Teachers are not superheros, but they can change the world!

'They may forget what you said, but they will never forget
how you made them feel.'
Carl W. Buechner.

Why being an English teacher? Why not a doctor or lawyer? When I was younger
my father told me 'You should follow your heart and study something you're really
passionate about, regardless of where it might lead you!' He was right about that.

Teaching is a passionate and extraordinary profession. It's not an easy job,

conversely it's very hard. Furthermore, having a genuine interest in something can't be
faked and it's the surest way to succeed. As Steve Jobs said, "the only way to do great
work is to love what you do". Thus, your preparation must be according to what will be
supposed to do, and your degree is a long term investment in which you are profited with
knowledge.

In order to achieving the mastering level, teachers must pass

through difficulties and obstacles until they acquire the expected
knowledge. In addition, I strongly believe that there is no recipe for
that. It's a long, varied and personal process. In order to succeed,
teachers must improve some basic skills and tools that will be useful
during his/her life as a teacher. However, what we can never do is put the cart before the
horse. It 's a slow lifelong process in which you will advance step by step from the very
beginning.

But, how can we contribute with this process? As I told you before, there is no
recipe, but it's very necessary a constructive approach in which you will have an active
role. If I had the chance to go back in time to the moment I started my teaching practice
and had the opportunity to talk o my former self, I would give me some essential advices to
avoid some obstacles.

In relation to my own experience and process, I selected some elements that I

consider to be essential in effective communicative classes as tips for new teachers
trainee, not for facilitate their process, but to strengthen teacher education and elevate the
profession.
Eight advices to elevate our profession
1. Don't teach for yourself, teach for your students.
Selecting interesting content could be useful for you
and your students, but... interesting for whom? As Pozo said,
teachers must take on account students previews ideas and
interests. The more you prepare lessons plans according to
their world, the more motivating and meaningful will be for them. So on, students will be
involved in meaningful lessons and you will be close to a student centered approach.
Brainstorms are a useful tool that could be use to explore students ideas and then produce
interesting content.. In addition, realia, up-today materials and tics must be used good
friends. Teachers must understand that the center of the teaching process should be the
student.

2. Being a clown, not a robot

The use of mother tongue is a relevant point for teachers of
foreign languages. We must avoid unnecessary translation.
There is no need to abuse of it. In all cases, instruction must be
clear, but it doesnt mean that we must use L1. Students are able to
learn a language with involving lessons. Instead translation, there is a plenty full of
resources that could be useful in order to reach the students comprehensions. The
teacher's gestures and the bodily language are good samples of that . Thus, when you
remove translation from your language teaching process, students can learn to think in
their target language from the beginning. It's not an easy task, but it's a matter of training.

3. Being ordered it doesn't mean being systematic

Richards writes about the dimensions for structuring lessons
to be an effective teacher. He said that the more aspects we cover
from his structure plan, the more professional an efficient we will be.
Richards says that the paramount is to be organized, have a plan
always and have attitude. He states a sequence of actions that a lesson must have. First,
he talks about the paramount of the first five minutes of each lesson; he calls it Opening
(others call it Warm Up). It's related to students and the teacher organization and about the
pragmatic and cognitive contributions. The next stage is called Sequencing. It's a
sequence of activities planed by teacher. These activities must be scaffolded and they
have to be from less difficult to more difficult. Next stage is called Pacing . It's a sequence
of sub-activities which address the overall goals of each lesson. Finally, the Closure. Here
many things can be done as summarize all lesson, review all lesson, relating the lesson
with a future lesson/s pointing out links with future, ..etc). Some teachers confuse order
with systematic, and made the mistake of repetition of everything. Routines are important,
but it doesn't mean that we have to do exactly the same every single day. It could be
boring for our students and especially for us.

4. Being a guide, not a dictator

Some important parts of the Classroom management
are the teachers attitude, intentions, personality and the
relationship with the learners. On one hand, the teacher must
be a facilitator, a guide, a planer, a monitor, an observer, a
counselor, a negotiator, a rapport builder and many other role.
But on the other hand, the teacher mustn't be a dictator.
Scrivener tells us on his book that in many cases, students learn more with their
interaction than listening to the teacher. Furthermore, we must take into account that our
teaching practice have to approximate to a contuctivist approach.

5. Gaming lessons motivate students

Games inside the classroom is definitely a motivating
and interesting challenge for students and teachers. It's
advantageous to include their favorite activities in our
teaching practice since it can be a wonderful way for students
to socialize and share what they have learnt with their peers.
Not only can it provide a way of revising specific knowledge
that has been taught, but also students can become more interested in getting to know
their classmates, which is vital nowadays since our teenagers are gradually losing their
social skills. What is more, the classroom atmosphere would turn out to be the funniest
place ever and this is always welcome among the youth. Teachers can take this as an
advantage to relate various contents to the game themes and so knowledge can be
revised in a pleasant way. Furthermore, it can also benefit our students since games can
boost their sense of achievement whenever they are successful and as a result increase
their self-esteem. Values such as; tolerance, cooperation, respect and perseverance can
be worked throughout games, too.

6. Unexpected things are useful

Unexpected situations make lessons more natural.
Teacher must accept and include them as real linkers to world. They don't have to fight
with students or institutions about abrupt interruptions or unexpected situations. A real
world exists outside our classroom and we can't avoid it. Just be creative and take
advantages of it.

7. Planning a lesson is better than nothing

It's already known that good teachers plan their lessons in order
to have more chances of succeed. If teachers start a lesson without
planning, their lessons could be a chaos and students could suffer
them. Apart from that, planning gives the teacher a chance to predict
possible problems in the class and think about ways to deal with them. Otherwise, there
are different phases during a teaching process and their development depends on the
year period that teachers are. These phases are named Diagnostic, Tentative yearly plan.
Thematic Units plans, Daily/Weekly plans. Mid-year re-planning and a constant phase of
assessment teachers' planning. In addition, a teacher who plans is a good sign of
professionalism.

8. Technology as friend not as enemy

We use technology in every single part of our lives. Thus, it
only seems natural that technology should have an important role
in education, too. On the contrary, some teachers usually deny
the use of technology for many reasons. Some are related to
personal fears about the use of tics or the lose of control. So,
don't be afraid of that. Almost all time, student will know more about tics than you. They
eat, breath and dream technology. They are the 'tics' generation. Don't fight with them
against technology. Just negotiate with them and take advantage of it!

To conclude with, I'd like to say that to have effective lessons we must have a
master plan, taking into account different aspects from our educational practices, but
mainly from our students interest. Furthermore, an important part of success is a good
'Classroom management', the teachers attitude, his/her intentions, his/her personality
and the relationship with the learners. To arrive to those goals, first of all we must pass
though an exhaustive and enriching learning process. It's very necessary and productive
for us , but it will be even better for our students.
Webgraphy:
https://www.goodreads.com
http://www.edutopia.org/
https://pixabay.com
https://en.wikipedia.org

Bibliography:

Jack Richards, Charles Lockhart Book. Reflective teaching in second language

classrooms (Cambridge, 21 jul 1994)
Scrivener, Learning and Teaching(Macmillan book, 2005)
Rosie Tanner, Catherine Green-Tasks for teacher education a reflective approach
coursebook-Addison Wesley Longman (1998)