Jan 02

PASSIONATE TEACHING GUIDE

Posted on January 2, 2012 by rida

GUIDE FOR PASSIONATE TEACHING

By Rida Afrilyasanti

teaching with passion

teaching with passion

  1. Teaching is not only about motivating your students to learn but it is also helping and teaching them how to learn in meaningful and memorable way.
  2. Teaching also means serving, helping your students get the best of you. Therefore, enrich yourself by reading sources, joining some trainings and seminars, being active in teacher communities or forums, consulting with and assisting practitioners. You have to make yourself be at the leading edge. Keeping the balance between enriching yourself with theories and practices.
  3. Teaching means listening, encouraging, and engaging all your students to be active in your teaching and learning process. If your class is a ship, your students are the owner of the ship and you are the captain of the ship, so let your students own the class and be active in the activities involved. Your students in a class are varied and you have to recognize their individual characteristics. You have to be able to elicit and develop the oral communication skills of your quite students. Prepare your students to meet the needs of this era and regain their competitive improvements in a quickly changing world; help your students to have good communication skills, respect others and be professional.
  4. Being flexible in your teaching. Don’t be afraid to make new experiments in your teaching. Match your lesson plan with the curriculum standard and your students’ needs and interest.
  5. Your teaching must be interactive and entertaining; however, you have to still keep on the track, do not miss the substance you have to teach.
  6. Enriching your teaching by adding some humor. Humor can be a very effective ice break besides games. It moreover can release the learning tense and create more relaxed atmosphere.
  7. Investing your time for the success of your teaching. Have some times to develop yourself as well as your course design, lesson plan, materials, activities, and instructions. Help your students to develop both, their talents and minds.
  8. Celebrating your students’ success on their learning. Rewarding your students with praise and encouragement. Give feedback on your students’ work and remediate the skills that they are still poor at.
  9. Always noting down your teaching on teacher journal. This will remind you on your teaching, which activities and methods you need to improve and which one is effective to be applied for your students. Remediate your poor teaching by joining some trainings and personal development programs.
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Jan 01

TESOL PROFESSIONAL GUIDE

Posted on January 1, 2012 by rida

TESOL GRADUATE STUDENTS AND NEW TESOL TEACHERS: GUIDE TO DEVELOP PROFESSIONALISM

BY: RIDA AFRILYASANTI

professional development

professional development

Professional development is really needed by TESOL teachers especially for those who just graduate from master TESOL or still barely new in TESOL. Professional development will make you to be competent professionals who in turn, can navigate a competitive job market. Here are things you have to do in order to develop your professionalism:

  1. Develop your professional and leadership skills by joining or constructing TESOL association in which you can share and get ideas about teaching as well as be encouraged to take responsible leadership roles while practicing your skills.
  2. Establish a professional resource center. Resource center will help you and your members with important information so that you can still stay abreast of professional issues. Important information that has to be available there include: TESOL information, information on job opportunities, resume file, conference proposal file, and professional development opportunities. In addition, you need to be connected with other professional associations, for instance NAFSA, AAAL
  3. Get effective contact with university. It is always good to have your previous professors know and observe your performance so that they can help you with reference letter. Moreover, by still having contact with the university, there will be much more opportunities for you to gain your minimal teaching experience and implement what you have already learned in your graduate schools. What you can do is by looking for opportunities within the university community to give your service in order to add plus points on your education profession and build your credentials. You can give your service by becoming an adviser to one of the international student organizations, or assisting with international student orientation.
  4. Join and be active in a professional association, such as TESOL, NAFSA. This is the important thing you can do to improve your professionalism.
  5. Attend some conferences. Attending conferences accommodate you with relevant information and resources. This also gives you opportunities for networking. Furthermore, this will be must better if you can also present your ideas in the conferences. If you are still not confident to share individually, you can start with collaborative works. Start with local conferences and information that you know will be helpful for others to be employed in their classroom. Presenting in conferences can help you be a committed professional who can disseminate relevant information to others.

In short, the most important thing that you have to do is to document every professional development you have ever joined. Your commitment to professional development will make you more attractive and marketable to potential employers.

Get other information on: Online TEFL course, ESL certification tips

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Dec 27

GUIDE TO MAKE STUDENTS SPEAK UP

Posted on December 27, 2011 by rida

GUIDE TO HELP STUDENT WHO DOES NOT SPEAK ENGLISH AT ALL

By Rida Afrilyasanti

teaching speaking

teaching speaking

It must be very frustrating for you to have one or two students in your classroom who seem very quiet and do not speak English at all. Here are some tips you can do to assist your students to speak up in English and be active in class:

  1. Familiarize with your students and memorize your students’ name. You have to be able to pronounce your students’ name correctly and greet them each day. This can help your students to be comfortable in your class. You also need to use simple phrases on an consistent basis, for instance: “I am happy to see you today,” “Are you ready for the lesson today?” and “Sit down and get out your book.” The key point of repetition is that repetition will help your students learn basic English phrases.
  2. Ask your inactive student to seat with a peer who can assist him/her with classroom tasks. By having a partner, he/she will be able to watch how his/her partner completes the assignment.
  3. Use visual aids for your teaching. Visual images will help your students who speak no English to understand the concepts taught.
  4. Give alternate assignments in which she/he can successfully complete it. This kind of assignment will be fair for them as she/he may still not be able to understand the English instruction completely. It, moreover, will reinforce the information you are teaching. The example of assignment given is: if the rest of the class is working on a series of reading questions that require referencing the book, the English language learner can copy the words that are in bold and look them up in a translation dictionary.
  5. Assign your non-English speaking student to seat on the front row of the class. This seating arrangement will help them to see the visual presentation and hear what you are saying more easily. In addition, this will also help you to notice and guide them whenever she gets confused.
  6. Tell them your teaching expectation. Students who are from countries with a culture of high academic standards can become very stressed when they feel that they are not meeting the teacher’s expectations.
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