ESL Teacher's Confessions

 Student practice: Who are EAL students?  Welcome back to my blog! In today's post, I wanted to discuss and clear any doubts about what EAL students are. As you might know, I am completing my teaching hours at a British school here in Warsaw. This means that the students can be classified as EAL which stands for "English as an Additional Language". This means that the majority of learners are communicating in English as their main language medium. In addition, they have all of their classes and instruction in English, such as maths, science, drama and physical education. In this school, there are a handful of students who are native English speakers as they come from countries such as the UK, America and Ireland as well as many international students who come from countries such as Brazil, Dubai, Korea. There are also a number of Polish-speaking students who choose to communicate in English. As one can see, teaching these students can be seen as, at times, difficult as th...

  Student practice: challenges I have faced  During my time at the British School, I’ve had so many experiences and learnt a lot of things along the way. In this post, I aim to reflect on my time there and share with you the challenges I’ve faced.  First of all, it was challenging to teach other subjects other than English/French. As I have mentioned on this blog, I have been an ESL language teacher for five years. So, when it came time to support or even teach a different subject, it was overwhelming. At times I was really frustrated, for instance, I didn't remember a particular maths method and strategy. I had the feeling that I failed as a teacher because I wasn’t able to provide effective support thus disappointing my students and the head teacher.  I have never taught maths, and it was a long time since I myself was a student learning this subject. A lot of the time, I had to recall my days as a young student as well as asking for the head teacher for assistance...

                                                                        Student practice: self-evaluation   This is not my first teaching practice, but it has been very different from those from the past. However, after five years, I still found some areas of improvement and ways where I feel like I can improve in.  I experienced being an EAL teacher, which is some ways, is very different than an ESL teacher. As an ESL teacher, my main focus was on language and ways to develop necessary skills in learners. Students with English as an additional language(EAL) already had those language skills and require something more. At first, it was challenging for me to introduce CLIL lessons and move on to more complicated topics such as maths in English. I think that this expe...

                                                                        Student practice: Error management During my teaching practice at the British School, I have noticed a lot of differences in the way teachers deal with students’ errors. First of all, teachers always focus on learners’ strengths instead of dwelling on their weaknesses. I found that it encouraged learners to continue to work hard and they are not discouraged that they are not smart enough. This growth-mind set really benefits the learners and teacher. The teacher can use or focus on their strengths in order to improve their problem areas. They are more encouraged to push themselves to get into a certain point because they know they have a good support system in the class and they will not receive harmful j...

                                                                   Student practice: Teaching materials Teaching aids and materials are one of the most important tools that every teacher should have a multitude of in their back pocket. They have an effective impact of students’ learning, comprehension and building their knowledge on a particular concept or topic. Materials facilitate students’ learning process which aids learners to grow and deepen their understanding. I have noticed that teachers at this school rarely use course books in the classroom. They occasionally use the maths course book, but not all the time. Instead, the teachers use a number of authentic materials from the internet or from other places such as YouTube and even create their own. The teachers also adapted mate...

  Student practice: Teacher and Student-talk During my observation of the head teacher,  I have noticed a few things about the communication in the classroom.  I noticed that the teacher was one of the main forms of language input, even though they were generally native speakers, the still students replied on her pronunciation and choice of words to implement in their own speech. I saw that the role of the teacher was to guide instructional events, and used teachers talk to determine what students know and what they still need to know. This in turn, allowed the teacher to use questions, prompts, and cues to help students complete tasks. I have seen a few key characteristics of the teacher’s talk or speech as she introduced material, repeated important information, explained key concepts, defined words, gave an example, clarified, questioned and encouraged students. I liked that the teacher used other ways to encourage or push students to use their own thinking to come up ...

 Student practice: Instru ctions  During my teaching practice, I have observed the way the teacher provides instruction to students. Whenever the head teacher would give students instructions on a given task, the language was always clear and precise. She was able to provide a short description of the task by using simple language to make sure everyone understands.  The articulation could be also noted as it was loud so everyone could hear in the room. Her voice had a lot confidence and it was clearly articulated. She also doesn’t speak so fast so everyone can follow along.  The instructions were also presented through different ways as she told them orally, but also she usually presents a short instruction on the board for students to see. This is especially useful when students were working together and forget an essential element or the next step. The combination of visual and oral instructions was also helpful for students with disabilities and a short attention ...

  Student practice: Classroom routines Welcome back to my blog, in this post I want to share some classroom routines I have observed during my teaching practice.  First of all, when students enter the room, there are greeted by the head teacher or myself as they make their way to their seats. From there, on the smartboard students are presented with a morning task such as finishing up unfinished work from the previous class, read a book silently, or given a quick maths worksheet. I think this a good system as students do arrive at different times and they always have a task presented so they know what to do. This also saves the teacher her voice as she does not have to explain the task over and over again.  When the clock hits 8:30, students are to put away their things and have a short-warm-up. This warm-up usually consists of one -two songs where learners can dance and sing. The teacher uses the website “Go Noodle”, and students pick a song on their dance list. This lis...

 Student practice: The classroom environment  This year, I had the opportunity to work at the British School in Warsaw. So, I would like to share a few of my experiences at this school. I started in January of 2021, in Year 4. For a short period of time, the classes were conducted remotely but soon, the students were able to come back to the classroom. Thus, I will be focusing on the physical classroom and analyzing the learning environment. The classroom can be described as warm and inviting  It was a cozy place for students to learn. I greatly appreciated that the walls were always filled with students’ work and the topic/unit they were covering.  The seating arrangement for the children was simple, as students were placed in groups which contained 4 or 5 students. One thing that I liked about the seating arrangements was that is was always changing, because the head teacher would move students to different seats. This allowed learners to work with other learners a...

                                                                                    Webinar #7 – PYP in action A few weeks ago, GPTE student had the opportunity to listen to a webinar about the PYP curriculum. The four presenters gave an interesting workshop to deepen our knowledge about this topic. First of all, the PYP stands for Primary Years Programme and it is suited for children with the approximate age of 3 – 12.   It is claimed to be the best of educational research, though leadership and experience derived from IB World Schools. This is because the PYP is an example educational who deal with responding to the challenges and opportunities facing young students in our rapidly changing world. This programme aims to nurture and...