ETJ-Aichi Meet & Potatoes Teaching Tips

Find matching word – turn over read, turn back over if not correct, leave up if correct

However, I was consulting for a language school the other day and the school owner wanted to snap up the teacher who taught like this – enthusiastic, fast pace, active, all of these are pluses, but there is little substance to a class like this, little variety, little thinking on the students part, and few language skills are developed. However, a lot of people think that this is good and effective teaching. I disagree.

This is a perfect example of PARROTTING EXERCISES, a teaching style that has flash that people oooh and aaah over because of its high pace and student involvement, but is riddled with lost opportunities to teach. Students may remember the words, but will not know the meaning, and in this case you may have already known the meaning – I never checked. And students in classes run like this will only learn vocabulary, there is no supplemental language in them to learn. They will not learn sentences and they will not learn real language – language in use.

Main Problems with Tamas’ style – readily apparent prob with long term effects

Some people think they don’t have time to check the pronunciation and comprehension, or to compliment all the kids, or to check to see if the kids understand. These are all important parts of teaching, so if you are not doing these things you are decreasing your teaching effectiveness and in fact you are increasing the difficulty to learn the language for your students.

This next activity is an improved version of the first. The problem with the first activity was not that the activities were wrong, it was the way they were carried out. I will now redo the same activity trying to get more English out of it. This time using an idea I call More English Class – not All English class – which is a mindset that I approach my classes with. The idea is to put into the class and get out of the students as much English as possible during each lesson. I don’t believe in 100% English classes, I believe in More English classes.

I would like to start out by presenting a few ideas about how to teach or what good teaching is. And from there I will present a few activities that will hopefully be new to you, but moreover that I can use to illustrate my points. During all of this I will try to stop and ask for questions and input, but if at any time you have a question or comment that you want to bring up please feel free to do so.

He thinks and it is a too widely accepted idea that games are to make English fun. He thinks games/activities are a break from the class, sometimes making use of the target structure and sometimes not. He says English should be fun. I agree that English should be fun, but there are tons of activities out there to make use of the target structure that is being taught so we should use them. Think about the time commitment of doing an unrelated activity just for fun. Classes are 40 or 50, sometimes 60 minutes a week. If you use 10 minutes or more of that time playing UNO or Go Fish without staying on target, you are taking up a huge amount of learning time, you are taking away many opportunities for the students to use. Find or make up an activity that uses the target structure, have fun with it. But use the activity effectively, and use your kids’ time efficiently. It doesn’t have to be something brilliant, just fun and effective, and it doesn’t have to be something wildly exciting, just interesting. Make something simple up, make up a new version of an old game by changing the language used.

In the English Language Industry this attitude is a sign that pendulum is making a great big swing from a formal grammar based format for teaching language, going way too far to the opposite end of the spectrum – the fun, activity based end. However, just being given activities is to do is not enough. We need to be taught and to learn how to use them, not just on the superficial level of appropriate ages, target structure, and materials and time required but on a deeper level – how to make their use in our classes more effective, how to use them to increase our students grasp of – understanding and abitility to use – the language. Therefore, as conciencious teachers we need to be asking not just what to do, but how to do it. We do not need to be game collectors and we should not ask our employees to be game players, but to incorporate them cohesively. Let’s stop collecting new games/activities, and let’s start seriously thinking about how to make the activities that we have now in our repetoire More English, More Language oriented and effective. And as conciencience trainers, we need to talk about both the what and the how.

We are coming away from a grammar based teaching style, this coming away is something which most teachers applaud, but language is grammar. We shouldn’t accept this swinging of the pendulum without thinking and recognizing that language is grammar, what we really need to do is get rid of the labels. We need to be careful that in our eagerness to be rid of the grammar and the dryness that we don’t rush into the opposite extreme, the swinging of the pendulum moving from grammar at one extreme to games and activities at the other. We need a little of both, and we need to think about how we are using our games – which are really our tools for teaching the language. An artisian must take care of his tools and understand them in order to use them effectively.

3 points to include in your lesson to ensure your students are active. Why? Including them will allow you to not only teach vocabulary and the targets in the lesson as you introduce vocab and then do related activites, including them regularly incorporates and allows communicative English, allows immediate physical and visual demonstrations that the meaning has been expressed and understood clearly, allows a more diverse set of sounds to be heard by the, allows the students to learn to think for themselves, allows them to feel that English is active and functional (we talk about the secondary and tertiary schools teaching unnecessary English in a boring manner and in a manner that is most suitable for translating, then we applaud ourselves for teaching TPR and short phrases that are actually something to memorize and play with, but not particularly functional, including these activities will demonstrate that English truly communicative and functional, that although initially the students may not have a need or deep interest, they will recognize and try to communicate with it.

1) Take and make the time to explain everything, or next to everything, initially, in English including time for them to guess and think about the meaning – feeding them the answers doesn’t give them much more than the chance to listen and forget – it’s like sampling 10 seconds of a song and then snapping the volume off – later choosing a follow-up style that suits you – i.e. re-explaining in Japanese, jumping in and playing/teaching the game through demonstration because it is comprehensible that way. Why would you explain in Japanese from square one? Why would you just jump into the game without explaining it? Why wouldn’t you give them a chance to hear the language you want them to learn, developing an ear and interest for it just by having listened to it, and by intentionally using very short sentences and simple words that you will repeat not only when you are introducing the activity, but you will repeat and recycle throughout the year as you do other activities and play other games? Simple, easily gestured, and consistent phrases are a key part of this point. I think for the most part, most teachers are playing fairly simple games to begin with. I only play fairly simple games to begin with and I would only try this approach with games that were easily explained or gestured. And if my antics don’t work, then I can always just jump into the game, and if that doesn’t work, then I can explain or have an office manager explain the game to the students.

2) Tell the students to get the materials ready for games and do so in English, ex. take out your pens…

3) Have the students be the teacher in every activity/game that you play, there is no need for you to do it once the jist of the game has been understood, allowing them to do so allows them to learn many things more than just learning English and having fun, which is what teacher oriented styles limit the children to.

1.5, 2.5, & 3.5) Have the children use full sentences and correct English whenever possible – of course you can give hints and reminders. Example – 3 points vs. I have 3 points.

1) explain game, 2) real English - students prepare materials, 3)students are teacher

Chants and TPR are, in short, an effort to make an impression, a memorable point that can easily be partially or wholly recalled. I don’t think I need to convince people that Chants and TPR are important, that they are techniques to help a wide variety of learners (multiple intelligences) learn more effectively, those techniques are being incorporated into almost all of the children’s English textbooks and classes these days. What I do want to do is show you how easy they are to put into the classes to make them a little more fun and a little more memorable for your students who are all different types of learners, some of whom cannot just hear words repeated and later recall them. The purpose of chants and TPR is not just to introduce a target or an action, they are to make a link to go back to in order to help one recall.

Chants a) help kids learn and remember, b) they help to maintain kids’ interest is common knowledge these days so activities should not be separated into vocabulary introduction and then activities and then into rhymes and songs. These all, vocabulary and targets and chants songs can be integrated cohesively to make your teaching more effective. We know how useful and effective chants can be – there is repetition, a spirit of fun, and they are often very memorable, sometimes getting stuck in our heads – so they should be incorporated into all parts of the class, or more parts of the class then they are.

mnemonics – how many people use them? In general my attitude towards them was that they were unnecessary and cumbersome if lengthy or the target is easily remembered. With that I dismissed them. However, they are only necessary when the target is hard to remember and the mnemonic is easily remembered. A mnemonic is a key to a door in our memory that is closed. Chants and TPR – pictures, gestures, our voices, text – words on the board, drawings, cards, and activities are all keys/tools at our disposal for, not just teaching English, but for getting our students to remember and understand what we are teaching, what they are learning. I think, that we have forgotten the meaning of teaching English. It is a phrase that spout without knowing, feeling what it means. We should not call ourselves teachers or say we teach. Instead, we should say, I help students learn English, because that is what we should be focused on doing and that is what we should think about when we plan our lessons. We should be thinking about how to make the lessons effective and the learning easier but not of less, but rather more content. That is the filter that we should evaluate our classes and every single one of the activities, and many of the things that we do in class by. Making the lessons effective and the learning easier but not of less, but rather more content is part of the purpose of chants and TPR and the other tools for teaching that we have at our disposal. Let use them! We should be asking ourselves, is this easy for my students to remember, is it easy for them to understand, how can I make it any more memorable, and last, but not least, we should be asking ourselves if our students are using (at least in class) what they are learning, and how can I get them to use more of what they are learning (at least in class, and if possible outside of class too).

We can also use all the keys/tools I mentioned above – chants, TPR, pictures, gestures, our voices, text, drawings, cards, and activities to give hints to get them to think, to guess, to have fun, and to realize that they already know some English – that they have some of the answers already or that they can figure things out for themselves and be proud about that.

I know that using these keys/tools are not only fun, but they help to jog the memory, they help to jump start the thinking process relax us to learning – allowing us to more easily remember things, and to give us the key to our memory, to help jog our memory’s to recall what is wholly or partially forgotten or what is not readily recalled.

3) use chants and TPR and other teaching and memory tools for more effective teaching and (jogging shoes) to help you jog their memory when something is not readily recalled

What supplemental activities would you use to review these targets a second or third time?

Our goal as teachers is not to get them to speak – or should I say, our goal is not merely to get them to speak. It is to also get them to see English as easy and learnable. To do that we must be aware of the speed and in what size chunks they can easily digest material. We must, at that point begin to teach to that level.

Based on an idea that Robert Habbick brought up in his seminar – chunk memory,

Not learned as one set and then the other, but learned both together as a longer but single animal. I cut the practice and learning time not necessarily in half, but at least by a third.

When teaching phonics or vocabulary we should not be filling their heads with single bits of information. Teach them sentences not vocabulary – and occasionally separate the two – introduce and practice them together, but either physically or aurally divide the parts on separate pieces of paper, parts of the board or an occasional vocab only drill. But I stress that the vocab only doesn’t need to be and shouldn’t be done regularly – what is the point?

This type of chunk learning is effective and is seen with telephone numbers, as I mentioned when I learned kana, when you learn songs, memorize anything – you don’t memorize words individually in a speech, you memorize sentences. It would take forever to do it individually.

My point is that people/children have the ability to learn in chunks and to not teach them that way – as I see and hear again and again when I interview teachers – is to miss an opportunity to teach more in your classroom.

These are standard ideas in the teaching industry these days. We use these methods because they are effective. However what I really want to know, or what I want to show you today is that you can these these things more and more – More Chants, More English, and More Gestures. You can use these tools all the time to give your classes a little more flavor and to make your teaching more effective.

Use consistent simple gestureable language – phrases and words that are repeated over time and build on each other when you introduce activities. Learning doesn’t have to be limited to the vocabulary used in the activities and it doesn’t have to be limited to the target phrases, and not everything needs to be understood the first time or able to be used the first time. Teach them, or go over (practice repeating) the phrases you use to run a class because you will use them again and again and the students will have an opportunity to learn more English.

Write short sentences on the board whenever you are introducing something. Give a moment for them to look at it, then have them read it, or you read it with them quickly without explaining the meaning. This is good practice for readers. It doesn’t need to be the focus of the lesson, just an opportunity for them to practice a skill and to use their minds. Develop the skills you want them to have during the whole of your class, not just during the phonics/reading/writing portion. Expose them to English.

I don’t have all the answers. I don’t think any one person does. But I want to promote questioning, asking and answering, reflecting, and testing and trying when we teach.

We are taught a way, or we happen upon a way and it sounds good, makes sense, seems to work, and then it solidifies and becomes our method. But a method for too long becomes a groove that we get stuck in. While methods are good, grooves can be blinding. A groove is being on automatic pilot-like responses, a no-brainer.

I don’t suggest that you dump your hard won method, I only suggest you shake the tree a little see what falls out, think, try, and do a little fine tuning if necessary.

Try one or two ideas for a little while. Sometimes students need time to get used to new things. If they still don’t work, call me – just kidding. However, you can send e-mail if you want. The point is, don’t disregard, adjust.

Not good or bad if not using the techniques I am describing here today, but I see it, and you should see it as lost opportunities to teach your students to speak, and you should see it as lost opportunities for your students to speak.

TOP

We need to check that the students understand what we have introduced to them. You would be surprised at how often students don’t understand, not just when you use 100% English in the classroom, but even when you use Japanese in the classroom. Taught does not mean learned and explained does not mean learned, and learned – whatever that means, does not necessarily mean able to be used. There are a lot of words that we use in education – the two most often used: teach and learn, which we need to think about more than we do.

My anecdote – Gamagori & Risa chan is a good student says her mother, but she comes home and says she doesn’t understand English, or when asked, she says she doesn’t remember what she was taught that day and so the teacher must not be very good. I was all over that in a flash – did this mother think her child was a genius who could do everything perfectly, not everyone who is good at some things is good at everything, don’t you blame me because your child finds that some things are difficult for her… Anyway, after I stopped throwing my pillow around my apartment and kicking the wall, I calmed down, put band-aids on my foot… I decided I would take a little extra time in class to make sure that Risa chan had understood the point that I was trying to get across. And, being sensitive to how people can feel about being singled out, I decided to check with several students – not just Risa-chan that they had understood what I was trying to explain. Well, what I found out was much to my surprise and a learning experience that has changed the way I teach. There has been a minor change to my teaching style, but a very profound one.

That day that I checked Risa and the other students, I did so by asking in Japanese – what does … mean? What I found out was something that anyone can tell you, without having been a teacher for 8 years, and that I could have told you the day I stepped off the boat here in Japan. Not everybody is listening in class! Not everybody is paying attention to what you are saying/doing, or what other people are saying and doing! In fact, sometimes when they look like they are paying attention, doing all the right things – giving the right answers and repeating along, or doing the activities with the other students, even when their friend who is right next to them gives the correct answer, they are not paying attention.

When asked what the meaning is, or what they think the meaning is, or even when asked what the person right next to them has just said that was correct, they cannot tell you!! It is like some mysterious invisible fog or force is preventing them from absorbing the information.

I can ask the students something they don’t know, they can guess and get the answer after some hinting and antics on my part, I can get several other students to give and/or repeat the right answer, and then I can turn to another student and they will not know, or not have heard the correct answer – the result being they don’t give the correct answer.

I am not describing a learning disabled student. I am not describing a dumb student. I am describing all students, even the bright ones, at some point in the class. The fact that this had been going on and goes on in all classes everywhere says to me that I need to do something about it to make the classes more effective. If you are not doing it in your classes – if you have an All English class, then I have a feeling, that on more than a few occasions, although the students can readily do what you ask, and imitate what you are saying, the truth – a scary word – is that at times, they are not quite sure what they are learning.

This situation is a lot like a student in an adult class who, no matter how well you or your students explain something, they cannot grasp it unless they hear it in their own language. Although I make every effort to wean them off of this learning style, it is their learning style and I should not try to force them into a learning style that I recommend or one that works for me.

What I have learned from this, and what I have now added to my classes, is a moment or two of asking the students what something means, and checking with several students to make sure that more than one knows what is going on, and so that by asking several students, there is a better chance for the ones who don’t understand what was being learned to hear the meaning in their own language.

So, what I now believe in, a major change from about 6 months ago, 6 months ago, when I believed in an All English class, is that we should have not All English classes, but we should have More English classes. We should check the meaning, and we should find ways to use more and more English in the classroom – not just the English in the textbooks or in the lesson plans that we have created. We should strive to use more and more English in the class at every opportunity that we get. And that is what I would like to talk to you and demonstrate to you today.

Point – open for misunderstanding and reason for need to check they understand

Is the meaning dance, dancing, can dance, like to dance, turtle, green, animal, cute, music???

This ability to be misinterpreted does not mean that the cards or the text book or the learning system is bad. This possibility to be misinterpreted is open to all text books and all learning systems. The point I want to reinforce again is that we need to check that the meaning we intend to teach is the one that is being remembered by the students. If we don’t check, then we don’t know how they have learned/remembered the word, only that they can repeat what we say to them.

Point – cards, aside from objects are not always understood – great potential for misunderstanding – especially for people (teacher, boy, girl, student, mother, older sister) and actions - is what I learned after 8 years of teaching.

Most people teach words or phrases and do activities but the activity although it is longer and fun and looks like two people are communicating, one is asking and the other is answering, doesn’t mean that comprehension has occurred. During activities and during your classes, you need to compliment and supplement your classes with regular demonstrations of comprehension. You need to find out somehow that your students understand the meaning of what they are saying – one way to do this is to ask them, which is a recent simple but fundamental change in my teaching style and in my approach to learning/teaching. Another way, other than asking, would be to have them do…

Example – these those activity and then put chips on table near and far and ask what are they. Correct useage will tell you they understand enough to use it correctly.

Get concrete demonstrations as often as possible that show you clearly the students can remember and comprehend what has been taught.

You can check with Japanese, by allowing the students to speak Japanese or guess in Japanese without you yourself using Japanese.

I explain everything in English is simple consistent phrases that I use throughout the year. I let the students guess at the meanings in Japanese, I use hints and the group to get to the correct meaning, and I sometimes use the beginning of the Japanese word to push them into saying the correct meaning of what I’m trying to teach – but I don’t use Japanese for the most part. I use almost 100% English and the students guess in Japanese, but the rest of the time classes are done in English.

****demonstrate Tamas’ style of teaching to the group with some very simple vocabulary words of several topics and one very simple game – possibly a group seated version of slap game. I should use simple words from several categories as well as introduce a few words that I am sure many of the students don’t know – possibly taken from the WORDSMART software. Then ask the group, “What did I just teach you,” get the answer from a few, then let them know you have a superficially (in apprearance) similar but substantially different question which is “was it teaching?” Then, point out that they all knew the material previously and that I didn’t check to see if they knew and or remembered the new material, let alone whether they knew the differences between words with similar meanings or that they were able to use the words, which I would take as a minimum requirement for being able to say that I had taught you, or that you had been taught something. So I think we really need to ask ourselves what is teaching and what kinds of things I need to include in the activities to ensure that I am teaching and not just introducing material or more accurately leading my students through parrotting exercises. From here I should go into my workshop with points about what to include in classes, how to check that you are teaching, and 2 or 3 activities.******

Are you with me so far? Here comes a biggey – as teachers we need to demand from workshops and seminars that presenters and speakers do more than just present activities. Activities are things that we can look up in the back of teacher’s manuals and activity books. Although it is nice to be given interactive visual live demonstrations, we really need to demand that presenters and speakers are teaching us how to teach. While at the same time we need to also be actively thinking about how to use an activity that is presented to us. We need to be on the ball thinking about how an activity can be used with our students in our teaching situation and we need to figure out how to adjust it to be effective. I can’t say strongly enough how important both sides of this coin are. Activities should be explained and teaching techniques taught, but when they are not, the teacher must see how the new activity can be applied to his/her teaching situation. Before I go further into that I want to talk about the classroom environment.

What are good students? What kind of people do you want your students to become? What kind of atmosphere and activities do you have to include to promote that? Do your activities, or most importantly the way you teach them encourage and promote the type of person/student/atmosphere you are trying to generate.

I’m not going to teach you how to teach a class. I’m going to teach you how to play a game, and if you take some of the same principles and apply them to other games and other activities in your classes, your classes will improve, taking on a different flavor and helping your students improve. Also, when you review your class, either on video or in your mind, or on tape, before doing so, know what a good class is, what it’s elements are, what it feels like and what specific points should be included, then review your class and evaluate, then look at your class and make changes or not, then look at your class and find new things that are good about it.

*some people forget that the style, your style that develops naturally = things you emphazie and de-emphasize, topics, activities, the atmosphere in your class – is not limited to the text. When you change texts or schools, you don’t start from scratch, only add to your education and teaching style. People often don’t know their style, or are not aware of what it is like.

*important point to remember is if it works use it. We want to develop language skills and useage. We should be holding that forth and with that as the main aspect to measure of an activity. Doesn’t have to be all English, or two teachers, or TPR. If it is affective, use it. If it creates the atmosphere and meets the needs and expectations of the mothers, owners, and students, use it. If several techniques work, then choose between them to things that match your preferences and the students – ex. songs, or drawing… This is particularly true with Japanese in the classroom. Our main goal in all of our debates and teaching should be does it work? Does it help my students learn faster and better and does it create the atmosphere I want, an enjoyble one? And the enjoyable should be in parenthesis.

*we need to think about more than just what kinds of activities to include in our lesson plans. We need to think about how to use them effectively. I think this is a point that many teachers are lacking. We collect activities, when the truth is all we need are a few, to then be recylcled, adjusted, we pick up bits and pieces of theories, TPR, communication approach, chants etc., but we see them as isolated activities. We need to incorporate and integrate them into all of, more of the activities to make ourselves more effective teachers.

*it is okay not to understand, to be forced to think. We learn from ourselves and we learn deeply when we come up with the answers.

Who believes black and white, monotchrome and monotone are better than color? Actually, color surrounded by black and white is most likely more memorable.

Point – get the students to do things for you in the classroom so that you can have more opportunities to teach them English – get my cards, take out your books, do you have a book…

I teach it this way because they need to hear the sound, it’s a little silly, they don’t focus so much on the ‘u’ sound at the end of ku, because they don’t need capitals so much, but they do need to learn them, and because it shows them that these are a set but they are separable.

Sometimes the pace of the class slows down when you give students the opportunity to think and show comprehension. As a result, this style, these steps to have More More More classroom – More English, More Chants, More Gestures – needs to be adjusted, the amount of checking and waiting for classes with more students and classes with younger students. I would say the best is with 6 – 12 year old students.

I wait for the processing, the recall, and the guessing of the correct answer. I give hints along the way. However, this thinking is for more mentally developed students – again, between 6 and 12, rather than on the little kids.

Even with no experience teaching a book or with no experience with a particular age, if you have the right ingredients, if you have good ingredients, like a cake, you can make a good cake.

Texts promote a general way to introduce and cover material, these ways along with the teaching style – types of activities, atmosphere in the class, and points you emphasize over others cross over from one text to another. Once you have a teaching style you can apply it anywhere and anytime with whatever text you use.

How many in this group today can speak Japanese at the level and amount that is in Finding Out, Let’s Go, Super Kids and other 1^st year kids’ texts???????

Using a tape or listening from outside the room, or from closing your eyes while you listen to a class pay attention to who is talking and how much. The students should be talking about 1/2 of the time – when I say talking I mean they should be using English about 1/2 of the time. And, as much as possible, all the students – more students – should be using English, not just the one who is having a turn at the activity. Think about how much English is being used and who is using it. Then ask yourself how you can increase that amount – throw away all excuses, try new things, and if they don’t work, try them again, because the first time things don’t always work, and with some groups things don’t always work, and sometimes we don’t know how to make it work, which is to say that just because something doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it isn’t good and it may be useable after a little tweaking/adjusting.

((((I saw two sample lessons today, Scott and Tamas, and the reactions to the different teaching styles, from the mothers and from the director of the program, was completely different. The first was seen as slow paced and not appropriate for the kids – true. The second was enthusiastically accepted because of the timing and energy that the teacher put into the class. In my mind, both the first and the second classes were not very good, although the second was a great improvement over the first. The things that people are looking for, pay attention to, and are aware of are completely different and not necessarily relevant to what good teaching really is. Either that, or I am extremely and perhaps overly critical, which is very possible. It is true the second teacher was much better than the first, however what was included in his lesson was only the broadest of strokes, the largest pieces of a work of art – teaching – that requires a fine touch as well. Ignoring the first teacher who gave a poor example of teaching, the second teacher was upbeat, led the activities clearly and with a fast pace, all of which the children need. His class included lots of review, or at least covered a lot of material, that if the material were review material would be a strong point for his style, however he did not know if the students had covered the covered the material previously – which leads to the weakness of his style. Moving from topic to topic, more accurately from one set of cards to another, inducing the students to repeat the cards, occasionally adding “slap-game” or other very simple games to the attack, he did not pay attention to the scenery before him, the students as individuals. He did not check individual pronunciation, he did not check or listen for correct or incorrect pronunciation at all, he did not check whether the students understood the meaning of the material before them. They were presented with pictures on cards and they were made to repeat the sounds. He did not teach English, and he did not teach vocabulary in my mind, only to the slightest degree. What he did do was keep the kids attention by running them through repetition and simple activities. They did not use the English in sentences, and they did not know the meaning of the material (What is the meaning of a card with a girl jumping on it? Is it jumping, jump, can jump, or jumped, or something altogether different, is it girl, or dress, or play?) the meaning was not explained nor checked nor did they do anything but repeat. This is what I have seen again and again in the classroom. Are you teaching or are you giving your students a verbal workout? This situation leads me to ask that question. It further leads me to ask what then is teaching? How do I know if I am teaching? How do I know if my students are learning? We think these answers are pretty obvious and easily recognizeable, and so did this teacher, but as you also probably agree with me particularly from my description, this teacher was clearly not teaching, yet he, the mothers, and even the students would swear that he was teaching. This is an interesting dilemna. So, are we teaching when we teach?)))))

Intro – People are fooled by power – by the enthusiasm, activities, pace, and energy of the teacher. Students match the pace and mothers and school owners believe the that the teacher is good and that the students are learning. This is often a myth. It is definitely a myth when the classes are not much more than vocabulary parrotting exercises. Beware of the difference between teaching/learning and covering material.

Covering material and repeating, even asking and answering is not enough. They are a start, but we must go from this broad stroke of the brush to much more delicate strokes. We need to learn how to teach, not just to learn more activities.

Good afternoon. Today I would like to present some ideas that I have had and that I have heard about good teaching. I’m a little bit nervous about giving a presentation of any length because I am the kind of speaker who gets lost along the way and has to often refer to my notes for a minute or so. So if you will be gracious enough to put up with that and all the ummms and ehhhs that I produce, I would greatly appreciate it.

I’m sure you have smelled something in the air in a restaurant or bakery, or somewhere, or you have heard a song, or seen a picture that you hadn’t seen for quite some time and that thing brought back a lot of memories that you had either forgotten or hadn’t thought about for quite some time. This is what I’m talking about. This is the reason for these keys/tools to be incorporated into your teaching style. By incorporating them, you have given both you and your students a reference point that you can use in a later class to bring back and build on.

I am hesitant to use the word teach because I think that there is an assumption that many of us make and that is, because we have taught something – introduced it and practiced it, the students should know it. This is often not the case, and we all experience this when we have been teaching what’s your name, how old are you, and how are you, yet the students continue to confuse the answers and to be unable to remember the meaning.

How to award points in games – give to all, everyone trys, to give only to successful, or faster students is really punishing the slower students, it is definitely not positively reinforcing them and their efforts.

What is required for improvement – include it in classes – repeat, encourage, success

If I give you a longer list you’ll stop thinking. I want to give you a short list to whet your appetite, just enough to inspire you to seek more.