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Those Pesky Native Speakers....AGAIN!

The question I most frequently get asked - probably because I grew up speaking English myself and my daughters went through the Swiss public school system - is “how do I deal with native speakers in my classroom?” I will discuss this below starting with my own experiences and then generalize those points to some more practical tips. First of all, I would like to state that I get irritated by the question. Teachers in Switzerland have a 3-year degree in education and a lot of fieldwork. In every subject there will be learners who are more or less motivated, more or less interested, and have had more or fewer experiences in a subject. So when I get asked about native speakers, I think “have they not learned how to differentiate instruction?” and that they have it wrong. Teachers are not responsible for teaching native-level English (they cannot), but they ARE responsible that every child has an active, positive experience where they make progress. They ARE responsible for not just “follo...
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The semester has started!!! First of all, I have to say that I am blessed with wonderful students - for the first time in a long time, I am getting emails and questions OUTSIDE of class time about class CONTENT and not just management - students questioning things I say or asking for more information!! So I guess I have excellent groups or I am doing something better that the frequency is increasing. There's one pet peeve I have and that is students asking the following question: "Do we really have to read the TKT course/Spendlove book" (there are 2 required readings for 2 different courses)? And my answer is the following: "Are you telling me that you have something AGAINST more knowledge and understanding of the topics? Are you telling me that you only want to do the MINIMUM and you are only thinking about your GRADE at the end of the course?" So I also tell them that if they have looked through the books and feel like they know the material, then that...
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AFL projects with students

Today we had our first day of the project "Navajos don't live in tipis" at the PH! Kudos to you, students, for doing such an excellent job!!! Here are my initial thoughts: AFL: Well, you will get to try out a few things, but the entire process cannot be observed in 2-4 days at the PH. I am fully aware of the fact, but still, I think you perhaps learn how to take notes about children and what systems/strategies you need, especially with a larger group! And here you get practice in observation - the whole situation of having a new teacher for a while is a chance and a challenge on both sides, and how you document what you observed can be very important in forming an opinion and also not losing thoughts that you have at the time. I saw some good techniques that can fit into formative attitude towards teaching and these little experiences you have not will perhaps be remembered and used later. The topic: Well, I am not sure if we are breaking down cliches, but at least e...
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