Students: 18 One thing that went well: The warm-up turned out to be quite a success. We practiced each other’s names. I kicked things off by saying we should test the teacher. I went around the room and named everyone who was there so far. (100% correct, not because I worked at it, but because … Continue reading Journal: First Day of Computer Lab
I have to admit that this Day 1 has not been my favorite so far. First I couldn’t find my housekeys. I’m hoping they’re in Someone’s pocket. Thus my home is locked but not dead-bolted, meaning that a barely equipped thief can get in but I can’t. Love it. I got to my new teaching … Continue reading Journal: First Day
Today was my first day of class! Students: 7 Countries of Origin: El Salvador, Mexico, South Korea, Honduras Objectives: Students will register Students will start learning each other’s names Teacher will get a sense of everyone’s English abilities What surprised me: I only had two students returning from last semester. I thought I would be … Continue reading Journal: First Day Impressions and Planning
My first day back was Awesome. I like doing my job even more than I like the idea of it. It felt good to take stock, set a few basic priorities, and dive in! I was a teacher short, had backlogs of notes to read from my subs; there was paperwork to be organized and … Continue reading First Day Back!
Hello! I have decided to take the summer off from publishing on this blog. The plan is to return in September when I start assistant teaching again, or possibly before. Some links around this blog that may be helpful to you while I’m away: Activity Corner Posts Writing Posts Grammar Posts Reading Posts Professional Development … Continue reading Summer Vacation!
There is an incredible wealth of writing resources available for free on the internet. Aside from the ability to earn credentials (certificates, degrees, etc.), what do college ESL writing classes offer that is more valuable than the freebies? Here are three strengths of in-person writing courses, such as ones I’ve taught and assistant-taught at various community … Continue reading The Value of a Writing Class
My lead teacher showed me an article that another lead teacher had handed out to her academic writing class on the first day. She and I agreed it was pretty awesome. I’ve Googled around and can’t find it, but it was about the idea of “messy writing” and how there’s a place for writing badly. … Continue reading The Point of Writing
(I thought it might be helpful to readers and myself if I described some of my favorite activities from time to time. See all my ESL Activity Corner posts here.) My lead teacher used one of these activities to introduce essay structure in our Advanced Academic Writing class last week. She gave each student an … Continue reading Activity Corner: Put It In Order
The Fall 2016 semester ended last month. I was an assistant teacher in an advanced academic writing class. It was really incredible professional development, plus quite fun in its own right. And I’m scheduled to do it again this coming semester! So naturally I’ve been ruminating on teaching writing. If a kind/diabolical genie granted me … Continue reading Shaping a Writing Class
This is Part 2 of a series on Student Questions. See Part 1 here. Today I’m going to look more deeply into the questions of what (to me) makes a student’s question important and/or relevant. The Graphic (click to enlarge) The Axes As you can see, the two axes I use are importance and relevancy. But let’s … Continue reading Student Questions Matrix, Part 2
