I have calmed down a tad bit and would like to note down some clarifications for my yesterday’s “word vomit” as it seems quite harsh now. What I was talking about were not ESP classes or Exam Prep, but General English classes. For the latter, it is quite obvious that the price should be higher. General English classes were always less expensive. Why?

Because for General English, there is an abundance of wonderful coursebooks to choose from. Those books are very well supplied with additional materials, there are Teachers’ books, there are Workbooks for homework etc. We can offer students a choice between two or three books we know quite well, they opt for the one where the topics are most interesting for them and that’s it! We don’t have to reinvent the wheel (don’t start me on those «авторские методики»). #work
#life
#rant
#random_musings

In my experience, the students I had at the beginning of my career and now are quite content with the way I teach, maybe much more so these days. The difference between them is that at the beginning, as almost all novice teachers, I was trying really hard to make my lessons as engaging as possible and would print so many additional materials that we would be literally snowed under. Under the avalanche of papers, trust me, it’s really hard to be consistent. Logic, in most cases, is the casualty of this natural disaster.

These days, I use a course book as a basis. If I feel that there are not enough tasks to practice some topics, I do add additional material, yes, but not before using the book so much that if you asked it, it might have said that it was feeling violated.

When a teacher chooses to use all the tricks up their sleeve (I like the very colloquial Russian word «приблуды» for that), it’s their choice. Why should a student pay for it?

I guess we have somehow ended up in that trap that makes us use a lot of extra stuff in lessons. Students didn’t use to expect lessons being fun. Now they do. And it’s definitely a problem. #methodology
#work
#CPD
#life
#rant
#random_musings

One more point to make is that we, as teachers, sometimes forget that students need to be taught, not entertained. Entertainment is dessert for the meal that is education. It’s a nice addition, but something that we can definitely live without. For my students it might be weird to read this, as I am a firm believer that if you enjoy something, you learn it better, and try to season my lessons with something fun. Edutainment is a nice term, but I have the impression that “tainment” is almost 70 percent sometimes, whereas the “edu” is 30 like in the word itself. I am of firm belief that it should be renamed “educaiment” or something like that so that the ratio is 50/50.

P.S. The picture is AI generated and refers to a nice phrase I heard a long time ago from a colleague «Придется устраивать им цирк с конями». As you can probably guess, she was talking about a class. What you might find surprising, she was referring to a lesson with a corporate business group. And here is the question: Do we need to visit a circus to study functional language for negotiations? #methodology
#work
#CPD
#life
#rant
#random_musings

#life
#funsies

JUST ANOTHER AI TRICK

I use different tricks in my classes and shall share them with anybody who is willing to offer an ear. This sharing will serve two main purposes:

1) My readers will hopefully learn something new and applicable.
2) I will not forget any of the above-mentioned tricks. 😅

A couple of days ago I was preparing for a private lesson and was thinking about how to revise some vocabulary from the previous lesson. Most of the lexical items, picked out personally by the student, were not united under an umbrella of a common topic. I usually prepare a list of open, genuine questions using the words, but this time I wanted to season the lesson with a bit of creativity. So I invented some sentences with the words, put them in an AI picture generator and voila! A nice activity to activate schemata and revise the lexical items.

How to do it:
1) Use your imagination and write some weird sentences/prompts.
2) Put them in a picture generator.
3) Ask your students to guess what the prompts were.
4) The end.

What to use:
1) https://www.freepik.com/ai-images-editor - 20 pictures a day for free, plenty enough
2) https://web.telegram.org/a/#6016052075 - prompts only in Russian, but we can translate, can’t we?

Benefits:
1) A quick warm-up.
2) Good for activating schemata.
3) A task that fits both grammar and vocabulary revision.
4) Allows the student to think creatively.
5) Open ended as there is no correct answer and even in mixed-level classes everybody will participate.
6) Very engaging (well, to my students). #activities_ideas
#tech_stuff
#AI
#lesson_materials

It has been already two weeks since I started mentoring one of the novice teachers the school hired as “assistants”. At the moment in time, frankly speaking, there is not much assisting going on.

The programme is so that they will only be taking part in lessons from November and teaching full lessons in January (approximately). For now, my wonderful mentee is just observing my lessons and attending input sessions with an actual CELTA trainer. If, after reading the last part, you thought that the girls are extremely lucky, well, I have to agree with you here. Especially given the fact that there are only 3 of them, and they get paid (GASP!).

I must say that I am quite fortunate as well as I have learned (or was reminded of) several valuable things in the last weeks. One is that failures are subjective. I think that the lesson is a failure as I am very strict to myself. But the mentee notes the flexibility as I change the outline on the go, and is pretty impressed (though it doesn’t really take much to impress them).

The other is that being responsible for the possible future employee is not an easy burden to carry. If my mentee decides to stay at my school and is accepted, some things that she might do in the future will reflect on me. And our brains are wired in a way that we remember negative things better. Well, I have made my bed and shall lie in it. Fingers crossed, it’ll all turn out great. #work
#interns
#mentorship

One last thing I’d like to share today is an analogy that came to my mind. I was speaking with one of the mentees and told her that one of their responsibilities while observing classes is to pick up bits and pieces that will make-up their “teacher”, like the crazy but brilliant doctor from the iconic book by Mary Shelley did. Recalling my early teaching days and even contemplating the current period of my teaching career, I am still playing Victor Frankenstein and creating my “monster” teacher out of the parts I am still collecting and will probably never stop. The fingers fall off and need replacing, the leg doesn’t work quite well for the context and so on.

All our teaching careers are littered with our parts and the process, unlike the one in the book, is never complete. It’s absolutely fine to discard something that doesn’t work even if you love it dearly. I hope that the “monster” my assistant creates will be a functional one. And she’ll never be scared of improving some parts of herself to create a better version. However, some pieces should be put to storage as there might still be the right time for them. #work
#interns
#mentorship

Going to the 2023 Trendy conference I honestly wasn't expecting much. Frankly speaking, my expectations were spot on, bar a couple notable presentations.

The first was Kate Redkina with her talk about our perception of students. That we tend to pay more attention to the "good" students, give them more feedback, praise them more. Looking back I can say that I was guilty of that as well, but for a short while and not anymore. I am fortunate to work in an environment that makes it obvious that a "bad" English student can be amazing at a plethora of other subjects. And I've always been an advocate of underdogs having been one myself all of my school career, though it was not academically but rather communication-wise.

The second was by Elena Sarnavskaya who gave precise and very specific instructions on how to use Chat GPT. Very useful for some teachers, but given the size and detail of the prompt you need to write, it seems easier to me to write the text yourself.

There was one more hands-on presentation - one about various AI tools conducted by Evheniy Usachev.

I also got a chance to meet some old acquaintances and catch up with them. As well as devirtualize with some amazing people.

However, there is always a fly in the ointment. There was a section on failure we experience as teachers. It's my personal opinion but most of them were actually failures, not just talks about them. Maria's (manka_English) talk about pre-schoolers was really poignant and thought-provoking. Other than this one, though...

Some insights:
1) when someone prattles on about smth you find dull, it's tough to be attentive (a reminder to activate schemata and of the importance of lead-in activities in general).

2) Teachers in Russia want someone to tell them it's ok not to take Cambridge exams (I agree here, a teacher doesn't have to have a CAE or CPE certificate, but in my opinion, C1 is a must to teach pre-schoolers and teens and adults of levels from B1+).

3) My colleagues are amazing! Every time I venture out of my safe bubble at school, I reaffirm myself in this understanding.

4) Every year most conferences are dedicated to the current trends and it's understandable. 2022 it was Critical Thinking, 2022 - EQ, this year it's AI. However, there are less and less little general/advanced methodology talks. And some people, myself included, desperately need them. #methodology
#work
#conference
#CPD
#random_musings

I have set myself a little challenge to keep up my spirits and motivation. It's very simple - I am going to take photos of some stuff that I like, and then post a collage. It doesn't have to be anything big, for intance, I was happy upon noticing that my jacket matched my watch (accidentally, mind you). You are welcome to share some of yours. Maybe we could help each other find enjoyment in simple things? 💜🩵🩷 #burnout_resistance
#life
#random_musings
#motivation

🗣️ FEEDBACK 🗣️

Having discussed our good sides and areas for improvement, we decided to stick to feedback. To be specific, we are going to try to improve our Meaningful Feedback giving skills.

Why not just feedback? ‘Cause we are going to try to make the kind of feedback that will help the students improve. Which is not as easy as it sounds, especially when you teach groups.

That’s why, I am going to go through the following steps:

🌑 refresh my knowledge of different ways and reasons to provide feedback;

🌒 dig up some new ones;

🌓 use them with my students;

🌕 try to work out why some work and some don’t and for what reasons.

So I shall start reading up on feedback and sharing what I find here. Stay tuned! #methodology
#feedback
#work_at_school
#work
#CPD

I am procrastinating and fully aware of that. But do I care? Nah 🤪 #burnout_resistance
#life
#random_musings
#funsies