New teacher

[chady]

Hi! I am a new english language teacher for both elementary and highschool students. I got trouble on how to teach a fun, interesting and yet effective method of teaching. I need your help.....
Thanks in advance......

Chady

[Tdol]

I think that it is the teacher not the method that makes things fun and interesting. As you develop as a teacher, you will become more confident in your teaching ability and this is your main resource. The teacher makes the course, not the method or coursebook.

[chady]

Hi! Tdol, I think you're right. Speaking of experience which I feel inadequate enough to do it. Anyway, I have much time to learn while teaching. Thanks a lot for your opinion.
But I need more suggestion, if you don't mind. What's the best book should I use for highschool students. You see, I am working in an english academy and they allow me choose which kind of material to use. Right now I am using "Side by Side" and "American Headway". Any suggestions?...
Thanks!

Chady

[Harry Smith]

Originally Posted by chady

Hi! Tdol, I think you're right. Speaking of experience which I feel inadequate enough to do it. Anyway, I have much time to learn while teaching. Thanks a lot for your opinion.
But I need more suggestion, if you don't mind. What's the best book should I use for highschool students. You see, I am working in an english academy and they allow me choose which kind of material to use. Right now I am using "Side by Side" and "American Headway". Any suggestions?...
Thanks!

Chady

Textbooks can be boring. I think it'll be better to use different kinds of material suitable to your students taste. I think Tdol will agree with me. Though there are some not many very good textbooks for learning grammar and vocabulary.

[peaceful80]

Originally Posted by Harry Smith

Textbooks can be boring. I think it'll be better to use different kinds of material suitable to your students taste. I think Tdol will agree with me. Though there are some not many very good textbooks for learning grammar and vocabulary.

peaceful80:
hi everybody:firstly i am a student and i will take my degree this year in english.So i decide to enter to the domain of teaching ;could u please direct me to some instructions and advices that can help me as a beginner in this field.to add to your knowledge english in morocco we teach as a second language after french.
any instructions or comments.thank you

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by chady

Hi! Tdol, I think you're right. Speaking of experience which I feel inadequate enough to do it. Anyway, I have much time to learn while teaching. Thanks a lot for your opinion.
But I need more suggestion, if you don't mind. What's the best book should I use for highschool students. You see, I am working in an english academy and they allow me choose which kind of material to use. Right now I am using "Side by Side" and "American Headway". Any suggestions?...
Thanks!

Chady

I'm honestly not the best person to ask as I teach academic English, so I haven't used a coursebook like that for a long time. If you don't have much experience, then using a fairly standard textbook like either of those is a good idea as they are easy to use and have reasonable back-up, but I would start bringing in materials from other sources to try and see what suits you best and mixing them into the course.

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by peaceful80

peaceful80:
hi everybody:firstly i am a student and i will take my degree this year in english.So i decide to enter to the domain of teaching ;could u please direct me to some instructions and advices that can help me as a beginner in this field.to add to your knowledge english in morocco we teach as a second language after french.
any instructions or comments.thank you

Try exploring here a bit: http://www.usingenglish.com/links/

[Teaching English Games]

If you have internet access and a printer you can access loads of free flash cards and with these using games you can run entire lessons - particularly with beginners to lower intermediate.
I have taught mostly with no course book (although I'm not against them at all), exclusively using games just with a few picture cards. I'm not a big fan of making zillions of photocopies anyway!
Even if you don't have picture cards you can have your students make some as long as you at least have pencil and paper.
To make your life easy it's good if you follow a course book anyway, to save you worrying about which language to teach, but you teach the language in that course book with games, and not using the book itself - it's just your guide.
Also, if you are not using games as a substantial part of your teaching with children then I truly believe that this is the way forward. The way I have been teaching (and many others like me), is truly revolutionary compared to what I experienced in school (not THAT long ago!)
My own experiences with this have been very rewarding, with children coming to learn from me in their free time, and wanting to continue, missing me when I was gone, etc.
Kind regards,
Shelley
Receive free games and ideas to make teaching children more fun on: www.teachingenglishgames.com

[Lisa Marie]

Hi,

I'm no teacher but a student and I hope it is ok to give an advice to you,
because I think I know what's a good teacher.

I agree with every advice above. And it is very very important to be nice liberal but the students shouldn't be allowed to do anything they want to. It is up to you to make the course.

So be nice but tough and you can't make anything wrong.

Good luck

[Sunflower34]

Hi Lisa Marie!

I quite agree with you...
I found it very interesting the fact that being you a student you are able to say that!
I'm a teacher. I teach English as a foreign language and also Portuguese (my native language) and I think that being a teacher nowadays is a very complex matter... We must be understanding, nice, sincere, correct... really trying to be ourselves... but, on the other hand, we also need to be tough and not letting the students do what they want. I quite agree with you. So we also need to change roles constantly! It's really a demanding job! Even more when we are facing great changes... and our educational system is failing day-by-day... And this is the biggest problem!!

Greetings from Portugal!