02 mar 2019

by | in Career, Reflections about Education, Teacher Development

We hear about CPD, the acronym for Continuous Professional Development, all the time. Although CPD is not only about taking courses, they are certainly a prototypical concept and the number of courses aimed at teachers has been increasing steadily, or at least this is the impression I have. When it comes to courses, one of the most common questions we hear is “Is this or that course worth it?” or “Should I do this course or not?” The answers, however, are definitely not as simple as the questions....

16 fev 2019

by | in Language Acquisition, Reflections about Education

The other day I was talking to an acquaintance who has a kid that goes to a language school to study English. As this acquaintance knows I am an English teacher, she started opening up to me about her feelings towards her child’s studies and she stated that she “did not feel like her daughter was actually learning English”. When I asked why, she said that she had the impression that her daughter would not be able to get by in case she had to speak English on a...

06 fev 2019

by | in Reflections about Education

While deciding on the theme for my February post, I thought of the growing wave of intolerance, prejudice, hate crimes, etc., especially in Brazil, and I decided to write about Peace Education and ways in which we can implement peace education-focused instruction into the daily lives of regular schools in Brazil. Before giving you some practical ideas, let’s clear up two basic concepts or kinds or peace:  negative peace and positive peace. But what is the difference? The concept of negative peace is the generally spread concept of peace most...

29 jan 2019

by | in ELT Management, Reflections about Education

In these times of fierce competition in the education market, if you work for an ELT institute or a school, it is not enough to be a great teacher and focus only on teaching a good class. In order to be a valued and valuable professional, there are many things you can do inside and outside the classroom to guarantee the perpetuity of your institution and, consequently, of your job. But what are these behaviors? What can you, teacher, do to help the institution you work for thrive? Show...

24 jan 2019

by | in Career, Classroom Experiences, Classroom Management, Reflections about Education, Teacher Development

The academic year is just around the corner and every now and then we tend to start the New Year facing some challenges and the kind. Being an educator is not an easy task, dealing with stressful situations such as routine, and, to add insult to injury, many of us will have to perform a juggling act, e.g. work in different schools, in order to make ends meet. Looking for perfection should be the main aim, right? It is important, however, to bear in mind that there is no...

22 jan 2019

by | in Bilingual Education, Reflections about Education

When children wake up the first thing they want to do is to play. Every mum and dad can assure this, especially when their children are very young.  I believe that this ‘playing’ is essential for their learning and if we focus on the ‘playing’ and guide the ‘games’, the results are remarkable. Can we transfer this ‘playing’ into the classroom? Of course we can. In fact, I believe that with Drama in Education we do it naturally. I’m aware that the classroom has their ‘rules’ and we must...

16 jan 2019

by | in Classroom Experiences, Lesson Ideas, Reflections about Education

I have worked in ELT for about a decade and, therefore, I have delivered hundreds of reading lessons. It is undeniable that many textbooks authors have been doing their best to come up with interesting and relevant topics that work wonders to introduce grammar and vocabulary. However, I often feel that part of our job as teachers is to always put ourselves in the students’ positions. For this reason, I frequently ask myself: “If I were a student, would I enjoy reading this text?” And truth be told,...

15 jan 2019

by | in Classroom Experiences, Reflections about Education, Sin categoría, Teacher Development, Trends in ELT

I’d like to start this post with Maya Angelou’s beautiful statement: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” As a subscriber to MET (Modern English Teacher), I received the October 2018 issue at home this month. Their articles cover a wide range of topics as you can see from its cover: [caption id="attachment_8235" align="alignnone" width="539"] MET magazine October 2018[/caption] One article, in particular, drew my attention: Promoting gratitude among learners by Jeffrey Dawala...

10 jan 2019

by | in Classroom Experiences, Classroom Management, Reflections about Education

As many teachers get ready to start a new professional year, I believe we tend to let anxiety take the best of us. According to the site “How Stuff Works”, teaching is the fourth most stressful job, since we “have to be well-prepared every day”, we take a lot of work home, and have to deal with both students and sometimes parents. It is a lot of work indeed, which may leave us questioning our career choice, or our hopes and dreams for the future. Since I truly believe...

20 dez 2018

by | in Career, Reflections about Education, Teacher Development

Those who know me, even if they know me just a little, are aware of how passionate I am about inclusivity and students with special educational needs. However, that is not what I am here to talk about today. I want to share what I have found this year. Not even in my wildest dreams, I would have imagined a year such as 2018. The objectives I had established back at the end of 2017 were way too bold, pretentious I would say and everything I have accomplished...