Reach My Teach

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Establishing a rapport with my students has been the most ‘natural’ part of my teaching experience. When I started my teaching career about ten years ago, ideas like classroom management and lesson planning were alien to me. I struggled immensely trying to learn strategies to excel in that area of education. Establishing relationships with my students was easy and always seemed to just happen for me. As the years have passed, I’ve been able to reflect on my time in the classroom and I’ve discovered some common denominators relating to me why exactly students are drawn to me (and me to them!). I think other people can learn from my interactions with the students who have passed through my classroom. This...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Is it useful to read stories to my 3-years-old students? This is a question that many teachers ask themselves when considering reading in English in early childhood. Through careful self-assessment during my years of teaching experience, I have found out that reading stories in the classroom is a powerful resource when learning a new language. For starters, stories grab visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners’ attention when seeing the images and connecting words and feelings. It is also worth considering that books enrich readers’ vocabulary and strengthen their language skills. Last but not least, readers are motivated, influenced, and inspired when the stories can relate to what they experience in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The last 10 years the world have witnessed an increase in teaching English as a 2nd language, as we witness a shift in structural teaching to commutative and learning center approach, This new approach in teaching ESL to recognize the importance of ESL to the student, they suggest teaching methods and teaching techniques that help learner acquire the language in anxiety reduce environment. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ihab E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. At my age and after I reach a point in my life to star and enjoy a simpler life, my goal is to start exploring the world, share my knowledge, my time and teach...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There are many types of multiple intelligences such as (Visual intelligence-Musical intelligence – Kinesthetic intelligence – Verbal intelligence – interpersonal & intrapersonal intelligences … etc.) we must take care of our students' types and design our lesson according to their intelligences. The verbal intelligence involves knowing which comes through language. Mathematical intelligence uses numbers, math, and logic to understand any topic. Visual intelligence represents knowing through shapes, patterns, and pictures. Intrapersonal intelligence is showing people who prefer to work individually. Also, kinesthetic intelligence is based on physical movements. Interpersonal intelligence is learning...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas For the past few years, I have worked with students one on one as a tutor for a variety of subjects such as history, math, and English. I have a great deal of experience with this mode of educating where I am working with one student at a time and through this course, I have learned a few new techniques that I want to extrapolate on and discuss in this essay. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Canaan K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first concept that I liked and now want to incorporate into my tutoring sessions is the implementation of the “needs analysis” which is a test or form that allows for students to show me...  [Read more]

Alina Martinez Alumni Experiences Let's be honest, Covid sucks. It uprooted us from our daily lives, and now working from home has become the growing platform for income. I thought I would hop on the homebound train and become a Teacher for QKids! If you want to learn more, read on, my friend! My name is Teacher Alina, and I will cover the following: What is QKids, requirements, pay/scheduling, my experience so far, and conclusion! Qkids is an Online Teaching platform based in China. QKids provides everything a teacher will need to run a successful classroom from engaging characters like Koby Koala and Momo Monkey to providing many different features to guide your students along. QKids also connects Teachers with over a million young learners...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Today I would like to summative the topic " How to control yourself in front of students with challenging behaviors?" I choose this topic because, in my opinion, this can be one of the most critical things which can happen in the classroom and the short- and long term damage can be irreparable and you can easily have lost the respect and joy of the students to participate in your class. It can also cause a career-damaging impact in your life and you may also lose the joy at teaching if you are not prepared for this situation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hakan B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I would like to suggest...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my experience of teaching in an institution in South Korea, I have found one of the most vital elements to my students succeeding, is to establish a positive and comfortable environment in my classroom. To do so, it is essential that my students be highly motivated. In the following paragraphs, my aim is to show why motivating students is so important and to give examples of some of the most effective ways to do so. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Andrew B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As a teacher, one of the worst things I can imagine is a classroom full of bored, yawning students idly gazing out the window during the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences I might not have realized it before since I was busy studying and just trying to achieve my short term goals but I believe that my mother has been an inspiration for me to become a teacher. I could remember seeing kids at home being taught by my mom and she used pictures to identify certain shapes and animals. My mom was a regular housewife then. She taught only for fun and to make my brother and I be more engaged in learning things with the company of our friends, our playmates. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Marie M. I remember how I strived hard to be able to be the best in my class when I was in elementary school. My mom would always prepare review lessons for me before my periodical...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Why complete a TEFL course: As a child, I did always have a passion for English language and teaching as a profession. This desire started while I was a child, having been opportune to had lived in one of the biggest cities in my country and attended some of the good schools around, I was good in English and literature classes and my grades were always good. I exhibited a great interest in the English language, teaching and volunteering to tutor the less privileged ones amongst my family members and friends within my reach. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Suleiman Nurudeen S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. To focus on the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences This is an interesting article written by one of our TEFL alumni who shares her thoughts on the importance of observed teaching practice for ESL teachers. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Roxanne L. When I think of having my teaching observed either by an inspector or by a teacher-in-training, I think of the Christmas song, which impels its listeners, “He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!” The reason is simple, when we know we are being scrutinized, we do a better job! In reality, students observe their teachers every day, and even without expertise in the field of education, students know implicitly a good teacher from a bad teacher. Still, having your teaching (or...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is everywhere. It is the world’s lingua franca. Out of 7.5 billion people, 1.5 billion speak English and just 360 million of them are native speakers, that is to say, that English is by far the most commonly studied language. It has become the global language for business, science, technology, aviation, advertisement, cinema, music, education, and so much more. How did it become so powerful? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Philippa K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The answer lies in history – after 1945, when the world was recovering from the biggest and most horrific conflict, the United States business...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a teacher of grade 2 at an international school in Shenzhen, China, my classroom management has many components. Educators require both teaching skills and classroom management skills because strong classroom management creates a safe environment for students to learn with joy. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate YunXiang C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, a classroom agreement is a component of my classroom management plan. At the beginning of the semester, students collaborated and agreed upon the rules. Such rules included: listen when someone is speaking; respect others; be caring; no running in the hallway or...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Many Chinese students face the common problem that although they spent 10 years studying English at school, they can't pronounce an English sentence correctly, and they are not confident enough to communicate in the language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mengru W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Our students struggle to speak in English, they are good at writing and reading, but cannot speak, even though they studied the language from third to 12th grade. Most of the students also study English at a language center, but they still find it hard to completely reach the goal, even when they go to college, speaking English...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas As a child, I always wanted to be a teacher. I adored helping people, listening to different stories, and sharing my knowledge with others. Inside was a natural curiosity and burning desire to understand everything. As a young girl, I was unaware of how demanding, entertaining, and rewarding this profession can indeed be. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Khrystsina P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Today, I currently work in China as an English Teacher. Over the past year, I have realized that teaching is my calling. Therefore, I want to improve my...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas First of all, I would like to mention that I am very happy about successfully mastered units. I am sure that the acquired knowledge will help me in further work and upgrade my teaching skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Dragan M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I met the importance of teaching skills and what they mean in general at the beginning of my teaching career, a long time ago. I have to admit that at the beginning of my career, I understood the job of the teacher not quite full and in the right way, that is, what is required of me as a teacher. Already after my first classes, I realized that I would be required...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The concept of multiple intelligences was brought to the education field by Howard Gardner in his book ‘Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.’ It is one of my favorite theories that I learned about while in university and I was fortunate to attend a speech for teachers by Gardner regarding multiple intelligences. It is a theory that I applied to lesson plans, most notably for my preschool and kindergarten students to reach all of the students in some meaningful way. Teachers can employ activities and assessments that are multi-faceted and address the needs and skills of the various students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Melissa G. Please note that this blog post...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As a teacher, we often find ourselves daunted with the task of capturing our students’ interests and also equipping them for the future. Not only do we seek to train better students, but we also want to produce better citizens, workers, and future teachers. Teaching is still held the same purpose throughout all these years: bettering our future through the lives of our students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Madison R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Although our methods need to continually be more thought-provoking, entertaining and motivating, our objective has not changed. We need to incorporate storytelling into...  [Read more]

Maria del Carme Domínguez Félez TEFL Information Alumni Experiences I moved to Argentina almost 2 years ago now, and, surprisingly to most of my family and friends, I started teaching Catalan in a language school. I say “surprisingly” because they have made fun of my Catalan accent since I can remember, as it is more of a mix of accents put into one. Fun fact: you can’t really tell from which part of Catalonia I am only from listening to me. Although I try my best to speak “standard Catalan” when I teach, my accent does slip away sometimes, which makes it quite interesting. The sentence “all’s well that ends well” comes to mind in this situation. I ended up turning this into an opportunity to teach about the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This is different thoughts on this as with on one hand some people say that it makes the lesson too rigid and on the other side other people say that it is essential for every teacher to do. I have been teaching English for about 3 years now. I feel I have improved in different areas of my teaching. The area that I have noticed the biggest change in over the course of those 3 years is my lesson planning. When I started teaching I would mostly just get the topic of the lesson and then basically just teach from my head using that topic. However, after a while, I got to speak to my fellow teachers and they introduced me to the importance of lesson planning and how to do this the proper way. I began to see the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Most would say it’s an almost impossible task, one that requires a lot of patience and repetition. How are you supposed to keep their interest? How do you communicate to them efficiently despite not being physically present? Teaching children may not be an easy task, however, I believe it would be a most rewarding one. Teaching online is something that I have been keen on and would like to venture into after completing this course. We are moving into a digital world where we will all soon be connected over the internet. This is a wonderful opportunity to be able to reach and enrich the lives of children globally. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zahraa K. Please note that this blog post...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas One of the things we should remember about when coming to the classroom, that this place can become a battlefield: a battle can happen between students, between the teacher and students, with the English language, and the most difficult one - a battle with yourself. These were my thoughts when I started teaching. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yulia M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When you just start your career as a teacher you may know (in theory) or may not know (even in theory) what should you do in your first class, what kind of behavior to choose and how to react to the students’ behavior. But every mistake - no...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas During the second half of my undergraduate career, I had the opportunity to serve as an English Language Assistant (LA) at the English Language Institute (ELI) at my alma mater, the University of Florida. In this role, I worked with another LA and one faculty member (often a Linguistics professor) in leading a class of roughly 15 students every semester. One of the first pieces of information the first professor I worked with gave me was on the importance of assessments at the ELI. Students at the ELI were placed in classes based on their proficiency level in the language, which included evaluations in speaking, listening, reading and writing. The most beginner level students started at level 10 and the most...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Hello everybody, welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. My name is Liza, and today we are going to discuss an extremely important topic which is related to English teaching as a non-native teacher. Because the field is pretty competitive, many people want to find out if it is possible to stand out or not. Let's just quickly change the slide. So the reason I decided to choose this topic is that one of my regular viewers asked me about how to actually stand out as a non-native teacher, especially online. I find it is really important, so let's discuss it today and before we move on, please let me know that you can hear me and see me clearly. If...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As a teacher of English, one may need to identify some areas that are essential in teaching even though the syllabus doesn’t mention them. For instance, what to teach is suggested but not how to do that. Having taken courses in pedagogy and didactics in Sweden (in the Swedish language) was and still is highly appreciated, but I may consider the TEFL and CTEYLS courses more satisfying when it comes to investigating ways and possibilities of designing a syllabus in teaching English. Another consequence of studying these courses is that it may as well result in better understanding and improving methods of preparing the French language as well. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bassem F....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have been teaching English in Japan for 8 months now, acquiring the job solely with the qualifications of being a native speaker and having a bachelor’s degree. After 6 months of teaching with these credentials and the two weeks of initial training provided by my employers, I felt I owed it to myself and my students to complete a TEFL and receive a sounder understanding of EFL/ESL pedagogy. In this essay, I will elaborate on the benefits of the TEFL course as they apply to my own teaching experience and professional development by first providing background on my experience before the course, the practical applications of the course in my current position, and finally by addressing how the course will be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Through my experience as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan, there have been numerous difficulties and challenges my students face in learning the English language. My students are primarily between the ages of 5 and 15. These challenges involve the pronunciation difficulties the students face coming from Japanese pronunciation, as well as the methodology of teaching English in Japan They may not apply to all of Japan but are definitely prominent issues within my area. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate James W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The most commonly known challenge in learning English for Japanese people is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas What comes to mind when one thinks of an English classroom? Is it organized rows of desks filled with students writing vocabulary and grammar into their notebooks while the teacher talks in the front? This is the classic image of a classroom. A student goes to school to learn what they don’t already know. When teaching English, it can be easy to fall into the trap of rote memorization and reliance on grammar and vocabulary. However, is this method effective? Does this way of learning motivate students to become lifelong learners of a foreign language? It is less useful to teach students many things than to teach them the skills needed to...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas In any classroom, for students to successfully learn to the best of their abilities, they must be motivated to do so. If a student is not motivated to learn, they will not actively engage with the lesson, they will not focus on the information presented, and they will not retain the new material. This is why motivation is so essential for each student’s learning experience. A large part of achieving student motivation comes from the teacher inspiring this motivation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alexandria A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Motivation is defined as the desire to act or move towards a goal. Everyone has...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences ESL teachers must acknowledge that it is not equal teaching English Lessons to children, teenagers, and adults, there are some wide differences between the practices used in each case, classroom, population, levels, and country where English is taught, on this paper we will check how an ESL lesson may be affected by these variables, and how we could overlap them on the practices used in teenagers and adults English lessons. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Javier V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. To analyze all the practices and methods used in an ESL lesson differing from its population, we must clarify the first two...  [Read more]