Teaching ideas

Here is the link to the blog with all my teaching ideas, infographics and videos:

http://polishyourenglishwithpau.edublogs.org/

Past Tenses Quiz

This quiz can be used for a quick revision of the uses of different past tenses. The chart can be used for sentence analysis or to help students use the correct tense.

In the first case, the students have to analyse a sentence asking a series of "Yes or No" questions. For example, if your sentence is: "I had a dog when I was four years old", you have to answer the following questions:

• Did it happen in the past? - YES
• Do we know when of where it happened exactly? - YES
• Had it happened before another action in the past? - NO
• Was the action completed? - YES

The tense used in the sentence: PAST SIMPLE, we use it to talk about actions completed in a specific moment in the past.

Following the same steps, we can ask students to choose the correct tense. For example, "I ________ (be) to London three times".

• Did it happen in the past? - YES
• Do we know when of where it happened exactly? - NO
• Additional questions: Is it experience you have? - YES.

The tense used in the sentence: PRESENT PERFECT, we use it to talk about actions that happened in the past but we do not know exactly when. Also we use it to talk about experiences.

Past Simple Monster

Have you ever wondered how to teach Past Simple to a group of eight year olds? Maybe you've already faced the challenge and found your way of doing so. So have I. Today, I am going to share with you an idea that came to me while I was preparing my lesson for a lovely group of very talkative and (hiper)active kids.

In my opinion, teaching grammar to young learners always is a little bit about thinking outside the box. The idea of creating a Past Simple Monster came from the fact that whenever I say the word grammar (it should be banned) my student's are at least puzzled and even scared. And so, two weeks ago, without any introduction, I just asked my students to take out their crayons, listen to my clues and draw a monster.

We drew monster's head with mouth that was a vertical DID. Above the monster's mouth we drew a nose that looked like a question mark, and "ed"-looking hair on the monster's head. We wrote "PAST" on the monster's belly and we went on to draw two arms, a straigh=regular one and a curvy=irregular one. The regular arm ended with two hands that resembled letters E and D, with some examples of regular verbs and the irregular arm ended with a hand made of such irregular verbs as was, were, went, ate or could. We also drew monster's feet labeled as LAST and AGO.

I'm sure you're curious what the final effect was. Well, my student's were happy that they could draw and did not have to listen to any boring grammar explanation. What is more, they learnt all the important information about the Past Simple Tense I wanted to teach them. Mission completed succesfully!

My Cover Letter

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am extremely sorry to inform you that this is not going to be a typical cover letter you would expect from a person applying for a job. I am not a “normal”, traditional, sometimes boring sometimes brilliant, teacher and thus this letter is going to reflect my personality and teaching style.

I believe I started teaching at the age of 4, no it is not a typo I meant 4. At that point of my life, teaching was about having power over the other kids that played with me. Sounds cruel? Probably, but I was the eldest kid in the group and so I had that power, knowledge and self-confidence anyway. It is more about how I wanted to use it, how I wanted to share the knowledge that I had at the time and how I realised that I would like to be a teacher in the future that I actually think is worth mentioning.

Ever since that moment I continued my education, primary school, secondary school. Nothing really extraordinary until I went to high school and fell in love with English and Spanish. I knew at the time that I would like to be a foreign languages teacher, not just an English teacher or a Spanish teacher, I fell for both languages and I wanted to share my passion with the others.

I decided to study Ethnolinguistics at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The career allowed me to develop my language skills, however it did not prepare me at all for teaching. For that reason I did my post graduate studies in teaching at Higher School of Humanities in Leszno. You might wonder now, what is so special about me that makes me different from all the other teachers. And I will give you two reasons.

First of all, I am going to mention my scouting experience as I believe it is something that has marked me forever. Thanks to volunteering in an NGO, I have learnt to work with different age groups. I have also discovered the power of learning through doing. Moreover, I have established a habit of completing every task that I have started and always looking for a new challenge. I have learnt to be well-organised, responsible and punctual. Whenever I ask my friends what the first adjectives that comes to their minds that best describes me is they say reliable.

Secondly, even though I am a young and newly qualified teacher I have quite a lot of hands-on experience. Thanks to a not very propitious economic situation, I had to work and study at the same time. As you probably can imagine, juggling university life with part time jobs was not easy but it taught me a lot and prepared me for teaching much more than spending hours in university library. Before I graduated from university, I had already taught toddlers, kids aged 3 to 12, teenagers and adults. I had had the opportunity to work with beginners, intermediate, advanced and proficiency students.

At the beginning of this letter I promised you to describe to you my teaching style. I regret to tell you that I do not have one. The only thing I could tell you about it is that it is very mercurial and a little bit like a chameleon. What is more, it is absolutely flexible and I adapt it to my students’ needs. Therefore, if I were to choose one word to describe it, it would probably be student-centred. I am no longer 4 years old and I know that the whole teaching process is about the students themselves rather than me as a teacher. Even though I am technically in the spotlight, I always do my best to reflect that light into my students through my teaching.

Before I ask you to contact me, there is something I would like to highlight. I am fully aware of the fact that I am not a native speaker, but I actually see it as one of my strengths and I would like you to see it as such too. I have spent years learning English and Spanish and I am someone my students honestly tell me, they look up to. Why? Because they can see the final “product” of the process. They can actually see that hard work pays off and if you do your best you can achieve your goals. In addition, I know how to explain, for example, some grammar points thanks to the fact that I had to understand it and learn it myself first. Therefore, please consider my being non-native speaker as an argument in favour rather than against me.

If you still are not sure I could be a great asset for your school, please give me a chance to talk to you in person and tell you more about my-teaching-self. You cannot waste the opportunity to meet as an enthusiastic and crazy English teacher as I am!

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Yours faithfully,

P.S. If you still wish to receive a more “traditional” cover letter just let me know, in the end I am flexible too…

My CV

About me...

This blog is strictly speaking my job application form.

Some time ago I realised how hard it was to make your CV stand out and I decided to do something about it.

What can you find on this blog?

Some basic facts about myself, some detailed information about my working experience and qualifications.

Also, I am going to post some teaching ideas and interesting lesson plans that I have come up with recently and I find worth sharing.

Dear future employer, please get in touch with me ASAP!