FRIENDS MAY COME AND GO-BUT FAMILY IS EVERYTHING!

     You are a teacher and first thing that is important -  is to craft the lesson of brilliance for your students to be involved in work and just simply to enjoy it. And sometimes it is challenging to find out the perfect exercises or activities to interest children,but you are still looking for them, because the lesson is going to fail, in case you fail to make it really creative.
     There are topics that are a little bit boring, but if you make a thorough research, you will find a lot of interesting stuff to apply. For example, topic "Family" may seem simple and ridiculous, but here are several links that can make it remarkable.

1. Worksheets
 If you are in urgent need of some already-made exercises, you must definitely visit this website. Here you will find different worksheets, that are useful in learning core vocabulary, major family relations, and everything that is connected with your family tree.
https://en.islcollective.com/resources/search_result?Vocabulary_Focus=Family

2. Flashcards.
Colourful flashcards will make the learning of the words easier. Print them on the large paper or hand out to each student, it will be useful anyway.
http://www.kids-pages.com/folders/flashcards/Family.htm

3. Family Crest
Children can begin to think about their family histories and their own lives by making a family crest.
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/gen_act/family/f_crest.html

4.Family Pictures
Children will exercise their graphing skills by creating, reading, and comparing picture graphs using the total number of people in their families.
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/gen_act/family/picture.html

5. Songs and Rhymes
If you are working with pupils of any age,they will be lucky to spent several minutes and sing a funny song or read a small rhyme.
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems3.html

6. Lesson Plans
Finally, if you have no time or are too lazy ( let`s be honest, teachers are human too)
http://themes.atozteacherstuff.com/198/family-lesson-plans-activities-printables-and-ideas/

TEACH AND LEARN!

The question of what makes a great teacher has been around for a long time. It’s an enquiry that poses many problems because there’s simply no set recipe for success, and different approaches work for different professionals and students. Here are 10 salient points to take away:

1. Know your subject

The report, which looked at more than 200 pieces of research, found that there were six main elements to great teaching and one of the most important ones was subject knowledge. It may seem obvious, but the best teachers have a deep knowledge of their subject, and if that falls below a certain point it has a “significant impact” on students’ learning. Targeted help for teachers, giving them an understanding of particular areas where their knowledge is weak, could be effective.

2. Praise can do more harm than good

The wrong kind of praise can be harmful for students. A number of studies conducted by education experts have observed this. Praise is meant to be encouraging but it can actually “convey a teacher’s low expectations”. If a pupil’s failure was met with sympathy rather than anger then they were more likely to think they had done badly due to a lack of ability.

3. Instruction matters

The quality of teaching has a big impact on the achievement of students’ from poorer backgrounds, and effective questioning and assessment are at the heart of great teaching. This involves giving enough time for children to practise new skills and introducing learning progressively. Defining effective teaching isn’t easy, the report conceded, but research always returns to the fact that student progress is the yardstick by which teacher quality should be assessed.

4. Teacher beliefs count

The reasons why teachers do certain things in the classroom and what they hope to achieve has an effect on student progress. Beliefs about the nature of language and what it means to understand it, along with teachers’ ideas about how children learn and their role in that process, was an important factor in how effective they were.

5. Think about teacher-student relationships

This may also seem obvious, but the interactions teachers have with students has a big impact on learning – as well as the “classroom climate”. It is important to create a classroom environment that was “constantly demanding more” while affirming students’ self-worth. A student’s success should be attributed to effort rather than ability.

6. Manage behaviour

Interestingly, this wasn’t as significant as subject knowledge and classroom instruction as a factor contributing to teacher success. But classroom management – including how well a teacher makes use of lesson time, coordinates classroom resources and manages the behaviour of students – was noted as important.

7. There’s no evidence that setting works

Putting students in groups depending on their ability makes little difference to their learning. Although setting can in theory let teachers work at a pace that suits all pupils and tailor content, it can also create an exaggerated sense of all pupils being alike in the teacher’s mind. This can result in teachers not accommodating to the various different needs within one group and in some instances going too fast with high-ability groups and too slow with low ones.

8. Don’t worry about learning styles

A survey showed that more than 90% of teachers think individuals learn better when they get information in their preferred learning style. But despite the popularity of this approach psychological evidence shows that there is no evidence this actually works. 

9. Learning should be hard at first

One finding that may surprise you is that approaches that appear to make learning harder in the short term can actually lead to students retaining more information in the long term. Varying the type of tasks you ask pupils to do improves retention even though it makes learning harder initially.

10. Build relationships with colleagues and parents

A teacher’s professional behaviour, including supporting colleagues and talking with parents, also had a moderate impact on students’ learning. The report said that there may not be a direct link with these practices and student achievement, but to capture a broad definition of good teaching they should be included.

YOU ARE STUDENT ONLY ONCE!

Good evening, lads! How are you doing?It`s been a long and crazy weekend because of the ton of home assignment. It took me 3 days and 2 sleepless nights to prepare it - precious time, that I should have spent with my homies. To tell the truth, I do not know how to organize my time and I am sure that million of students too. I wish somebody told me something about time-management! That`s why, I decided to create this post and add here several links, that will be useful for students all over the world.

1. 7 Time Management Tips for Students.
With exams approaching, you should be thinking about how to get better at time management and organize your days so you can strike the right balance between home, work and university life.By taking the time to arrange your priorities, you can give yourself the best chance of staying on track and organized during the exam period, which in turn can help reduce stress levels, something that can be the difference between success and failure at university.
http://www.topuniversities.com/blog/7-time-management-tips-students

2. Top 7 Tips for New Students.
Starting university this year or in the near future? Here are some tips from experienced students who have been there, done that! 
http://www.topuniversities.com/blog/top-7-tips-new-students

3.63 Tips for Students from Students.
Students reveal the must-known advice you need to survive the uni 
http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/worklife/campus/tips/g2127/63_tips_for_students_from_students_/?slide=1

4. Tips for Successful Students.
Successful students exhibit a combination of successful attitudes and behaviors as well as intellectual capacity. Successful students...
http://homepage.usask.ca/~clv022/success.htm

5.5 Motivational Tips For Students.

Students who are thrilled to do their homework every single day are rare… if there are any. Everyone needs a motivational push now and then, and you will be surprised what inspiration can do with your opinion about “pointless” homework assignments. Even if you don’t see the point in doing homework, you still see a point in getting good grades, so read these tips and learn how to become a more motivated student.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/5-motivational-tips-for-students.html

6.Tips for Students

Take advice from those who've been there – students from around the world share their tips for settling in, studying and exploring the universities. 

http://www.educationuk.org/global/sub/student-tips/

7. 10 Habits of Highly Effective Students.

While some students are able to breeze through school with minimal effort, this is the exception. The vast majority of successful students achieve their success by developing and applying effective study habits. The following are the top 10 study habits employed by highly successful students. So if you want to become a successful student, don't get discouraged, don't give up, just work to develop each of the study habits below and you'll see your grades go up, your knowledge increase, and your ability to learn and assimilate information improve.

http://www.educationcorner.com/habits-of-successful-students.html

8.Advice for Students: 11+ Ways to Make this Your Best Semester Yet                                   

Whether you’re just starting college or returning, the tips below will help you make the most out of the coming school year.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/advice-for-students-11-ways-to-make-this-your-best-semester-yet.html

9. How to study and Learn Better 

Professor Arild Raaheim offers tips and advice on how to approach these matters in his book «Tips and Advice for Students» (directly translated from “Råd og tips for deg som skal studere”). The book is only available in Norwegian, and the points below are collected from his book and translated.

http://www.uib.no/en/education/81498/how-study-and-learn-better-tips-and-advice-students

10. 31 Money Saving Tricks for Students. 

Keep in mind that the key to financial success is being aware of how you’re spending your money and cutting out the bad habits.

http://www.fastweb.com/financial-aid/articles/the-31-money-saving-tricks-for-students

Hope you enjoyed this information! If you know some interesting tips too, comment below and share your lifehacks with the world! 

HOW TO DO IT?

Hi! I am here again and today I will tell you how to use innovative technologies in TEFL. It is not a secret that Internet with all it tricks makes our life easier. And it is rather foolish to think that teachers should use only books,copy books and blackboard during the class. If you want students` attention, their respect and admiration - BE CREATIVE! It is as important as your fluent English or perfect lesson plan. There should be an interaction, and it will be easier to overcome the gap if you use something more than old-fashioned techniques and methods. Now I want to tell about some of them.

1. PREZI

Prezi is a visual storytelling software alternative to traditional slide-based presentation formats. Prezi presentations feature a map-like, schematic overview that lets users pan between topics at will, zoom in on desired details, and pull back to reveal context. This freedom of movement enables “conversational presenting,” a new presentation style in which presentations follow the flow of dialogue, instead of vice-versa. Founded in 2009, and with offices in San Francisco, Budapest, and Mexico City, Prezi now fosters a community of over 75 million users with more than 260 million prezis around the world.

Prezi gives you unprecedented visual storytelling power, combining the freedom of an open canvas with spatial dimension and motion to keep audiences engaged as you guide them through your message.
As a visually concerned platform it will make the presentation more interesting. And, finally, it may become the last straw,that will save your students from boredom of enormously dull topic!

It allows for a much deeper opportunity to create more conceptually interesting presentations. Students pay attention more...they are more focused on the material...they want to try it. And if you think that it is too difficult, you are mistaken anyway! Just try and have a look at the result. And here is a tutorial for you to use!
2. PODCAST
The word “podcasting” is a portmanteau combining the words “broadcasting” and “iPod.” The most popular format of a podcast is MP3.There are other audio file types that are used for podcasting but in general as long as you have a music player on your computer you should be able to listen to a podcast file. When I first heard of podcasting I didn't understand what made it different from simply searching and then downloading a music file and listening to it much like I had been doing for years with MP3 music tracks.Each podcast typically has a website where show episodes can be listened to or downloaded for future listening. With downloaded media, you can either listen to it on your computer or take it with you by transferring it to a portable digital media player or using a podcast app on your phone. So, in this way, it’s kind of like a small paperback book.But what truly makes a podcast unique, and what gives a podcast its “casting” ability, is how it is able to immediately deliver itself to multiple podcast distribution points. If you are tired of reading the text for listening activities - just record it,and let your students listen to it,while you are marking their papers! Go and watch some videos to make it clear!

HELLO WORLD! HERE I AM)

     Hello there! My name is Tanya and I am a 20 year old student of the Department of Modern European Languages of CHNU. The idea of creating a blog has never crossed my mind, but being a student of the English Dept. is rather challenging and you never know what to wait the next day. So this day came and now I am sitting here trying to rally my thoughts and share some interesting information about teaching as the career. I have already seen the ton of similar blogs, and mine is not an exception. You won`t see any innovative methods or approaches, but I will share the materials that helped me during my internship at school.            But let me first tell you the reasons why I have chosen teaching as a career. Teaching is a special calling. It is not a job well-suited to everyone. Here are my top ten reasons why teaching can be a great profession.

1. Student Potential

Unfortunately, not every student will succeed in your class. However, this fact should not keep you from believing that every student has the potential for success. This potential is so exciting - each new year presents new challenges and new potential successes.

2. Student Successes

Closely related to the previous one, student success is what drives teachers to continue. Each student who didn't understand a concept and then learned it through your help can be exhilarating. 

3. Teaching a Subject Helps You Learn a Subject

You will never learn a topic better than when you start teaching it.  The student questions just made me dig deeper and learn more. 

4. Daily Humor

If you have a positive attitude and a sense of humor, you will find things to laugh about each day. 

5. Affecting the Future

Teachers mold the future each day in class. In fact, it is a sad fact that you will see some of these students more consistently day-to-day than their parents will.

6. Staying Younger

Being around young people everyday will help you remain knowledgeable about current trends and ideas. It also helps break down barriers.

7. Autonomy in the Classroom

Once a teacher closes that door each day and begins teaching, they really are the ones who decide what's going to happen. Not many jobs provide an individual with so much room to be creative and autonomous each day.

8. Conducive to Family Life

If you have children, the school calendar will typically allow you to have the same days off as your kids. Further, while you might bring work home with you to grade, you will probably be getting home close to the same time as your children.

9. Job Security

It is fairly certain that you will be able to find a job as a teacher, though you might have to wait until the start of a new school year and be willing to travel within your county/school district. While requirements might be different from state to state, once you have proven yourself a successful teacher, it is relatively easy to move around and find a new job.

10. Summers Off

You will have a couple of months off in the summer where you can choose to get another job, teach summer school, or just relax and vacation. Further, you typically get two weeks off during Christmas/Winter Holidays and one week for Spring Break which can really be a huge benefit and provide much needed rest time.

     Sounds convincing,doesn`t it? But if you have not decided yet whether teaching is for you, this blog will help you!