1) Do your homework. I.e. new members�clearly don �t read the rules, and hence get confused when they don �t get points the same day, or get upset when work is reported for breaching the rules and so on. What goes for this lovely website also goes for your classes.

The same goes for your lesson planning. Find out what is expected from you, and plan accordingly.��Okay, that sounds easier than�it is, so I �ll upload two articles as tutorials (free to download): a) lesson planning in ten steps and b) planning for a year.�

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2) For last minute emergencies try Google. I often try that following �urgent requests � and I �m not kidding, 99% of the time I get what �s needed in let �s say�less than five minutes.

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And why needed I say this on the forum? �For the simple reason that all students in the world , young and old and all levels,�deserve only the best. And in my opinion, when teachers don �t know how to do their job, or leave things to the last minute, the students are the ones who miss out.

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Yours in teaching,

Peter�

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Dear Peter,

 

I am writing to express my support concerning your true comments!

 

With best regards,

 

Chean 

I entirely agree with you. Sometimes, I also think that some of our colleagues would save more time if they looked for the answer in Google instead of waiting for some of the people here to answer.

 

Best Wishes for all!

 

Leonor 

Hi Peter,

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I am a private tutor for students from 3-year-old to... and for 3 different languages.

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And�it is more than true that I expect a lot from my students of all ages and as soon as I know t will have a new one I prepare my 1st lesson. Then I adapt the lessons to each student according to their level and their personality. Sometimes I know only a very short time before an exam what they have to do and I remember my spending nights to find interesting documents� because there had been last minute changes in the progrram ! But I did it and my reward was that my student brilliantly passed her exam...

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It is not always easy to find some particular information or d�tails about some topics : too much stuff or not enough. Sometimes I thought I had found good articles and when I read in a deeper way... there was too many corrections to do ! But I must confess that I love my job and I am often said to give so many details that my students immediately imagine a good mark, actual improvement, a better motivation... And yes I am proud to say that I have never stopped improving with my students because it is often a challenge for me to give what the students actually need for themselves at the very beginning, then for the official school program and their exams.

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I am a bookworm and I am often "wandering" on internet just for my selfish pleasure in order to prepare new documents, open a little more my mind and my eyes on a changing world. There is one thing I am sure of : when you devote your time to improve the result witll make you proud !

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I help every time I think I can. And yes, I agree with Peter we, teachers, MUST be an example !

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Hugs to all.

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Maryse.

Dear Peter,

I fully agree with each word in your post. I also wonder about this kind of SOSs.

Let �s be more responsible for everything we do and - good luck,

 

P.S. By the way, thank you very much for the wise words you said to Sonn (about  the  inner peace and finishing things).  They helped me surprisingly much then and I am still keeping them in my mind... :)

As you ask for opinion, Peter, I shall give you mine.

 

The issue you raise has always been a source of conflict on this forum . 

 

When I first started, I only had a very basic knowledge in computers! I started making ws  but they wern �t downloaded because they were too plain! So I decided to take private tuition to learn how to improve. Meanwhile I was needing the ws here because I loved them and found them so helpful. So I just asked, like the zillion people who have been asking for all these years. What did I ask for ? Who did I ask? I asked Zora,I asked Anaisbel,  I asked Damielle, I asked Julieta,I asked Jayho,  I asked Anap, I asked Philipr, I asked Frenchfrog, I asked Victoria ladybug and they all helped me and Froggy claudine whom i phoned one day because I didn �t know how to insert a picture!! They downloaded my poor ws! They revisited the poor ws I sent them to polish them up... Since then all these people have become my friends! Zora came to visit me! I went to visit Ana Isabel, Anap has long been offering me to visit her in Brazil... I supported Philip in his project of schooling round the world..and so on.

My end of career was a difficult one! I had been preparing my lessons conscientiously all my life and suddenly, the earth opened under my feet because of a new nasty Head  and I lost all my self- confidence. Fortunately I found FRIENDS at this place and in my surroundings too, to help and help me with my work .

So my point of view is: We , maybe are lucky as teachers , not having to teach 40 or more students in fronts of us, prepare for a great number of classes and be stuck one day because , suddenly although we have been teachng the simple past for years our mind goes blank and we are tired and the next day you have to stand in front of all these hungry pupils waiting for you to motivate them and give them food for thught. (in the best case!) . We are lucky to have had a proper training: it is not the case in many countries in this world. I only taught 20 hours a week in the las year before I retired. Julieta, in Mexico was teaching 52 hours a week ! Can you prepare seriously when you have that much work?  What I mean is I always, often help those people here who seem decent and absolutely in a panic because they are short of ideas, they desperately need a ws for the next day (and this because they have working conditions that we have, thank god, never known in our rich countries.)

I could continue for a long time. i �ll just stop. You asked for opinions and I have given you mine. I don �t want to enter in one off those hopeless discussions , so please, anyone, refrain from answering my message. I don �t say I am right but just giving my opinion.

Cheers

Mariethe

PS Food for thought:
Just want to show you a class of one of the young members here from Nicaragua. We became friends and since then we have been writing. She has been sending me pictures of her newborn baby and writing regularly to give news. She once asked desperately for ws! And I helped her. I have never regretted it!
Here�s a photo of her teaching conditions.

@Nina: sometimes people don �t notice the "search" section, as ridiculous as it might sound but it does happen, or else they �ve used up all their points.

 

@Peter: in general, I think, you can get the tone behind the forum request, and if it �s a reall call for help or support, I tend to respond. Not all of the esl teachers who frequent this place had the priviledge of a propper (the way most of us see it) teacher training and hence the ammount of what might seem like ABC-of-English-language-teaching requests.

I do agree though, that sometimes people just don �t want to make the effort. I hate being used (if you know what I mean) I too have a job to do and a family to take care of. Anyways, you always have a choice: to respond or not.

Dear Peter,

 

You speak from the bottom of my heart. CLAP HANDS!

Hi Peter,

 

While I do agree with you... Heaven knows, the requests for "How do you say..." or meanings that can be easily Googled or looked up in an online dictionary, drive me a bit bonkers sometimes. I also realise that there are people out there, like my amazing and dear friend Mariethe!, that are not all that "techie" and do need some help to use the system here... that said, I do have an issue with people being lazy and clearly wanting us to do their homework. In fact, there was an incident a few years ago now (how time flies!) that a teacher recommended the site to her students and we got flooded with homework!!! That was not cool!

 

Anyhow, we can complain - it certainly helps us vent! :) But the reality is that those people, who we are complaining about, probably do not take the time to read the forum, and this discussion, the same as the "Saying Thank You" discussions do not make a lot of difference - unfortunately.

 

Maybe there should be a "tour" of the site for people who sign up that shows them where things are and how to use the site?  

 

 

Well,well, well, who rattled all you paragons � cages up there on Planet Perfect ;-) (with the honourable exception of the human being MarietheHouse)? Peter my dear, lighten up and go and have a drink of beer. Is there anybody around to give you a massage? ;-)

The number of times I have pulled things off here at the last minute ... I �m not unprepared, I just think of another way of presenting my lesson and think I �ll go with that, what can I cobble together? Why not? I �ve also asked questions to save me time, stuff about technology that people are free to help me with, or not. 

 

Maybe there are one or 2 who try swinging the lead, but hey! They are entitled to try!

 

Lynne