Teacher training

Tea for two! Teacher training courses and individual consultations

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A new idea?

Every time we run a course at our teacher training centre, regardless of how formal or informal it is, we always give out a feedback form and ask our questions how useful they found the course and all its components.

‘We want to know what you think’ is not only a nice marketing phrase that should be a part of the end-of-course email. Neither is it a request for only positive feedback, a puff that will make us, the organisers, feel better. For me, personally, it is an opportunity to check and to confirm that I haven’t gone rusty or complacent as a trainer and that we still offer a good product. At the same time, it is also a way of brainstorming ideas for how we can further improve the course. This is post is going to be about one of the examples how these ideas are put into practice.

A few courses ago (a new, teacher training time expression), one of our trainees mentioned in the feedback form that they would really appreciate an opportunity to talk to trainers individually to ask some of more personal questions. It sounded like a great idea and that is what we did.

Tutorials and consultations

Individual communication between the trainees and the trainers hasl always been a part of our courses. We always chat before or after the sessions, regardless of whether they are run online or offline and many of my trainees keep in touch either via social media or via email. Some of the courses also include tutorials but their format and aim is a little bit different. They are run usually half-way through the course, they are obligatory and their main aim is for the trainees to reflect on their progress on the course and for the trainer to run a preliminary evaluation on the said progress.

We added the consultations as an optional individual meeting with the tutor, 30-minutes long, to be used in the way that the trainee chose, to discuss the issues of the particular interest. We arrange these meetings during the time that the course is run, usually before or after the input session.

Topics that were of the particular interest

  • a variety of questions that came up in the course of the reflection on the particular sessions
  • focused lesson planning
  • lesson planning and classroom management for the online YL
  • working with large groups
  • using L1 in the YL classroom
  • designing a curriculum and planning for a year
  • choosing a coursebook
  • bilingual education
  • problematic students and individual case studies
  • support for the novice YL teachers

What do our course participants say?

  • Love this idea! Yes, I did. Find personal consultation very useful, cause we could discuss our issues and challenging situations.
  • To my mind, the additional session is a perfect option that gives an opportunity to ask a question or discuss something.
  • The 30-min consultation helped me, too. I noted down some great ideas about the cases we discussed.
  • I had a chance to share my difficult students’ cases during our consultation and got useful advice.
  • As for the consultation, I prepared a list of questions and got really valuable answers from Anka. I really appreciate her help and encouragement. I feel much more confident and enthusiastic before starting a new page in my career (working with YL).
  • The additional session felt more personal and I believe I could participate more freely. And without being worried about judgmental eyes (not because anyone would judge me, I am just a bit shy) it was easier to ask questions that I had to ask.
  • It’s great to be able to talk about things where i don’t feel very confident (like bilingual kids) sharing experience is priceless ; it helps reminding myself that we all learn all the time and it’s ok to struggle and try. thanks for the meeting!
  • I could only participate in the 30-min individual session. That was really helpful as it helped me clarify a few questions I had about my teaching.
  • This is a very cool addition. The opportunity to ask questions that arose after the course.

What do I get out of it?

  • An opportunity to really meet my trainers. We talk a lot during the discussions in the breakout rooms and in the common room, before and after the sessions. However, the consultations are an opportunity to take it to another level.
  • It gave me a chance to cater for the needs of all the trainees even better. It is obvious that the more extrovert and confident students take part in the whole class discussions more freely and more frequently and that some trainees prefer to share their views only while in the breakout rooms. By adding the individual consultations to the mix helped me ensure that even the shyest and the least confident teachers will have their chance to talk to the trainer comfortably.
  • It is a fascinating diagnostic tool that helps us adapt and improve our courses because they show the fuller range of topics that might be interesting to teachers that are not always included in the current programme. It is a signal that some areas or aspects need to be incorporated in the existing sessions or that, perhaps, we need to start thinking about revising our courses and adding some new sessions. And, as such, they are just precious.

A bonus track, Tea for Two that lent the title to the post here, with Ella Fitzegrald.

Happy teaching!

Teaching VYL Communicatively or About a course

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Input sessions

We have put together twelve 90-minute sessions. At the moment we run them online because it gives us an opportunity to reach a wider audience.

The 12 sessions include:

  • Introduction. The VYL student: about the child in the classroom
  • The VYL teacher: the features of a VYL teacher and approaching the material
  • Classroom management: all the techniques that can help organise the students and the learning process
  • Behaviour management: dealing with issues
  • Coursebooks and material development: how to approach the coursebook and how to design own activities
  • Flashcards: the basic resource for VYL teachers in the online and in the offline classroom
  • Craft: including and managing craft activities in the classroom
  • Music and songs: the settler and the stirrer, all in one
  • Storytelling: using different stories with preschoolers
  • Lesson planning: how to plan effectively
  • Games: why kids need games
  • Literacy: how to start developing literacy skills in the EFL pre-school group

Each session includes both theoretical and practical, with the basics to help us outline and understand the framework and the connection to the ‘adult’ EFL methodology and a lot of practical solutions for the every day teaching. We have also prepared our reading list, with articles, resource books and videos that can help each participant either prepare for the course or to develop further after the course is finished.

The course finishes with an obligatory assessment task which was designed not as a research assignment but as a written reflection task to give the trainees an opportunity to look back at the whole course experience and to summarise the main take-outs.

The additional course components

At the end of each course we always collect feedback from our participants and this is exactly how we got inspired to add these additional components to further improve our course. From summer 2023, these include:

  • Lesson planning sessions: this is an additional session, a group lesson planning session in which we work with the material from different coursebooks, usually provided by our participants, preparing together with a tutor for ‘a typical lesson’ with this material. This session focuses on selecting and formulating lesson aims, selecting appropriate activities, adapting the coursebook and selecting supplementary materials
  • Private consultations with the tutor: this is a session that can be used in any way the trainee chooses, for example lesson planning, questions related to course design, discussing classroom managment, professional development, materials and activities etc.
  • Optional homework written tasks: there are three tasks, as a follow-up to three of the sessions: lesson planning, storytelling, language production. The trainees that decide to submit any of these tasks receive a written feedback from the trainer.

Who this course is for

This course has been initially designed to support the novice teachers in the area of very young language learners and that is why the sessions cover all of the basic areas that constitute the everyday life on the EFL carpet. However, since many of the experienced teachers started their career in VYL in a way and in a situation that was far from ideal, with no pre-service training, with no support and just learning on the go*), for them this course is an opportunity to boost and to reorganise what they know already and to align with the principles of the communicative methodology and the child development psychology.

Every single time we run this course we have a beautiful mix of participants, some experienced teachers and some VYL novice teachers, teachers working online and teachers working offline, teachers from the EFL, from the bilingual education as well as teachers who are also mums of little kids who want to learn how to start teaching their own children. It is a lovely learning environment and everyone is bringing something that they can share. And, it no surprise, that we got a very positive feedback from all of our participants, the newly qualified and the experienced teachers.

Feedback from our trainees

‘I think all the sessions were very useful because we have found out more about teaching very young learners, in some cases understood the mistakes we did and found some ways to improve it.‘

‘I really enjoyed the lessons. The classes about craft, songs and storytelling were especially helpful. Thank you so much!!’

‘All of them were very useful. I love sessions about craft and storytelling. Big thank you, that was great !!!!’

‘All sessions were useful and contained interesting examples. Although, if I have to name those more useful that others, these will be sons, craft and storytelling, great examples to remember and use in my own practice.’

‘Literacy, craft and storytelling session were the most useful as they had direct and immediate impact on my teaching practice.’

‘I’d like to take this opportunity and thank you for this course. I don’t have experience in teaching VYL, so whole course was highly useful and practice-oriented.’

‘I loved the last three sessions because they were pratical and I could use the ideas and materials on my lessons! I can’t say, that there were any useless sessions, but in the beginning there was some information, that was obvious for me. Anyway, I’m happy that I was able to do this course!’

‘Classroom management (I’ve never though before why VYL classrooms are organised in a different way from the classroom devoted to teaching children of different ages as I don’t remember myself being in the kindergarten and later on my classroom at school were very bare; and I was not taught about VYL classroom design before).’

And a few words from the trainers…

I absolutely love teaching the course. It has become some kind of a joke that I start every session with ‘Oh, today we are doing my favourite session’ but it really is every session.

Every single time it is an amazing journey on which we embark together and I take a lot of pleasure in sharing my ideas and experience and to help the trainees see how they can become better VYL teachers. It does not always involve any new amazing materials, coursebooks and resources but only a change of a mindset and a different way of looking at what we already have at our disposal.

The mix and the variety of backgrounds mentioned above is another reason why I like being a trainer on this course. Regardless of what it is that we discuss and look at instantly gets to be seen and considered from a few different angles, such as a different environment for the early language learning such as a bilingual school, home, an EFL class, different time allownances or formats (online and offline) or even different institutional policies because not all the EFL schools are the same. It’s not just ‘the idea from the tutor’, that is the only truth there is. It is an idea from the tutor that gets automatically reflected in a variety different mirrors and that automatically undergoes an analysis and adaptation. Which we are all learning from.

Happy teaching!

*) I am saying this with a deep conviction, based not only on my conversations with my trainees and my mentees but also based on the results of the reseach that I did for my MA thesis a few years ago and my dissertation got its title ‘Left to their own devices?’ for a reason. I, personally, was one of these teachers, too, when I started my teaching and my VYL teaching many years ago.

Picking at the seams: Potential problems and solutions in a YL lesson

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Stone drawings #5

This is the second chapter of the post devoted to lesson planning habits worth developing in a teacher of a YL teacher. Here you can find the first part of it: Variety and it is all about looking back at a lesson already planned to check that includes the necessary variety of interaction patterns, materials, settlers and stirrers and learning styles.

One more item that needs to be added to the list of Things To Think About while planning for young learners are all the potential problems and solutions. It is an indispensable element of the formal written plan for any kids’ lesson (or at least it should be). It is also a habit that a teacher needs to develop for the every teaching when no plans are written.

Here is why:

  • Looking at the lesson from the perspective of all the potential disasters and (‘disasters’) to happen can help troubleshoot
  • Problems and solutions can and should be applied to the instructions, interaction patterns, materials, activities, learning styles, behaviour, participation, time, seating arrangements and the amount of language produced.
  • Coming up with the list of everything that can go wrong helps to generate at least some of the solutions for them and get the teacher better prepared for the lesson and, ultimately, fewer surprises in the classroom.
  • This is especially important if the teacher is doing the activity for the first time ever or if it is a new approach or technique never used with a particular group of students.
  • Analysing the problems and solutions can result in the teacher having to adapt the original lesson arrangements, in order to improve the lesson.
  • Predicting what can go pear-shaped and then comparing it with a list of the things that worked out or that didn’t is another fascinating exercise that a teacher can do as part of the post-lesson reflection. How many of my predictions were true? How many of them were not? Was I overly optimistic or overly pessimistic? What were the biggest surprises?
  • Writing these down is an option but, most likely, in there everyday teaching life, with 20+ lessons to teach a week, there won’t be any time for that. It is a lot more important to allocate time for that, though, and, although it might take a bit longer in the beginning, it is definitely one of the teaching skills that become automatic and, with time, require less and less time committment. Speaking from experience here:-) Over the years, it turns you into a teacher who takes literally a second to look at a handout or a game or a coursebook page and who can see a list of its benefits and pitfalls. Upon which a decision can be made whether to use it in class or not.

Happy teaching!

How (not) to train a teacher? A personal story

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Lisboa

Here is a post from an experienced teacher trainer and a recruiter looking back at her own teaching career and the beginnings of it. With a tiny little bit of surprise and a dash of delayed horror because, all these years ago, if I had been the one taking me on the job, I probably wouldn’t have offered myself a position, and certainly not on these conditions. I certainly would have had some serious doubts whether I should consider myself as a candidate.

What I would like to see in a newly qualified teacher of YL?

Generally, the experts Sarah Rich (2017) and Sandie Murão (2015) highlight three areas which should be included in YL teachers’ education:

  • the knowledge of the English language
  • the knowledge of the English language methodology appropriate for children
  • the knowledge of child development

These means some specific documents such as university degrees, language exams and teaching qualifications which will largely depend on the law and the education system in each country. On top of that would come all the personal characteristics that a teacher working with young learners should have such as resourcefulness, creativity and enthusiasm. And a real interest in working with children.

What did candidate Anka Z. have to show on her application for the first teaching job?

In short, not much.

I had graduated from the university with a degree in History, having spent the previous three years in the libraries of Wroclaw, leafing through the newspapers and magazines of the 1950s and, somehow, I had managed to pull off getting a masters in History writing about jazz. Something to be proud of and I was. Even today, when I open my MA thesis, I am happy with it and with the distinction that it earned me, although, obviously, there is no way in which it could have been of any use in the EFL classroom.

One saving grace was the fact that since I always wanted to teach, when it came to choosing specialisation, from the two options of a) an archivist and b) a teacher, I went for the latter and, as a result, I did two years psychology and pedagogy (aka memorising theories to pass the exam) and two months of the pre-service teaching practice. This was something because it gave me a chance of spending two months at two different schools, working with real students and being supervised by real teachers and it gave me a taste of what teaching might be about. The methodology of these two subjects, history and English as a foreign language, could not have been different but at least I had a chance to perform in front of a bunch of kids. Officially, I was a trained teacher. Of history.

It was also a happy coincidence that somewhere in-between the historical research fits, I found time to fall in love in English, Hamlet and that I started to read the English poetry and prose in the original version and, eventually, realised that there is something in the world which brings me more joy and happiness, more than history. For that reason, starting from year 3 of my university studies, I started to spend my student’s grant on the English classes in a private language schools and on exams. And even before I got my MA degree diploma, I was already a happy owner of the CAE Pass (B) certificate.

What could also be added on the assets side of the balance sheet, was definitely the state of the educational system in the country, the legislation, the demand for teachers of foreign languages at the time. They had just changed the curriculum for the primary and the secondary schools, English was introduced as the main foreign language from the age of 7 and there were no teachers. At the time when I was starting, the schools were given a permission to recruit university graduates with the relevant pedagogical training and the relevant subject knowledge, which, at the time, in case of the English language teachers was the level of B2+ aka FCE.

This is how I was hired as a full-time permanent contract teacher with all the benefits and perks.

Was I ready?

No, I was not. I had spent two months preparing lesson plans, delivering lessons, reflecting and working with the feedback I was getting. However, getting ready for discussing the ancient Rome with the primary school children and the WWI with the teenagers has got very little to do with getting your head around preparing for teaching the same kids and adolescents to speak in a foreign language.

There is no doubt that I entered the classrooms in my first week and month of teaching absolutely unprepared, relying mostly on my passion for English and on some naive (but useful) enthusiasm.

A teacher is born and raised

When I was reminiscing of the beginnings of my career, already as an experienced teacher and a trainer, I was somewhat surprised to realise that there was no mentoring programme in place. We had the informal head of the English language department, a lovely teacher Gosia who until this day is my dear friend but her help and support were based on her own personality traits, a kind heart and friendliness, rather than on a formal set of procedures. It took the form of the conversations in the teachers’ room and the joint participation in some of the projects, events and workshops.

It was the school policy for the headmaster to observe the teachers but he himself was not a teacher of languages so, really, he could not offer any real support related to the aspects of teaching English.

I survived the first month, somehow and soon enough, on the 1st of October, I started studies on the part-time BA in the English language and literature.

Perhaps it was justified, to some extent, because, when I was starting I had already enrolled on the one of the subjects that we were offered was the EFL methodology. The progress was taking place and, at the same time, my university mentor never had a chance to see me in the classroom, with my students, in action and, although, I did benefit from that, as a trainer, I cannot say that it made a real difference to my teaching. Interacting with my peers and sharing ideas was definitely more beneficial and now, thanks to the university, I had not only the two colleagues at my school but about 40 other teachers from the whole region.

Today, it feels like the teacher was simply expected to manage and to get on with the job.

Where the real learning and development happened…

…was in the classroom, of course. It was by a sheer coincidence that in my first year of teaching I was given 5 classes of year 1 of the middle school (another coincidence with the changes in the structure of the Polish school system), 3 of them divided into two groups. All of these students were of the same level and all of them were using the same coursebook, Open Doors 1, from OUP. That meant that every lesson that I had to prepare I had to teach eight times. It worked amazing well on a few levels.

First of all, this has seriously reduced the preparation time which, for a newly qualified teacher, in the first year of a full-time work, with about 30 academic hours of teaching a week, was god-sent. I could devote time to lesson preparation knowing that I was investing in 8 lessons, not in one and it was definitely much more manageable than planning 30 different lessons.

Even more importantly, that also meant that I had a chance to each the same lesson eight times in a row. Even if I hadn’t wanted, I would have been forced to reflect on how the same set of activities worked with different groups, some of which were bigger, some of which were smaller, some of which were more dilligent, some of which were less motivated, all of which were mixed ability groups, with a different ratio of weaker and stronger students.

Naturally, the lesson plan and the activities were changing and were being adapted as I went from lesson 1 to lesson 8 of the round and it was getting better. It is quite likely that by the time I got to teach it for the eighth time, it was a DELTA-worthy lesson. And even if it wasn’t, it was a much better lesson plan and I was a better, more experienced teacher.

And they lived happily ever after…

Well, I suppose they did. I got my BA in English and I stayed in a state school for five years. Then I left the country and finally got to do my CELTA course in London and then I left to travel and teach here and there and everywhere and to become an ADOS, a trainer, a blogger and all the other things that I am today.

This journey also makes me think of all the happy coincidences on the way and all the things that contributed to my becoming a teacher and staying in the profession. Inevitably, what follows are all the alternative scenarios that could have but did not happen. What if I had got different classes and what if I had to teach 30 completely different lessons every week? What if Gosia had not been there but some other not so pleasant and not so kind colleague? What if I hadn’t started my second degree straight away? What if I had had some horrible students in my first groups? Where would I be today? Just curious)

Happy teaching!

References

Sarah Rich (2018), Early language learning teacher education, in: S. Garton and F. Copeland (eds), The Routledge Handbook Of Teaching English To Young Learners.

Sandie Murão (2015), Play and Language Learning, IATEFL YLTSiG.

Milestones: 15 000 views on the blog. A reflection)

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photo @юлец

Today is the day: 15 000 views of my blog, almost on the blog’s birthday. Soon it will be three years since I started the life of some funky socks and some dragons. To be honest, I do not have any (as in: ANY) idea whether 15 000 should generate a ‘WOW’ or an ‘Oh dear!’ from me. I suppose, it is something close to nothing compared to millions of views on youtube or TicToc. On the other hand, perhaps, it is not so shabby for an educational EFL blog…I tried to read some clever articles related to the online presence and tools but got bored very quickly and decided that since that is not my bread and butter, earning my keep, but rather my Nutella that I splash out on from the regular salary, I will not bother anymore. Instead, here are some things that I have learned and found out about based during that 3-year-long and 15 000-views-rich journey with the socks and the dragons.

  • I like writing and I like writing about teaching. This blog has given me an opportunity to publish everything that I want to publish and when I want to publish it, without having to wait for the editor-in-chief answer. As a writer, I have written hundreds of contribution letters and I have received hundreds of rejection letters (actually, a recjection is pleasant, normally the publishers do not reply at all) and it is such a joy just to have the idea, to give it shape and to publish it here.
  • It has helped to improve my writing. That is easy. The more you do, the better you get and that, certainly, has been the case here. Or so I hope.
  • I have got a better understanding of the content that I want to publish here. I have also developed the skill of finding the best format (Dare I say ‘the best genre’?) for the things that I want to include. Not all the posts are the same and it is not only about putting the ideas into words.
  • As a result, it has allowed me to produce some real articles that have actually been accepted by some real editors-in-chief and published, for the joy of having your name in print and, also, sometimes, for the joy of some monetary rewards.
  • I have made huge progress in the area of proofreading and editing. It is not perfect yet but I have worked on creating a routine and a procedure and I do not hate it as much as I used to.
  • I have realised that the visual side of the blog is very important to me. I love taking photos for the blog, selecting them to match the posts. I enjoy working with images a lot.
  • The blog is a fantastic incentive to experiment with the activities, to record the events in the classroom and to keep my eyes open in class. Last but not least, I have improved the way of keeping notes from and organising the materials I produce.
  • And then – there is my audience. They usually keep quiet, not really commenting but they are here. You are here, dear readers. It is also my guilty pleasure to check the traffic and t find there Canada, Tunisia, Israel, Russia, Spain, Egypt, Malyasia, Australia, Korea, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Belgium, Estonia…I love to find the returning visitors and every comment is like a little Christmas. Thank you for being here.

The top 10 posts (A.D. 2023) are these:

  1. Colourful semantics: about the uses of the speech therapy tools in the EFL world
  2. Teaching English through Art: Why you might want to start?. Self-explanatory.
  3. Crumbs #10: Silly pictures: One more of the speech therapy tools that I love using in my YL classes
  4. The invisible student and why you might want to have one? (Pasha, my boy, you are doing great!)
  5. All you need is…a picture: one of my favourite posts ever written, about the multiple uses of visuals in the EFL classroom with young learners and not only.
  6. A to Z of homework for Very Young Learners: all the basics related to why and how to deal with the homework for the youngest students
  7. The first VYL lesson survival kit: I like the thought that, maybe, thanks to that post, some teachers our there went into their first lesson a little less panicky, a little less stressed and a little less anxious.
  8. About the human behind the words: aka about me
  9. Much Ado About Nothing: realistic flashcards vs illustrations and the EFL world. Oh, this one I am really proud of. It is a perfect case when I was researching to learn.
  10. Crumbs #6 The easiest craft in the world or don’t you just love a circle About one of my favourite craft activities.

Instead of a coda

Blogging is not quite for free. Once a year I have to pay ‘the rent’ for the privilege of residing here, on this platfrom. Every year, when the day is approaching, I sit down to have a serious conversation with myself along the lines of ‘Are you happy with how it is going?’ and ‘Do you still want to do it? Can you commit yourself to one more year of typing, researching and sharing ideas?’

I think I do. Until the next post, then!

Happy teaching!

DIY peer observations aka Where to find videos to observe YL teachers in action

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This is part II of the series, devoted to lessons with Young Learners aka Kids aka younger primary classes aka children aged 7 – 9 years old.

First part of the series, DIY observations with pre-schoolers, can be found here.

A few tips from the trainer

  • Choose the focus for the observation: classroom management, behaviour, staging, storytellings, songs, chants, literacy, working with big groups, students’ production, spontaneous production, interaction patterns, routine, variety, gestures, classroom management, timing and many many more.
  • Think of yourself as an observer, look for the strong points and the areas to improve. There is always something!
  • Be a kind observer! Remember that no matter what you are watching, the teacher WAS on tenterhooks because the lesson was filmed and that the whole filming adventure might have affected the teacher’s and the kids’ behaviour.
  • But don’t forget about your standards. I would not want to imply that all of these are great lessons that would get Above Standard if the lesson was assessed. They are not. In some cases, I have highlighted some of the strong points that got me especially interested. Everything else is up to you.
  • More than anything else, please remember that whatever was filmed, it is only a part of a lesson and we have no chance of finding out what happened before and after.
  • Think about your particular context (your institution, your group, your classroom, your country and your culture), would this activity and this approach work? Why? Why not? Can it be adapted?
  • If possible, watch the video again, after some time has passed or after you have had a chance to use some of the activities or approaches in practice. Are your impressions the same?
  • If possible, watch it with some other teachers, too! It is fun to find out what others think about it and sometimes we learn more from people that we disagree with!
  • I have tried to include a variety of contexts and countries of origin and I am hoping to be adding to this list when I find some more videos.

The videos

  1. A lesson from a Polish primary school in Gosciejow, year I, 24 minutes, about 20 kids. It looks like a typical lesson for year 1 beginners. It includes hello, revision, some movement, new vocabulary presentation and practice, and a focused task. The teacher provided a lot of exposure and controlled practice of the target language in this lesson.
  2. A lesson from a Polish school in Dabrowka, year II (recorded in September at the start of the academic year), 34 minutes. It looks like a typical lesson with that group, with their own routine. About 20 kids. It seems to be an open lesson, there are some parents in the classroom. There is some evidence of the class routine (hello, table time, movement, storytelling).
  3. A lesson from a Polish school in Tarnowo, year III (presumably), 34 minutes, about 20 kids. It is a revision lesson, with some favourite activities that the kids are already familiar with which can be used with different sets of vocabulary.
  4. A year 1 lesson from Almaty, Kazakhstan, 15 kids, 27 minutes. The lesson includes the following stages: Hello song, new vocabulary introduction and practice, reading and writing, , a video story, coursebook work, evaluation, feedback and the theatre based on the story, the final song. The video finishes with the commentary from the teacher, very interesting but in Russian only. According to the teacher, the main aim was to reinforce the new vocabulary, skills development and teaching values (work and play).
  5. A year 1 lesson from Nanjing, China, 36 minutes, over 20 kids. It is great to see how the teacher is using the gestures to praise, to instruct, to model, to teach vocabulary and grammar. He is also trying to introduce the vocabulary and immediately do something with it, although I am not quite sure if it is the kids’ very first lesson. The teacher is using some Chinese, alongside gestures and the presentation to clarify the concepts and ideas and the class rules. The lesson includes the following stages: hello, rules, warm up, alphabet, song, new vocabulary and structure, practice, goodbye. The video includes some subtitles to help clarify what is going on in class.
  6. A year 1 lesson from Kaluga, Russia, 38 minutes, about 10 students. The stages of the lesson: hello, introducing the lesson topic, pronunciation practice, hello role play (pairwork!),r revision, song, new vocabulary presentation and practice (vocabulary and vocabulary used with structures), a video, practice, song, literacy, literacy craft, writing, stickers and goodbye. It is great to see that the teacher always prepares the kids for the activity (ie the kids revise and drill the numbers before the song). I also found it interesting to see how much L1 is used by the teacher and what the purpose of it is, for example a short poem / riddle to help the kids remember the words in English. The teacher also explained a lot in Russian, presumably to help the kids feel more comfortable with the activities ie the pronunciation practice.
  7. A year 2 from Moscow, Russia, 41 minutes, 5 students. It is some kind of an open lesson. The stages of the lesson in the video: the lesson plan, tongue twisters, reading (cartoon), vocabulary revision, movement, literacy, riddles, homework. It is good to see that the teacher encourages using the vocabulary and structures and that they try different interaction patterns (whole class, individual, whole class vs one student).
  8. A year 1 lesson from Vietnam, only 20 minutes, about 20 kids in the room. It is a shortened version of the lesson (colour and fruit), but we can still observe the main stages: hello, hello song, new vocabulary introduction, practice and literacy, song, new vocabulary part 2, practice games, song. The group is quite big but the kids are using boards + chalk and they put up for the teacher to see their answers. It is also good to see that the teacher is using the new words individually and in sentences and that the abstract topic such as colours has been combined with something more real as fruit.

Happy teaching!

When the trainer is observed by the trainees. A very special kind of stress

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This post will start from the summarising comments: experienced teachers (including trainers) should be observed by the less experienced teachres because both parties can benefit from that immensely.

There were countless occasions on which I was observed…

These involved the standard developmental observations done by my supervisors and mentors, follwed by a grade and a feedback on my teaching skills and my teacher training skills. Then, there were the newly qualified teachers or the teachers who were novices in a particular area who would visit pretty much every other lesson at the start of the academic year, in September and October. Then, there were also teachers who were struggling and needed support in one area or another and they were likely to pop in throughout the entire year. Then, there were also the teachers on our teacher trainining courses who had to clock in a certain number of classes observed (the IH CYLT course) or who just wanted to see a colleague and a mentor in action (the IH VYL course). Multiply that by ten and a half years of my work as an ADOS and add a number of your choice for my pre-ADOS career years and you get quite a few hours when you are not the only specialist in the room. Then, just for the sake of keeping the numbers’ right, I should throw in all the hours of the lessons recorded for the marketing department and all the times when I had a whole crowd in the classroom, observed by the parents in all the open classes…In a nutshell: I have been observed a lot. Nothing, however, has ever come close to the stress of the observations that I am yet to include here, namely: when the trainer is observed by trainees co-teaching on the course.

Co-teaching with your trainees and what to hate about it…

Normally, it was not our standard practice on the IH CYLT course that the trainers would be taking part in the teaching although I did hear that my colleagues at BKC IH Moscow did it on the CELTA courses regularly. However, there were a few occasions, over the years, when some of my trainees would get sick and we ran very intensive courses, we had very little flexibility and a quick cover had to be found. And this cover was me, the main course tutor.

Obviously, one would expect that the most experienced teacher in the group could raise up to the challenge and just step in and that it would be this particular person to do it with the minimal resources involved (creativity, preparation time, stress and so on). At least, in comparison to everyone else present.

It is all true and ‘they lived happily ever after’ in this particular story, however, I will be honest and I will tell you that throughout a large part of that experience, I was filled with resentment and stress.

Partially, it was due to the fact that I knew I would be observed by a 12-strong group of people whom I had been training, guiding and assessing for the past two weeks. I was aware that ‘my reputation’ was, to some extent, at stake. No matter how experienced you are and how confident you are as a professional, this particular prospect would be very difficult to dismiss in my opinion. There are lessons that I am not entirely happy with and, yes, they are an opportunity for reflection, development and improvement but when a group of people who are also your trainees are to be witnesses to this potential reflection, development and improvement, it is very difficult to be entirely calm about it. I know I was not, not when it happened the first time.

What is more, I was just angry that I had to do it because it all felt like some catch 22 situation. On the one hand, a good-quality lesson was expected of me and my trainees made sure that I knew that. ‘Oh, Anka, I am so happy that I will be able to see you with students’. On the other hand, my great lessons are such because I do have time to plan them and to prepare for them. Charisma is a nice thing to have but you reap what you sow and on this particular occasion, as the main course tutor with all the duties involved, admin and otherwise, there was very little time for me to get ready for ‘the show’ in front of the kids and in front of the trainees.

…and what to love about it.

To start with, it was definitely one more bridge to cross for me, as a teacher and as a trainer, an opportunity to expose myself to a different kind of stress and to develop some new levels of professional immunity. The first time was stressful but only the first one, especially for the teacher – teacher trainer.

My students enjoyed the lesson and I met my aims fully. I had a lot of fun teaching them and, to be honest, the stress and the anger and all the other unwelcome feelings died out as soon as I got up and into the front of the classroom, in front of my teens. They were simply gone. I was about to start teaching and all the irrelevant things had to give way. I was calm and focused.

Despite all the obstacles, I managed to put together a good lesson. I was to introduce comparatives and superlatives and, somehow, I found a connecting element and a way of generating a lot of lanugage from the kids in a rather clever way. Because of that, my trainees got a decent lesson to observe and, hopefully, to learn from. Another aim – fully met.

As a trainer, I did appreciate all the feedback that I received in the feedback session, although, I had to be careful not to forget to bring back all the areas that could be further improved because my teachers were more likely to focus on the positives and perhaps did not have enough confidence in their own beliefs to confront me about the weaknesses of the lesson or the activities. From that angle, it was also an interesting experience for me as I had to step back and try to see my lesson from a distance.

The most precious comment that was made came from Vika, who, apart from being my trainee, was, at the time, also a mother of one of my students and she had many opportunities to observe me in our open lessons. She told me that on that day she watched me, surprised, having seen me many times in a classroom with pre-primary and primary kids as a mum of one of them and she was expecting to see that same in a teenage lesson. What she was a completely different teaching persona and attitude.

Co-teaching with your trainees. The most beneficial experience so far

There is always more and that is the case here, too because two years ago we decided to include trainer teaching as a permanent element. The first teaching day on the course is always the day when everyone is teaching in order to break the ice with the students and with the situation, to feel the class and to get at least some of the stress out of the way. The lessons are always short, limited to pretty much one activity and it is an unassessed teaching practice. When we were running the course in the summer 2021, we had a small group of teachers and a long, three academic hour lesson. Esentially, there were some time slots left and we did not want to single out and to overload anyone and I took these free slots in both groups, with the teens and with the juniors.

It was a positive experience for me because

  • As a teacher, I had more time to plan
  • I had more flexibility and influence on the content because it was always the first lesson and the unassessed one and even though my mini-lesson had to combine with all the other ones in the day for the benefit of the students, there was a lot less pressure althogether. I knew that in the worst case scenario, even if I did not meet my aims at all, I would not be messing up my trainees’ lessons.
  • For the trainer, it was a unique bonding activity, because, despite the experience and the status (even now I cannot but giggle here, being serious about my status and being proud of my achievements are two different things, for me, as they have always been), I was one of them for a day and we all had to go through the stress of facing a new group of unknown students and we all had to prepare a plan B or C for all the possible scenarios
  • I was able to share some of my ‘first lesson tricks’ and ‘the uncharted territory tricks’ and ‘flexibility tricks’ with them and I hope that because that, perhaps, they were better prepared for these first lessons on the course as well as for the other first lessons in the future. I would like to think that it even added to my credibility as an expert because I was in a situation when I would have to do exactly what I preached. Which is not to say that without this option, the tutor’s credibilty would suffer in any way or that it needed to be enhanced in the first place. It did feel different, though, better.

It was a positive experience for my trainees because

  • For this one lesson, they had the trainer (aka the master and commander, giggles ensue) completely on their side and not only because that is what a good trainer would do but, because, literally, we were all in the same boat.
  • The trainer was, for a day, playing two roles: this of a mentor but also this of a more experienced peer, actively participating in the lesson planning session and sharing what she was planning to include in her mini-lesson and why.
  • Then, in the feedback session, the same teacher was able to look at how the lesson went, to reflect on that and to evaluate her own performance. The teachers were very much involved in that process, from the beginning until the very end.
  • There were two lessons of that kind and two cycles and the second one, a slightly more challenging and a slightly more imperfect (due to a bigger discrepancy between the group we were planning for and the actual group in the classroom) was even more beneficial for the trainees, not only because of the mistakes that we could learn from but, most importantly, I want to believe, from this very attitude to a lesson that was not quite up to our expectations and standards. We make mistakes to learn after all and I hope that I could model that attitude, too, on that course.
  • Even during the lesson planning, which we did as a group, I could see the positive influence of the experienced teacher that I was. Or the easy-going or even the reckless teacher that I was (and I am). I coud see that my attitude had a calming effect on them. ‘There is no need to overplan here, we do not know the kids and, hence, we do not know what is up to their level, what is going to be overchallenging or underchallenging. We can relax’. Naturally, they wanted to do their best, on the first day and throughout the course, but, at this point, back then, this perfectionism and the inducing stress were simply not necessary.

Overall, as I have already mentioned, this has been a very positive experience and, if I have a chance to choose which way to play the game, I will be choosing teaching with and for my trainees.

Happy teaching! Happy training!

DIY peer observations aka Where to find videos to observe VYL teachers in action

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During our teacher training courses, I try to invite teachers to my classroom, for an observation. However, even in the online / offline / hybrid era it is not always possible. For that reason, to balance the theoretical and the practical we watch a lot of videoed lessons. Over the years, the teacher training department at my school has managed to compile a whole library of those, for different age groups and levels and now we have a lovely resource to use in our training sessions and workshops. I do recommend setting up this kind of a library at your school!

However, while making these videos, we received the parents’ permission for the internal use. The videos are not on youtube and we cannot make them public. For that reason I can never share any of them with my trainees or readers. Instead, I decided to put together a list of those youtube clips that we often use in our sessions hoping that you find them useful, too.

A few tips from a trainer

  • Choose a focus for the observation: classroom management, behaviour, staging, storytellings, songs, chants, literacy…
  • Think of yourself as an observer, look for the strong points and the areas to improve. There is always something!
  • Be a kind observer! Remember that no matter what you are watching, the teacher WAS on tenterhooks because the lesson was filmed and that the whole filming adventure might have affected the teacher’s and the kids’ behaviour.
  • More than anything else, please remember that whatever was filmed, it is only a part of a lesson and we have no chance of finding out what happened before and after.
  • Think about your particular context (your institution, your group, your classroom, your country and your culture), would this activity and this approach work? Why? Why not? Can it be adapted?
  • If possible, watch the video again, after some time has passed or after you have had a chance to use some of the activities or approaches in practice. Are your impressions the same?
  • If possible, watch it with some other teachers, too! It is fun to find out what others think about it and sometimes we learn more from people that we disagree with!
  • I have tried to include a variety of contexts and countries of origin.

Now the videos

  1. Wow English with Steve (from Steve and Maggie), with a big group in a kindergarten in Prague. I am guessing it is the first lesson and the first meeting with the kids.
  2. TPR with Herbert Puchta and Helbling English and Revision of words with Herbert Puchta, for those of you who want to see the author in the classroom:-)
  3. English clothing song for kids from the Magic Crayons, as an example of a simple and genious (and presumably home-made) clothing song
  4. ESL Story for Kids ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ from Scott Reeve, because this very (very) short clips wonderfully shows what can be done with a storybook used in the EFL/ESL context
  5. Kindergarten Teaching in China from Michael Roxas and almost 30 minutes of a lesson
  6. Teaching ESL in China from Teacher Jeus ESL, a big group of 5-6 y.o. and 25 minutes of a lesson
  7. The first lesson with 3 y.o. from a kindergarten in Poland from Piotr Wilk, this one is an interesting example because of the ratio of L1 and L2 (TL in English, all the explanations and ‘Why’s’ in Polish)
  8. A lesson with 5 – 6 y.o. from a kindergarten in Poland with an introduction in Polish, but the rest of the lesson is in English, the actual lesson 4’30 – 30’14. Apart from that, the video includes the introduction (in Polish, no subtitles unfortunately) aka the lesson overview and the follow-up, with a discussion on the changes that were introduced in the lesson which is supposed to serve only as a starting point.
  9. A lesson with 4-5 y.o. from Alena Fedan (Dniepropetrovsk, Ukraine), some L1 but lots and lots of production in L2)
  10. A lesson from a kindergarten in kindergarten #278 in Moscow, Russia, 20 minutes and a selection of activities.
  11. A lesson from kindergarten Rozvite, in Samara, Russia, the first class with the older pre-schoolers
  12. We learn English with teacher Sandra from Valencia, only 5 minutes but with very young kids, in the classroom and in the yard.
  13. Class routine with pre-school from Baranain, Navarra, 8 minutes, but a lovely start of the lesson and some literacy activities
  14. A lesson of English with pre-school with Graziela Leonardo (Pirai, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil), 8 min, the start of the lesson and the introduction of a new set of vocabulary and a simple whole class project
  15. A lesson of English with pre-school from teacher Lara from Recreio dos Bandeirantes, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

If there are any other videos that you know of and which you could share, please leave the link in the comments below!

Happy teaching!

Breathe! From the series: One-word advice from a trainer.

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I am a trainer and an assistant director of studies. I spend a relatively large part of my professional life sitting in the back of classrooms, observing. I love it.

Not that anyone asked (hahaha, here is one clumsy blogger, at your service. After all, one should start with ‘Many of you have been asking me…’ or ‘I’ve received many questions about…’ I DID NOT) but if I were to give one piece of advice to all the YL and VYL teachers (or maybe not only to them), it would be this: BREATHE.

If I were given a chance to use more words, I would say:

‘Breathe! Pause! Calm down! We care about the efficient use of the lesson time but nobody is in a hurry, nobody is rushing to catch a train. There is time. You will be doing a great service to yourself and to your kids. I promise. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat!’

What do I mean? Here are five ideas.

Instructions

Going slow is absolutely crucial while giving instructions.

Not always but frequently enough our primary and pre-primary students will be doing something in class for the first time in their lives, without any metaphors whatsoever. It is quite likely that we, the teachers are the first ones to introduce a boardgame to them, a role-play, a game with a dice, a pair-work activity, a mingle, the game of pelmanism or a project. Our students might behave like they have never done it before because, very often, they really haven’t. Or they haven’t done it in a foreign language to practise vocabulary or grammar. It really IS their first time! Our classroom IS full of Gagarins, Columbuses or Cabrals (or whoever is your favourite First-Timer Metaphor).

That is why the instructions we give have to be not only graded and accompanied by gestures and (ideally) by modelling but also paced. With the teacher taking baby steps, pausing (and breathing) for all the students to catch up. Before anyone is allowed to take the next step forward.

Taking this one breath in-between the sentences will really make a huge difference. Let’s breathe then!

A listening task, as in: any listening task

Listening tasks for young learners are another example how pausing can make the world go round and in the right way, too. This tiny (and, really, the most insignificant) movement of the teacher’s finger pressing PAUSE on the CD player / the telephone / the computer can be the factor that decides about the activity becoming a success or a failure. Something that amazes me every single time I see it in action.

PAUSE and the kids have a chance to hear what they are supposed to hear, circle what they are supposed to circle and get ready for the next bit. PAUSE and the teacher has a real chance to monitor while in-task. PAUSE and if there have been any glitches, now is the time to fix things and to save the rest of the activity.

DON’T and they miss the first example because they are still not quite sure what they are doing. Then they miss the second example because the breaks between the pieces of the recording are too short and there are no numbers or beeps to help their focus. DON’T and, inevitably, they miss the third one, too, because they missed the previous two and everything becomes just a mesh of sounds. DON’T and you have no chance to monitor or to give feedback, Although, really, it is NOT a mini-test that the kids should pass. It is only an opportunity to develop their listening comprehension skills. It is ok to help, to support and to guide. Unless it is a real test.

So maybe it is a good idea, to pause and to breathe?

Questions and answers

Here is a question: Do you know how long is the average ‘wait time’ aka the time that elapses between the moment a teacher asks a question and the moment a student is expected to answer it?

Well, fasten your seatbelts because it is quite likely that what I am about to tell you will be a bit of a shock.

Apparently, we, teachers wait as long as long as 1.5 seconds at maximum and most of the time even less than that. One second and a half. Which means that we don’t really wait at all. Either student A knows that answer that we want to get and they provide it or they don’t (more likely) and we move on to student B or C until we find what we want or we just answer the question ourselves.

Extending that wait time can have a huge impact on students’ learning, engagement and, possibly, also on their confidence because they will be given a chance and time to rise and shine. And don’t worry. By extending here I mean ‘waiting three (3) seconds‘, not the whole eternity. 3 seconds aka one inhale – exhale set. Breathe!

Just look at the picture first

This particular issue is going to make an entry here for one and very specific reason: our coursebooks and all the materials for YL are full of great visual material which, sadly, is not given all the attention it deserves.

The first question that I often I ask my trainees during the post-observation feedback session while discussing visuals, photographs, cartoons and drawings is: Why not spend more time on talking about the picture? There are so many things that you can do with a picture! (If you are not sure what these are, have a look at the earlier posts, here and here).

Once we establish that these do indeed have a lot of potential that needs to be tapped into, the question arises of how to do it. And this is how we get back to breathing.

Whenever students are shown a new picture, one that they have never seen before, they need to be given time to take it in, with its narration and all the details. It is more important for the younger learners, since their cognitive skills are still developing but it can be beneficial for the learners of all age groups and levels. If you are in doubt, just have a look at how visuals are dealt with during the speaking part of different Cambridge exams, from Movers, through PET to CAE, although with the higher levels it is hidden under the lengthy instructions from the interlocutor during which the candidates are allowed to look at the photographs they are to describe.

Step 1: instructions, Step 2: one deep breath while the kids are getting ready. Thinking time is precious and it extends on all the activities, picture-related or not.

Classroom management

Last but not least, the main destroyer of the peaceful flow of a VYL and YL lesson makes an appearance, too – the unwanted behaviour, in all its shapes and sizes.

The option of ‘doing nothing’ is out of the question, it is the teacher’s job to react but perhaps it is worth considering whether the immediate reaction is the best solution. After all, there might be some situations in which everyone would benefit from the teacher taking a deep breath and using this second or two to calm down, to consider the options and to see the situation from the little people’s point of view? Maybe the situation was not that serious? Maybe it was just a silly joke? Maybe just an unfortunate mistake? Maybe the reaction does not need to involve the headmaster, the parents and the armoured infantry? At least in some cases. This tiny little pause might help establish that. The thinking time for the teacher. And then – back to action!

Happy teaching!

100 names aka The tutor sighs

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The tutor sighs, the manager sighs, the teacher sighs. She wonders, too, whether two cases in the last two months already constitute a tendency. Or not yet. And whether she should be so bothered by all that. Or not. The tutor (aka the manager aka the teacher) does not know. She knows that it has been a good few weeks since the most recent incident and so she is writing all these words with a cool head. None of these silly on-the-spot, emotional reactions. At the same time, somehow, it has been impossible to stop thinking about it since.

And so the tutor / the manager / the teacher is here, typing up.

The statement

‘A teacher working with very young learners must have her/his own children.’ (actually, extends to: all the teachers working with children…)

The teacher sighs

I do. Because first and foremost, I am and I have been a teacher. Whenever faced with a comment like the one above, I look very much like this amazing creature in the photo, spotted in the Louisiana swamps: I freeze, waiting to see what happens next. I freeze, trying to remain a professional, an adult and a kind human being. Whilst hoping that all these thoughts forming in my brain never get verbalised.

If I had been a bit braver (or a bit more carefree), I would have asked: ‘Excuse me, have you just told me that I do not have the right to do my job? Don’t. Mostly because it is too late. I already do it. And I do it well, too. Thank you.’

The tutor sighs, too

I do, deeply and gloomily. As a tutor, I would like to ask the world to be a little kinder. To all those newly qualified very young learners teachers and young learners teachers and to all these teachers who are novice in the world of the pre-school and primary EFL. Or to all of these teachers who are only thinking of taking their first steps in the area. It seems that they have a lot on their plate anyway, dealing with the methodology, the materials, the resources, the real children in the classroom and their parents outside the classroom as well as the school admin. They really do not need any more of that ‘entertainment‘ and of wondering they are good enough or not to do the job. Especially before they have had a chance to try and to check.

Some of them might decide that the early years EFL or ESL is not for them and it might be because they do not have children or it maybe because they discover that their vocation lies in one of the other areas. Some of them, however, might grow up to be the next VYL Superhero, the next Sandie Mourao. Or the next Leo Vygotsky. And while they are getting there, they might appreciate a tiny little bit of support. Especially from their more experienced peers. Dear world, please be nice!

The manager sighs, too. But then she gets down to business…

…and she starts digging through the files in her head and on her computer. This particular exercise starts when I am still a bit emotional and so, with a pinch of certain vindictiveness, I take out a piece of paper and I start writing the names down.

Changing anyone’s beliefs is not an easy task and it involves a serious time investment and a lot of effort. What’s more, the satisfactory outcomes cannot always be guaranteed. Some people are simply happier in the box. Their choice, I suppose.

But, if anyone is interested, I am going to share my experience as a manager, someone who for the past nine years has supervised, mentored, trained up, lesson-planned, observed and given feedback, praised and supported teachers of early years, primary and pre-primary. Nine years of that. And counting.

Since this ‘incident’ I have been bombarded by the names of all these amazing professionals, that I have had a chance work with. Some of them were young, some of them were not. Some of them were experienced, some of them were not. Some of them were women, some of them were men. Some of them were mums and dads, many were not.

What they all had in common was the willingness to sit down on the carpet and look at the world from the point of view of a five-year-old (no metaphors here!). What they all had in common was kindness and patience and dedication to their job.

Did I really sit down to write the names of all these mentees and colleagues who taught children and who were great at that despite the fact that at the time they were not parents in their private life?

Yes, I did.

Scribbling on a piece of paper and going back in time, to 2020, 2019, 2018…I stopped at the beginnig of 2016 because I got to the magic number of 100.

And then I smiled.

One hundred fantastic people. One hundred great VYL and YL teachers. One hundred case studies that, perhaps (just perhaps) will turn ‘the statement‘ above into a question, even if a very cautious one. One hundred names that immediately put me in a good mood because they came back and they all brought beautiful memories. For that I am beyond grateful. The end.

Happy teaching!

P.S. Lots and lots and lots of virtual hugs and happy thoughts to all the teachers that I have had a chance to work with over those nine years.

P.P.S. I have also had a chance to work with many teachers who were both: great parents and great teachers of early years. Lots of virtual hugs and happy thoughts to them.

P.P.P.S. I have also had a chance to work with many teachers who were great parents but who would never agree to teach pre-schoolers or primary. Just because they have other intrests in their professional life. Their virtual hugs and happy thoughts are HERE.