its-teachers

What Do You Do When?

In WDYDW (What do you do when...?) you can post your questions or dilemmas together with answers or suggestions for other teachers.

Click here to ask a new question.
(N.B. All new messages are approved by The Editor before they appear on this page.)

	Students who hate each other! Friday, May 25, 2007 9:22:13 PM What do you do when adult students refuse to get on with each other? [ Reply ]

Teaching adults aged somwhere over 50 and... Tuesday, January 30, 2007 9:59:26 PM with quite different background, social levels and english knowledge? I'm supposed to teach them business english in two months! Ok, it is a monday thru friday 8 hours a day course, but still... The only two things they have in common are age and a long unemployment, both subjects which I would not dare to touch in class. I just cannot manage to get them working and the intent of leaving german out of the class has proved to be futile. I've been teaching for almost 20 years, and it is the first time I just don't know how to handle a class... frustrating idea... Any helping thoughts out there?? [ Reply ]

Re: Teaching adults aged somwhere over 50 and... Friday, March 02, 2007 1:08:19 PM I have a similar problem and recently found that my most successful class ever with them was when teaching the structure "There was" - they just love talking about personal experience! Things were so different back then - I am now working on a series of topics that will involve the students bringing their personal touch to the lessons. [ Reply ]

Teenagers! Thursday, September 21, 2006 4:04:58 AM Hi, I am teaching in Japan - a first time teacher, and at two difficult Junior highs. My problem is, at 15 yrs old, these city kids are `too cool for school` and find ANY activity uncool, boring and they will not participate on any level....I want to introduce topics that may peak their interest, like music, break dancing etc...but their level of English is pretty non existant, and the teachers want me to stick to boring games and self intro. HELP! Any ideas or tried and tested lesson plans for this situation?!? Many thanks! [ Reply ]

Re: Teenagers! Tuesday, October 03, 2006 7:18:08 PM Ask them for activities and topics of interest. They probably like to choose their own ways of learning. But, do not accept any suggestion. This would be a good idea if the whole class enjoy with the proposal. If their proposals doesn't suit you try to adjust them to your own possibilities. [ Reply ]

Re: Teenagers! Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:10:31 PM Hi there Sth I tried out with a class that sounds similar to yours was a series of song presentations. They could choose a song (in English, of course) and present it to the class. They had to create an exercise based on the song (preferably not every group takes recourse to the same old tedious gap-fill) and do the exercise with the rest of the class. They also had to tell the class why they chose that particular song, what they like about it etc, as well as provide some (interesting) information on the singer / band. My students really liked that because they could choose their music style (as a teacher, it can be rather frustrating to try and find sth that matches their taste). One huge advantage, I found, was that they realised what it means to stand in front of a class, especially if the class doesn't always cooperate, which of course nobody hopes will be the case, but then again, teenagers will be teenagers Why don't you try it out? Best wishes, Franziska [ Reply ]

Re: Teenagers! Thursday, September 27, 2007 9:29:14 PM Hello! At our language school we find forming teams and then adapting activities so that they are part of a competition,goes down very well.If it's a question of making points for their team teenagers quickly get involved.Any exercise,even grammar can be fun when it's a race or'see who gets more correct ans.' Good Luck!! [ Reply ]

	Help me to study English.. Friday, June 30, 2006 1:11:48 PM I appreciate if anyone help me to studying English.. I am writing a English Diary.. but I don't know wether a sentence of my diary is correct or not.. I want anyone to correct my composition anyone give me a mail who help me.. [ Reply ]

Re: Help me to study English.. Tuesday, October 03, 2006 7:26:58 PM Is your diary for your personal pleasure? Then, don't worry too much about your grammar. The important thing is that you practise everyday. The idea of a diary is great. If you really want to do better then check dictionaries or show your doubts to anyone that knows English. Good luck [ Reply ]

	Blind Student Wednesday, April 05, 2006 7:51:37 PM Hi. I´m a teacher in Brazil and I´ve just started teaching this student who is blind. He hasn´t learned Braille yet He uses the computer to study because he has a software which reads the lessons for him. The problem is that he doesn´t understand what is being read. How could I help him, do you have any idea? Thanks a lot. [ Reply ]

Re: Blind Student Tuesday, October 03, 2006 7:31:52 PM You can help him to find other programs with translations (English-Brazilian or Brazilian-English). Or maybe you can spend some time to share some conversation in English with him. [ Reply ]

Different Levels Tuesday, March 21, 2006 7:37:24 PM What do you do when the levels of knowledge inside the group varies from not knowing simple grammatical constructions as "What's this"...to mastering The Past Simple? I mean,new children come with new level,sometimes very low level, and I am not allowed to divide them into 2 or more groups. And I can't pay attention to every single student in the period of 45 minutes..Maybe you know how to deal with them? Thank you. [ Reply ]

Re: Different Levels Monday, May 01, 2006 5:35:18 PM One way of dealing with this is to teach content based lessons (or CLiL lessons). Instead of focussing on grammar choose a topic that will interest the kids and teach a lesson where the focus is on the subject/content rather than the language. The kids will pick up language as you go along (a bit like we do when we're learning our L1). The beauty of this is that it is far easier to cater for different levels. Adrian Tennant [ Reply ]

	Board Pain Sunday, January 29, 2006 7:41:57 PM Hi. I am having problems with pains in my arm and I think it's because of all the boardwork I'm doing. Do other teachers have the same problem? Is it like repetitive strain injury? And what can I do to stop it getting worse? Isabel Howlett [ Reply ]

Re: Board Pain Sunday, February 05, 2006 9:33:24 PM Boardwork is great, but there are a number of ways around you having to do all of it. Firstly, if you know some of the things you'll write beforehand and you've got an OHP then write it out on a OHT. This is especially good if it's material (i.e. word lists) that you're likely to use again. Secondly, do you have to do all the writing? Why not ask the students to come up and write things out on the board? This is great for involving them, checking spelling, getting them to practise writing and lots of other things as well + reduces the amount you have to do. Adrian Tennant Nottingham [ Reply ]

	Chaos in the Computer Room Wednesday, January 25, 2006 3:45:49 PM My students want to go to the computer room, but I worry that they will only spend the time chatting on MSN and playing games. What do you do to stop them? [ Reply ]

Re: Chaos in the Computer Room Sunday, January 29, 2006 7:40:00 PM I visited a computer room the other day and wondered if it would be a good idea to place a large mirror at the back of the class at an agle so the teacher at the front of the class can see what the students are looking at on their computers. Is that viablke, do you think? [ Reply ]

Re: Chaos in the Computer Room Tuesday, January 31, 2006 10:34:37 AM Here's a four-step solution. First, talk to the computer technician person. Get them to block access to messenger sites (and popular mail sites too). Second, give the students a focused task for the computer room and do this in the normal classroom. Third, give them a time limit to finish the task. Fourth, every once inawhile, reward the class with free internet time, but find a series of websites with English games. [ Reply ]

Re: Chaos in the Computer Room Tuesday, January 31, 2006 10:59:54 AM I find that if you set a clear and motivating task in the computer room your students will usually be motivated to complete it. It is normally better to set the task up in the classroom, send them into the computer room to complete the task with a challenging time limit, then bring them back to the classroom to use the information they have gathered. The visit to the multimedia room should be seen as a kind of means to an end. Be careful not have them in there for long periods of time with no clear task. I have seen this happen before with disastrous results. Good luck! [ Reply ]

Re: Chaos in the Computer Room Tuesday, January 31, 2006 11:04:31 AM I find that if you set a clear and motivating task in the computer room your students will usually be motivated to complete it. It is normally better to set the task up in the classroom, send them into the computer room to complete the task with a challenging time limit, then bring them back to the classroom to use the information they have gathered. The visit to the multimedia room should be seen as a kind of means to an end. Be careful not have them in there for long periods of time with no clear task. I have seen this happen before with disastrous results. Good luck! Mark McKinnon, Barcelona [ Reply ]

[ Page 1  2   3  ]