Our final topics for 2019 ask you to think about the challenges of teaching teenagers, a favourite group of students, a lesson that didn’t go as well as you had expected, and your experiences of teaching without a clear plan.
Looking back over the last two months, there are several engaging and interesting posts, which looked at teaching grammar, teaching reading and writing, and some of the challenges or development opportunities ahead for the 2019/20 academic year.
For challenges and development opportunities, one recommended post deals with the challenges of being a teacher trainer. There is a post about changing jobs and the challenges of a different focus in a new role, and some of the techniques one teacher has used to help herself learn a language. There is a post full of ideas for online professional development and another which looks at the many challenges involved in teaching bi-lingual and multi-lingual learners.
There were several posts about the effective teaching of reading or writing, including a list of ways to help learners feel motivated to read and write, how to inspire learners to read in order to’ build their world of meaning and imagination’ and being motivated as teachers in order to generate motivation among our students.
Ideas for teaching grammar gave us some interesting posts, including asking students to become co-teachers and co-learners and encouraging more personalised speaking activities to practise grammar.
Thank you to everyone who contributed posts to our September and October topics. Find a selection here:
Zahra Zuhair | A classroom full of teachers
Vicky Saumell | Ch-Ch-Changes: Challenging professional moves
Sandy Millin | Habit formation: 5-minute tips for improving your English
Larry Ferlazzo | Eight Ways To Help English Language Learners Feel Motivated To Read & Write
Rossana Quiroz | Motivated teachers, motivated learners
Alexei Kiselev | One good way to practise grammar in speaking
Milica Vukadin | Online Professional Development - Experiences, Quality and Current Opportunities
NinaMK | Reading and writing in English
Topics for November and December 2019
Topic 1
Teenagers can be notoriously difficult to motivate. What strategies or activities have you used this year that have led to an increase in motivation among your teenage learners?This may have been a single or repeated activity that has worked well, or a change in the way you teach.
Topic 2
What has been your favourite group of learners or class to teach so far this year? Why? What advice would you give to teachers who are struggling with a particular class?
Topic 3
When was the last time you planned a lesson that you thought would go well but didn't? Why do you think that happened? What did you learn from the experience and how should teachers reflect on lessons that haven't been successful?
Topic 4
Have you ever gone into the classroom without a clear plan of activities? What happened? Did it go well or did it go badly? What did you learn from doing this and how important is it to allow space for incidental learning to take place?