Tag: <span>Teachers</span>

31 Jul

ESL Teachers’ Guide to Teach Business English Communication Skills to Students
Posted in Education by anshbookstore on July 31, 2023 @ 9:20 am

English is the global business language of the day. Many schools, colleges and universities are all offering English teaching for students and business professionals. With the growing demand for English, many ESL teachers are also trained to meet the global demand of ESL training needs.

For example, in many Asian and African countries, the English language is being taught as the Second or Third Language. Also, there are many varieties of English given the mother-tongue influences in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, India, Brunei, Australia and Canada. As an ESL teacher, you will find that this ESL teaching guide provides you with a quick checklist of tips, helping you to make your ESL classes fun and easy for foreign students.

1) Understand Your ESL Students:

Basically, you will have two types of students – school students and corporate clients. ESL school students are those who do not have English as the mother tongue. They need help with Basic English grammar as well as Advanced English conversation for daily living. Corporate business clients are those managers and employees who need to polish their English in an ESL class for effective global business communication. By understanding your ESL students, you will be able to design teaching strategies that address their specific needs.

2) Break The Ice:

Breaking the silence in the first 10 minutes of each ESL class is essential for success. Most ESL students are very shy to speak and write anything in English. With a positive and supportive learning environment, you will be able to encourage them to try speaking and writing in English every day. To break the ice, you will need to make the first 10 minutes the most fun and relaxing for your students to open up themselves and speak English freely through mini games and exercises. Invent fun games for them to introduce each other, tell funny stories, or explain something in English.

3) Create Interactive Activities:

English learning should not be boring. Make your classes fun and interactive for all your ESL students. Then, they will be interested in learning and will become engaged throughout the lessons. Organize learning activities that keep your ESL students involved and will enable them to learn from each other. Ask their opinions and suggestions on new topics. Discuss problems and challenges that they encounter in English speaking and writing. Integrate seasonal events (e.g. New Year, Thanksgiving and Christmas) as part of your teaching curriculum.

4) Focus on Communication Skills:

If there is one thing you can teach ESL students, it’s to focus on their communication skills. This means helping them to improve daily conversations with others, to polish their telephone manners and to polish their writing style. With telephone conversations, ESL students will have no visual clues so it is important to speak clearly and slowly. When in doubt, they should always ask a question to clarify and confirm what they intend to say. With written communication, ESL students just need to practice writing something or anything every day from a simple note, a letter, an invitation or email message to a full essay or report assignment. Teach them the right choice of words and phrases to minimize confusion for others. Practice speaking in front of a mirror every morning and night.

5) Work on Vocabulary:

Very often, ESL students cannot communicate well due to their lack of proper vocabulary. Then, without the right words, they face social and cultural barriers to communicate effectively in different situations. Help your students to build their vocabulary using different teaching aids. Create flash cards. Build digital folders. Use some of the latest games and apps in mobile devices. Focus on what kind of vocabularies will help them communicate well in school or business settings. In some cases, English words have different meanings for different cultures and situations and so it’s your job as an ESL teacher to clarify and explain how to use those words in detail.

6) Practice with Role Plays:

The best way to learn is through real life situations. In your classroom, you can always use role play exercises to create situations that mimic how ESL students should speak and respond to others. For example, you can have different scenarios from ordering fast food and dining in a fancy restaurant to having a job interviews and speaking to a customer. This way your ESL students will learn how to observe, listen and respond in various situations.

7) Teach Social and Business Etiquette:

Helping your ESL students to be effective communicators means teaching them social and business etiquette as well. This means teaching them manners, politeness, social norms, business customs and cultural cues. ESL students will need to learn how to communicate with proper words and manners from casual to formal settings. More importantly, you can teach ESL students both verbal and non-verbal communication techniques and skills. For example, how make good eye contact, shake hands, greet people, and express themselves through their facial expression and body gestures.

8) Provide Constructive Feedback:

Anyone can give an opinion or feedback, but you as an ESL teacher will need to provide the most positive and constructive feedback to your ESL students. They have to feel encouraged and supported, to continue learning and improving their English. Learning a new language like English is difficult for some because their own mother tongue may have a very different language structure and linguistic sound. Your positive attitude will translate into their positive mindset for English learning. Provide specific examples and tips to help them understand what is right or wrong to speak and write every day.

With these eight ESL teaching strategies and techniques above, you will become a very efficient and effective ESL teacher who is liked by all your ESL students. Even though there is a quiz, a test or a grade on paper, your ESL students will only remember what they have experienced and how they felt in each ESL class. You are there to provide a positive, supportive and constructive learning environment with no judgment, but only opportunities to learn and grow as individuals. Be proud of yourself.



Source by Dr. Vivian W. Lee

16 Jun

Career Guidance Tips For Teachers
Posted in Education by anshbookstore on June 16, 2023 @ 8:43 am

It may seem like a long time ago since you took up that one subject in Guidance and Counseling in college but waver not! There’s no need to take a refresher course for you to effectively guide your students towards the most rewarding career paths for them.

  1. Be an example of happiness and contentment. The only competition that can give financial rewards a run for its money is happiness. Remind your students everyday that career is not an issue of immediate monetary returns but of enduring returns. Seeing you smiling despite the stress of your work (and the delayed salary if you will) will inspire them to choose careers they will enjoy in the long run. It will also show them how, even if industry demands change, who they are and what gives them joy will remain rock-steady.
  2. Encourage self-reflection and self-discovery. With all the diversions and recreation students have, taking time off to think and reflect might be the last thing on their to-do list. You can help them by giving them a few minutes at homeroom to ponder on some questions like: “What do I like best about myself?” or “What do I want to do for the next five years?” If this seems too serious, use games like Icebreaker or Query.
  3. Let them express their plans and dreams. Many students, when asked what they want to do in life, just shrug and say, “I don’t know.” Perhaps they don’t, perhaps they do but haven’t really thought about it. Allowing them to express their dreams-no matter how far-out-promotes the value of thinking ahead and the skill of planning. Ask them to create an image of who they will be ten years from now and to write about what they have accomplished within ten years. This way, it will seem like they have already achieved what they desire.
  4. Commend a student’s strengths to him and to his peers. Giving praise where it is due certainly makes a difference. Notice the smallest victories in any field or aspect of life. Did someone submit an exceptional drawing or essay? Made friends with everyone? Fixed a broken chair? Receiving positive remarks about his/her output or attitude boosts self-esteem and encourages a student to pursue his/her best attributes. Making a student’s peers see your sign of approval makes them appreciate the person’s worth, creating a community where students are not forced to see academics as the only standard of worth.
  5. Introduce them to a variety of successful people. Provide them with role models of passion and good career choice, be it a college graduate or a high school dropout. It is common fare for students to meet college graduate bigwigs in their lessons. There are many of them after all as if to prove that college is the only way out of poverty. What is difficult is to convince people that college is not for everyone and is not the only option. If you namedrop successful celebrities and tycoons who didn’t go to college, they just might rethink the entire thing.
  6. Talk about a student’s best qualities and possible options to his/her parents. Hearing of their child’s passion and perseverance in something never fails to make parents proud of their children. Hearing of the best qualities of their child from a teacher enhances their understanding of their child and makes them more open to options other than theirs. Inform them of possibilities for their child and emphasize long-term rewards over immediate gains. For those students who are not apt for college education, dwell on the positive traits of the student so that parents will see the benefits of alternative options like technical-vocational careers.
  7. Organize a simple education and career directory. Because of the unavailability of organized information on education and career options, make a simple one for your homeroom class. You can put a simple list of college courses and technical-vocational specializations and their corresponding job or industry requirements. At the bottom of the list, include contact numbers for some colleges or universities and institutions that offer technical-vocational programs. You may also include local bureau or government agency hotlines.



Source by Christine Gapuz

03 Dec

Developing a Professional Library and a Resource Centre for Teachers of Mathematics
Posted in Education by anshbookstore on December 3, 2022 @ 5:58 am

This article is a follow-up to the article “Should the Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary Schools be Resource Based?” it will detail my experience in setting up such a centre in the secondary school where I was head of the Mathematics department.

I was appointed at a time in Queensland (mid 1980s) where the mathematics syllabus for years one to ten was being reviewed by the Education Department to meet the needs of all students and reflect the changes in the field of Mathematics.

Several years later, an even more radical review was made the Mathematics syllabuses in years 11 and 12.

As a result of these changes, it was obvious that we needed to expand our teaching pedagogue. This meant we needed to acquire teaching aides to assist in our using a variety of pedagogue.

For me as department head, I needed to develop a list of resources we needed and find a room in which to store them and a procedure to use them.

My first task was to develop a professional library for my teaching staff. In consultation with the school librarian, I arranged for all the professional reading texts on mathematics teaching to be “borrowed” by my department and placed in our resource room. Each year, I budgeted to add to those books.

I would purchase books on all the new syllabus topics, problem solving, text books from other states, new texts written for the new syllabuses and I would scour second hand book shops looking for old texts.

The next task was to review the syllabus to be introduced in the following year to assess the resources we needed to implement particularly the new topics E. g. Earth Geometry. The new syllabus was introduced a year at time. I would need to put the name those resources in the development section of my budget. I would need to take into account the student numbers to decide on what amount of resources I would need. Initially, I would purchase one class set to investigate its usefulness before purchasing more in the future if those resources proved useful.

Below is a short list of resources that I had in the resource centre. It is not exhaustive. They include: sets of old textbooks to use for specific topics; maps and charts; metre rulers; sextants; tape measures; dice; counters; trundle wheels; graph and coloured paper, light cardboard; four operations calculators; graphics and scientific calculators*; laptops*; line papers for assessment; videos; films; and the list could go on. Copy of all our computer software was also store securely here.

Each year, our school entered various Mathematics contests. The contest booklet were collected and stored for classroom use in the future.

Past copies of assessment items were stored as a resource for teachers to use to create revision test and as a guide to the standard of testing required in each year level.

We were lucky to have our own teacher aide allocated to our department. She oversaw the resource room and this was her base. I made sure that she had the best computer, printer and software available to her. She would oversee the borrowing of resources and organise resources ready for collection for the relevant teaching period on a written request.

As part of the resource push, each teacher was given a tote box for their day to day needs in the classroom. Each year they were allocated an amount of money to spend on the resources they wanted. I would purchase these resources in bulk. Each year the teacher could add to their tote box.

Some final comments:

  1. Ensure that the resources available for a particular topic are stated in the work program with suggestions on how to use them.
  2. Always evaluate the initial use of a resource before you purchase more.
  3. Encourage your staff to share the successful ideas they used involving particular resources.
  4. Encourage your staff to make suggestions for additional resources.
  5. Don’t purchase resources where small items, if lost or stolen, prevent the future use of that resource.
  6. Stocktake each year so you can discover what resources needs to be replaced or expanded.
  7. With computer software, always test its usefulness in the classroom before purchasing a licence for many computers as these programs can be expensive. There may be ways to purchase software through your local education authority to cut costs.
  8. Easy to use simple computer software is often more effective in a classroom situation than the more sophisticated programs.



Source by Richard D Boyce

15 Apr

Books For Teachers: Brian Clegg’s Getting Science
Posted in Education by anshbookstore on April 15, 2022 @ 10:36 pm

Getting Science by Brian Clegg targets an audience of elementary school teachers who feel less than confident about teaching science in their classrooms. While I am not in his target audience, I’m close to it. (I love science and teach in small groups of homeschooled students.) Clegg did some things authors should do. He caught my attention, told me stuff I needed to read or wanted to learn, and kept my attention throughout the book. I learned a bit and further solidified prior knowledge. It’s a good book, and after reading this it, I hope many primary school teachers do read it.

Clegg starts his writing with reasons why science can be a little scary. Journal articles and academic writing in general is stuffy and uses inflated words instead of simple-to-understand, everyday language. Science articles weren’t always written that way, and they certainly don’t need to be written that way, but it is custom and tradition now. It takes a bit of effort to sift through that language, but luckily, you don’t need to. You can be an effective and fun science teacher without the stuffy journals. Learn from reading popular books and science shows instead.

Clegg also talks about what science is and should be. Science is an adventure. It should be fun. It should fill you with wonder. Science tries to figure out how the universe works. That doesn’t sound so scary, right?

His first chapter talks about how to engage the kids in the lesson. People like people, so he suggests putting the science in context and finding it in real life. What was the scientist who made the discovery like? How did that scientist grow up? What in his or her life led him to think and experiment the way he did in order to make the discovery? In addition to involving the people and a little history, find the science in real life. If you’re talking about cell division, you could mention making bread and perhaps bring yeast into the classroom. He suggests sprinkling the discussion with amazing, and gross, facts. Kids like gross. He emphasizes that the kids should do stuff with their hands. Watching a demonstration is better than just hearing about it, but the best bet is to have the kids do the experiment or demonstration themselves. We learn by doing. And mostly, make it fun.

If nothing else, teachers should read the first chapter of the book.

The second chapter talks about why we have labs. People aren’t good observers. Many people don’t know the difference between causality and correlation. Anecdotes are not data. Disproving is much easier than proving. All of these people facts lead to why we have laboratories. Fortunately, labs are no longer just filled with middle-aged white men in lab coats, and personalities of all different types can be found in scientific laboratories.

Clegg talks about different scientific eras in his third chapter. 500BC to 1500AD is the classical period. During this time, the prevailing “theory” prevailed because it was argued successfully. There really wasn’t much science involved. Some of this classical thinking is still around today in the form of astrology and the four elements. The clockwork era of science was from 1500AD (the end of the middle ages) to around 1900AD. This era was filled with scientific discoveries and theories that make sense. Newton said force equals mass times acceleration. That makes sense. Spontaneous generation theories disappeared because people figured out flies deposited eggs on raw meat. Clegg calls the current era counter-intuitive. That is, this era of science doesn’t seem to make sense. Just think of the phrases quantum theory, relativity, and light is light but it can act like a wave or a particle.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 talk about cool things in science and Clegg gives suggestions for learning and teaching the topics. What is life? Why don’t humans have fur? How does cloning work what are the five states of matter (Yes, five. It’s not just solid, liquid, and gas). How do mirrors work? What’s the difference between mass and weight? What are black holes? What are wormholes? His explanations are pretty easy to follow.

Chapter 7 makes a case for making science hands on. Chapter 8 talks about finding and seeing science in the real world and how to make experiments come alive, but not in a Weird Science like way. Chapter 9 talks about science on the web. Which web sites are trustworthy, and how can you tell if a site is trust worthy. He also gives hints on how to search the web. Chapter 10 gives ideas on how to keep up to date in science and Chapter 11 tells you to go inspire the world.

The book was easy to read and didn’t take a long time. Even so, it managed to pack a lot of good information in it. Are you a primary or elementary school teacher? If so, go to your library and check out this little treasure.



Source by Gwen Nicodemus

23 Feb

New Teachers – Lecture Tips That Will Keep Students Interested
Posted in Education by anshbookstore on February 23, 2022 @ 9:30 pm

You’ve all seen the Charlie Brown episode where the teacher is lecturing and all the students hear is “wa wa wa wa wa wa.” We remember watching that as kids. Unfortunately, seeing this as kids taught us that this was what school was like. Now, as we are adult teachers, we are constantly afraid of becoming the teacher from Charlie Brown. Well, what if we could avoid this? What if we could use this knowledge to create inspiring and organized lectures using Best Practices? I have developed 6 tips for you to help you in creating fun and memorable lectures that will leave your students with long lasting knowledge.

1. Create an objective. We have heard this before from our administrators. Often times we hear this when the administrators come to observe us in the classroom. Write your objective on the board! Say it at the beginning of class! Say it at the end of class! Well, they’re right! By telling the students what they are to be learning and why they are learning, they are more apt to pay attention and way more apt to remember what you’re talking about. It will also help them when coming up with what they should actually be writing down.

2. Have your students do something productive. Your students should not be just sitting there. If you are engaged in best practices, your students should be doing something active with their learning while they are listening to your lecture. More often than not, this means that they will need to be taking notes. But give them structure. Maybe this meaning Cornell notes or maybe it’s powernotes. It’s your call!

3. Break it up. Break your lecture up into different segments. I would say no more than 4 or 5. This way, those who have difficulties processing long bits of information will be able to compartmentalize what you are telling them easier.

4. Separate the sections with different activities. Throughout your lecture, break up your talking by having the students do different activities. For example, have students turn to a near by partner and repeat the top 5 parts of the lecture they have heard so far. Doing this will help them to remember because they are actively participating.

5. Have them repeat through questioning. As you lecture, don’t just talk. Question your students. Question them on different background knowledge that they will know information about. Tapping into this will help them to succeed in acquiring new knowledge.

6. Wrap it up effectively. At the end of your lecture have your students do something with the information. Perhaps its a quick little quiz on the board. Perhaps they will write a paragraph summary.

Whatever you lecture about, make sure to follow these 6 tips to have your students remain actively engaged. This will increase their knowledge and participation. No Charlie Brown Effect here!



Source by Mackenzie Kerby