5 traits of a bad Language School

 

We’ve all been there, underappreciated, overworked, badly managed, lions being lead by sheep. It can be dreadful on the mind but here are some of the truly worst traits that a Language School can possess, If you see any of them… RUN!

An Education Mill packed with Sycophants: My experience working for an international education company in the UK.

Firstly, the school will remain nameless as I am aware that the school I am going to talk about is a little trigger happy with the lawyers but, needless to say, it is a large school in the UK with a global presence.

The reason for writing this is not only to give you my experience, and my story, but to help inform you of the positive and negatives of working for a large English language company in the UK. Obviously every experience is different, and you can take what you want from mine. Furthermore, I encourage you to go out there and experience it for yourself as it may be something that you greatly enjoy with a culture that you fit in with.

The topics I will cover include: Working hours, Class type, Fellow teachers, Management and Pay and promotion, some of these are subjective and some of them really aren’t.

World Teachers’ day and fond farewells

Happy world teachers’ day to all who read this post!

It was a sad start to my world teachers’ day as my two favourite students were leaving. I didn’t think I could connect so much with elementary students: I didn’t know what we’d talk about and how we could even build a relationship, but we did, and I will miss them. They reminded me how rewarding it can be to teach elementary students and the interesting challenges that you face everyday. They’d been with me for only six weeks but it felt like just a few days. I wish they’d stayed longer but it is a very sad part of our jobs that the best and closest students all have to leave at some point. It was a sad morning and made me almost forget about world teachers’ day.

5 tips for DELTA Module One

After a long time away from the blogging world, so I could focus on my DELTA Module One, I am proud to say that I passed with a distinction. In this blog, I want to share some of my tips for anyone else who is thinking of, or in the process of, doing their Module One.

5 things not to ask an EFL teacher (part 2)

Back by popular demand is the ‘5 things not to ask an EFL teacher (part 2)’ but this time with a twist. This time we will be talking about ‘5 things that EFL teachers need to have tattooed on their forehead’… Yes, tattoos on the forehead seem like a painful idea, but for the sinners and martyrs of our most humble industry some things just need to be out there for all to see, and what better way than getting what you really think, and want, tattooed on your head…

Using board games in the classroom

Should we use Board games in the classroom? I say hell yeah we should! Why not? They are fun, interactive and help students to practise a variety of skills that don’t always get the attention they deserve. Obviously there is a time and a place for them, and a suitable age range, however, we have used with them adults and teenagers and found that once the initial feeling of ‘why are we doing this’ wears off, the students embrace it, and don’t even realise that they’ve just spoken English for a whole class without a care in the world.

Help your students write with ‘write and improve’

We moved back from Spain last year to England, and when we landed we were fresh out of ideas, but we settled down to a new job in Oxford, and have come across a fantastic website, that we have found very useful for students.

https://writeandimprove.com/ is a really useful tool for helping students with their writing both in and out of the classroom:

How to start your own teaching blog

We’ve been writing our teaching blog for nearly a year now, and it has been a roller coaster experience. We’ve had positive feedback, negative feedback and met and spoken to some really interesting people. We wouldn’t change our experience as we found it quite cathartic, whilst living and working in Northern Spain, and we love hearing different teachers opinions. We are not the only ones: there is a huge world of EFL out there and hundreds of posts are written and shared everyday. People want to hear what you have to say, and being teachers we all seem to be fond of, and good at, writing.

A day at a Summer School in England

Working in a Summer School happened to me through a random job application, whilst unhappy with my job in Spain. I applied; I left it and I didn’t think anything of it, but what I didn’t realise was that the 8 weeks I do every year would serve as the best teaching environment and experience I would have as a teacher, despite being in Spain for 3 years.

Not only was I being paid over the summer, which for many teachers is a dream, I got to do so in the city I went to University and where most of my formative years occurred. I could choose either 15 hr weeks or 30 hr weeks and I had a say in what levels I was interested in teaching, so as to help with my career development, something the school takes seriously, and although only an 8 week contract, I honestly felt a better teacher for it and that my skills had actually developed. I learnt a lot of new activities to use in the classroom and I actually got to use my CELTA knowledge.

To give a better idea of my experience and hopefully many others, here is what I did on a typical day in a typical 30hr week:

Survival guide: 5 things every teacher should do in the summer

Summer is coming! Whether we like it or not the year has a habit of going at lightspeed, some months, and a snail’s pace another. With academies and schools closing for the summer and the money drying up, we all need to diversify and find ways to keep ourselves entertained, moving forward and earning a few pennies too. Here are 5 things to do in the summer: