Tag Archives: reflective teaching

Response-abilty

Posted on 14/02/2015 by fabenglishteacher

I interviewed Herbert Puchta at the recent ETAS AGM and one of the things he said was, … I’m sorry, I’ll repeat that in case you weren’t paying attention – I INTERVIEWED HERBERT PUCHTA, aren’t I lucky?!! This is the … Continue reading →

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An idea to help question formation and an interesting site

Posted on 29/04/2014 by fabenglishteacher

I know grammar is a dirty word, but in the Swiss secondary school system it’s difficult to avoid, so after the bare minimum I encourage my students to talk to each other as much as possible. It seems that most … Continue reading →

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5 reasons to keep a teaching journal

Posted on 07/03/2014 by fabenglishteacher

Since I started my M.A. last autumn I’ve been keeping a journal in various forms. For the last month or so this has become a notebook in which I write a few thoughts, often questions actually, EVERY EVENING, except Saturday … Continue reading →

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A lesson on plagiarism

Posted on 25/02/2014 by fabenglishteacher

Do your students “cheat”? Or is it only school pupils that do so? Obviously the need for a good mark with minimum effort overrides any longer term motivation about actually learning English, or so it often seems. So today, when … Continue reading →

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Do I have to teach grammar for them to learn grammar?

Posted on 22/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

I experienced two “moments” while teaching this week, both related to teaching grammar. In the first class the present perfect +ing was introduced in a text about music. I asked the pupils who played an instrument and elicited a few … Continue reading →

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Being bleargh

Posted on 18/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

Although I’m supposed to be reflecting on action, in action and for action, I appear to have had a job reflecting anywhere near action at all this week, it has just flown by. When I finally pause for breathe and … Continue reading →

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It makes me mad when…

Posted on 07/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

I spend (relatively) ages thinking of a fun way to introduce the passive and my pupils just won’t play ball. For some reason my pupils always seem to find the passive challenging ( answers on a postcard please), even though … Continue reading →

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Is thinking working?

Posted on 06/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

It’s the first lesson back after the holidays, 8:15 – 9:05a.m. It’s the troisième – 20 odd fifteen year olds. As anticipated a quarter of them were absent. Not wanting to spend the whole lesson writing ( -we only have … Continue reading →

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Phonology Fear

Posted on 19/12/2013 by fabenglishteacher

  I’ve always had a real phonology phobia and avoided using it in class. In fact, apart from the odd bit of repetition/drilling I don’t teach much pronunciation at all to be honest. I’ve always thought, that given enough opportunity … Continue reading →

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What went wrong with this lesson?

Posted on 12/12/2013 by fabenglishteacher

A very interesting lesson today for the 3ème class (average age 14/15). I introduced the next activity, a dictation and then played them the text that was on the course book CD. It was tough, and fast. After a couple of … Continue reading →

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