Wednesday, 28 October 2015

Autumn -a time of change and projects!

The evenings are getting dark earlier,the trees are mid way between beautiful and bare and the rain is pouring ...Autumn has arrived in the UK.We can look forward to many months of rain ,cold and darkness until we hopefully receive some snow or winter sun.


This is the time that, as a freelancer/self employed teacher, I work my longest hours.What else is there to do?It is also the time when student demand for lessons goes up.My students have started thinking about their targets in terms of their ability to use English and how they want it to develop over the coming months.They also just want to work or study.I currently have twenty nine regular student who I meet between one and three times a week and all have just completed tests so we can assess where they currently are in terms of levels and ability and plan for the coming months.

I have found ,after teaching for many years,that Autumn and Winter are when students really like to focus on the nitty gritty of grammar and writing skills.A number of my students really enjoy having an  extended project to prepare and develop and then present to me.These projects are broad in their scope and scale and also in the range of subjects.Its an interesting time for me as I tend to learn something new from these students about their culture or traditions.


For example ,a student recently presented a topic on what is important to Russians living in Russia.The three most important things from my students point of view were
 a) a personal library-books are highly valued in a lot of Russian households,
 b) the Church-a cause of much discussion and the popularity of the Church is on the increase..
 c ) the village house or Dacha-almost all Russian people have some connection to the land and value this connection.
I really enjoy thinking about a project for different students and as a teacher its a very valuable exercise to give to  longer term or regular students.For the online student its something different from the usual book based activities and it gives them the opportunity to have some more control over their own learning.As teachers we know the areas of strengths and weaknesses in our students and so we can give as little or as much guidance as needed for each individual student.My students use PPP's ,music and photos along with text to present their completed work.They prepare for the presentation so that they plan how to speak and what to say.They have to find the correct vocabulary and use their imagination as they are also challenged to be as creative as possible.The majority of students who have been given a project to complete have a four week time scale in which to deliver the goods and so far most have met the deadline.






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