(To construct your own toolkit: Each time something works well in your classroom
ask yourself, "What's the basic principle?")
Toolkit
Keep your tools handy - things will go wrong.
(Life is just one problem after another.)
Fix problems now, or they'll get worse.
Metateaching
To improve your thinking, study how you think.
Pay attention, ask yourself questions, be clear.
Distill essentials and synthesize them elegantly.
K.I.S.S. - (Look for an easier way.)
Keep an eye on the peak, an eye on your feet.
Expect miracles, but be patient.
Teaching
Give them your best teaching to get their best learning.
Give 'em what they need when they need it.
Teach, test and get out of the way.
(The teacher should not be the star.)
You're the Jimminy Cricket (conscience) of the class.
The students' job is the material, the teacher's job is the students.
The teacher can see what's happening and change things [transactional engineering].
The teacher should be a useful resource for the students.
Pay attention to your students, so you can talk with them.
(Note who your students are [names, faces, mannerisms] what they've done
[personal history] and what they're doing so that you can have meaningful dialogues.)
Learning
Learning is global.
Language learning is a recursive process.
You get better at what you enjoy doing.
Everyone enjoys talking about their own thing.
Speech is sufficient but not necessary for communication.
Train body language by pantomime.
Rehearsal enhances learning, confidence and performance.
Feedback enhances production.
Pretending instills freedom to say or be anything.
Freedom requires responsibility, but promotes growth and creativity.
Groups
Talking with other students can be less stressful than talking with the teacher.
Talking with a few students is less stressful than talking in front of the whole class.
Rule of thumb: Keep calling on individuals with the whole class waiting for answers
to a minimum because it increases both stress and boredom.
Japanese often feel better working in groups.
There's less stress, but more obligation.
Different roles bring out different talents.
Competence resides in the group.
There's a right size for each job - more members, more ideas, but less time for each.
Alpha and no Omega
In the beginning you have the most freedom.
(A milligram of prevention is worth a megaton of cure.)
You can't wrap up English in a cocoon of Japanese and expect it to fly.
Instill mindfulness, so students can grab the chance to say what they really want to say
in English.
Use English in the process, product and feedback.
A screenplay is a story told with pictures and words.
(Keep the directions, descriptions and actions separate from the dialogue.)
Keep raising the bar to maximize engagement and . . .
**************TO LINK YOUR PAGE AROUND THE WORLD CLICK HERE!**************
**<--Left two.**
<--Left one.
**SURF AROUND THE WORLD!**
Right one.-->**
Right two.-->**
Member of the Internet Link Exchange