[etni] Fw: re: About teaching grammar
- From: "Ask Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 08:01:52 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: Howard Hanan Sibirsky - howdon@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: About teaching grammar
Dear Friend,
Thank you for writing. Please excuse me for not having written before.
Many colleagues have asked me to offer suggestions on how to improve their
teaching of English as a second language.
I have been thinking about it and have come to the conclusion that you have
had to experience that which I have throughout my professional years. I
cannot, in reality, offer advice to teachers who have not gone through what
I have.
My formative years in a Uruguayan school - wonderful school I may add, my
shock of being a teen student in a Brooklyn city school - terrible, a great
high school called Brooklyn Technical High School, and then my college years
both undergraduate and graduate in the USA.. These were mostly in the
evening since I had been a skilled construction worker - professional
paperhanger - and had to take care of a growing family.
http://www.bths.edu/
My first teaching position as a teacher of Spanish was at Manchester High in
Connecticut. Great school. I came in the middle of the school year.
Circumstances force me to learn by doing with no help or assistance at all.
It was there were I was introduced into a wonderful, liberal school. I had
had no experience AT ALL. As I wrote before, I had to learn the
Audio-lingual system by myself. It became my natural way of teaching.
Although it is designed to be applied in the first two years of language
learning, it proved to be a wonderful way of preparing students for future
learning. Of course, I had taught grammar and literature as well, but the
former had been but an aid, and not the ends to the means. I can go on and
on but won't.
http://mhsweb.ci.manchester.ct.us/
You have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, "Is teaching English
what I want?"
Another thing: I have never been afraid of my school principals. I have
always stood up to them when I realized, time and again, that they had no
idea whatsoever about teaching foreign language other than what they had
personally experienced. The only principal that I could really get along
with and understood me had been Rabbi BaGad at Yeshivat Nehalim. Although I
am completely secular I called this school my second home. He had given
complete support in anything I did - what counted were the results.
I had refused, in all schools I worked at, to let the Merakezet order books
for my classes. Too many times these books did not fit the class and were
not used at all. So much hard earned money was simply wasted.
I have never let the merakzet come into my classes and tell me what to do.
In other words, I was strong enough to know my abilities and demanded
freedom of action, and got it too.
I saw the school administration as equals, but I saw myself as the one
responsible for my results.
True, this often led to misunderstandings, but I suppose my work and results
were good enough for these same administrators. To be strong you have to
change your attitude towards your principle. If you are afraid of him/her,
change you profession before you fall in the depression stage.
LEAR, LEARN, LEARN. Don't rely on your courses at university; they were
probably out-of-date and don't work. That is the reason you are asking for
help. Look up modern esl English as a second language on the Net and read.
If you like something, try it in class.
If you get any ideas that may work, try them on the classes and learn from
personal experience.
I hope I have given you some tips. The best tip is: "Do what you want to do,
and do it well".
Good Luck
H.S.
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