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Have fun with a lesson plan :)
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When I was a student, my professors emphasised the importance of making lesson plans, but then they referred to people who were about to start teaching. Well, I have been teaching for more than a decade (oh, gosh!) and I still write a short lesson plan for every lesson I have. I'll try to share my ideas here, but be careful before you follow me and turn into a creepily well-organised pedantic nightmare.
![](https://thatisevil.education/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/keep_calm_lesson_plan-495x400.png)
Lesson preparation & young students
Teaching teenagers is usually fun - at least for me, I really enjoy teaching the group unfairly claimed to be the most difficult (but I'd never ever take up a group of children aged less than 10 years old again!). One of the things I've learnt so far is that with teenagers you have to be prepared for everything.
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Being a teacher = being a learner (HQBL: 1)
They say being a teacher is being a learner too, and I quite agree with that! So, when I saw a new course on coursera focused on Blended Learning I've decided to give it a go. Yay!
![](https://thatisevil.education/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/chaos-field-401x400.jpg)
What shall we do with a rebellious student...
The most important thing when it comes to the unavoidable (one's bound to encounter rebels when teaching teenagers, there is no escape from chaos - it marks us all) is to react immediately. Not for us Obama-like approach, no, we have to be swift and smooth and deal with the rebels changing them into the paragons of English students ;) Or at least try - because in order to change our students (or rather their attitude) we must try to understand them... and it's not easy, trying to understand people who don't understand themselves!
![](https://thatisevil.education/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/lal-ss-ts-building-495x400.jpg)
Holidays! are gone...
What can a teacher do during holidays? Theoretically - have some rest. But since being a teacher is not the best paid job in the world (sniff...), one may also decide to work in a summer school. And that's what I did, hence the dead silence on the blog; but from now on I will try to update it quite often. New schoolyear, new resolutions, hah!
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Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies!
Teaching young adults I came to realize that most of them study English not because they want to, but because their parents make them. I will never forget one of my students, who bitterly commented my idea of brightening the classes with a grammar game. 'Grammar games are like playing with the devil' - said Ania and little did she know how inspiring her words were.
![](https://thatisevil.education/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/test-495x282.jpg)
The same exam
One of the most difficult tasks for me as a teacher is designing tests (and then test correction, I really hate it) - and the picture above explains why: it is virtually impossible to create a test everyone could find something they are good at.
![](https://thatisevil.education/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/teach_learn.jpeg)
Learning teaching
During many years of my school education I've encountered too many teachers stiff as if they had a nice stick up their bums. I've also met quite a lot of those who wanted to be students' 'friends' - the point was we didn't really enjoy the idea. When I started teaching I soon realized that finding the right place between those two attitudes would be the key to identifying my own way of being a teacher.
![](https://thatisevil.education/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/suddenly-kraken-attacks-495x400.jpg)
Present Perfect Simple with zombies and krakens
Explaining Present Perfect can be tough... but it's my absolutely favourite thing to teach! I need a kraken, or a zombie - and boom! everything is clear!