Teaching helps to develop …

Galileo said, “You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.” I think language is the most powerful tool we have for reaching out to others. We can use it to express our feelings, spread our ideas and even to establish peace.

My dream is to make teaching the source of enjoyment and pleasure for my pupils, their parents and the teachers I work with. I’m sure English must be taught with pleasure, because it opens the door into another world: the one of travelling, learning and working. It makes our life less difficult in any country. It’s easier to listen to songs, watch films or surf the Net. English can help us everywhere. Pupils shouldn’t treat English as a foreign language. It’s an international language, so it can be ours as well.

Much attention is paid to relationship between the teacher and pupils. Relaxed atmosphere of co-operation, understanding and respect is very important in making pupils interested in learning the language. The teacher has to create all necessary conditions for learning and keep pupils motivated all the time. We have to pay more attention to learning which is based on situations or problems concerning pupils’ lives, values and interests. School parties devoted to national holidays of English – speaking countries, dramatisation of extracts from well-known books, writing poems in English help to arouse pupils’ motivation, too. Pupils should be encouraged to work together, be responsible for their studying.

Our pupils shouldn’t treat English as a boring duty. I believe they are greatly interested in learning a foreign language, but as soon as some of them face difficulties and fail to catch up with the rest of the class, they gradually lose their interest in the subject. To prevent demotivation, everything should be effectively and sufficiently practised through different activities. A great variety of interesting activities in each lesson prevents boredom and arouses pupils’ intentions and desires to master the target language. One of the roles of the teacher is to organise a classroom in such a way that s/he could achieve better results in language teaching. Learning English is like learning to swim or learning to play ball. We learn to swim by swimming, to play ball by playing ball, and to speak English by speaking English. Pupils must understand that as nobody can learn to swim for them the same about English: nobody can learn English for them. They have to learn for themselves, and they will learn if they really want to and are willing to practise. Aristotle believed that “the roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”. As for me, the first task of a modern teacher is to work out and use new effective methods which will help him/her to achieve good results.

From my point of view, a real teacher is a teacher who can become a member of any society. I think teaching and learning any language help to develop ourselves. Our world needs teachers who are ready to introduce new ideas. Teachers like all learners need opportunities and time to exchange and reflect on their experience. One of the aims of the teacher is their professional development and change. It’s impossible to teach the same way they have done it before. One of the biggest achievements of modern school is that teachers have a right to choose means of teaching. Some years ago teachers couldn’t even dream about it. We work in the branch where we have a possibility to explore, to create some new modern ideas and not to be old-fashioned.

I think that the teacher who brings happiness and knowledge is worth being respected.