Favorite Things About English Class

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Establishing rapport in the classroom is essential if you are going to have a successful class. In this paper, I will examine some of my classroom experience and compare my successful classes to my less-successful classes. In doing so, I hope to make an observation about “best practices” that I can implement in my English teaching. Along with using my own experience, I will be talking with other teachers that I know and using the provided text that I have been given for this course. The three areas I will focus on are: Beginning the course, student participation, and being positive. Beginning the Course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Taylor C. How a teacher begins a course will...  [Read more]

Karah Musani Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Teaching children can be challenging. If you’re teaching an adult, chances are, they’re there because they want to learn. Most children, however, would much rather be watching their favorite TV show, so it’s important to make the class fun and engaging. One of the best ways to do this is with a reward system. Plan a reward system with 4 to 6 rewards and give one to the student periodically throughout the class when they have done a good job. You can use this to reinforce good behavior and to encourage the student to try harder so that they get more rewards. All of my reward systems rely on a whiteboard the students can see. The rewards will be placed on the whiteboard. Here...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas “Learning is not a game, although you learn by playing” When we teach it is not only a matter of writing on the board and expecting the students to absorb all the information and knowledge we have, it’s a matter of thinking and sharing what we know with the students. The best way of doing this is by connecting with them through games. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Juan G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As a teacher, I believe that games bring you a methodology for teaching and it aids the student to be motivated in class. There are some teachers that avoid using games and playful dynamics often because they are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As babies and toddlers, learning a language is a natural thing. We listen, watch, learn, and eventually try speaking for ourselves. We make many mistakes. As a toddler, mistakes are adorable. Our parents, siblings, and grandparents can't get enough of our attempts at language. However, as we get older, mistakes are no longer cute and can become somewhat embarrassing, causing us to fear trying new things. This fear can make learning a new language particularly difficult as we get older. As teachers of foreign languages, it is important to help our students feel comfortable trying new things and even making mistakes. If our students can feel confident, even when they are wrong, they won't be afraid to try. This...  [Read more]

Mudita Yajnik TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Classroom setup is an important part of setting up a welcoming and friendly environment. It is the foundation on which a teacher can build strong relationships with their students, and build a more student-centered class while incorporating their passions into their work. The way a classroom is set up is a great first impression for students, which means it’s important for teachers to put in an effort to make their classroom a welcoming environment. Moreover, a fun classroom set up can reflect your personality or what you’re passionate about as a teacher, and it can be a fun way to introduce yourself to the students. Even having speakers so that you can play music in the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In this essay, I am going to talk about how students can be motivated, more specifically, how to encourage shy or reluctant students to participate in class discussions. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bertram R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. With the possible exception of mental "problems" such as being a mute, most of the time I find that a student who is unwilling to talk is either not confident in their abilities, or waiting for somebody else to answer the question. Also Read: The Benefits and Pitfalls when Teaching One-on-One What I have found to be a good way of encouraging students to talk who are shy is to teach...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Throughout this course, my favorite units have been the ones that teach us how to lead an effective lesson and have a fun classroom environment. I love all the suggestions and teaching ideas they give, and it excites me to think about using those for my future lessons. For that reason, I chose the topic of five activities with flashcards. This essay will be a perfect opportunity for me to delve further into my favorite part of this class and plan some fun things to do. When I move abroad I plan on teaching young children, mainly kindergarten-aged, so my five activities will be geared towards young learners. They need way more energy, fun, and excitement in their lessons than teenage or adult learners because their...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Having a good relationship with your students has many benefits as a teacher. They will become more interested in your lesson, they will learn a lot more and it creates an overall comfortable classroom environment for both the teacher and the students. However, it’s often easier said than done to build rapport with those in your class. So how do you do it? This article highlights the 5 best ways to build rapport with your TEFL students. Our TEFL certification courses also teach you useful techniques and methods to further build rapport for your students. We’ve all had that teacher or professor who doesn’t bother learning our name and just goes around calling everyone “you”. Did you enjoy taking their...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When starting any class, if you expect that your students will be motivated to learn a new language, at first, you have to be primarily motivated and enthusiastic. We have seen that we can have self-motivated students and also reluctant students, it’s the teacher’s role to make the best to involve providing an interesting and pleasant class when you show passion to the subject that you are teaching, it can be contagious for most students, who will model your positive behavior. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Thamiris M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Your approach and your attitude in class will reflect on the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have experience in Childhood development. I’ve taught over twenty plus years. My experience ranges from infants to school-age children. I have always taught three-year-olds and up. For almost two years, I have had the pleasure of working with children that are 18 months to 24 months old. I am the Lead teacher for our Toddler program. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Judy N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Although working in a private preschool has helped me in childhood development, learning strategies are also important. The courses that I have taken have helped me learn so much. One of the most important things to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas hy is learning proper teaching skills necessary, you ask? I'll tell you why! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joshua D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. At the moment, I am teaching at a training school in Changsha, Hunan, China. I came to China with no previous teaching knowledge and no desire to teach or plan any suitable lessons. After my almost two years of teaching, a lot has changed. I now know how to manage my unruly classes properly, plan lessons, be assertive and patient and friendly when needed, and much much more. Secondly, the difference...  [Read more]

Prachi and Morgan from AlienEating Destinations Alumni Experiences Teaching. It's frustrating, exhausting, and a whole lot of kid wrangling. It's also rewarding, eye-opening and will give you more patience than you ever thought possible. I had no idea how much went into this job. One day when I'm in Forbes 30 Under 30, I'm going to personally send a tower of Ferrero Rocher to every teacher in the world. This job is a huge responsibility and it's more difficult than I ever imagined. I urge everyone to dip a toe into the teaching world at least once. I've taught English in South Korea for two years now in both the open countryside and bustling city. It may not seem like there's too much of a difference, but there are a few things...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Until now, I have been an English teacher for 6 months. Before that, in 2016 I was a teaching assistant. That is my part-time job. And this is a journey even though I have not yet taken a TESOL class but I am still confident that I can become a teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tieu T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For the first half of the year, I was an assistant tutor for the preschool. I had very little contact with kids before so I was very confused at the time. I told the teacher that I couldn't make them obey. She is a master of special needs education. She told me to play with them and not to care about...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I started my teaching career in 2016. I was an international student in London, doing a part-time job as a private Mandarin tutor for covering my living cost. In London, I was teaching Mandarin for young learners, age between 3-15-year-old from 2016-2018. After I came back to my country in 2019, I have started to teach English for Kindergarten students age between 3-8-year-old in a private English School. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nina S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I started to be a private Mandarin tutor, I did not have any teaching experience. The reason that made me decide to teach young learners was...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Ever since I was a little girl, education has been a huge part of my life. My mother was a teacher at the elementary school I attended and also taught me and my sisters Japanese after school in our home. I have always been inquisitive, constantly asking questions to my parents and teachers about topics I was interested in and about things I didn't quite understand. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kim S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I always enjoyed learning and loved the feeling of accomplishment when I received high scores on tests and other assignments. My favorite subjects were reading, writing, and spelling....  [Read more]

Carrie Kellenberger Visa and Legal TEFL Information Learning how to answer common questions in an ESL interview is easy if you’ve researched and prepared in advance, even if you’ve never had a formal job interview before. Before we head into answering the top 15 most asked questions in a TEFL interview, there are a few things to check off your to-do list before interviewing: 1. Tell me a little about yourself. This is an icebreaker question that gives you the opportunity to sell yourself. Be positive and tell the interviewer about your good points, especially the parts of your personality that make you a good teacher. Explain why you are interested in moving abroad to teach and focus on the care and attention you will give...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The idea behind writing this essay is to highlight the importance of a teacher’s rapport among the students. Rapport forms the basis of meaningful, close and harmonious relationships between teacher and the students. Connection senses that you get when you meet them. It is the bond that forms when you discover that you share one another's values and priorities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Syed M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The rapport among the students means an excellent relationship between the teacher and the learners. Rapport is important for all kinds of learning environments. A good rapport among the class...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Abraham F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teaching tools used for learners: One bucket with nontoxic learner-approved clay. Each bucket of clay will have five sticks, each stick a different color. Paper plates matching the color of the clay. Scissors and crayons. Learner approved audio about a rainbow song. The object is to gain the learners' attention. The learning environment created will be interesting, fun, and relaxed. Class level - children between the ages of 8 – 10 class volume 10 learners. Learners will be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In this summative task, I'll describe the best thing I've learned from my TEFL/TESOL course. Firstly I would like to state that the lesson planning learning was the best part of this course for me. For this task, I will include the methods of planning that I have learned about in this course such as materials, songs and movement, and also a short lesson plan I have come up with myself. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lorna A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The best part throughout this course I have learned how important lesson planning can be and how being organized and prepared for a lesson is. Disorganization can...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Nowadays the ESA method is used all over the world to teach English. ESA is the first letters of the phases of an English language lesson. These three elements are; Engage, Study and Activate. The classic method only included study phase. It wasn’t important to teach how to speak the foreign language in the past. However, it is a big issue now. It is hard to improve speaking skills in a country where English isn’t the first language as the students aren’t surrounded by English and don’t have the opportunity to practice realistic situations. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Safak İ. Although it isn’t advised to use authentic materials for beginners, it is good to use them for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Paying attention to the big classroom is quite challenging but can be achieved. During my high school days, we were more than 50 in class. Orderliness was almost impossible considering the number of students that didn't receive proper attention. The approach used by my teachers then was effective to a certain extent. The Teacher would call on random individuals to answer questions, especially those that sit at the back( in order to avoid being picked on). The random approach had its disadvantages also, as it created fear in students struggling in his/her studies. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Olugbenga O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas It is a tough task to master management skills for any age, especially the younger ones. Most activities for young learners are games and songs that require an exciting, fun atmosphere for students and an energetic teacher. Therefore, in order to produce a good lesson with lots of fun but still to keep students in the discipline, the teacher must work harder and be very careful and clever in any situation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Trang Nguyen D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The teacher takes part as a leader, guide, and monitor to manage all activities as well as how much fun/excitement or quietness should be in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As human beings, motivation is one of the most important components to succeed ultimately, anything. If an individual is not motivated, the likelihood to succeed merely diminishes. This pertains to a person's personal life, academic life, and professional life. Motivation is the root of success, and this is why motivating the students in an ESL classroom holds such importance. To motivate students, the teacher must determine the student's intrinsic goals and desires, help students define their goals, create a positive and friendly climate, and encourage each student. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Paige L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences We must up our game as ESL teachers in the 21st century – both figuratively and literally. I use games to engage students and promote learning in my classroom for a wide range of learning objectives. Below is a short list of icebreaker games that I regularly use in my classroom, and I will discuss the learning target(s) that each game aims to facilitate and deliver as well as the context in which the game is used. Since I work with high school age and adult students, the games are geared for English Language Learners in these age groups. As learning communities become more globalized and data give more information on how people learn, one major challenge I find with gamifying learning in the ESL classroom is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas One of my favorite aspects of teaching is the role of the teacher in the classroom. To some, the role of the teacher is only to teach people information that they then regurgitate during a later exam. However, to me, teaching is a fascinating profession because a teacher is many things to many different students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Derek G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The most prominent role of a teacher is the conveyor of information. Whether the class is about learning a second language, mathematical equations, or writing a screenplay, the teacher is there because he or she has enough of an understanding...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my opinion, classroom management is the most important part of teaching. Classroom Management does not have only the skill of organizing and managing but also a relaxing manner. It is a critical skill. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Huyen P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Simply put, classroom management refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to ensure that their classroom runs smoothly, without disruptive behavior from students. According to me, it boils down to having a structured learning environment with clear rules that promote learning as well as consequences that diminish or...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The game we are talking about here is not only something we do to make students play and laugh but also a kind of activity with some certain purpose that serves teaching contents. It can also be called teaching techniques. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiangnan G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. No matter what age are your students at, they won’t refuse to have some fun games while learning language knowledge seriously. Adult learners have spent most of the day working or dealing with other life problems, they still need to have some classes apart from their work, so undoubtedly they will appreciate it if they can have...  [Read more]

Mary Blancaflor Alumni Experiences I have been teaching English to local and foreign students and for the most part, I noticed that no matter how much the learners would like to polish their English, some things hinder them to accomplish their goal in speaking the language. Studying a foreign language in a non-native speaking country requires more discipline and motivation. Learning a foreign language is not acquired overnight. It has to undergo a specific type of training and the amount of time to learn. For this reason, I came up with a list of why students find it hard to learn a foreign language and what they must do. Students who feel afraid to commit a mistake never learn. It's easy to understand the fear that might envelop the learner...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Children learn fast, that is a fact. Learning a language is their natural skill, which they are born with. We all have gone through that process. There is no teacher needed to teach a kid how to speak, there is no teacher needed to teach a kid how to pronounce e.t.c. Mothers and fathers are not teachers, but they teach their kids how to speak, or maybe kids learn by themselves? In my opinion, communication is one of the very basic needs, which comes naturally. Children need to talk to their mothers, fathers and other people who are around them. Speaking is a result of listening and observing – in this case, family members. Kids learn from people in their environment, that is why it becomes so popular to hire a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Storytelling in the classroom can seemingly be one of the most diverse and engaging ways to help students learn English as a second language. Storytelling for the purposes of this essay is a broad term that I am using to refer not only to students telling stories about what they did on the weekend for example but also using existing stories that are well known and loved, for example, Harry Potter or the Lion King. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jamie S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. With appropriate facilitation, a student can turn a basic conversation about how many people they have in their family, into a story...  [Read more]