Friday, October 20th, 2017.

This day we had the great opportunity of meeting an English Fellow from The US Embassy. I think it was a nice experience because the teaching career hardly ever has these kind of opportunities! Kati Casto presented how we can improve our classes, and she gave some tips too.

1) Be excited about your class content: I think this one is one of the keys to have a succesful class!
You should look happy, enthusiastic about your topic even if you do not like the topic. This is in order to project you excitement to your students and to show them that English is not boring.

2) Create a Lesson Plan that works for you. You cannot have different activities in your lesson if you do not know your students. First, you have to get to know your students, their learning style, if they are hyperactive or not. Getting to know your students should give you some ideas in how to organize your lesson.

3) Command and Respect from your students. It is important to cross a line or a limit between the teacher and the students. If you start joking with them or talking about your personal problems, this can be a problem. Sometimes students get advantage of it! They will believe that the teacher is their friend and this can lead to a disrespectful path.

4) Give students different opportunities or responsabilities. If you have the same wrap up everyday one day you can have one of your students to do it. They will not do it as you! but that does not mean that is not okay. We should start giving opportunities to our students because they are capable of great things if we give them the chance

5) Incorporate VAK type of learner in your class. Not everybody has the same learning style. For example, I am a visual learner, I get bored if I do not see something colorful in the classroom. There are some others who are kinesthetic or auditory. You should take into account this! In this way, all of your students will enjoy the class.

6) Plan questions based on knowledge goal. Ask questions after you have explained the topic. Or let the students do it. Give them some time and confidence to do it. 

7)Evaluate Using rubrics. Rubrics are really important because students have some ideas in how to do the assignment. They can see what is going to be checked. It is really important that you show them the rubric before the assignment, during the assignment and after too.

8)Collect and use data. You can create a little quiz after the topic was explained. As a teacher you will see which topics are not clear for your students. You can improve the way you teach.

9)Take time to reflect. Take some time to review what you have been doing during the semester. What am I doing wrong? What am I missing? 

10) Encourage and Grow. Learn from your students and let them to learn too! You will not make the same mistakes that you did some years ago. We teach how to learn, but sometimes we can make mistakes and that is fine.