So you might remember that I went to the TESOL Convention. But you might have forgotten that I had a job interview while I was there.  Turns out I got a job offer! So the Ebaby! teacher might go abroad. The job is on the beautiful coast of Turkey at a university with small class sizes and motivated students.

I am super excited about the opportunity, but as I was cleaning my house it hit me: where is all my stuff going to go? And what will I do without the fifty teaching books that I regularly reference like Zero Prep and my huge file cabinet of lessons (which of course I only have paper copies of)? I have heard EFL teachers talk about bringing one boo abroad (usually Azar).  But I just can’t imagine it.

And then I start to think about my other stuff: My poor furniture, clothes and colorful dishes that I’ll have to leave behind.  I know that is silly. I have lived aboard before and it is actually surprisingly easy to pack a years worth of stuff in two bags. I know that is really the least of my worries.

But truth be told, I am so excited about the opportunity and not really worried. I know it will be perfect. I still have a few weeks before I have to sign the contract, but I think my mind is made up.

Last week, I was in meetings with librarians and adult educators from around the country. I realized how little I know about libraries. Libraries in the US are community centers, lifelong learning schools, and places to find books. Mistakenly, I have only used the library to check out books.

I have recommended that my students go there to read and also to use the free computers. What I didn’t know was that libraries have some great computer programs and subscription services. Libraries have the tools to improve students’ reading, writing, and other skills. They offer free tutoring service (online and in person). They have English conversation groups. But more than offering traditional educational opportunities, they provide other great free services: art clubs, museum passes, and knitting groups.

Since I last moved, I haven’t gotten a new library card. Now, I know I need one. I also made an appointment with my local library, which is one of the highest ranked in the nation. The woman I’ll be meeting with is going to tell me about (even more) library services that will help me and my students. If you live in the US, I recommend you go see your local librarian. Librarians have a lot to teach students, teachers, and everyone, really.

I have had my fair share of teaching revelations over the last year and hopefully I have really learned from each of them. They have made me realize how I can improve. Next year, I have six teaching resolutions:

1.  Integrate students’ personal and work lives into the curriculum.
2.  Increase students’ computer literacy through active use of technology.
3.  Present grammar rules and information deductively. (Let them figure it out.)
4.  Tap into students’ motivation to learn English.
5.  Share my lesson plans with other teachers in a consistent and organized way.
6.  Continue to love what I am doing.

Some of these resolutions aren’t exactly new. I talk about using technology all the time and I have mentioned integrating students’ careers into the classroom. Still, this is my list. My list of resolutions. Keep checking back as I work on each of these resolutions. If anyone has any advice, please tell me. Especially with sharing lesson plans and connecting with other teachers!

The internet has made finding realia so much easier. It’s pretty easy to pluck an authentic news story or find a relevant video clip from YouTube. But with the holidays around the corner and all of the traditional food that Americans eat on Thanksgiving and Christmas, it might be time to bring in some more interesting realia: food!

If you have pumpkin in your area, you can make pumpkin pie.  Or pumpkin cookies like in the picture above, since, in case you didn’t know, no one eats pumpkin outside the US. Students will love to try it! And many will think it is disgusting, so it can be pretty funny. You can integrate these food items into your curriculum in many ways. You could bring it in and have it be the start of a conversation or a discussion. If you’re in another country, you could have a debate about if local stores should sell American food.

You could also have your students make the food in class. This could be good practice for following directions if you have one student dictate the recipe to another who isn’t allowed to read it. It could even be a listening activity if you have a high tech classroom and access to videos from foodnetwork.com or marthastewart.com

Other classic American foods include: scrambled eggs, pancakes, cookies, fruit salad with marshmallows (ambrosia),  meatloaf and more. This activity is totally optional and might just be something you add to a end of class party. But food can be a fun realia in the classroom. So give it a try and don’t be afraid to bring in things that you think taste bad. Some people might like them.

At my house, we begin every Thanksgiving meal the same way. Everyone at the table has to say one thing that they are thankful for. It usually goes something like this:

“I am thankful for the food.”

“I am thankful for being alive.”

“I am thankful for having wonderful family.”

“I am thankful for work.”

And on it goes. It takes a while to go around the Thanksgiving table. We usually have fifteen people for dinner and each person must say something unique.

But I realized I could do something like this in my ESL class to teach Gerund as well as the real meaning of Thanksgiving. (Believe it or not Thanksgiving isn’t all about food.) Gerunds look like verbs, for example being, but they act like nouns. So in our “I am thankful for…” examples we have two gerunds. We can see from the examples that gerunds are in the same place as nouns and that they really do act like nouns.

So you might want to use the “I am thankful for…” as an introduction or as practice in your next gerund lesson.  Students could even use this as a writing prompt. It will bring in a little bit of culture and a little bit of fun to a traditionally boring grammar topic.

More on gerunds here: Gerund Summary with lots of quizzes, Printable Gerund Board Game, and more Gerund Quizzes

Do you remember what it was like the first time you taught a class? Were you scared? Were the students wonderful or less than endearing?

Being a new teacher is hard. One of the best things to do is reflect. New teachers need to spend a lot of time reflecting on what works and doesn’t work with students. Even experienced teachers need to do that! But new teachers have so much to think about as they begin to guide students’ learning. And hopefully lead to their success.

If you want, you might share your experiences about when you first started. Leave a comment; I would love it. Otherwise, I have been reading two wonderful blogs by foreign language student teachers at the University of South Carolina (read this one or this one). As an adult ESL teacher, it is wonderful to hear their fresh perspective and hear about teaching in a wildly different context, like a bilingual Kindergarten.

So really this post is a “shout out” to the students at SC who are putting their stories out there for us to read about. It’s great!

Should your ESL students sound like Brits? Should they sound like Americans? Or does their accent even matter? Recently, I have been working with students on their pronunciation and it has really made me think about what our pronunciation goals should be. Most often, students want to sound like native speakers. Most learners will never get there. And they don’t have to!

I try to make it clear to my students that our goal is comprehensibility and intelligibility. I want people to be able to understand what they are saying. But I don’t see the need to linguistically hide their colorful backgrounds (like the one in this picture).

Accents are wonderful and beautiful. Sadly, in some situations you may be at a disadvantage if you have an accent. But I hope that in the future accents won’t hinder. If anything they should be looked at positively. It shows that someone knows two or more languages.

Still, I am not trying to make a political stand by telling students that they shouldn’t try to sound exactly like a native speaker.  I just would rather have them be understood (which requires using the correct intonation and stress), than know how to say individual English sounds. Honestly, the rising intonation in questions like this one is more important than the American r.

I am not alone in this thinking. The movement towards teaching larger pronunciation rules (called Suprasegmentals)  instead of little sounds is very popular in pronunciation teaching. But it requires teachers to explain that sounding like a native speaker isn’t that important. Which some students just don’t want to hear!

Cake and tears don’t usually go well together. But sometimes things aren’t purely sweet. Last week was the last ESL class of the year for me and my students. It was definitely bittersweet.

Students brought three cakes, two pizzas, Somalian food, Mexican food and chips. It was a huge amount of food for the ten of us! But the students wouldn’t have had it any other way. They are so generous and caring. Everyone was so excited to celebrate.

Sadly, their caring nature didn’t mean they could pass the tests. And before the party could start, we had to tell the students who had passed and who had failed. In our department, their grade is based solely on three final exams. So it can really be a surprise.

And it was hard for some of them to enjoy the good company and food after crying.  I don’t know, I love all of my students and I wish we could have all been joyous together. Maybe next year. This year our end of the year party was a bit of a flop. I don’t like to see tears!

ESL students spend a lot of time online and it can be a great opportunity for them to meet native English speakers. I mean, 85% of American college students are on Facebook and the majority are active members. Our ESL/EFL students could be meeting a lot of Americans online.

But more than the obvious social benefits, social networking can improve students’ English. Just look around English, baby! and you can see how social networking lets learners experiment with language in a friendly, communicative setting. Still, not many people are convinced that social networking can or should be integrated into the classroom. It’s a nice extracurricular activity, but most teachers can’t see the teaching potential.

Well, the truth is social networking is great reading and writing practice! And I am going to take advantage of that in my ESL class. I am integrating social networking sites into a reading strategies lesson. One important reading strategy is inference. Inference means interpreting beyond what is actually written and making bigger conclusions. Look around any social networking site and you’ll find there is a lot to infer. People say one thing, but they mean another. My students are going to use this handout that I found online. The handout wasn’t developed to be used with social networking profiles, but it helps students separate what people say from what they mean. And it seems to fit perfectly with the activity. Students will write a few quotes from a profile and say what they think they mean on the handout. Then, they will write a paragraph about what they think about the person.

Here is an example of inference from lastbreath. His profile was the first one I read today. He says, “Things I Like: romantic dinner” He means, “I like romance. I want romance.” He says, “Favorite Movie: romantic and romantic comedy” He means, “I am a good boyfriend and I really want romance ,” and maybe, “I want a girlfriend.” You could even infer things from his screen name.

The point is that as teachers we need to monopolize on our students’ free time. They spend a lot of time online and an English social networking site will really help their English. It will improve their reading skills and maybe it will make it easier for them to make inferences.

This is just one idea. And we need to think of more ideas because online social networking is a great way for ESL students to practice reading and writing.

This week one of my coworkers shared a great grouping activity with me. I love this activity because dividing students up into groups can be so complicated. But sometimes all you need is a nice random grouping of students for an activity.

• Begin by selecting a subskill or theme, like simple past or pronunciation.
• Decide the size of the group, for example, groups of 3-4.
• Make words or sentences that deal with the theme. Words or sentence should clearly sort into groups.
• In class, tell students the theme and the size of group.
• Have students walk around and share their words or sentences.
• Students try to find a similarity in order to form the correct sized group.

Here is a specific example: This week, we were working on simple past. I wanted to make groups of three. I started by writing 3 sentences with one simple past grammar mistake in each. Then, I wrote 3 more sentences with 2 mistakes in each. And so on until I had enough for my class. During class, I gave each student a sentence. I had them read their sentences to themselves first and told them that they would be divided into groups of three. I told them to find the similarity in the sentences. I gave them a hint that the similarity had to do with simple past grammar. I gave students time to walk around and share their sentences. I gave them hints if they need it. At the end of the activity, they had found people with the same number of mistakes in their sentences. They were in perfect groups of three and they had already practiced simple past.

Here is another example for vocabulary: To divide your class into four groups, you could give each student a word (a noun, adjective, verb and adverb) and have students try to figure out what factor would divide the class into four groups. Give them hints and they should be able to realize that the form of the word is the important feature.

No matter what you choose to do, this activity is great for a number of reasons. Firstly, it easily divides students into groups. The groups can be random (if you hand-out the words/sentences randomly or the teacher can select the groups by assigning each student a specific word/sentence. Secondly, it is a good activity to prepare students for any type of group work. It gets them thinking and working with others. I loved this idea! It is so great to have nice colleagues to share ideas with. If any of you have classroom ideas, blog about them and give me a link. I would love to hear your classroom ideas too.