As we move into the end of January with 2023 well under way, it’s time to ask ourselves whether we have started the year with a bang and if we have managed to instil a sense of good practice into our classes and our personal and professional development.
They say a good teacher never stops learning and I think it’s always a good idea to try out new things in class to keep both ourselves and our students, fresh and engaged. Way back in my early days with Embassy summer, I’d look for something that could help develop my teaching and add another dimension to the lesson dynamics. One year it was a focus on using an OHP (overhead projector), another year it was to get the students into the language laboratory a couple of times a week and once I decided that my students would produce a newsletter for the rest of the school – on each occasion I learnt something alongside my students and although not everything went as smoothly as I’d wanted, there were enough takeaways for both myself and my students that it was definitely a positive learning experience for all of us. Below are a few ideas I’ve tried out that I’d recommend if you haven’t used them before:
- The cookie jar – get hold of a large glass/plastic container and bring it to class. Explain to the students that they can put suggestions on a piece of paper for activities they would like to do in the lesson or questions they would like answered, ideally these would take no longer than ten minutes of class time. The suggestions would be folded and put into the jar/box and then if there was a bit of time left at the end of the lesson, I’d put my hand in the jar and pull a suggestion that we’d do in class (obviously, having sorted the suggestions out beforehand and placing the ‘worthwhile’ suggestions at the top of the pile).
- Exit cards – this works best with post it notes but you could just use scraps of paper instead. Have the students write on the post it notes something they enjoyed doing in the lesson, something they learned from it, something difficult that they would like to practice more of and something that they didn’t really like -as they leave the classroom, they stick the post-it-notes on the board or hand the pieces of paper in. Like the last activity, this creates more of a negotiated syllabus for the semester and allows the students to give feedback and suggestions on the lessons in an anonymous form.
- Tutorials -sit down with your students individually at least once a semester, ask them what they think of the lessons, their progress and give them some personal achievement goals to work towards (this can be done over the course of several lessons when the rest of the students are involved in an individual class activity such as writing an essay, reading a text or completing a test). This really helps create a space for reflection and allow you to have a one-on-one with all your students, which is always rewarding and useful.
Phil first started working at Embassy when there was just one school in Hastings, back in 1990 – during his time there he has worked in many roles, from teacher to head of vacation education to teacher trainer and then finally over to Embassy Summer, where he has Academic Coordinator for UK schools since 2007.