Best of 2003-2023

/ New to ELT

In September 2003, I started teaching languages.
20 years ago…
Long time, no doubt.

In these days, I’ve been organising my teaching materials and while doing so, memories came back to me. I reflected on old friends/colleagues/mentors, the books that had just come out when I got my degree, I thought about the way I prepared lessons 20 years ago and how I do it today. I remembered sending my CV to several language schools in summer 2023 and heading to my first job interview in September (which was actually a disaster). I can still recall some of my doubts, my determination and the desire to be a good teacher, not just any. I spent some time reminiscing about some difficult moments, but then the bests started to pop up: the best advice, the best school, the best books. Let me list here some thoughts on them, a young version of me might find them usefu

1. Best teacher’s book: I noticed that most of the prompts, cards and exercises I’ve been using for ages are from old teacher’s books. Don’t get me wrong, there are excellent materials available and they are getting published continuously. However, there are some great classics, just like in literature. How many of you knows/remembers the Reward Resource Packs? My ‘free practice’ tasks for A1-A2 level classes are still taken or adapted from this excellent book series. So let’s say, I consider the Reward Resource Packs as maybe the most useful of all teacher’s materials I’ve ever purchased. PS: No product placement, Reward is no more being published.
2. Best course book: difficult to choose, but I think English File was made really well, at least the second edition (once again, no publicity, the second edition is outdated). I’m sorry they changed the graphics in the third edition, the pictures (and layout in general) are a bit upsetting, hopefully they’ll get back to the second version in style and structure at some point in the future.
3. Best school: I’m not talking about schools that are the best to be chosen by students, Here, I consider the teachers’ perspective. I’ve worked in about 10 different language schools before becoming free-lance and the best one stood out, because it had a merit system: teachers who were recognised and acknowledged by students could take care of entry tests / enrolment and got promoted. The system worked both ways, as I’m going to explain it in a post soon. Schools often pretend that their teachers are identical because they work for them, but it just doesn’t work like that. Teachers are unique and students must have the right to choose the one whose style and way of working suit them best. Moreover, teachers in the above mentioned school were paid based on the number of taught lessons and there was no pre-fixed number of hours. The system of weekly/monthly minimum hours for a fixed wage is a trick: nearly all teachers end up teaching very little in some months and too much in the others. They need to make up for the low months from February to May, this is why there are so many overworked and stressed-out teachers in spring. This is not the case if a teacher can choose which classes to teach and obviously if there is a difference in payment between ‘easy’ and ‘challenging’ courses. This system existed only in one school in my 20 years, but I really hope that schools will get more flexible and merit-based in the near future.
4. Best advice: I’ve had some, but the most useful was to ‘remember’. Remember students’ (and their kids’) names, their birthdays (in YL and teen courses definitely). Most importantly, remember to find the answer to questions you couldn’t answer in the lesson, it’s more important to search for a response (if there is any) than knowing everything. It shows students that you listen, that you care and that you want to know the solution for their really good questions. Finally, remember certificates: my son made me change language school, because three reward certificates out of four were given to him with at least a week of delay. First, he just came home saying that the teacher had forgotten to print it for him (although he had behaved very well and participated in 10 lessons and done all homework tasks), the second time he prepared in advance saying that the teacher would forget it anyway (and she did), the third time he came home saying that he didn’t like his teacher any more. Reward certificates work and are worth only if they are handed to the student straight away or latest in the next lesson. Kids care about them. People care about them.
5. Best invention: well, not the mobile phone, considering how many times I still get IM late in the night requesting schedule changes or communicating cancellations, in the worst cases for the coming day. (Btw, if a change concerns a day other than tomorrow, wouldn’t it be possible to text in the morning after 8am?) However, I cannot deny a lot of useful functions of a smartphone. The best inventions might be the apps that allow us to edit, share and use personalised online flashcards sets. I won’t mention names here, because my favourite one has just recently changed from completely free to ‘everyone has to pay’. Nonetheless, students manage to expand their vocabulary with these apps and online vocabulary games exponentially.
6. Best video conferencing app: I still vote for Skype. Zoom, Meet and the others are great, but there are some tiny things that make a big difference. In Skype, your camera doesn’t freeze if you open another tab, which is necessary if you teach online and follow digital materials. Other apps block your camera and you stay frozen until you enter actively their tab again. When you open a separate tab in Skype, a small screen appears with your student’s face, which you can drag under your camera. This way, you are closer to keep eye contact with an individual student, while in Meet, for example, the other participants appear at the bottom of the screen. Skype stores the chat, and all docs you shared in the chatbox will stay active for 30 days. Links and vocabulary forever.
7. Best website: my aim is not to promote services, but the function I’m talking about is free to use. I’ve been following some websites from their birth and the most amazing progress was made by TestEnglish. They started with the grammar part, today there are online exercises for all skills and they are progressing on exam preparation. Their grammar explanations are clear and concise, furthermore, they give a very clear reference point to follow the CEFR syllabi. Kudos for their excellent work.
8. Best training course: I’ve been continuously taking training courses (I’m a big FutureLearn fan: great courses for free – with possible upgrade), but as a teacher I still think that a (not entirely online) teaching training course (CELTA or similar) is important. I entered my training course after graduating in German studies and teaching minors (psychology, pedagogy, didactics and methodology), so the course was easy as for theory. However, I found the classroom demo teaching and the feedback sessions very useful. One of the best things our trainers made us do was ‘hot feedback’. We had to sit down after a demo lesson and write down the first thoughts about our lessons. Most of the time, these thoughts were disastrous. After the feedback session, where we discussed our lesson plan and classroom performance with our fellow teachers, we had to repeat the task: most of the descriptions were positive and full of constructive ideas. This routine taught us that our perception of a lesson and that of our ‘audience’ might be completely different. If you follow a lesson plan, you might think you failed your lesson, because you didn’t finish everything. Yet, you might have reached your lesson aims and performed well. Prepare for your lesson, but then put your notes away and teach your students, not the lesson plan.
9. Best year: maybe this last one. I had the possibility to work with some great minds. Now I know that I love teaching computer scientists and engineers, their analytical brains connect with mine. My last company feedback showed 91% satisfaction with materials, course design and lesson conduct. I had the great opportunity to prepare an amazing 15-year-old girl for a B2 exam, which she completed at C1 level (I’m still trying to convince her  parents to write a book on how to raise such outstanding kids). I took my YL boys to their Flyers exam (all passed) and now they are preparing for B1 (age 12, super minds). I held a really nice Summer Course with 3 girls, doing English hidden in photo stories, cooking videos and make-up tutorials. I started to use social media videos (again kudos to many of my colleagues for their amazing videos, I wish I were a better actress) to remind my students of some tricky English words or grammar forms. I sent three students to run for an INPS (Italian NHS) position and all of them scored high enough to get a place near their city. One student of mine started a job at ISMETT (institute for scientific-based care and research – IRCCS) with the target slow down or even cure cancer with a healthy diet. Who says that teachers cannot save lives? Maybe not directly, but indirectly for sure. Finally, I restarted teaching German after about 10 years of pause and I discovered that true love never fades away. 2022-23 was definitely one of my best years. I’m ready for 2023-24.
10. Finally, Best student: This was the toughest question, I had to think about it for days, but I got it. I tagged the person in this post.
    NB: This post was originally published on Linkedin on 4th September 2023. Find the complete article here.

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