My Pet Teacher

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas While slang and idioms may not be essential to clear communication, especially when their meanings are very different from their packaging, they do communicate something more subtle: ‘I’m trying to observe the nuances of your language to better connect with you’. Slang lets you come across as casual, intimidating, clever, or whimsical in ways that straightforward language can’t. FluentU English Educating Blog puts it this way: “Teaching Idioms Is Teaching Fluency”. Communicating your personality is easier when you are more fluent, or at least when you have more idioms under your belt. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bailey N. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences In a writing classroom, instruction in proper pronoun use is typically limited to a short lesson on pronoun agreement. The pronoun must agree with the antecedent in both gender and quantity. Apart from this, pronouns are not seen as worth much class time; they are assumed to be uncomplicated aspects of the writing process. Many teachers will overlook pronoun disagreement in student writing with the assumption that there are writing errors that are more urgent than instruction in the finer details of pronoun agreement (e.g. the “correct” pairing of the singular “everyone” with the singular “he/she” rather than the colloquial-singular “they”). Pronouns are assumed to be easy to ascribe to others and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas My teaching journey has started when I decided to study science education at university because since I was a child, I’d loved to teach and to learn, to share knowledge and to understand the world around me. There I could learn a lot about didactics, learning theories and psychology, teaching methods, and many other human sciences, in addition to several hours of internship at elementary schools and kindergarten. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Aline S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. During my time at university, I had an opportunity to go abroad and study for one semester in the USA, in a state university, with Americans...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas ‘Teacher, Can we please have a class outdoors?’ this question was asked by a lot of my students, and ‘No’ was my typical answer. Why do students want to have an outdoor session? Is it really useful? What outdoor activities could be done to help when teaching English? These questions ran through my mind every time one of my students asked me to have a class outdoors. So, I decided to find answers to these questions. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ahmed A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Why teach outside at all? It is known that students like variety and diversity. Of course, some students enjoy the typical in-class...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Most of us take being able to read for granted. We seldom give a thought to how the process of learning to read began in our lives. I am sure most of us will not even recall the age we began to read. For many learners experiencing some form of learning difficulty, this may seem like a mountain with no peak. I am writing this essay based on my experience of having worked with learners ranging from those with various learning challenges to those with extreme learning disabilities. One thing I have learned over the years is that giving up on a child is never an option. One is forced to think creatively and innovatively to address the challenge. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lynne C. Please...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I, as an out of school English teacher, have been teaching English in China for about one year. My students are coming from elementary schools or middle schools. The teaching is one to one. The background and personality of my students are various. Some students are very interested in learning English and want to take extra courses to improve their English proficiency. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nan W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Some students feel having more challenges in grammar, vocabulary or speaking. Some students are not interested in learning English but have to learn it due to the pressure from school...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning a new language has always been a challenge given the strong motivation of some people to communicate with others and to make friends from different countries and cultures all over the world. The most important thing when learning a new language is both grammar and the vocabulary part, as we cannot have a conversation without the proper vocabulary in a certain field or situation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Valeria T. Whenever we plan to teach new vocabulary to students, we have to take into consideration many aspects given the fact that nowadays there are so many techniques and methods that make a teacher’s life easier than before, like access to the internet, resources,...  [Read more]

Anna Domiczek TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Preschool curriculum or lesson plan designed for English language learners should incorporate several basic and common themes. Those popular themes created for young learners will introduce students to new, interesting vocabulary words and phrases. Learning about animals, clothing, food, family, shapes, colors, numbers, or daily activities makes students deeply engaged in learning. They are discovering the world around them versus memorizing/repeating abstract words and phrases. Thanks to such theme-based lessons, English language students genuinely engage with the content being taught and make real-life connections while developing new...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Stories provide a natural and relevant context for the exposure to English language and storytelling built on the children’s innate capacity for fantasy and imaginative play, making it an essential aspect to be integrated into language lessons. Beyond just language skills, students are also able to acquire critical thinking skills such as predicting, hypothesizing, categorizing, sequencing, and inferring meaning through various storytelling activities. Stories are also used to enhance children’s concentration skills and develop moral and emotional intelligence by teaching students to empathize with the characters in the story. Storytelling can be extended to include activities for children to retell, act out,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 7 years ago, when I was just starting my career as a teacher, I asked myself: what my role as a teacher is. After all these years I could finally admit that I managed to define the most important teacher's role for myself. I’ve been teaching at international preschools and kindergartens as a Homeroom Teacher, and for me, the most crucial and broad role is to create a positive classroom atmosphere, which implies the standards, the mood, and attitudes, that make nurturing learning environment. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mariia E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Positive classroom atmosphere feels warm and safe, welcoming...  [Read more]