5 tips to Avoid Teacher Burnout

I love teaching! However, I have had those days when I just want to quit. It can be hard. How do you avoid burning out as a teacher? This guest post from Pauline Sloan discusses the different ways to be a happy teacher, and keep your passion for teaching alive!
 
Being a teacher is one of the hardest professions out there. There are plenty of challenges that teachers are facing these days and you need to find ways to overcome these to succeed. One of the key things to guarantee you are successful in teaching is to keep your passion for teaching. Here are five tips that can help you do it.

1. Keep Learning

You can really stay passionate about your teaching if you keep constantly learning more about your subject as well. If you just rely on the information you have learned during your training it is very easy to start feeling bored.
So make sure that you read new books about teaching and the subject you teach. You can also take advantage of news that relates to your field and share opinions with other teachers.

2. Stay Interested In Your Students’ Opinions

It is also crucial that you remain genuinely interested in your students’ opinions. The way this can help you remain passionate is by making each lesson much more different.
When you show your students you want to hear their opinions then you can keep learning from your students as well.
Know how to be more approachable and how to create the right learning environment for your students. Your passion will feed your students’ passion and vice versa.

3. Talk About Your Job

You want to surround yourself with colleagues that help you share your worries about the job. If you have no way of letting out steam about your job it is really easy to start feeling frustrated and stressed.
Therefore you want to find either friends at work or other people in the field to talk to when things get tough. This can really boost your own interest for teaching. Check out online forums like TES to find other teachers to talk to.

4. Use Different Methods

Make your teaching more fun by using different teaching methods. Don’t just stick to the same routine but make it a little bit different in order to keep yourself on your toes.
There are plenty of great ways to make teaching more fun these days. For example, you can use multimedia or elearning software for creative teaching. Making your teaching more varied with these sorts of tools can really help you keep yourself more excited about your job.

5. Do Something Else

It is also essential that you do something outside teaching as well. You need to occasionally rest yourself and take a break from teaching to ensure it remains something fun to do.
Make sure you have another hobby that doesn’t require you to do anything remotely close to your teaching. For instance, if you are a maths teacher then you might want to start doing something physical like boxing to take your mind of your work.
The above five tips should help you maintain your passion for teaching. It is important to try and do this as it can help guarantee you more success with your profession and guarantee you don’t start feeling stressed about your work as easily.

Pauline Sloan is really interested in helping people feel more excited about the work they do. She is passionate about ensuring people find ways to stay happy and passionate. She is also a really big fan of learning more about the ancient Greeks.

Games That Teach Organizational Skills For Adolescents

I am a huge fan of The Sims, but otherwise I never really got into videogames. Nonetheless, when Brandy kindly agreed to allow me this guest post I was excited. There is so much research about how people learn better when we are playing! So, what games can help students learn organizational skills?
 
Teenage kids love to play video games. They can be fun and entertaining. It keeps them occupied for hours at a time. While it may seem that videogames are just for entertainment purposes, some also teach very valuable life skills to your children 13 years old and above. 
There are many role playing games that encourage a teenage kid to strategize and organize the layout of their armies. They show how to organize the soldiers to be in the best fighting positions, and how to defeat their enemies. Games like World of Warcraft, Fable, Halo Wars, Call of Duty, or the Oblivion series encourage these types of play. And then there are also puzzle games like Big Brain Academy and Tetris if RPG is not something a player would like to try.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a science fiction fantasy video game that encourages creativity in each section of the game. There are several ways to play this game. Each realm contains different quests and advances in the game. There are many professions that you can choose from to gain skills in the game. These professions include miner, blacksmith, and tailor to name a few. Other skills include cooking, fishing, first aid and archeology. When learning these skills, you have to organize certain things to complete a task. Many missions are included in this game. If completed, the player is rewarded with money to use in the game or other forms of rewards.

Fable

Fable is a role playing game that is full of action and adventure. The story puts a focus on the player’s struggle as they help to overturn the kingdom of Albion. There are many trials and challenges along the way to the ultimate battle at the end of the game. There are many games to play that help increase knowledge, strength, and dexterity. These games teach patterns and organizational skills that move at either a slow or quick pace depending on the level of expertise the job has to offer. This helps to gain guild seals and friendships throughout the country. By gaining friendships, you also gain followers that help to defeat your brotherhood's army at the end of the game.

Halo Wars

Halo Wars is a strategy game that operates in real time experience. This game gives players the chance to command armies against your enemies using skill, resources, and organization. You can choose to be on the human side or the alien side. Each player is able to train and gain special abilities that help them gain advancement through the ranks until they get to the top.

Big Brain Academy

Big Brain Academy teaches teenagers not only organizational skills but also helps them to gain other cognitive thinking skills. There are five different sections that help to test and gain brain experience. They include thinking, analyzing, computing, identifying, and memorizing. These games help open the brain waves and train it to become more efficient and quicker to process much needed information. Players can play by themselves or with other players. Not only does it teach different skills, it is a lot of fun to play as well.

Tetris

Tetris is the ultimate organizational game that has been around since 1984. In order to advance in Tetris, you need to make sure that the Tetriminos or blocks fit together and don’t stack to the top. Each level that clears brings on a new level that makes the blocks fall faster. This makes your brain think quicker and helps you to place the blocks on a more strategic location.
As you can see, there are many different video games, with gaming sites to provide game information such as this, that can help adolescents learn to be organized. They can have fun with learning. Share these with your kids today and help them learn how to be a more organized individual.


Brandy Lindsey is a freelance writer, homeschool teacher and photographer. She enjoys blogging, knitting, and writing in her spare time. She lives in Northern Maine with her husband and three children.

To DIY or not DIY that is the question

Many teachers I know spend hours upon hours making items for their classes. 

Why? 

Many times because to buy what we are making is simply too expensive. 
Other times it is because  what we are trying to make really doesn't exist. 
Finally, some people DIY (do it yourself) because they enjoy doing it! 
Some projects are really easy and require very little time making DIY a great option. 
Other projects require lots of tools, skills and time.
Before you break out the hodge podge take a moment to think about whether or not you should DIY a project.

This infographic will help you to figure out whether you're doing DIY for the right reasons.
If you enjoy DIY, or are really skilled with a tool box, then doing it yourself can be a productive and even relaxing way to spend a weekend.
However, there are a few kinds of people who should stay well away from DIY, including:

• Drama queens: If a leak or a paint spill will lead to tears or things getting smashed up in anger, don't try DIY.
• Loners: If you don't have a friend who can help with heavy lifting, stay safe and pay someone else to do your project for you.
• The busy bee: Rushing a DIY project will end in either injury or disaster. If you can't give the project the time it needs, it's better to spend money to get it done well.
• The easily distracted: Did you finish the last DIY project you started? If not, what makes you think that you'll finish this one?

Sometimes, bringing in the experts is the cheapest and least stressful way to get things done.

Infographic created by UK Oak Doors

How Can I Use Stories or Books with My Adult English Students?

I LOVE to teach English via stories, but some teachers seem more hesitant. This guest blog by Mallory May of Really Learn English focuses on reading in the classroom.

Reading is one of the best ways for students to expand their vocabulary, and it can also be a good opportunity to work on their pronunciation out loud. They also come into contact with idioms and other fixed expressions, as well as seeing in context the grammar structures they’ve studied. 

It’s common for adult learners to groan when we bring reading activities to class. In my experience, this is mostly because they haven’t had a very entertaining experience with reading activities in the past. They’ve found the topics boring, and the exercises have not made them really use the information they’ve understood by reading.

Adult learners can be tricky, so here are some suggestions that I’ve found very helpful.

Find their interests!

1. Choose something they’ll find interesting

This is the golden rule of working with reading materials! If you have someone who is a news buff, bring in a short current events article. If you have a fiction nut, choose a short story within some genre that they’ve said is interesting to them. And for very avid readers, especially if you’re working one-on-one, novels can even be a great option.

No matter what you pick, you’ll find new vocabulary, phrasal verbs, idioms, and useful grammar structures. The main thing is for your students to actually read it!

2. Find something level-appropriate

You don't want your students to feel the text's too much!

You’re not going to bring in an opinion piece from The Economist for a pre-intermediate group, clearly! When you’re working with adults, it’s important not to choose childish subject matter, but you do need to keep their level and reading abilities in mind. If the text is too difficult for your students, they will quickly become frustrated and bored.

As a general rule, you should choose a text with four or five brand-new vocabulary words in it. If you work with a story or article prepared for language learners, it should include synonyms and descriptions that will help your students to understand.

3. Select short texts that you can cover in one class

Fables and other short stories work well!

I personally love longer short stories, but this is simply not practical if you are working with a group of students. 

Imagine: you begin the story on Monday with your three students. On Wednesday, one is absent, but you continue with the other two. On Friday, the student who was absent is lost, and the others feel bored explaining what has happened in the story.

Of course this is no disaster, but the best reading activities can be completed in one class. 

You should allot the proper amount of time to read together, check understanding, discuss, and complete the corresponding activities.

4. Be sure the activities are interesting and useful

Have students discuss a character's motivations!

Adult learners don’t miss a beat! If they feel that the activities that go with a reading exercise do not help them to better understand the content or remember the vocabulary, they will feel they are wasting their time.

As you move into intermediate and upper-intermediate levels, open-ended opinion questions for discussion are a great idea. Why did this character do what she did? Why did the government take action against the protesters according to this article? Do you agree?

You can also create debates or role-plays based on the text’s content. Have the students take different sides on an issue or act as the characters in a story. This way, you get speaking practice using the story! Write the vocabulary on the board and challenge the students to make their own sentences with them. Whose sentence is more interesting and uses the most correct grammar? Competition can be a great motivator.

5. Pre-teach vocabulary and have your students read out loud

Have each student read a different character out loud!

It’s important to be very familiar with the text before you go in to class. That way, you know what’s coming! 

Use the board and examples to pre-teach the difficult vocabulary so that students understand the text better. You should also have them read out loud so that they can practice their pronunciation. Dialogues are excellent for this! It’s almost like a role-play within the reading itself.

These tips are general, so now let’s look specifically at ideas on how to use specific types of texts.

Short stories

Smiling while reading is good!

When you’re working with short stories, it’s a great idea for them to be funny or include some kind of punch line at the end. If they make your students smile or laugh, they’ll enjoy the activity much more, and they’ll be more likely to feel enthusiastic about doing more reading! Shoot for topics that are somehow related to your students’ lives – something about living in a city, working in an office, dealing with work relationships, etc. You can even try writing your own stories (about 250 words is a good guide) to practice vocabulary and grammar. Don’t forget to include those jokes!

As we mentioned above, short stories ought to be of a manageable length for a single class period. It’s a great idea to assign some kind of homework (especially writing) according to the level and content of the story. Perhaps your students can write an alternate funny ending or make their own sentences using two or three of the vocabulary words they find the most difficult.

News and other articles

Again, it’s very important to choose your content carefully. On the one hand, it’s great to pick topics that your students can share their opinions about. But on the other hand, we have to be careful of students’ comfort levels (and our own!) as well as cultural sensitivities. In many cultures, it is not polite to talk about religion, politics, or income.

For example, unless you have students who are very comfortable with each other and you, as well as being open and respectful, you shouldn’t consider very controversial topics. Try topics like the environment or life in different world cities.

Books

You won’t often be able to work with novels, but it can be a blast! Advanced students can enjoy the challenge of reading a whole novel in English. If your avid readers are lower-level, check out some simplified and abridged readers appropriate for their level. You can find classic literature, detective novels, romantic stories, or adventures in simplified readers!

Some readers are already equipped with good exercises, but you can go the extra mile for your students by preparing activities for each chapter. Create a list of vocabulary words that your student can keep close at hand when he or she is reading the chapter for homework. Have the student read you his or her favorite passages or confusing sections to you in the following class.

Then create activities - the only limit is your own imagination!

Mallory May is an English teacher and lesson planner for Really Learn English. She has six years’ experience working with adults at all levels in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is also a literary translator and loves finding new and creative ways to keep her classes interesting and engaging, especially using fiction in the classroom.

If you’re looking for more teaching ideas, visit the teaching center at Really Learn English.

How to be a Great Teacher!

I think we area always on a quest to become better teachers through CPD, getting more sleep, and basically just trying out hardest This guest post by Kristine has some great things to keep in mind to help all teachers strive to be their best.
 
If you want to become a good teacher then you will certainly need to keep a few very important things in mind.  There are a few qualities that you need to have if you want to be considered one of the best teachers in your profession.  Take note of these qualities and take the time to fully understand what they are and how to improve on these qualities.  You will see that you are going to be fulfilled as a teacher and your students will go a lot further in class.

Understand the importance of respect in the classroom.  

There are better ways to manage a class.

Good teachers will teach every student with respect.  If you are able to do that on a regular basis then you will earn their respect as well.  Here are some things that you can do in order to show respect and earn it in return:

1. Always be nice to the students.  That means all of them.  As a good teacher, you cannot pick and choose who you want to be nice to. 
2. Consider asking each of your students to call you by your first name.  You will be completely amazed by just how far this can go with your students.
3. Try to be open and honest with your students at all times.  It is not going to benefit you to censor yourself all of the time.  The kids will think you are fake and they know when you are being dishonest with them.

Make your classes interesting.

If you are able to make classes fun and interesting then your students will be more willing to put forth and effort.  There are a few different things that you can do in order to make classes more fun for your students and yourself.  Consider these simple tips:

1. Try to give your students some options when it comes to the assignments that you want them to complete.  This gives them control and it also helps them engage more because they are able to complete tasks that they enjoy.
2. Stop standing in front of the class and lecturing.  This is boring.  Come up with some really fun and exciting ways to present the lessons you have planned.  The kids will love it when things change and are unexpected from time to time. 
3. Allow your students to have drinks and food in class.  As long as they are their desks clean and tidy, it should not be a problem. 
4. Apply technology in the classroom for the purposes of learning. Most schools should now be using tablet and interactive whiteboard technology for the purposes of educating and there are lots of apps available that can make learning more interesting. Speak with your school IT or look for an external ICT supplier like this one who can help you.

See this article on how to make lessons outstanding.

Set ground rules.

If you want your class to be fun and exciting you do need to set some ground rules.  This is necessary to ensure that everyone remains focused and takes class seriously, but at the same time, it doesn’t mean that you have to rule with an iron fist.  Think about establishing rules in the following manner:

1. Allow your students to help develop the classroom rules.  Find out what is important to them and let the pupils present ideas to the rest of their classmates.
2. Have an open discussion about the rules and establish guidelines and consequences with the help of the class.
3. Always follow through with the consequences that you have established.  This will also help you earn respect from your students. 

Assign homework sparingly.

Many teachers want to give their students homework every night.  This can become exhausting for them in the long term. Too much homework can lead to a lack of focus and students will end up rushing through assignments just to get them done.  Try to assign homework in the following way:

1. Be sure that your assignments are always focused on the topic that is being discussed.
2. Give one or two larger assignments based on the topic at the beginning of the week and allow your students several days to complete the assignments rather than one night. 

This article by Alfie Kohn looks at the argument for practicing homework.

Provide an answer to every question.

There will be times when you may be asked a question that you do not know how to answer.  These questions should never be pushed aside.  Rather, help the student find the answer:

1. Use online resources with the student to help them find the answer. 
2. Set aside time to help them solve their problem or answer the question that they have.  You may both learn something in the process. 

The above tips have proven very useful for me over the years and I hope that you also find them helpful.

Helpful resources:

Teaching resources on the TES website - http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resources/
A guide to a Ubiquitous learning environment.

Kristine is a school teacher with over ten years’ experience in the profession. Away from the classroom, Kristine likes to blog about her experiences, providing useful resources for other teachers and students alike.

Are women better at languages?

Is there a difference between male and female students?

When I was in college I minored in Spanish. Most of my classes were predominately female. As I continued to seek a career in language teaching most of my colleagues are female. This guest post by Gabriele Monti suggests why most people think that women do better at learning languages. 
 
Recent studies have shown not once that women have stronger lingual skills than men, being quick and adept students. Although there is no overwhelming scientific evidence, the notion that girls pick up a language faster and easier than boys is rooted in the minds of many parents and teachers. But how much truth is in that statement? Here are three common theories which explain, based on research and statistics, why females show distinctively better results as it comes to education, specifically language acquisition.

The Biological Reason: Brain Activity

Men and women digest information individually; when it comes to learning a new language, men use visual and spoken aids while women grasp language attributes (vocabulary, for example) in a more abstract way. Researches have shown that the “semantic zones” of the brain are more activated in girls allowing them to learn a phrase from either hearing it or seeing it, whereas a boy would require both actions. This can be explained by the brain performance mechanism of the two genders: boys show more reaction in the brains parts related to graphic and acoustic functions whereas females’ brain is stimulated more in areas responsible for language encoding.

Versatile Studying Approaches: Using All Possible Ways to Learn

Once accessing a foreign tongue, women tend to take advantage of diverse techniques for learning, practising and memorizing the material. Besides the old traditional ways, there is a spectrum of technological breakthroughs today allowing anyone to choose their optimal learning strategy: mobile apps, websites and interactive learning – to name a few. Women, unlike men, keep pace with these innovations in a language class.
By diversifying the studying course female students also enjoy a universal approach, incorporating more language skills and elements. Various components such as speech, pronunciation, reading and vocabulary play equal roles in the semantic education. For example, in addition to reading and drilling words, a girl is more likely to listen to songs or practice online conversations. Men, however, tend to stick to a few methods only, thus hindering the process flow.

Motivation and Networking: Women Are Being More Social

Compared to men, women are, typically, more open to social connections and networking. When it comes to language acquisition, practising the vocabulary and picking up common phrases is done best by chatting with a native speaker. The readiness to get involved in conversation with locals in the target language is one of the keys to success.
Taking advantage of the internet, females use creative approach combining their hobbies with language learning: blogging, unloading picture and videos, commenting and sharing their thoughts in the studied language are a few examples of effective interactive education. Besides improving language skills, the social engagement adds to the student’s general confidence and self-esteem.
Another interesting fact that might partly explain why girls are more language-oriented is their participation in language classes during school and college. Research has shown that these non-mandatory classes typically attract more female students.
Biological and the social factors both play their role in the tongue learning process. Each case is individual and exceptions do exist; however, with their intuitive approach and “language gene” women indeed show higher lingual capacity

 Gabriele Monti

Gabriele is dedicated language teacher who also writes for the blog of The language Class

Peer Learning- We're better together

One of the first things I learned when I started teaching English was the importance of pair work. This guest post makes some suggestion on when to embrace learners working together, and why it is best to not rely on it constantly.

Helping someone is a way to cement your own knowledge

Have you ever witnessed one student leaning over to lend some help another student better understand a problem or dilemma? 

If so, you have likely seen peer learning. When students get together to help one another learn a difficult subject or think critically about a problem, they take their education to a deeper level opening their minds to a new thought process. This new level of learning can help peers open up their minds and encourage them to work well with other students, regardless of which side of the learning curve they are on.

Yet there are some struggles that come along with peer to peer learning that can make this typically highly effective way of learning a challenge. The following are some of the do’s and don’ts for teachers to help encourage peer learning in the right way.

The Do’s of Peer Learning

Learning to work together is a lifelong skill!

• Do encourage teamwork –
  Teamwork is something that people experience throughout their lives. In some cases they will be the leader in the group, or in the case of peer learning the person doing the teaching. In other cases, they will be the person sitting back taking instruction, or the student. In either case, knowing how to work well with one another is a crucial. When you allow peer learning in the classroom you not only help students learn the material but you set them up for an important inherent life lesson that they will need in a variety of situations.
• Do allow students to work together on problems –
  Sometimes there will not be a clear leader in a peer learning. When students come together in peer groups to brainstorm solutions to problems, they can work together equally to come up with the best solution. This teamwork is another common occurrence in daily life even after students are finished with their schooling.
• Do let peers assess each other’s achievements –
  Another form of peer learning is to grade each other’s work. This is beneficial because it allows students to see and learn from the mistakes other students made as well as how they were able to solve certain problems. By doing this, they learn what their peers are doing and can find new ways to conquer challenges that they may not have learned about before. When they learn from like-minded individuals on how they solve problems, then they are able to use these skills in other situations to advance their education even further.

The Don’ts of Peer Learning

Working together is great, but the teacher should still be a part of the class

• Don’t allow bullying –
  In some cases peer learning can lead to one person bullying another. This typically happens when one student is struggling with a particular subject and is being tutored by a peer who is better able to grasp it. When one student becomes frustrated with the other, they can begin to bully the student which can have adverse effects. As a teacher, it is important to watch for these signs and stop the peer learning before it gets worse.
• Don’t rely solely on peer learning –
  Teachers sometimes rely too heavily on peer learning and step back from their role as administrator of the classroom. This can also have adverse effects because students will not receive knowledge from the teacher that they need to get the most out of their education. A good balance is imperative with peer learning and classroom learning with a teacher.

As a teacher, finding a way to incorporate peer learning into the classroom is a good way to mix up the curriculum and teaching methods so students can work together more and enjoy their classroom time. To do this most effectively it is important to balance between lectures and one-on-one lessons with a teacher and work in peer groups. 

This guest post was written by Aileen Pablo who actively blogs about education. She uses research from: davecormier.com