Comments on: Eight Quick Tips

By: TEFL Blog roundup

TEFL Blog roundup — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:36:41 +0000

[...] Eight Quick Tips – Talk to the Clouds: Teaching, speaking, reading, pondering English [...]

By: Clarissa

Clarissa — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:14:04 +0000

Oh, my, is that kinako cream cheese frosting over on your blog? You’re singing my song!

By: Girl Japan

Girl Japan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:41:05 +0000

So glad to have stumbled upon your blog.. I did follow you from another Japan blogger, hope you don’t mind, love your tips.. I did the whole teaching scene, then finally went to the uni and now working on our cafe/school… keep the tips coming.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:42:35 +0000

Thank you for some really nice tips.

By: Clarissa

Clarissa — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:26:16 +0000

Thanks, Mohammed. It’s often a struggle for me to wait long enough, but I’ve asked people who’ve observed my teaching, and they said even when it felt like an eternity to me, it was still just a brief pause. Our anxiousness can make that time feel so long! It’s true; if we just wait, a lot more
of the students’ creativity will have a chance to make its way out…

By: Mohammed Rhalmi

Mohammed Rhalmi — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:06:42 +0000

Nice tips, especially, “the cutdown suggestion”. Probably because of our tendency to hasten a response we miss an opportunity to let students work independently, be creative and come up with original ideas. The tip is particularly useful when giving students pbs to solve. Teachers have just to wait… Thank you Clarissa

By: Clarissa

Clarissa — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:32:19 +0000

Nice! I’ve had teachers who had students raise their heads or look forward, but that’s easily mistaken for just looking up or something. A finger on the paper is deliberate and hard to miss.

Maybe we could get a collection of secret signals for a future post…

By: Clarissa

Clarissa — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:29:39 +0000

Group roles are a nice thing to use for lots of reasons! Sound like that’s working well in your classroom.

By: Sputnik

Sputnik — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:21:12 +0000

Some great tips here – I really like the one about cleaning the board up and down – I would never have thought of that. Anyway, just to add to your secret signs, I still use a tip from my first teacher trainer who advised us to get students who finish an exercise/reading first to put their finger on the paper rather than shout out ‘I’ve finished!’ thereby disturbing everyone else.

By: Neil Barker

Neil Barker — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:42:21 +0000

Great tips. I like the idea of a small, whiteboard – I’d like to try this when I become a freelance teacher in a few weeks. Example ad absurdum is another one I use with my Korean adult business English students. The visualization and absurdity of a role play situation really helps reinforce vocabulary and expressions.

To get students attention, the program I teach with has a group leader/chairperson each day. For each class, the teacher usually gives them an agenda for that class, and they’re expected to manage their time. It’s interesting because other group members will often chime in and remind their chairperson, “Group leader, shouldn’t we move on to the next activity?” It takes a week or two for them to get used to the format, but it works well once it’s established.