We’re so glad you stopped by! Whether you’re here for inspiration, insights, or just a good read, you’ve come to the right place.
At this blog you are going to read about our experiences working with different age groups of English learner students during years. Our goal is to make your time here fun, valuable, and worth coming back for!
So, grab a cup of tea, delve into our posts and enjoy our inspiring and interesting blog posts. Whether you are a teacher or a parent, there are too many useful strategies and advice here to learn.
Don't forget to interact with us and share your experiences and ideas.
Teaching Challenges and Their Solutions
The bell rings, the classroom fills, and for the next hour, a teacher is not only an instructor but also a problem solver, mentor, mediator, and sometimes even a magician. Behind the doors of classrooms, beyond blackboards and lesson plans, lie hidden challenges that teachers struggle with daily. What are these unseen challenges, and how do teachers navigate them every day?
One of the most difficult challenges is student engagement. Sometimes, students become bored and lose focus in class. In today's digital era, distractions like phones, tablets, and smartwatches make it even harder for teachers to maintain students’ attention. As a result, teachers must be creative, making lessons and activities more engaging. They may incorporate interactive games, group activities, or hands-on learning experiences to capture students' interest. For instance, in an English class, the teacher can start a storytelling chain using newly learned words. This allows students to practice vocabulary while enjoying the activity. Role-playing is another effective method that encourages students to speak, apply grammar, and use new vocabulary in a fun and engaging way, helping them learn without feeling bored.
Additionally, students have different abilities and learning styles, requiring teachers to develop diverse teaching methods. Adapting lessons to various learning preferences ensures that every student can grasp the subject matter in a way that feels accessible to them. There are several different strategies teachers can use to accommodate various learning styles. For students who comprehend better through visuals, incorporating pictures and other visual aids is particularly effective, especially for learning new vocabulary. For auditory learners, teachers can introduce podcasts, audio books, and stories related to the lesson. Additionally, allowing students to choose assignments that suit their strengths such as analyzing a topic or writing about it—can help them engage more effectively and enhance their understanding.
Classroom management is another significant challenge, requiring strong leadership and the ability to create a peaceful, positive learning environment. Beyond their in-class responsibilities, teachers also handle numerous tasks outside the classroom, such as designing tests, grading assignments, and developing lesson plans. To help manage it, teachers can have students peer-review and grade each other’s quizzes. This not only reduces the teacher’s burden but also reinforces learning by encouraging students to engage critically with the material.
Moreover, teachers must stay updated with new technologies and incorporate digital tools into their lessons, as modern education increasingly relies on technological advancements.
In short, teaching is much more than delivering lessons. It is a balancing act of overcoming obstacles while maintaining passion, patience, and creativity. Although the challenges are demanding, they foster resilience, dedication, and adaptability in teachers. Despite these struggles, educators shape young minds, influence perspectives, and guide students toward their futures. These challenges only highlight the invaluable role of teachers in society. By encouraging and supporting them, we can help lighten their burden and ensure a brighter future for both teachers and students.
Difference Between Teaching to Adults and Teenagers
Teaching is not a uniform process. Although the principles of education remain the same, the approach differs depending on the students of classrooms. Whether you're assisting teenagers navigate the challenges of adolescence or helping adults develop new skills, the dynamics of teaching are influenced by factors such as age, motivation, and experience. Any instructor must acknowledge these differences to improve the environment of their classroom.
The motivations and purposes for learning English differ between adults and teenagers. Teenagers often learn English out of necessity, driven by factors such as parental expectations, school requirements, or the desire for better job prospects in the future. Many do not study English voluntarily. In contrast, adults typically pursue English to improve themselves and acquire a new skill, making them generally more interested and motivated teenagers.
Moreover, teenagers are easily distracted and often struggle to maintain focus in class. As a result, their lessons require interactive activities such as discussions, games, and game-based quizzes to keep them engaged and motivated. In contrast, adults tend to be more attentive, rarely losing focus during lessons. They are generally more disciplined and responsible when it comes to completing assignments and projects.
Teachers must establish clear rules and maintain discipline in teenage classrooms to ensure effective class management. Striking a balance between being too strict and too lenient is crucial when working with teenagers. Additionally, teachers should be trustworthy and possess some psychological understanding to create a supportive and productive learning environment. In other words, they must manage distractions, navigate social dynamics, and address varying levels of maturity among students. On the other hand, adults tend to be more self-regulated, respecting both the classroom atmosphere and the teacher’s authority.
Teenagers need consistent support and encouragement through constructive feedback from teachers. Their exams and tests should be regular and well-structured to maximize learning outcomes and strengthen their language skills. In contrast, adults are generally disciplined and do not require rigid rules. Teachers can effectively assess and motivate adult learners through project-based learning and peer review methods, which are highly beneficial for their development.
In brief, teaching teenagers demands engagement, structure, and discipline, whereas teaching adults focuses on practicality, respect for their experiences, and self-directed learning. Recognizing these distinctions allows educators to tailor their approaches, creating a more effective and supportive learning environment for both age groups. By understanding the unique needs of each group, teachers can implement strategies that maximize student potential and foster long-term success. Ultimately, adapting teaching methods ensures that both teenagers and adults receive the guidance necessary to thrive in their language-learning journey.
Essential Psychological Skills Every Teacher Must Master
A great teacher does more than just impart knowledge. They inspire, support, and shape the emotional well-being of their students. While expertise in a subject is essential, it is the teacher’s psychological skills that truly make a classroom an engaging and enriching space. The ability to nurture growth, manage emotions, and create a safe, encouraging environment is crucial for student success. Effectively addressing challenges, understanding individual learning needs, and fostering a positive classroom culture all contribute to meaningful education. But what are the fundamental psychological skills that every teacher should develop to enhance both learning and student well-being?
One of the most crucial skills a teacher must develop is emotional intelligence. Teachers need to understand that students come from diverse backgrounds, and their unique life circumstances can significantly impact their learning, focus, and motivation in the classroom. A teacher with high emotional intelligence can better manage the classroom, enhance the positivity of the environment, and effectively address challenges. Additionally, strong communication skills are essential for delivering lessons clearly, explaining concepts in an engaging manner, and providing constructive feedback. Furthermore, actively listening to students ensures they feel understood and valued, fostering a deeper connection and promoting a more supportive learning experience.
Teachers must prioritize self-reflection and continuous learning, as neglecting these practices can lead to a decline in the quality of their classes and hinder their personal growth as educators. Ongoing assessment of their teaching methods and classroom dynamics is essential for improvement. For example, if a significant portion of the class has not grasped a particular subject, it is crucial for teachers to identify the issue and find a solution. This may involve revisiting the concept, offering additional explanations, or engaging students in exercises to reinforce their understanding and ensure better learning outcomes.
Patience allows teachers to remain calm and composed, even in challenging situations, ensuring that they can handle disruptions or difficult moments effectively. By fostering a patient and flexible mindset, teachers can create a positive learning environment where students feel supported and encouraged to grow. For instance, if a student does not understand a subject and becomes disappointed, a patient teacher tries to help them by explaining more until the student grasps it. They must encourage and motivate students.
To sum up, the psychological skills a teacher develops are just as important as their academic expertise. By mastering emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, and adaptability, educators can create classrooms that are not only places of learning but also safe, supportive spaces where students thrive. The effect of these skills goes beyond the classroom, shaping students' resilience, prosperity, and confidence. Eventually, the most successful teachers are those who can connect with the students deeply, helping them through both academic challenges and personal growth.
How To Handle Difficult Students
Teachers face various challenges in every classroom, and one of the biggest is managing difficult students. Whether it is a lack of motivation, defiance, or troublesome behavior, teachers must find effective solutions to maintain a positive and disciplined classroom environment. Moreover, they should strive to support students and encourage them to grow and work hard. By encouraging, motivating, and using thoughtful strategies, teachers can build strong relationships with unmotivated or defiant students and guide them toward a brighter and more successful path.
First of all, a teacher must understand the root cause of the misbehavior and determine why the student is acting out. Various factors can contribute to an uncooperative attitude, such as personal problems at home, a lack of interest or motivation in the subject being taught, or academic struggles. The first step is to meet with the parents and discuss their child's situation to gain better insight and find a suitable solution.
The second step a teacher must take is to build a positive student-teacher relationship rather than resorting to punishment, blame, or a hostile attitude. These students respond better when they feel understood and respected. Acknowledging their small achievements can boost their confidence and motivation. Additionally, maintaining a friendly attitude and avoiding negative labels such as "lazy" or "troublesome" can be highly effective in encouraging positive behavior.
Another helpful strategy is to set clear expectations in the classroom using polite and gentle communication. This approach encourages students to listen attentively and follow the rules more willingly. Additionally, offering small rewards can be an effective motivator, especially for teenagers. For instance, if a student frequently interrupts their classmates during discussions, you can encourage them to raise their hand and wait for their turn to share their thoughts, reinforcing respectful classroom behavior.
In short, there are many effective strategies for handling difficult students that contribute to a more engaging and positive learning environment. Identifying the root of the problem and consulting with parents are crucial steps in addressing behavioral issues and supporting students effectively. Building a strong teacher-student relationship, setting clear expectations, and using positive reinforcement can transform challenging behaviors into opportunities for growth and learning.
My experience working with 3–4-year-old kids:
Sometimes I look back at how far I’ve come, learning many things during the process of teaching. This might seem like a career that you are prepared to teach something to other people, but the interesting and sometimes unknown fact about this job is that you learn many things while you are trying to teach! It’s like you are a teacher and a student at the same time. When it comes to 3–4-year-old learners, this is even more tangible. You are a teacher who needs to be a mother at the same time. You also need to be a doctor, a psychiatrist, an entertainer and a friend for your young student! You are a teacher at your 20s but the kid inside you is 4-year-old. You learn how to be more passionate and patient for the young learner who is observing you carefully and is getting your true feelings about the whole process. This might seem a little scarry because you cannot hide anything from a 4-year-old. You cannot pretend you love them and secretly hate kids and your job. That really doesn’t work here. This is why they say that kids are pure, because they feel your energy and this might be the hardest and the sweetest part of working with very young children.
Another point about working with this age-group is that it takes a lot of energy and you need to be patient with them. Each individual kid has its own kind of behavior and sometimes different moods. It's not difficult once you get the hang of it. The first step is to know your student and find out what is interesting for them and how you can engage them to the whole idea of learning a second language. Some of these young learners get the point so quickly and you can teach them easily because they are smart. Scientifically, kids learn much better than teenagers and adults do. Sometimes, there are children that are not as quick as those quick-learners and they need more time and attention. Actually, the short attention span is common in this generation. Gen Z students are welcomed to the internet and mobile phones and they know the technology better than us so this is somehow a challenge that a teacher may face during teaching. You need to use lots of visual aids to entertain them. You can find more tips about using visual aids in our next blog post!
How to Make Teaching Interesting:
Teaching is an interesting career. You may think that I’m saying this because I’m a teacher myself. But interestingly the fact that I’m a teacher, shows that I exactly know that teaching can be boring and exhausting! Think of the years you were studying in high school. You probably had different teachers and you definitely know whose class was exhausting and whose class was interesting. Now, think of your favorite teacher. The one you enjoyed his/her classes the most and there was learning and having fun at the same time. What is the first thing that pops into your mind about that class?!
When I think about my classes as an English teacher, I remember happy children who are learning with pleasure. I always picture the class with smiling kids and smart students who answer my questions with confident and satisfaction. Sometimes, I feel that I’m not energetic and happy enough; then I look at my students and see that they are the same. My class was not fun that day just because I was not feeling good. But then I remember I’m here for them and that matters. Their happy faces give me energy to continue even in hard days. This is the most important aspect of my job.
When I think about making teaching interesting, I think of visual aids that I can use while teaching. One of the common things that you can use are flashcards. Flashcards help the students learn each word based on its picture and keep them in their memory. We can play different games with flashcards and kids will love it. Another popular equipment for teaching is ball. Always take a small ball to the classroom and whenever you felt that the class environment is getting dull and boring, use the ball as an energizer. You can easily divide the students into groups and throw the ball for them asking the new words or simply reviewing that day’s grammar. The ball will always make the process of learning more interesting (specially for young boys :)) An equipment that I personally use a lot are educational videos. Everybody enjoys watching TV so why not mix it up with learning?! Most of the times I play a warm-up video at the beginning of the class. This helps kids to know the topic of that session and I can ask some basic questions afterwards. Sometimes the video speaks better than me and even if they forget what I said (which students do most of the times!), they won’t forget the video. You can use puppets and dolls as extra characters in a part of your teaching. For example, you can create a scenario and talk to your puppet about it in front of the class to gain children’s attention. It really works for teaching grammar and then you can ask the students to come and speak with the puppet!
Always remember the more a teacher uses visual aids, the better the students learn. This is why many people believe that teaching English as a second language should not be by direct methods -specially for young learners-. When you teach everything directly, the words, the grammar, the rules, the whole lesson and your class might seem boring for your students. Therefore, use as many equipment as you can and take different tools with you to the classroom. Be creative each time and surprise your learners with different tasks, games and activities. Take different tools each session and experience different ways of teaching. Some kids might not be interested in English and this is our responsibility to engage them. Try everything and let us know more about your experience! :)
If You’re Looking for English Classroom Games, You Better Check This Post!
Statistics show that playing games influence positively on the process of learning English as second language. When you play a game, you brain cells work differently and you unconsciously learn new things from the game and the whole process. This fact was interesting for me when I heard about it and made me think of bringing more games to my classroom. In this post, I would like to share some games with you that I do in my classes and help me a lot. There are different tools you can use for your games. You can play with flashcards, ball, marker, cups, magnets, and so on. You can even do some class activities mixed with game for example a game that I really like is tic-tac-toe with dictation. At first you divide the class into two groups and then you call the students two by two. They have to write a word on the board. The person who writes the word faster, can write either X or O in the chart. The game continuous until someone wins the game.
Another game you can play with physical actions is Snatch. The students stand in front of each other in two lines. Each two students are a group and there is a small item (it can be a magnet or rubber or anything else they can pick) in front of them on the floor. The game starts and the teacher says different sentences quickly. For example, “Touch your head.”, everybody has to touch their heads. Next, “turn around”, they turn around. The teacher can say anything related to their lesson, simply classroom actions or TPR (total physical response) and the students have to do the pantomime/gesture. The fun part is that when the teacher says, “Snatch!”, the students should pick up the item on the floor. When you do this quickly, you’ll see how fun and engaging it is!
The next game is Running Dictation. The teacher sticks some papers on the wall around the classroom. There is a sentence on each paper (you can write related sentences to the lesson of that day). You divide the class into groups. In each group there is one writer and other members are the runners. You start the timer and the runners start running in the classroom. They have to read and memories the sentences one by one and tell them to the writer of group to write it. This continues and after a specific time, the timer rings and the group with more correct sentences wins the game.
These games were fun and engaging in my eyes, specially when you divide the learners into groups and you encourage them to fight for positives. They can learn a lot from this process and you can easily review the previous lessons through it. Always play a game at the beginning and at the end of your class because it energizes the whole environment and everybody enjoys.
My Experience Working with Differently-abled Students
If you google the word disability, you’ll probably get this result: “Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society.” There are different types of disabilities and we all know how hard it is for a person to be labeled as ‘disabled’. Unfortunately, when people hear the word disabled, they think that the person who is disabled is unintelligent (or as they say idiot or dumb) -which is so annoying and wrong in my eyes-. I personally had the chance to work with English learners with some sort of physical disabilities or as I prefer calling them differently-abled students who were genius! I do not call these people disabled because they might be so talented and clever but nobody hasn’t found their talent yet. In my eyes, when you call them disabled, you completely destroy that person’s ego and confidence. You won’t give them the chance to prove themselves and show their real ability to others.
I believe that when you found out that a person needs something, you have to give it to them or if they are uncomfortable doing something, you should never ask them to do it. It is the same for differently-abled students. First, you have to treat them like others and make them sure that you believe in their abilities. They don’t need pity. All they need is support and love. You have to be patient and observant. When they feel uncomfortable, try to change the environment somehow. For example, if they don’t like to present something in front of other students, ask them individually and privately. If their friends bully them, stop it and make sure they are comfortable with the situation in the classroom and nothing bothers them. When they feel your support, they start blooming!
The 14-year-old boy who was in my English class, was too shy and he had physical different-abilities for example throwing and catching a ball was hard for him and he could not speak confidently in front of the class so he would start touching his face while his body was sweating. But this is not the point at all. The interesting fact about him was that he was a great listener and a quick learner. He paid full attention when I was teaching English and he was the one who finished a task or an activity quickly. His handwriting was not that perfect and he was very slow in writing sentences but he would answer my questions so fast and he also helped other students. He was a kind-hearted human-being who taught me lots of things about himself and people like him.
There was another boy in a different class and he was younger. He was 8 years old and he was really sweet. He enjoyed painting pictures and once told me he goes to drawing class. He was also shy but he was good at doing different activities. He participated in classroom tasks actively and he was a quick learner. When I was teaching, he was listening carefully and did finish his homework neatly. I remember he did a great job at his final exam. Their class didn’t have any written exams; they just had a final dictation and an oral exam. They were supposed to write some alphabet letters and words which he did it so well and I gave him the complete score. Overall, I learned a lot from my experience, working with differently-abled students. Although at first, I was worried about it and I really didn’t know how to behave with them, at last we ended up nicely and I received much love from them.
