Teaching 40-Year-Old Kids

By Yuval Shomron

This is a book of teaching tips for adult learners.
It includes a selection of short stories about life in Switzerland

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Apr 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9783347293502

Book preview

WHY TEACH?

Is teaching in the blood? I don’t think so. As far as educational psychology is concerned, I am a stalwart behaviorist. I’ve seen many of my acquaintances with oodles of apparent talent fail in their chosen profession, and others who simply worked hard and had sufficient motivation succeed beyond their dreams.

My decision to be a teacher came when I was in the seventh grade. There were no teachers in my large extended family, and I was even the first to complete university. DNA had nothing to do with my life path. Only blood, sweat, and tears played a role in my efforts.

It is safe to assume that most teachers had some wonderful role models somewhere in their youth. And I have heard many of my colleagues affirm this theory.

In spite of his funny name, my band teacher, Mr. Melvin Gilhaus, was the one who inspired me to pursue my dream. He was always encouraging, patient, and had the balance of expecting greatness from his students while at the same time showing mercy for their failures.

There are some letters after my name, but for me at least, and I’m pretty sure everyone would agree, university is only a nest for you to be kicked out of into the real world. Experience is indeed the best teacher and, contrary to what HR people might think, the most important requirement for the next job.

I have been teaching for 45 years. There was one hiatus for eight years when I was a journalist. But if you do it properly, journalism is only another form of teaching.

Many mistakes tweaked my learning curve during my various roles from the teacher on the bottom rung of the ladder up to my several stints as department head, and even in three cases, creating a department that didn’t exist before. Thankfully, my right decisions far outweighed the wrong ones.

On one hand, you only need to know more than your students in order to pass on new information to them. On the other hand, your delivery makes all the difference. It is common knowledge that we educators have eyes in the back of our heads and can read minds. But that’s not all. If we have enough years under our belt, we can assess the students’ needs, anticipate outcomes, and predict the future for our wards.

A few experiences with both ladies and gentlemen who stood in front of a classroom because it was a job clutter my own learning time. They tended to be dull and boring and often grumpy individuals who had rather been doing something else.

Of course, there is the old saying, those who can’t do … teach. One hears this a lot in reference to music, sports and art as well as the sciences. But when someone falls back on teaching because they couldn’t make it in their competitive world, their unrequited dreams may forever be a cloud over their effectiveness.

I love teaching, but I’ll share a little secret with you: I still sometimes walk into a lesson scared shitless. (Sorry, that’s how it was described in my home state of Missouri.) Perhaps I didn’t sleep well, or didn’t do enough preparation, or just looked in the mirror in the morning and said to myself, What the heck am I doing?

Improvisation has always been one of my strong points. I sometimes think I should have been a stand-up comedian. But teaching makes room for that dream as well, albeit I’m usually sitting down.

Imagination is also a prerequisite for teaching. If you have none, you will lose the battle with freshness and your students will soon be looking out the window.

Personally, I have the added advantage of having a long-term severe case of ADHD. I can’t sit still. I go to sleep planning and wake up scheming. I write poems in my head while picking cherries in our garden and file complete lesson plans in my inner folders while driving to work. And my school is only 7 minutes from my house. My wife sees me staring at the wall and thinks I am just lazing in my nothing box. Actually, I’m squarely planted with both feet on the planet of fascination walking the streets of curiosity.

All of the above may explain why I started teaching, but why do I keep doing it? Simple. I see a sparkle in the eyes of those staring at me across the desks as they grasp a new idea. I read homework that amazes me in its use of the language. I observe students helping one another understand something like little disciples of the great me. (Only joking. I think….) I get a call or an email from a former student who has found success and credits me with at least having a small part in it.

Teaching is not the best paying job in the world if you are talking about money. But in terms of satisfaction, I’m a millionaire.

THEY ALL STARTED OUT AS CHILDREN

Have you ever met anyone who was born an adult? Perhaps Adam and Eve were the only exceptions. But not even I am old enough to have met them face to face.

A person’s childhood, whether good or bad, will establish the foundation for adulthood. My job as a teacher is to draw out the happy moments and pleasant memories and build on them. Sometimes I can be over positive, but firmly believe that everyone must have had a few wonderful minutes, hours, days, months or even years when they were young.

When an adult first walks in for an interview before beginning classes, I try to assess two things. First of all of course, is their current level of useable language knowledge. But I also attempt to see into their eyes and heart, asking myself a couple of questions:

1. Why does this person REALLY want to learn English? They may have told me it was for travelling or their job. But their eyes may say they are lonely and want to use language classes as a means to meet people or to just get out of the house.

2. Is this potential student basically sad and grumpy or happy and satisfied with life?

This doesn’t mean I would reject them; and I have almost never refused to teach anyone. It is just in a way preparing myself for the task ahead. Obviously, it will take a while for me to get to know them and be able to make more accurate judgements. But that first impression is often very telling.

If they seem to be a closed book, I will discuss how to open it up in other chapters.

My first 20 years in the field of education were spent exclusively teaching children from age 10 all the way up to 18. Now at my age, I’m tempted to describe anyone under the age of 30 as a child. And those after 30 as being in their second childhood.

Children are amazing little creatures. With any emotions ranging from wide eyed enthusiasm to tight lipped rebellion, they tend to do everything with their whole heart.

When they have questions, they eagerly look for answers. When they get a new toy, they vigorously inspect all the possible things they can do with it. When they meet a new friend, they slowly warm up and make their own decision as to whether the relationship is worth giving a try.

Perhaps I should insert here that I have three adopted children who are now adults. So many of my opinions about kids were formed at home as well as in the classroom.

Adults NEVER EVER lose their inner child. He may be locked in a cage. He may be gagged and tied. He may have been told to shut up and listen to the grown-ups in the room. But he is still there, begging to be let out to breathe.

This book is about that kid under the lid. That brattish little boy and excited little girl from long ago can receive more and give more than their adult body has told them is acceptable and rational.

As a kid I learned from scraped knees, bloody noses, muddy shoes, and a damaged ego. Adults have decided that learning comes from books and lectures. I agree that they have their place. But if we let ourselves experience new schooling through the adolescent still residing in our soul, we will be more teachable and ready to let the pedagogue fill our empty tanks.

DIE RUNDE

We start every lesson with a round of small talk. Each student takes a minute or two to say what he or she has been doing since the last lesson.

I should point out here that I give only one lesson per week and do no intensive courses. Adults seldom have time for it.

Each pupil receives a small spiral bound notebook to keep as a diary during the week so that they can actually remember what they did over the weekend, or in their holidays.

For the A1 to B1 classes, their book gets placed under the projector for everyone to see and each of them in turn reads their lines out loud. After they finish, I go back and fix spelling or grammar mistakes, trying to NEVER interrupt them in the middle. In doing so, they learn from each other, have a few harmless laughs, and encourage one another to do better the next time.

There is a multifold purpose in doing this. First of all they get to