Teacher Discussion Forums

They do it here in Greenland for Greenlandic and Danish so I am trying to find out why. Anything that teachers do has a good reason and since they have done it for about a hundred years or more, it seems that it must be really good. The bright kids ask for it and like it. There are many kinds of dic...

I don't use textbooks either but I know what I like about textbooks. Everyone has the same information on the same page so you can say, "Look at page 32 for an example of that." There are topics that the students can see in the Index, they can see a progression and building of the material as it flo...

Just finished the school year with the grade 11's who are 15 and 16 years old and am so pleased with their portfolio's that I thought I would add to this thread. They were to do 12 topics and could choose anything and I got a wide variety of things I would never think to choose from tatoos, piercing...

I don't know about your situation but I thought textbooks were national in China and everyone who is 14 and in Grade 2 has this textbook and the teachers are supposed to use it. That their final test will be based on this textbook. If that is the case, it is hard to throw it away or use something el...

It is May and Spring and the time for love and the French and Italians are particularly sensitive to that for sure. I always save the lessons that I love for May and June - at least the most interesting to me. May and June are teacher burn out months. I don't know whether you will believe it, but yo...

You didn't say if they were women or men? What is wrong with coming to class to have a time out and meet with friends? People who are free during the day for whatever reason do this all the time to play card games, have caligraphy lessons, bowl, golf, etc. I think it is great that they are doing it ...

Ages of the students? I am presuming adults? It is extremely hard to teach them English when they have no foundation of learning a language or sense of letters, words, and school skills in their own language. Of course, it can be done and often is, so you can try. But might I suggest trying to get s...

One of my profs, Devon Woods, says that we do everything that we do in the classroom because of our basic belief system. If you really examine a teacher's beliefs, you can see that every word and every action comes from that. He had us examining our beliefs and had other people examining us to tell ...

You are absolutely right Larry. It is the quality of the education that counts but I guess I was thinking of the reality of classes of 50 or more students in Japan, Mongolia and China - sometimes up to 80 with students sitting the halls because they couldn't get into the rooms and only 45 minutes a ...

Sorry - guess it is in my notes at home in Canada. I found this though. Michael Long talked about an Interlanguage , that you needed to speak in groups where you had your present level of language and were challenged just enough to stretch to another level or as he called it I + 1 and you got that b...

I found this from my notes from my Master's courses and will look for the rough guide. Stages - there seems to be a progression to second language acquisition. People learn A before B even if the teacher teaches them B first. It seems to be across the board, with every student, not just some. It is ...

As I remember, we called this "Interlanguage" in our Master courses and I always thought it was useful term. A place where you are between learning the language and knowing the language. It makes sense in parenting. You wouldn't expect your child to speak perfectly and just know they are going to sa...

Right on. I wonder Janie, if you have had the kind of formal English literature education that one of my profs calls, "The Cementary Model" (Ronald Tharp from Santa Cruz, USA). The students sit in rows with the teacher in front and read one at a time around the room, knowing which portion they wil r...

Yep, I have it in writing from no less than three psychologists and a psyhcological tester and am sure you could get personal testimonies from my mother, husband, two sons and students. Of course, having it myself, I don't take it too seriously. I have a theory (which I am hestitant to espouse after...

I don't know how to use those cute Smilies or I would put the blushing one in, but seriously, I don't come near to what you all are writing here. I am learning all the time from all of you and yet I have been teaching for sooooo long. I think I write here because I am frustrated at not being able to...