Leo’s teaching confessions

  As I mentioned on my second post, most of Chinese students are not even interested in learning their major and they are at the university studying what they do not like because their parents forced them to do so . Like many Asians parents, they push their children to choose careers that permit them obtain high salaries jobs in order to provide for their families. Due to the lack of interest in studying , some students are playing online games (online gaming is becoming such a serious problem in China that it is considered like "electronic heroin". There are even boot camps for teenagers to treat this kind of addiction), chatting with their friends on their phones or even sleeping during classes. As it can be perceived, motivating Chinese students to be involved during English classes is a real challenge . Harmer, J (1998) says that “Teacher are not, however, ultimately responsible for their students’ motivation. They can only encourage by word and deed...

The other day I was listening to the radio, when I heard the news about Einstein giving two advice-filled notes to a bellboy as a tip because Albert was short on cash. One of the notes says “a calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness” the other one says “ where there’s a will there’s a way .” Those sentences have been in my head for weeks, especially the second one. If a person is willing to do something, that person will try their best to make it work. If a student is motivated, feels the need to learn, he or she will seek the means. With this in mind, I consider that motivation is a key factor that influences students’ disposition to work inside the classroom. As Drexler (2010) states “ A student’s success depended upon his or her motivation but also greatly on the strategic guidance of the teacher .”        Honestly, I really never realized how much I motivate my students , I prob...

Practice definitely makes you better , however, I think that the right kind of practice is essential, being able to choose the right tools that maximise the practice itself. My main goal is to have students practicing their oral English as much as possible, inside and outside the classroom providing the right tools.   Bax (2011) states that there are five stages in order to have an effective educational practice to know: 1.      Access to and interact with sources of information. 2.      Participation and interaction with others, which includes a social and even an emotional dimension. 3.      Expert intervention and scaffolding through planning, feedback and advice constantly checking that learning is taking place. 4.      Expert modelling.   5.      Challenge and contradiction from an expert and other learners.  As it can be seen the social ...

I like trying new things very often, visiting new places, experiencing new cultures, meeting new people, tasting new food and also new ways of teaching. I strongly believe that when someone wants to achieve something good, it is necessary to get out of the comfort zone and take risks. When you try something new, you get experience and you will be able to learn from those experiences and make wiser decisions. In teaching, I think that most of us are afraid of trying something new because we are content in our comfort zone and since most of our methods have worked so well during so many years, why would we change them? If teachers have already prepared all their lessons and they have taught them for so many years, why would they prepare new lessons? If our students spend too many hours with their phones and probably know more about technology than us, why would we bother to use technology to teach?   Prensky (2009) stated “Digital wisdom means not just ma...

Hi there Before starting I want to thank all you for taking some of your time to read my blog . It is really important to me that you do it and give me feedback about it. The idea is that you all can contribute to make this blog better. This week reading, in my master, was about four different myths about technology and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) by Blake, R. (2008). To known: technology is monolithic, technology constitutes a methodology, today’s technology is all we need to know and technology will replace teachers. But what is educational technology? Is it understood as internet exercises or online exercises only? Is it just restricted to online services?   What is the difference between a “traditional” teacher and a “modern” teacher? Is it being innovative just about technology? Is it being a "traditional" teacher the one who does not use the cutting-edge technologies in their classes?   Technology is monolithic I stated in my p...