I’ve been reactive in what I did and how I felt most of my life. Being reactive means feeling trapped by the situations and thinking you have no control of the outcome. It also means taking on the role of a victim of circumstances and practicing self-pity.   It’s hard not to be reactive. I get it. What could I do if they packed my classroom with 30 children that I need to differentiate for? How could I teach when in the 21st century everything I had was the blackboard and chalk in my classroom? How could I not complain if had neither resources no support of the administration when…

Teachers are believed to take pleasure in shopping at the dollar store for supplies, creating cute worksheets on the computer, crafting for classrooms, being nerdy, reading tons of books and living in libraries, grading papers on a Saturday evening while watching an educational documentary, or other crazy things. And while many teachers do this and enjoy it, there are many educators who want to have nothing to do with school once the final period bell rings and they go home.   Whatever side you are on, you should not feel guilty about that but feel comfortable about doing what gives you joy. Having said that, I do believe being sucked…

I tend to pay attention to things that happen in other teachers’ classrooms. While walking from a teacher’s lounge, from the main office, on my way to make copies, or grab some coffee, I take few-second snapshots of the action that I witness in a classroom, and my mind inevitably ponders the question: do I want to be a student in this classroom or not? Sometimes my answer is Yes, but more often my answer is No.   This small test comes from the archives of memory going back to my school years and me learning English. My memories of the English class are quite unpleasant. I remember my teacher…

Starting a teaching career is quite a launch in terms of its effects on your life and the people around you. Starting as a new ESL teacher can either turn you off or give you the environment to propel your career. Let’s talk about eight things a new ESL teacher should keep in mind.        1.  Teach concepts and skills. It is quite apparent, isn’t it? Wrong. Well, at least for me it was not something I knew when I started teaching. At the very beginning, I was destructed and overwhelmed by the number of things I felt I had to “fix.“ How can you teach “Students will…

What a “still new” teacher can tell to a “fresh new” teacher? Quite a lot! First two-three years in a classroom is a learning curve when important perspectives are shaped, the unnecessary falls off, the anxiety-causing elements are being tested and dealt with. These are the years to start shaping your idea about what this profession is going to be like for you, and whether changes and adjustments are needed for you to grow more efficient and avoid the overwhelm.   Let’s talk about 8 pitfalls to avoid as a new ESL teacher.     I will be honest, I am a teacher who adores grammar. I learned English through…

I started looking for a job a month after I got one. At first, it was the fear of failure, not fitting in, anxiety, and total disillusionment in teaching. I thought I wasn’t made for that. I thought It wasn’t what I expected, so I was not prepared for that.   Two years into my school career, I catapulted higher than my modest expectations to the status of an efficient and highly efficient teacher according to my administrators, and “I am not that bad, indeed” according to my recuperating ego. I read my way through the periods of anxiety, emotional overwhelm, physical exhaustion due to the lack of sleep and…

Teachers everywhere are finding a balance between what we have to teach and what students are really into. In my first year of teaching, I often taught lessons I had no connection to. I taught them because I just wanted to live through one more week of teaching and keep my students busy. Keeping students busy has become a shameful activity. The goal of a modern lesson has grown more and more sophisticated, more conceptual than practical, more daring and seemingly unrelated to the reality of a classroom and a huge phycological crisis we find our students in.   Although I have just started shaping my teaching practices and figuring…

Becoming an ESL teacher opens up multiple opportunities in terms of the employment available. One can choose from becoming a public-school teacher, a tutor, a private school teacher, an adult education teacher, an adjunct at a local college or university, an online teacher, and many more. The availability of options is quite tempting, but the choice, however, is often determined by the salary target you are aiming at.   When I first got my New Jersey Board of Education certifications, I did it because everyone told me to. Graduating with a degree in education entails getting certified in the areas of your specialization. Although I got three certifications, my job…