What I took from it:

1. Become better at identifying ‘business goals.’ Could this be an important leap for us? We’re not just here to ‘teach English.’ And, by the way, what does that really mean? To teach English? Perhaps we should look at it as ‘we help other people communicate effectively in English.’ Perhaps we should add: ‘We help our students meet their communicative goals.’

As Moore points out: you can’t help students meet those goals if you don’t know what they are in the first place. So…big question I have started really paying attention to for all of my classes: ‘What are my student’s main objectives (personal/professional) goals for learning English?

There’s an important shift there. It’s not just my objectives. It’s not the course book’s objectives. Students have objectives too. Do you know what they are?

Hint: ‘My goal is to improve my English fluency’ – a phrase that would have me retired last week if I had gotten paid a peso every time I have heard it, is NOT a learning objective that you can work with. It’s not specific enough, and it’s not really measurable. (How will you and your students know when ‘fluency’ has improved? What does that look like? What does that sound like? )

More probing and question asking needs to happen here ON YOUR PART.

1. Improving Fluency: questions to create concrete objectives – Ask your students: 1. What does ‘improved fluency’ really mean to you? What specific things do you want to be able to do that you CAN’T do well now?  2. What do you want to be able to say or communicate that you have trouble with right now? Be specific. Write it down. Be narrow – ‘I want to be able to explain the company’s investment strategy for 2012 in English ‘ is likely too much to chew on.  Help your student narrow this big objective down to: “I want to be able to explain the projected Inflation and Exchange rates for the first quarter of 2012.” That’s far more workable.

Ask them: How do you want to be able to explain this? What words are important for you to dominate as you explain this? Do you need to communicate this in writing or speaking? (Can you think of better or other questions for this?) When do you need to be able to explain this?

This specific information will give you ‘success indicators.’ You’ll know that you’ve reached your teaching objectives when Johnny can: ‘X’ and can “X” like this…. .  The more specific behavior oriented information you can glean from your student, the more planning fodder you have for your class prep. And the more solid and measurable your objective, the easier it will be for both you and your students to know if you both have succeeded.

2. Planning: what activities and practice sessions can you develop with your students that will help them specifically develop skills around meeting their objective?  How can you get your hands on specific material that is directly related to what their objective is? (Likely won’t be in your course book.)  And another question to ponder: how do you do this in a group where there are people with different production needs in English?

I’m asking you this, because I’d love to know how you would deal with it. How would you develop classes that are more focused on specific objectives like these if you had a group of five people from different areas?

Have you already been doing this? How has it been working for you?

Photo: By visualpanic

“Coaching requires direct observation and, based on that, developing  two or three specific suggestions regarding what the other person could do better.  It is skill- and task-focused.  It requires preparation and thought on the part of the coach and discussion of specific actions which the subject could try to address the deficiencies.” (Are You a Coach?  Robert S. Kaplan — emphasis mine.)

There’s a lot of good stuff just from that paragraph that has me thinking about HOW I would like to develop my teaching practice this year. Here’s what I’m thinking:

1. Pay more attention to what the student is producing. -  Fuel for your fire. What are your students able to do now? How well are they doing it? I think the idea I want to catch for myself and pass on to you is this: slow down.  Are you really noticing what your students are doing as they interact with you and their classmates in your classes?

It’s tempting to focus only on the ‘doing’ and ‘finishing’ of classroom activities. I know I often find myself there – working hard to meet testing deadlines by month end etc. While it’s vital to finish what we start on time, it’s equally or more important to pay attention to what is happening as a result of what you’re doing with your students in class.

Noticing what is happening – the production of your students – is what will help you become an effective teacher/coach.

2. Are you Skill and Task oriented? Again I need to remind myself to stay on target: skill and task based classroom work is vital. (And if I need to remind myself, maybe you could use some reminding too…) Part of being sure your classes are skill and task oriented comes in at the planning stage. Notice what your class objectives are. Are they actually things that you can watch or listen to in your class? Example: By end of class, students will be able to explain one of their processes to a new hire in English. That’s observable. It’s something you can see and hear, and best of all – it’s practical – it will help your student when they walk out of your classroom.

How NOT to be task oriented:  The course book activity, and nothing but.  Do it, finish it…and move on to the next one. The course book is not the enemy – how you use your course book is.  If you just move through it without ‘extracting it’ to practical (this activity is important because it will help you to… )

3. Give specific feedback on your student’s task or skill production: powered up improvement will happen when your student does something ‘real’ and then you offer specific feedback for them.  Here’s what I mean: What would happen if your students had to give a formal presentation (power point and all) in your class, and you record them? (Video or audio.) Then as a feedback session, you review the presentation with them. Ask things like: what did you notice about your presentation? What would you like to change? What did you like? (And then after you’ve thought about their performance, offer them your specific feedback about how they did. )

Wouldn’t you agree that this sort of feedback is more effective than if you just review a course book activity: “What did you get for #5? Yes! That’s right….or hmmm..not exactly..try again.”

So to up your game in 2012, why not consider how you could become more skill and task based in your classes. Notice what your students are able to do, and offer specific feedback on how they could improve those specific skills. (And don’t get lost in your course book!)

And over to you….how will you up your game in 2012?

(Photo by jonwick04)

“…remediation—going over and over something that you really ought to already know—is less embarrassing when you can do it privately, with no one watching. ” -How Khan Academy is Changing the Rules of Education. Clive Thompson.

Now that’s something to think about. I wonder how it applies to an ESL classroom. Any thoughts?

• What would happen if lessons were recorded for students?
• What would happen if  your lessons were pre recorded the night before, or the week before, just like the Khan Academy and then played for your students at their leisure? (Perhaps delivered via rss or dropbox.) Students pick and choose the lessons they want.
• Classroom role of teacher shifts away from ‘teacher’ and over to ‘coach.’

Would it work? What’s your take?  What if you read the article – warning: it’s long. Then started engaging with the comments. Now that will boggle your mind, and I’d love to know how…

The Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org )

Photo by woodleywonderworks

There are two ways to teach grammar. The mind numbing way, where you shut your student’s brian off with borring rule after rule, and then there’s the fun way, where you turn your student’s brain ON with humor, and interesting content that captures their interest so that you can use it to secretly teach or review the grammar.

Have a peek at this: (Terry Moore: How to tie your shoes. )

Questions:

1. Did you notice the example of the conditional phrase that Moore used? (You can bet that I’ll be challenging my B1 students to listen their guts out to find his perfectly executed example of the 1st condition. By the way, could you hear it? )

You can also be betting that I’ll be asking my students to come up with their own conditions based on what was said during this presentation. Example: You would have a stronger knot if you wrapped the lace under the first bow.

Proper Conditional Punctuation!  (Please don’t forget to teach it!)

• If the ‘if clause’ comes first, you need to use a comma before the ‘result’ clause.
• You don’t need to use a comma if the ‘if clause’ comes after the result clause.

Got it?

Now, did that hurt? Was it fun? (I know I was having fun as I watched the video and thought about how I could apply it to my class tomorrow!)

2. How would/could you tie in an opinion giving/ opinion defending piece to this? Here’s how I intend to do it:

• Before the video, I will invite my students to give their opinion about shoe tying. Is there a right way? Is there a wrong way? Discuss! (And defend!)
• Right after the video I will ask them to share if their opinion has changed about there being a right and wrong way to tie their shoes. (I think using content to evoke opinion is a great way to help students….well, express it! )

Outside the video: I have an ongoing writing project that I’ve been working on with them. It’s nothing major, but I’ve basically been having my students practice writing about their goals, and using conditional sentences to explore what would happen if, and what will happen if they accomplish them.

Class #1: A few weeks ago, we watched a short 3 minute video about the importance of setting and keeping your goals. During the video, the speaker used a conditional phrase. We worked it up on the whiteboard, and then talked about it.

Class #2: I got my students to write about a few of their own goals. I took them home with me for corrections.

Class #3 – tomorrow!  I invited them to write a few conditions that had to be met in order for them to accomplish their goals. I took these sentences home with me, corrected mistakes, and then wrote each student back with a few more conditional questions to keep them thinking about their goals. (They were all really cool!)

There you have it. I expect that these simple activities will easily eat up my 1.5 hour class. But I’ll be covering the four skills: Speaking: my students will have to give their opinions about what they’ve seen, and about how they think shoes should be tied.

Listening: the video. Each other.

Reading: The sentences I wrote them in reply to their goals.  (Perhaps this one has the weakest focus for the day, but if you’re wanting to use this resource to help students polish up their reading skills, you could always print off the transcript which is located on the video over at ted.com. Have them read it. Discuss new words, etc.

Writing: Lots of practice here, and that is my intention. I want to provide more writing work for my students, so I’ve been using a sort  of interactive journal approach. So far, it’s working well.

So that’s what I will do with this video. But I’m curious: how have you taught conditionals to your students? Care to share?

(Photo by kevin dooley)

How do you go about planning for your lessons? Do you plan out into the future, or do you keep your lesson planning down to a ‘day at a time’ format?

What are your planning tools? Do you have a favorite planning routine or format that you like to follow? Do you plan on paper? Electronically? Mentally?

And finally, why do you do it like you do it?

A few of my planning habits:

1. I plan a class at a time. I also like to pay careful attention to what happened in the last class and build from it in the next one. Perhaps a theme didn’t go over very well. Perhaps more practice was needed somewhere – I often use my previous plan in my next plan.

2. Planning tool of choice: a notebook that my son wasn’t using anymore for school. (Actually, he just used the first three pages, and left me the rest.) What I love about it: it has grid lines. I know, that’s really nerdy and weird, but I’m a visual person. I like to draw stuff in my lesson plan to help me remember where I’m going with it. The grid lines make it easier to draw cool stuff. (In my humble opinion.)

3. Routine/Format: I tend to plan the night before my class for usually 20 to 30 minutes. (Sometimes more depending on the difficulty of the class.) Having said that, I’ve also had really successful class plan adjustments at the last minute. But I hate leaving my planning to the last minute. (So should you. It’s a great way to have your class suck.)

Format – I usually think of the objectives I need or want to have my students do each day. I write them down, and then look at building activities that will make those objectives happen for my students. Sometimes the objectives come from our course material. Other times they come from my students themselves. (Ex. I need to present my career development plan to my boss. Please help me do it in English!)

Flow: In point form, I’ll write out where I want the class to go in an activity to activity, step by step plan. The flow gives me a sense of direction as we’re working in class.

After the ‘flow’ section of my plan, I’ll write out any exercises or explanations that I need to be aware of. Example: A few days ago, I researched and wrote down the ‘formula’ for creating 1st and 2nd conditionals because I couldn’t remember it. I also use this space to design how I’ll use my whiteboard. (Sometimes. Not always.)

I plan this way because…it feels right for me. I’ve tried planning on my computer, but it just doesn’t seem to ‘copy’ very well over to my brain. There’s just something, for me anyway, about writing on paper. Maybe I’m old school.

But having explained all that, I think one of the most important things I’ve learned about planning is how to lay it all aside if your student needs something else. Your plan can wait for another day.

For further reading about planning: Good Weeks Lead to Good Years. Sander’s post sparked my thinking about how teachers should plan. I really liked what he had to say about keeping your planning on a week at a time. (Though he’s not talking about class planning, I’d say it certainly applies.)

Over to you. What’s your take on planning?

(Photo by orangeacid)

In my last post, I invited you to purposefully join together to create a mastermind group with me. Truth: if you don’t do something on purpose, it likely won’t happen. If you don’t purposefully decide to take action to build your skills, and spice up your teaching mojo, you likely never will.

So my question to think about for today: what are you reading that has been helping you to teach more effectively? Do you think, in order for it to impact your teaching skills, that your reading material need be 100% specifically about teaching? I sure don’t. In fact, I’ve gotten many ideas from material NOT related specifically to the art of teaching. You just have to know how to hunt, and how to pull ideas out of what you’re reading.

Example: About a month ago, I came across the Gutenberg project. (If you don’t have cash to buy books, this is just for you! Free ebooks!) I downloaded, among many other titles, a book that I’ve been really enjoying. It’s called: Art of Money Getting/ Or, Golden Rules for Making Money by P.T. Barnum.

I’ve learned much from this book. Much about business and money, but also much which  totally applies to teaching. Look at this:

“Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it.” P.T. Barnum.

That line is talking about focus. Hard focus and discipline to do only one thing at a time until you master it. Teaching application: Help your students to focus on what they need to focus on until they master it. How often do you take the time to create seriously focussed sessions around a troubling theme for your students?  Or do you focus mainly on covering your unit’s activities – scattering your ‘business’ around a course book’s pages.

Try focus if your students are having issues with something. Try focus if your student’s could use some more practice to master something.

Don’t be afraid to devout your class time to engaging activities that will help your students grow towards mastering a specific skill.

For me, I’ve been devoting my last few weeks around several very specific skill sets: 1. Explaining real problems in English. 2. Offering ideas or opinions to solve those problems. 3. Defending your ideas. 4. Using 1st and 2nd conditionals to explore what would happen if they took ‘X’ as an option.

I’ve altered the ‘how’ to avoid boredom and keep engagement up. But I’ve not changed the ‘what.’  The results have been so exciting for me. I’ve seen my weaker students blossom at writing their ideas out. As they’ve repeated variations of our activity on paper, I’ve noticed that their thoughts on paper have grown far more organized and to the point. I’ve also noticed that their confidence to risk with the language in oral activities has grown too. All because of focus, and all because of deliberate practice.

And all this because I’m reading a free business book that has gone out of copyright.

Now think this up to a different level: What would happen if we all read the same book, and then talked about how we could apply it in class? What would happen if we then ACTUALLY applied it? And what would happen if we met back together again to share our findings and experiences?

You tell me.

So…are you interested in starting something? Would you like to band together and form a teaching mastermind group with me?

Just sign up here:

Done. Looking forward to growing with you.

(Photo by epSos.de)

One of my favorite teaching quotes is: “He who dares to teach, must never cease to learn.” – Richard Henry Dann.

So what are you doing to keep your skills sharp? What have you been reading that has challenged your teaching skills and practice lately?

A few weeks ago, I came across this article: Self-educate to survive. I liked it. Yes…if you take a second to read it, you’ll quickly discover that it has nothing to do with teaching English to adults. It’s about web designers and how they go about staying fresh and up to date in their ever changing marketplace. On the surface, nothing much to do with teaching, right?

Wait! Think for a Minute:

• Recall, for a moment, how you got into teaching English. Did you follow a university career as an educator? Are you a certified TESOL instructor? Or did you, like the author of the article, just sort of find yourself drawn into the profession because of the tools you had on hand? That was me. My background is in Social Work, but what I didn’t know until I got started over 11 years ago, was that my VOCATION was in teaching English. This is what I LOVE to do. This seems to also be something I’m made to do. (And I seem to be good at it.)

• If you don’t have an official ‘English teaching educational background’ you likely have learned on the job. You’ve seen other teachers do things that you thought were cool, so you tried it yourself. You’ve read a book or two, or maybe internet based articles, and have gotten development ideas that way.  Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to be mentored by a teacher with more experience than you, and have gotten their feedback. (And you’ve done something with it.)

Maybe there are some similarities with teaching and that article. But even if felt there wasn’t much of a connection between your life as a teacher and that article, I would like to at least invite you to connect with the important idea that self-education is a must if you want to see your teaching skills grow over time. The question is, if you agree with that last point, is how to do it.

How are you doing it? Are you following a strategy of some sort? Are you working on your teaching skills on your own, or as part of a group?

Join a group! Let’s make one… It’s one thing to work on your skills based on what you feel or sense about yourself. It’s a complete other ballgame to work on your skills in the company of likeminded peers.

I love to write. In university, I discovered that my English professer also loved to write, so we formed an informal writer’s group and hounded each other to produce a chapter a week in our work. Then we met together to read it to each other, and talk about it. That writer’s group was like pure gold to me. Looking back on it, I would say it was one of the greatest highlights of my university experience. I grew so much, I could actually feel it.

What do you think would happen if we got together on a regular basis to build our teaching skills? Would you be game for that? We don’t have to meet physically each week, as time is often against us, but we could meet virtually.

Here’s my proposal. If you’re interested, send me an email of just leave a comment.

1. Join me on Google+ (It’s Google’s version of Facebook.)

2. We’ll create a special Google+ circle where we can post info, share ideas, ask questions, and hangout.

3. Each month we’ll identify a skill that we’d all like to work on together, we’ll outline goals and expectations, and then work together on building those skills into our teaching tool kit.

What do you think? Would you like to join something like this? What would you like to see happen in your development as a teacher?

(Photo: by kennymatic)

Today I read an article that I’d like to share with you: “If You’re Struggling to Get Ahead, Try This.” by Jeff Hayden.   I liked it because it was actionable. I also liked it because it was simple. If you take two or five minutes to jump over to this article for a quick read, I’m sure you’ll come away with a challenge: “What’s my always going to be?”

How about we set that up as a project for the weekend? 1. Read the article. 2. Think about it. 3. Decide what your ‘always’ will be. 4. Do it.

Here’s mine: 1. In business, I will ‘always’ deliver reports to our clients NO later than 2 business days after the end of the month.

2. In the classroom: I will ‘always’ plan and do an unexpected, FUN, but effective activity to teach grammar. Dry and boring are not an option!

Now it’s your turn! What will your ‘always’ be? The most interesting, unusual, amazing or just really cool ideas will win a pair of movie tickets at the end of September. Last month’s winner: Jose J for his great story about how he was influenced by his work with a student. Congrats Jose! Keep up the great work!

(Photo by paul (dex))

P.T. Barnum said: “Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his particular genius, he cannot succeed.” (Art of Money Getting/ Or, Golden Rules for Making Money.)

Is teaching your purpose? Your vocation? Seriously. Have you ever really taken the time to think about that, or are you just living for your next paycheck? I know you have to make money to live, but are you making money by doing what you were meant to do? (And having asked you that, I wonder if you think/believe that you were even MEANT to do something by somebody. That somebody being God. That’s vocation. (Go ahead, check that dictionary definition out: Vocation.)

So here’s something to hopefully get you thinking about this as you begin your week. I know this is drastic, and I know it could possibly be taken as dramatic, but I don’t care. It’s a good question to ask:

Are you doing what you’re SUPPOSED to be doing? How do you know?

If you somehow feel like you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, where have you lost the trail? Are you wanting to get back on track? Do you know how you’ll do it?

I’d love to hear from you today. What do you feel about your work as a teacher? Are you fulfilling your life’s purpose each day you wake up for your next class? Or are you simply stuck in a rut – doing something you may enjoy, but none the less, stuck in a rut and going nowhere fast.

Thoughts?

Wanna see ‘Vocation’ playing out in real life: Take a few minutes to read through this great article: “Out of the Ashes, with a New Perspective.” (Crain’s NewYork Business.com )

(Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography)

It didn’t work. Students started asking for material to work with, because they felt like they weren’t learning without one. Sigh. You’ve gotta keep your clients happy, right?

Today I’m wondering: do you need to use an ‘ESL’ course book to make your class effective? Or could you work with a text that is not specially designed for ESL use? Here’s what I mean: Let’s imagine that your student is in sales. Let’s also imagine that your student is pre Intermediate. (A2.) I’ve just found a really cool eBook called The Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum. The eBook is 100% free because it has gone out of copyright. What if you downloaded it, and worked with the ideas presented? Would it work? Would it be useful?

Check out The Project Gutenberg for other ebook options. (There are even some audio books available.)

Some notes about this:

1. I think most of the books are old. Really old. You’ll likely have to work through old English words that are just not used anymore. But would this be a game breaker, or a chance to develop student’s synonym power? (In the 1900′s they said ‘young lad’ today maybe we’d say ‘youth.’ )

2. It’s an ebook of a real book. You’ll have to break your text down into small chunks to use in your class. If you decide to go with this idea, instead of taking on entire chapters you’ll need to take on paragraphs. (Mainly at beginner to pre intermediate levels.) But done it can be! Break down the big into small, bite sized chunks.

3. Build the lesson on your own. Course books make life easier by giving you exercises to do with your students each unit. With these ebooks you’ll have to build yours on your own.

What do you think? Do you see potential here, or a waste of time? What would you do with this?

(Photo by bloohimwhom)