a democratic society. Some of the groups appealed to logic, others to morality, others to emotions. Some of the students used slogans, others made jokes, another group named a famous person…They enjoyed the two-hour lesson very much! And the most important thing to remember was understanding how we are persuaded.

Being on holiday right now – 12 weeks summer holiday in Romania! -, I am taking the time to care for my personal blog in terms of evaluation and planning, and of the Romanian eTwinning ambassadors’ blog and site, which I organize and coordinate, by refreshing it, adapting it to the new needs that have arisen, putting it to more uses really, even rearranging parts of the site. I am also collecting and editing quite a lot of eTwinners’ articles – as the editor-in-chief – for the annual eTwinning newsletter on project visibility; this will be the third issue. Thereon, I have been invited to a teachers’ conference in October and I am currently preparing my workshop, and during the autumn months I am planning to work hard on the preparations for an eTwinning symposium that I am co-organising in May 2014 – we still need to find more partners and/or sponsors. In September a new school year will begin, so learning units will be planned, shaped, delivered and evaluated; new projects will be born, cared for, and developed, and will have their value measured; latest teaching techniques will be tried out; new tools will be examined and taken up or dismissed – I will gladly, for instance, enhance the significance of using Glogster as a Glogster EDU Ambassador (I was honoured with this title and responsibility just last November); added partnerships with other organisations or with classes of students from Romania and/or abroad will start afresh. Of course people cannot plan everything, novel things will roll in I am sure, but I am confident I will be able to take each and every one of my engagements one at a time. Perhaps Facebook and/or Twitter (I am @DanielaArghir on Twitter) will gain more room in my life, helping me to start building that personal learning network I have been reading about lately; I could start teaching English online, this is one of my shrouded desires, I have only taught online courses – on web-based video, intergenerational learning, and iPad use – so far; in my one-iPad classroom I may spring towards using the device more stenuously. The future will tell.

I do not believe there is a perfect student for me, and this is especially arduously evident when I plan, organise, deliver and assess project work in class. It is then, more than any other times, that I think of my students’ learning as being kaleidoscopic – pursuing this fluid technique to enhance their learning I acknowledge that most of their characteristics are melted and reborn in the process with new facets. I love the “perfect students” when they are confident and adventurous without being disdainful, I adore their diligent working in teams and their bold final presentations, I treasure those many moments when I am delighted with, or even surprised by, their industry and performance.

I would invite them to come to Sibiu and teach English here! Sibiu was European Capital of Culture in 2007, which entailed many renovation works in the city. Piata Mare  (“The Big Square”) is considered the most beautiful renovation in all of Romania. The Medieval Sibiu counts five defense towers, which are a significant attraction for tourists. Nowadays the inhabitants of Sibiu are proud of their medieval ancestry, and so am I. The medieval period represented a prosperous time, both from an economic and administrative perspective. All joking aside, teachers of English would find here in Sibiu students who possess an appropriate basis for learning according to many criteria, who are open-minded apprentices, and who progress relentlessly. Arriving into the teaching profession is not an easy task these days. I would advise new teachers anywhere to strive to be fluent in their pedagogy, and flexible really – at the moment I think teachers need to be able to readily shift perspectives. Originality would not hurt either. The ability to promptly build on existing ideas would also be of help. I believe this is the kind of pedagogy that leads to motivation and promotes lifelong learning.

Being a teacher was the dream career I had in mind since I was a teenager. At school I had a yearning for languages and it was only after my graduation in college that I decided to be an English teacher. To be really sure that I was made for teaching, I spent a year as a French assistant in a school in Basingstoke, England. That experience helped me understand that I was not keen on teaching according to mainstream teaching methods. I enjoyed being creative and genuine when preparing lessons. It helped me being and remaining enthusiastic and cheerful when sharing them with pupils. On the other hand, I realised that I did not really like being taught what to do since it felt like I had to conform to something that did not belong to me! I felt it was difficult to motivate pupils when you did not give yourself body and soul in what you were doing.  When I came back from England, I decided I needed more time to explore the English language so I passed my master LLCE degree. Then, I went through the French competitive exam for teacher called CAPES that I passed. Yet, instead of being a trainee teacher the next school year, I postponed it and applied to be a French assistant in Canada. That teaching experience was completely different since I was teaching students at UVIC university and was given complete credit for the preparation and planning of my lessons. At the university, my supervisor gave me the possibility to use all the rhetoric and didactic methods I had learnt while preparing the CAPES exam. That experience helped me understand that each learner is different and needs to gain self-confidence thanks to a teacher who is reliable and trustworthy. In the end, I came back to France and after a year spent as a trainee teacher in a high school, my career as an English teacher in secondary schools started off.

In France there are drawbacks but also advantages when you’re a state teacher.  Let’s start with the drawbacks:

• You cannot pick the school and place where you’d like to teach! If you’re lucky enough you will remain in your hometown or province but most of the time you’re too young and do not have the necessary points required to be allotted in a very popular area and school. In the end you usually end up hundred of miles away from home for a few years!
• You cannot pick the grades you will teach. Most of the time, when you start your career, it will be in a secondary school. Usually, only experienced teachers have access to high schools.

Now, the advantages: 

• You have a general and national curriculum to follow but you are free to use whatever material you feel like having. You have a freewill and even if we have some recommendations to use some educational methods rather than others, you are still able to decide what you will do in your class.
• The headmaster gives you an administrative mark but it is your academic supervisor that will assess your educational skills when S/he visits your class once every 7/10 years.
• You do not have to use a textbook, every other materials are welcomed as far as your lessons make sense and are educational.
• You can also do some cross-curricular activities with teachers from other subjects and realise some wonderful projects. Team work is highly beneficial but you are not bound to do any if you don’t feel like it.

You are using magazines instead of a textbook.  Could you tell our readers more about this?

• It is true that I’m not into textbooks. I’d rather use other resources, such as Mary Glasgow Magazines which are very attractive for teenagers since they are colourful and deal with the youngster interests. I would use some articles as a support to the sequence (for example POP STAR sequence, we started the first lesson with an article ‘stress on stage’ which helped the students understand the topic and the goal of the sequence).
• Sometimes I ask them to read some articles during the holidays and do the games as a way to revise their lessons.
• I can also ask them to read an article so as to debate in class and it leads to a communicational project. For my beginners, I sometimes ask them to read the articles and I myself prepare a questionnaire to check their understanding. It is perfect for the revisions. There is another thing I like doing with my students. I ask them to choose an interview in Mary Glasgow magazines and to write another interview themselves. It is very funny! They get to present celebrities and people they like.
• Some other time in class, it is an efficient manner to make them more aware of some cultural and historical notions while playing rapidity games with the articles captions or headlines.
• The variety of the topics and the various activities offered in these magazines really suit me. It gives me the opportunity to include them in some educational projects and to explore different teaching paths. I like the idea of getting the pupils to achieve something at the end of a sequence. (through acting/cooking/drawing/making things/ interviewing..)

How do you prepare your lessons when you use magazines in the classroom?

What is important for me is to know in advance what it is coming up. The digital previews sent by Mary Glasgow are very useful for that. I can prepare my lessons according to the subjects, which are coming soon. For example, this time I have chosen to work about pop stars. I introduced the theme through an article in Team called ‘Stress on stage’. They had to write about how they would feel on stage. After that, I asked them if they knew any ‘talent shows’. For my beginners, I am going to use the article about pack lunches. It is ideal for my theme about food. I am also going to complete my lessons with some activities. I saw that there were more things on the website. 

What are your favourite subjects?

I love teaching about sports and this year, I am spoiled! My intermediates are very sporty and are loving the magazines too! Earlier this year, there was an article about Andy Murray who was talking about his problems before the Olympic games. I asked my students to imagine which kind of advices they would give him. They get to use the structure “should” and other modal verbs. It was a perfect exercise for them and a lot of fun for everybody. I also got to introduce the structure like “If I were…, I would..”. It worked very well. The subjects about internet and technologies are very appealing to them as well. I wish I could teach more about Australia or New Zealand but I sometimes miss some materials about those countries. I love the news articles at the beginning of Mary Glasgow magazines. They are always very updated. It is very quick for me to get them talk about those for some prompt discussions at the beginning of the lesson. They don’t realize how much they learn vocabulary from those. I also love the cultural articles. It is hard to believe but some did not know that there were red buses in London. Some themes are coming back every year but it is actually good for them as reminders. They are very excited when they can say “Oh Madame, we have already seen this last year…”

What is the most memorable thing that has occurred during your teaching career within the classroom?

It was on my first day of teaching! At that time I was a trainee teacher. Due to my experience with the Canadian education system, I was not aware that French kids would really be hostile to English and teachers in general. On my first lesson I suddenly realised that students were not going to be standard pupils that would kindly do and listen to what I would tell them to. That first hour of teaching was really chaotic; students were chatting, doing whatever they wanted to do, the lesson was so noisy that I ended up with a major headache! I felt bullied! I was so disappointed and wanted to give up teaching after all! It was so far from what expected, I did not manage to get them to learn and do anything I had prepared for them! The bright side of that memorable moment was that I became aware of the fact that you had to make students want to learn, listen and speak and do English. The only problem was that I didn’t know how to achieve this! Hopefully, I had a wonderful tutor who made me understand the reasons of the students behaviour. He helped me get that mutual respect and discipline are essential when it comes to teaching. Standard students may exist but they are blended up with others in heterogeneous classes. The challenge is to captivate each individual in the class so as to get them work as a team that will be willing to communicate and learn together in English.  Since then while preparing lessons, I always keep in mind that each pupil is different and that learning difficulties should not prevent students from enjoying learning a Language. 

My interest in teaching English started at university. I studied modules in language teaching and learning, and undertook an equivalent to the CELTA over the summer of 2006. TEFL started off as my summer job – I used my qualification to work at summer schools during breaks in my studies. For a while I felt that secondary school teaching might be the right career path for me. I decided to do a PGCE back in 2009, but I hated every minute of it! My experiences on that course nearly turned me off teaching forever. If I hadn’t taught at a summer school that year after dropping out of the PGCE, I’d probably be in a boring office job right now… Instead I took a job on a great summer programme based in Edinburgh (ISIS Education and Travel). I loved every minute of it, and it kick-started my career as a language teacher!

I’ve worked at three different summer schools in England, and I’ve spend two years working in a high school in South Korea. I’m currently teaching at LTC in Eastbourne, which offers short courses to foreign groups all year round.

I’d say the biggest advantage is cultural immersion for the students. You can teach students about English history, culture or customs, and they have the chance to go and explore it for themselves outside the classroom. I find students here are often highly-motivated… but then they do pay a lot to be here! I deal with groups who stay between three days and four weeks. I’d say this has its ups and downs. For shorter courses you can’t really expect a lot of improvement in their English ability, the focus is more on encouraging students to practice their speaking and to learn about British culture. For our Young Learner classes we don’t follow a particular course book, instead we do lots of task-based or topic-based learning, which can require a lot of planning for the teacher.I’d say the biggest advantage of teaching in the UK is to have mixed nationality classes. On occasions we get groups at the school who request classes with students of the same nationality, and it’s really hard to prevent them using their L1. I love it when classes are mixed – not only does it necessitate the use of English but it is a great opportunity to develop student’s awareness of other cultures. 

Actually, I had something happen recently that really made me chuckle. Our class were doing the ‘sinking ship’ scenario – the classic lesson where they have to choose which people they would save from a sinking ship and bring to a desert island to live with. They were a mixed nationality upper-intermediate class, with most students being either Austrian or Thai. I wish I had recorded some of the discussions that ensued – the Thai’s were advocating the need to save the Buddhist monk to preserve harmony on the island, whilst the Austrians insisted that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a good law enforcer and, despite his high protein diet, would be happy to agree to food rationing on the island if necessary! I’m a big fan of using drama in the classroom and allowing students to be creative. I’d really recommend any teacher flicking through ‘The Minimax Teacher’ (Jon Taylor) or ‘Being Creative’ (Chaz Pugliese) for some great student-centered activities with a creative focus. I’d say that some of my most memorable lessons have been built around concepts from these books.

I’m looking to get abroad again come September. I didn’t save any money when I lived in South Korea as I spent it all on Kimchi and bad beer. That means I need to work somewhere I can not only have a great experience, but earn a few bob too. Ideally I’d like to teach in Europe next (Germany or Spain), but I might spend another year in Asia first. I guess I have no plans really. I’m just mentioning a load of places I want to go!

Generally, I’d say its student centred and it involves group work which helps make things communicative. Also, with project work there can be a lot of other skills-practice apart from just learning the language – planning, problem-solving, task management, etc. You can learn a lot about your students, their characters and their learning styles by observing them during project work.A massive disadvantage to group work is that if students don’t buy into the project topic or if they aren’t interested at all in it can be like flogging a dead horse. Also, project work in groups of mixed nationality speakers can be quite a high order task for some students. You have to monitor project work well to ensure group are progressing, and support where necessary.

That’s hard to say as every student is different. I think there are some common traits I’ve noticed in the most successful students I’ve taught. They have all been self-motivated, they have all made great use of metacognitive learning strategies and they have all seemed to be able to laugh at themselves when they make mistakes. I’m actually quite a bad language learner – I get frustrated when I can’t do or say things perfectly, I hate not being able to express myself and probably take myself a bit too seriously. I really try to discourage these traits in my own students!

Firstly, ignore critics of the TEFL industry. I’m always meeting people who tell me that teaching abroad is a glorified gap year, or it’s for people who can’t get a real job, so on and so forth. Sure, teaching English is a great opportunity to see the world, but that doesn’t mean it will automatically be easy. Many people underestimate how difficult it can be to live for a long period of time in another country, so just be sure to give that some thought.I’m not greatly experienced in the industry compared to others, but I’ve had a fair few teaching jobs now – some of which have been dire! The best advice I could offer anyone starting out in TEFL is try to get the best you can from any teaching experience. Don’t become someone who just plods along and takes the money that some countries will throw at you as a native English speaker. Put the effort in, focus on professional development, and it can be a really rewarding job!

Shy but very respectful. I taught high school students aged 16-18 – there is a real emphasis on respect towards teachers in Korean culture, which creates a really positive environment. Its true that Korean students like to sleep a lot, but they work so hard that they need to rest!English lessons taught by Korean teachers tend to be quite didactic, so Korean learners often lack task knowledge with regards to communicative activities. Things that we might take for granted when setting up activities (like pair work or group work) can sometimes seem like an alien concept to Korean students as they just don’t work like that too often. Also, their shyness and their anxiety over making mistakes means they can often be scared to speak English. However, as with most young learners, Korean students love a bit of competition, and using games, problem solving or lateral thinking tasks in the class can bring them out of their shell a bit.Lastly, Koreans are really proud of their country. Many Korean learners I’ve encountered seem motivated to learn English as a medium through which to share their own culture with the world. This really is something that can be exploited in the classroom.

Yes. I’ve been teaching a lot of Austrian students recently and they seem to expect a more formal approach to classes. I assume that they must study a heavily grammar based syllabus in their own country, as this is often their strength. They require a lot of encouragement to extend their speaking beyond the minimum amount required to ‘complete’ a task, and the purpose of an activity must be made very explicit to them. Of course, I am generalising by saying that ‘Austrians’ are like this – really I mean that this is a trait I’ve noticed in 5 different classes of 14 Austrian students all aged between 14-19, and of course some students in a class are exceptions and don’t fit with what I say. Speaking from my experience though, I’ve found Austrian students to be a little serious, quite reserved and seem to prefer the teacher to direct a class more than the students taking control.

Very much by financial & geographic necessity. Had run out of working visaes, hitch hiking/working around Australia & NZ. A trusted friend had earlier spent a year in Japan “shaking the money tree” (mid-80s) & it was that time in my travels to refill the coffers. Getting a job in Tokyo wearing fruit-picking clothes was not easy…so I got the job I deserved, which was dreadful!

My most meaningful & memorable teaching experiences actually happened in Thailand, working in a refugee camp for six months. The whole experience changed me, and really re-arranged my teaching antenna. I had previously spent a year and a half with mostly unmotivated, unexcited, unambitious but comparatively wealthy students. To see just how much any English skills at all could mean to these people from Cambodia, Vietnam & Laos was humbling in the extreme. I had no resources to use at all, apart from a gestetner and a serious rationing thereof, great colleagues, and overcrowded classes (no rooms – an outdoor bamboo lean to at best) with the most amazing students you could ever hope to meet. Being treated to lunch by a refugee in a camp is the biggest privilige I think I will ever enjoy. I still have the first homework my first class gave me – ‘tell me about yourself’…possibly the dumbest question I have ever asked.

Fluffy the cat

I had originally wanted to be a flight attendant for British Airways after leaving school but sadly I did not pass the entrance criteria because I was too short!  I am just under 5 feet, and you needed to be at least 5 feet 6 inches tall in those days, so my application was turned down. My dream was to travel and see the world… Once I had finished my French and Italian degree at Leicester University, I decided the best way to learn another new language was to teach EFL there.  I got accepted for a teaching post in Madrid with my degree, and no teaching qualifications whatsoever. I soon realized, however, that solely teaching from the company’s set books and nothing else, was a bit limiting.  I decided to do a one year, full-time PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education) specializing in EFL / ESL.  My five-week Teaching Practice was in Mallorca.  I taught in a secondary school and taught classes of up to 40 students.  The PGCE opened up a whole world of opportunities for teaching abroad, and that’s what helped me get into English language teaching. After all my travels, I finally settled down to teach for over 20 years at the Lake School of English, Oxford.  This is where I developed fully as a teacher and teacher trainer, and I learned a lot of the skills I have now. It was a wonderful time of my teaching career, with an excellent support network and great facilities.  I am so lucky that I can still teach there, whenever I go back to England.

You have taught in a number countries, haven’t you Janet?  Could you tell our readers about the countries you have taught in and what has been your favourite?

As I mentioned above, I taught in Madrid for one year, and I enjoyed that experience for the cultural aspects and the friendly people I met. I felt I didn’t really know much about teaching but I managed to get by. I then went on to teach at the Technical University of Dresden, in the German Democratic Republic.  This was a complete eye-opener for me and I saw how the GDR citizens lived in a repressive regime.  However, students and friends managed to have an excellent social life and as a result I enjoyed myself very much.  The teaching was mostly Beginner / Elementary level and classes consisted of specially chosen people who were going to be allowed to travel abroad on GDR business.  I wrote a guest post for Ken Wilson’s blog called Living and Working behind the Iron Curtain. Link here:http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/living-and-working-behind-the-iron-curtain/I then went on to teach in a tiny village in Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands for a whole year.  That was indeed like living in paradise – sun all the year round, beautiful sea, freshly caught fish for barbecues on the beach, lots of fiestas every weekend in local villages, and a wonderful social life.  I made lots of friends with the locals, most of whom I taught English.  I even taught German lessons to groups of children, and that was a real challenge for me, but fun. From the Canary Islands, it was on to Patras, Greece.  I fell in love with the country, the people, the language, the food and the traditions. I lived there for 3 years, teaching all levels and groups, in particular Cambridge FCE.  I also took my Greek “O” level and passed.  I was able to communicate quite well by the time I left, but sadly it has almost all gone now.I can honestly say that I enjoyed my time in all of these countries due to the lovely people, students and schools that I had the pleasure of working for.

You have a successful blog on language teaching.  Please tell us more … and could you tell our readers the advantages and disadvantages of blogging?

I have been writing my Janet’s Abruzzo Edublog since 2008, and I celebrated my 4^th anniversary last November.  I had never thought of blogging until I came across some information for a short two-week online Blogs’ course run by the Consultants-E.  I attended the course, (which I myself tutor on now), and this was the catalyst for me starting my main blog.  It’s a mix of personal and educational posts and I enjoy writing it.The advantages are I get to keep up to date with other bloggers and educational trends via my RSS feed in my sidebar, and I have met many teachers online as a result of the comments I have received and also from posts that I have read from different bloggers, such as yourself, Martin! Also, writing a blog has made me think critically about how and what I teach, and it is useful to have all my thoughts and lesson ideas in one main area, for ease of reference.The disadvantages of  blogging?  I can’t think of any, bar the fact that I wish I had more time to focus on writing more posts!! 

Can you tell me a memorable activity or occurrence that has developed from your classroom? 

I have always enjoyed using images in my lessons, and over the past few years, I have become very interested in exploiting comics and cartoons. I have found that students tend to be keen on creating their own comics using the many free sites that are available.  I created a short presentation called Fun with Comics and Cartoons for a Teach Meet International e-conference last year, and I have outlined some ideas for how to use them:http://www.slideshare.net/JanetBianchini/fun-with-comics-a-mini-presentation

Could you tell us why you moved to Italy and what it is like teaching in this country?

I moved to Italy with my husband Karl in order to experience a different lifestyle from the hectic life in a city.  We wanted to live in the countryside, and have a bit of land and some animals. My parents are originally both from Abruzzo in central Italy, so this area seemed a natural choice to begin our hunt for a house here. We were thrilled when we saw the house of our dreams online. We have a 10-year plan to do renovations, and I can’t believe 5 years have already passed and there is still so much to do!!Due to family circumstances in the UK, I don’t currently have a teaching job in Italy but I keep myself busy with various online projects, thereby allowing me to be at home, which is ideal.

The first few months of 2013 have passed by (albeit it a bit too quick), but what are your plans for this year?

I’d like to be happy with whatever comes my way, maybe do a few more online courses to learn something new.I have just completed the EVO Digitalstorytelling4kids session and that was an enlightening experience.  I had the opportunity to create some collaborative digital stories with other course participants and it was good to see how I felt from the viewpoint of a student doing  such exciting projects.We have approximately 90 olive trees at the moment, and hopefully we’ll get a good crop of olives this year, as last year was very bad. I love using our homemade olive oil when cooking. Tending to the olive grove is an enjoyable pastime, and we would like to have 100 trees in the future.  

Do you think there is a place for L1 in the classroom?

Yes, in small doses and depending on the situation.  I taught monolingual classes for a number of years in the various countries I lived in, and in some cases, I allowed the use of L1, for ease and clarity of purpose.  On the whole, I do prefer Direct Method and it has always been successful. I taught this method (and still do) for over 20 years with groups of multi-lingual students whilst working in Oxford for the Lake School of English.

How would you describe your perfect student?

One who listens carefully, is willing to make mistakes, accepts corrections, is independent, interacts in general with other students, and most important of all, has a keen desire to learn as much as possible.

What advice would you give teachers who find their teaching more of a chore?

Take time out, if it is possible in order to recharge one’s batteries, try to connect with other teachers who can provide a supportive network.  I wrote a guest post for OUP ELT Blog called  Renew the Passion, and Go with the Flow.   It contains a few tips which may be of interest: http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2010/06/18/renew-the-passion-and-go-with-the-flow/

Finally, you are involved with the Consultants-E so are you able to tell us a bit more about your role with this organisation?

I have been involved with the Consultants-E since 2008, when I did some online courses with them. I liked the way the courses were run so efficiently, and I became hooked on e-learning from then on.  This led me to do some online moderation projects run by and on behalf of the Consultants-E, which I enjoy tremendously.  I am currently the tutor on the March E-Moderation course.

You know there are students with behavioural difficulties at times (not always, luckily). There we go, I remember having my, so far one and only classroom crash at the earliest days of my teaching career when I was standing in front of the class so speechless and unfamiliar with how to deal with similar situations. Fortunately,  I handled it well after a while! This served a great lesson as a starter in causing me to do the relevant research on similar cases. Though there are many more fun experiences in the classroom, like being the teacher of a group of doctors so curious to learn every word about body parts!

My colleague and friend Antonia Clare had been singing the praises of Twitter for all of a year before I finally joined. I think the benefits for teachers are the exchange of ideas that’s possible, particularly in a chat room such as #ELTChat, which I’ve really enjoyed. Then there’s the chance to share interesting articles or links to blog entries about other teachers’ experiences in different contexts.  And also to meet like-minded colleagues who may then become friends and who one day you may meet up with at a conference or when travelling. 

I think things are changing significantly as publishers adapt to a rapidly digitalised world.  To answer this one, I can’t do better than refer you to a fantastic resource by Lindsay Clandfield where he has put together a number of links and articles on how to get started in writing.

• Update your CV and print out several copies – email is fine for applications but it seems that walking around and appearing in a school at the right time is much more effective at securing a job.
• Get a good map of the city – Google maps is fine, but you probably won’t have a smartphone local SIM to begin with so it will be VERY expensive to consult the internet for finding a school or in-company teaching job. Be prepared to travel around to in-company courses. However, you may be lucky and get a school where all the courses are held there.
• Say ‘yes’ to everything to begin with: I’ve had loads of follow-on amazing things happening by taking seemingly “bad” courses (in terms of location/time/students). You also have to get your ‘foot in the door’ with schools by showing you are enthusiastic and willing!

• You have been blogging on the SGI website.  Describe to our readers what are the benefits to blogging?

I write almost daily blogs for students www.stgeorges.co.uk/blog (an article/video/audio with some kind of vocabulary/grammar focus) which in turn results in:

You become much quicker at making lesson content.
Your lesson content becomes more varied and dynamic.
By being more internet involved/savvy, you become part of a global PLN where you can easily access myriad resources that are great for lesson resources.
You become aware of classroom technology that can spice up your lessons and motivate your students.

I also write for newbie teachers at http://www.tesoltraining.co.uk/blog/