A bit of advice

Hola chicos y chicas.

I have a rare period of rest today so I thought I'd pen a little blog because I'm feeling nice and reflective and calm (ish). I wanted to write some words of advice for the people coming in Feb to help a little bit. Some of the stuff might only be relevant to me but I thought maybe it would be helpful anyway.

1) Learn students names. I might only be speaking for myself here but I find the classes in which I know (almost) all the students names way easier to control. It might not be possible because I know that some people never see the same class twice, in which case you'd have to be superhuman to remember their names, but where possible learn as many names as poss. It's much easier if they're being chatty and you need to call out specific students.

2) Don't be too hard on yourself. Spanish kids are a bit mad (in the nicest possible way) - if you can get them to be quiet all at once and listen to you for like any period of time then that is a difficult task accomplished. Don't expect that you'll get through all your lesson plan, you'll have given them something valuable even if you only do half.

3) Don't rely on technology. Some of the schools have almost no technology and some of them are quite high-tech by all accounts. Even so have some kind of back up plan up your sleeve if nothing works. I print out lots of pics for my students because the projector is in a v awkward place in the room and half the class can't see it. Holding a picture for them is also good because it centers their attention on you.

4) Enjoyyy yourself :) if you have fun then so will they. Even if you're a shaky nervous mess the first few times like me just pretend that you're having the absolute best time ever. You'll feel better and the students will probably respond more positively.

That's all for now - hope it's helpful and not just pointless ramblings of an exhausted English teacher, I can't really tell.

Besos x