Four Reasons to Care About Your Digital Footprint

A Final Wrod

When I heard about the course the first time, I was thrilled and read the brochure of the course and got a lot of information about the content. I thought twice before i joined the course. I tried to join the course the first time which was last year 2015. I couldn’t because the administration asked me for some documents that I didn’t have. Then I waited eagerly till I got the required documents then after a period of time I called the school and I was asked to take CLB and then start the registration process. I was expecting that I am going to study methods of teaching, using ICE in the classroom, Canadian workplace, communication and micro teaching and other more aspects regarding teaching. “Positive expectations are the mark of the superior personality.” ― Brian Tracy I do strongly believe that attending any training helps a lot and gives a wide knowledge in the field. In the course I communicated, learnt new ideas, exchanged ideas with the other participants, and communicated on line, wrote, read, and searched different resources. The instructor tried her best to help the participants and I to manage our projects, activities and all other duties we were supposed to do during the course. I learnt to work as a team effectively and learnt more about the different thinking and practices of the participants. I had the chance to visit a school and observe different teachers for five days long. I learnt a lot about the Canadian classroom, the syllabuses, the communication in the classrooms and the school management and the staff. “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.- Christopher McCandless. When I finish the course I will be ready for applying to different schools and I have the courage to attend interviews and meet different employer. I am ready because I learnt different ideas regarding the job market, the job interviews, and the different classrooms in Canada. I also had the chance to communicate with teachers and learnt from them about classrooms in Canada. Thank you TCDSB, Justine, Mary, Jihan and thank you to all who help and support the participants in achieving their goal.

Classroom Management

Teaching is a word that any teacher should take care of. Teaching is a hard job that requires a well qualified teacher and an experienced one. Varities are needed by any teacher to make his classroom atmosphere accepted by the learners. Creating a nice atmosphere makes the pupils accept any hard situation and any kind of obstacles he or she may face during the process of learning. Depending on your teaching, you may at first feel overwhelmed by the large classes and diverse needs that you face as an ESP teacher. The purpose of this paper is to provide some tips to help you manage the language learning environment in the classroom. Initially, students may experience problems in listening comprehension, remaining attentive, and following instructions. To establish a routine, communicate your objectives, and allow the students to become accustomed to your teaching style. A teacher should be involved in such situation to manage finding solutions for any problems. You may have to adapt your style of speaking at the beginning of your program so that students can understand you. Some controversy does exist in language teaching about whether or not this exposes the students to inauthentic language and will not prepare them for understanding English spoken at a normal rate of speed. Of course, your ultimate goal is to enable your students to understand natural speech, spoken at normal speed, but at first you may need to speak more distinctly, allow more frequent pauses than normal, and say things more than once and in more than one way in order to be understood. As students get to know you better their understanding will improve. Management is crucial in this situation. A teacher should manage every single activity he is giving to the students. A teacher also should create a clear and nice atmosphere for his pupils to learn and acquire the certain lesson he wants them to learn. The students will feel most comfortable and secure in their learning situation if you design a program which is well-structured and in which your expectations for the students are clear. Take extra time in the initial class meetings to explain how each exercise should be approached. This time will be well spent, as later class meetings will then fall into a routine, assignments will be completed as expected, and students will recognize their steady progress. This progress should be observed by the teacher and evaluation should be given to this progress. The teacher will have a clear idea about this progress so he could realize the weak points to be improved. As a teacher I could call you a leader, you can initially introduce your concepts and vocabulary through demonstration. Do not deny students the extra help that contextual clues give, or comprehension to exploit context clues. The visual is the most important clue. Use language, gestures, and eye contact to establish meaning, and take advantage of the students’ knowledge of the world. Tasks appropriate to this kind of treatment include description of a process, conducting of experiments, and explanations of charts or graphs. If you are explaining a certain point, stop every few minutes to allow students to get down notes, discuss briefly among themselves and ask questions. You may find it valuable to circulate through the class from time to time to discuss and answer questions. Prepared by: Abdulsalm Moh'd Al-Makradi 84 views · Written Mar 17, 2014

Salam
Create your own infographics

My Teaching Philosophy

When I talk about my philosophy of teaching, I feel great. My Philosophy in teaching means the power of practice and communication and using certain techniques in order to send a certain message clearly and smoothly to my students. I read a very interesting and effective definition for the word philosophy from dictionary.com: the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being. I tried to come up with a unique definition for my teaching philosophy but I need a hidden power and a strong spirit in order to come up with the suitable definition for the philosophy of teaching. I do strongly believe that any profession has its own philosophy but they can share some aspects because they all serve the society. I think when a person has a philosophy in his career, he feels strong and confident enough to do his duties effectively. Let me start talking about my teaching philosophy; teaching is an art, a teacher should be an artist so that he can act, draw, dance, sing, demonstrate, elaborate, and facilitate while teaching. I would like to mention to you this great quote: “It’s the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge”. –Albert Einstein. “The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.” – Bruce Barton I am trying my best to follow certain points during, before, and after teaching: Try to be a facilitator not a teacher. • Give the students the freedom to learn, communicate, apply, practice, create and reflect. When students feel free while learning they can use their language effectively and productively. Besides, they won’t have the barriers in using the language when they communicate. I feel great when students produce and apply what they learn in their daily life and try to prove that they can do it. • Provide constructive feedback to the students’ daily activities so that they can avoid mistakes. Regarding feedback, it is considered one of the best ways that a teacher should use. In addition, when the students get the feedback, they feel save and they try to develop their skills accordingly. They will also realize the differences and improvement on their level gradually. This supports them and encourages them indirectly to keep up with learning and acquiring the language. • Observe students and write down the weakness they have then plan the lessons to improve their skills. When I observe the students I experience and live their daily practices and understanding their needs so that I can have clear ideas on what I should teach next. I will do my best to include more materials into the lesson in order to develop a certain skill and improve the students’ weakness in certain skills. • I believe strongly in change so I keep using different techniques every time I go to class. Change is the key to success whenever I start my class I like to start with a new activity to make the students ready for the new lesson. Whenever I feel that the students are starting to get bored, I change my style and use different one. Change makes students ready for any task I introduce and give them the chance to understand and be creative. • Keep asking myself questions before and after class e.g what I am going to teach? What went well and went wrong? It is crucial that I ask myself questions before, during and after teaching. These questions make me feel save and be sure that my teaching, my students and all the activities I am using in and out of class are productive. I should keep asking questions in order to discover the lack and the weaknesses I have so that I can come up with solutions. • Offer help and support my colleagues in the field of teaching. Try to communicate with them regularly in order to discuss teaching problems and find solutions. It’s a must that I offer help to my colleagues in order to build up a productive community in the school. We have to work together, support each other, exchange ideas and help each other in order to end up with a certain strategy that help our students. • Inspire the learners every time you see them in class. Inspiration is a gift from God and we should be thankful that we have it. I have to keep inspiring my students. Be the reason of making them work creatively. While teaching I might use a certain strategy that leads the students to be creative in writing, reading or speaking. • Use technology in and out of the classroom as an essential tool to attract learners. Technology is everything for me, I love it very much. Although I face lots of difficulties and barriers when I try to use technology in my class, I keep insisting in using it. Technology helps students to be creative and facilitates learning. Students feel happy when they are challenged and have the freedom to use technology in and out of the class. This increases their chances of learning new ideas and practices. They have the chance to learn through fun and grasp the lessons easily and effectively. I would like to mention the following quotes: “It’s not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings” “A good teacher can inspire hop, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.” – Brad Henry Teaching is something sacred so everybody must respect this profession. When I was a student, I used to see my teacher as a perfect icon for me and till this moment I do respect teachers for their great work they do for others. I teach, I forget the world around me. I only see my students, the board, the activities, the materials I am teaching and the tools I am using. Teaching for me is my life. If I stop teaching for a week, I dream that I am teaching almost every other day. When I teach I feel that I own the world. Teaching means I help, support, facilitate and motivate the students. A teacher is the source of the class and power that makes the class energetic and lively. The students also play a major role in the teaching and learning process. I teach to live and I live to teach. This is my last words to say about my teaching philosophy. My skills need to be sharpened from time to time. I keep joining training courses to learn more and more about teaching techniques and learn about the latest teaching methods. Training is my top priority during my life career. I keep attending online courses about the use of technology in the classroom and other courses discussing theories and applications. I would like to mention something that I keep using while teaching it is the use of technology in and out of the classroom. I like to keep using collaborative work among the students. I assign lots of projects and group work in and out of the class. I try my best to keep students busy communicating with each other in and out of the class. They find it fun and practical so I keep using it a lot. I would like to mention the following quotes: “ A teacher who loves learning earns the right and the ability to help others learn.” – Ruth Beechick “Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.” – Dalay Lama XIV Teach, produce, create and give different materials using the simplest theory or way so that students understand the materials once they receive them. A teacher is the key to the learning and teaching process. As soon as the teacher is ready to deliver the materials. Each one has his own philosophy. I have my own to apply everywhere in and out of class. My Philosophy of teaching travels with me everywhere I go. I don’t stop thinking of teaching. I keep thinking about my philosophy of teaching in order to apply it in my teaching style and in my preparation of lessons, and other several activities. I am positive that my way of thinking helps me learn and improve my students’ skills gradually; this enhances the power of the students’ understanding the materials. I am trying to follow different strategy in each stage in my class according to the skill I am teaching. I would like to draw this diagram to show you my philosophy as an English teacher in class. support question understand interact In class act perform analyze demonstrate Finally, I do really feel great and I owe the world when my students learn something new and use the time in class wisely. The students’ success is my success and whatever is excellent I can do for my students I will never hesitate to do it and make them learn eagerly.

ESL For Specific Purposes-Myth or Reality?

Teaching ESL for specific purposes is a worldwide concern but isn’t famous as teaching English for mastering the four main skills. I agree with the writer that teaching English for business or other specialization is now spreading around the world. The specific courses are attractive for those who are interested in their career and would like to enhance their skill in a specific field. Another important point I would like to mention is when a person would like to take a business English course or a course for Lawyers, he should have an intermediate level so that he can manage studying this specific course. We have a general English course then go to the specific courses. The writer believes that English is an easy subject comparing to maths or chemistry but I disagree because some students believe that English is a hard subject to learn. If we use English for communication without taking care of grammar, it might be an easy subject to learn. Most Second English Speakers struggle when they learn English because of writing, reading and grammar.

Language Learning and Teaching Autobiography

Teaching and learning process is one of the most important aspects that educators usually talk about. It’s crucial that students learn and attend schools in order to keep up with a better education. I would like to talk about my learning process while I was at school. Let me give you a picture about my school, classroom and the way I was taught. I will talk about the preparatory stage because English was introduced in this stage. My school has about 20 classes; each class contains 80 students and sometimes 100 students. The class is crowded and it’s hard for the teacher to manage the class. The teacher used the grammar translation method and he used Arabic most of the time. He used to translate almost all the words into Arabic and sometimes sentences. I felt also that there was absence of the communicative approach. I don’t want to blame the teacher; I have to blame the educational system in my country. There were no tools, flash cards, and other materials that facilitate teaching. Group work, pair work and many other activities were missing. Again I don’t want to be harsh by mentioning the negative points about the way I was taught but this was the fact. I wasn’t given the chance to demonstrate what I learnt or to practice and apply what I learnt. I used to have a lot of homework. My teacher tried his best to teach but he faced a lot of problems, like the number of students, the absence of the tools and the setting of the classroom. Now I am going to talk about the way I taught. I tried my best to use different methods and techniques to teach my students acquire the language. I tried first to understand my students’ needs and know the importance of English for them. I did my best to figure out the weaknesses and strength on each student and try to plan my lessons according the students needs. I believe that understanding the learners and making them feel comfortable while learning is the key to success. Another point was I tried to make communication in class easy and applicable. I tried to make them feel free while talking and I made them talk in English in and out of the class. I loved the idea of making the students work in groups out the class and make projects and do extracurricular activities. I encouraged my students to keep reading, listening, speaking and wiring at home. I love this quote: “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ― William Arthur Ward It is obvious that the teacher is the key for the students’ success. The last important point I would like to mention is a teacher must love teaching and love the students, the environment. Satisfaction is the key, when you are satisfied with your work you will do your best to be the best. Your success is your students’ success. The last point I would like to mention is this quote: “True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.” ― Nikos Kazantzakis

A New Experience

I had an interview on October 2016 with the program manager Justine Jun at 9.00. The Program is called ELT for ESL Instructors in Toronto, North York. I spent 40 minutes and I felt great when I talked to her. It was a nice experience talking about teaching and techniques and my previous experiences. Finally, I was accepted to join this course. I am glad to have this opportunity communicating with other experienced teachers from different culture background. I feel that the course will be fruitful for all and we will enjoy ourselves learning. The course will be held at St. Leonard Adult ESL Center, 100 Ravel Road, Toronto, ON.

For teachers to try

Have you ever faced the following situations in the class while teaching? What do you do? • You finish the lesson and you still have 10 or 15 minutes left. • You face a question that you can’t answer. • You made a mistake explaining a point in a lesson • A student who keeps asking hard questions. • Something went wrong in your lesson plan. • Fail in explaining a grammar point. • Fail in making students understand a point in your lesson.

Some Questions for Teachers

Questions for teachers: 1. What is the most difficult thing in teaching? 2. How do you deal with it? 3. What makes you give up while teaching? 4. What makes a perfect teacher? 5. How would you describe a teacher? 6. How would you describe a learner? 7. What makes you feel great while teaching? 8. How much time do you spend preparing for a lesson? 9. How much time do you spend talking in the class? 10. How do you deal with bored students? 11. Describe the best and most successful lesson you have ever taught? 12. Did you try to use competitions in your class? Could you talk about it? 13. How much time do you spend presenting your lesson? Why? 14. Do you like teaching through fun? Could you give an example? 15. Who is your best teacher? Why? By Abdulsalam Al-Mukradi