Teaching Young Learners Online

First of all I would like to reiterate over again that I am a big fan of FutureLearn courses. That's a real Treasure Attic of new ideas for me.

It is exactly the case this time with this course Teaching Young Learners Online British Council. Brilliant layout of an online class Mystery of the Sands. Great ideas about the Interactive Board for tests with drop down menus. And screencast-o-matic for checking writing. Thank you. Those were invaluable pieces of advice

If I may, I will ask you some questions, which are burning issue for me and for which I haven’t found answers yet and hope I will in your future courses

In my comments I wrote about the problem with the backdrop or background and as a result the dilemma to turn or not to turn on the camera. I discussed this issue after having read what Joshua and Carol had to say with my adult students and they agree that in contrast with offline classes students with cameras on do not have privacy, let’s say in case they want and I literally quote them “to pick up boogers from their nose” because the teacher can always see everybody on the relatively small screen of a computer as opposed to the attention of a teacher in a real classroom. Not a lot of privacy.

Another big question for me and my students is the problem that the graduates from the teachers training colleges this and previous years start their teaching career without any experience in the offline classroom but with their experience of online classes in the first place. Which totally reverses the training paradigm. Let’s say this new generation of teachers cannot teach that ‘water is wet’ as they used to do before by just putting the kids hands in real water. This new generation teachers have totally different perspective how to teach. I am not ready to help them. And this is what I expect from the FutureLearn oncoming courses. Can you comment on this discrepancy?

One more big question for me is the problem that I personally mostly teach private one-on-one online classes which deprives students pair work and group work which is crucial for learning how to speak and also crucial for taking part in the internationally recognized exams like FCE Speaking Part 3 and the like. What I do I ask permission from my students and connect two of them for some 15 minutes of ‘combined’ or ‘united’ class during the class of one of those students. Because teacher’s role playing students is OK however it doesn’t give the real life feeling to the students because during the real exam they will not talk to the teacher only but to their peer, another candidate also. (Or for younger learner I can recommend them to use Finger Puppets for dialogues but still it’s different from what we need in real conversation) What is your perspective?

And again, thank you so much for your invaluable input.

Vladimir Alexandrov

I am really enjoying this course ! I find it very enlightening in terms of finding out about online platforms , resources ( the daunting amount of them !) , practices and more modern expectations in the times we are living in . The model so to speak of an English class has changed significantly from what I know and I have found incredible demonstrations here from the lead teachers that are very engaging . It is also very interesting that through the course we are able to hear from real teachers from all around the world and what has worked for them and what has not. This affords me a lot of knowledge that I will need to teach young learners before I actually do it . As an older teacher that did not grow up with computers and internet etc, I think for me personally there are many technological things referred to that I realize I am not completely up to date with and this is at times a bit overwhelming . ( I realize I´m in the minority here! ) Having said that , a simple suggestion might be to include an area or segments at every stage that give us older teachers an opportunity for technolgical practice needed . For instance , offer an in depth basic tutorial for common platforms like Zoom , Teams etc and how they work that does not assume you have IT knowledge . This is what I need, and I wonder if a larger segment of older experienced teachers could benefit too while they reinvent themselves This could save us embarrasement in a class .

Other than this, the course is really amazing and I am thoroughly enjoying it !

I appreciate all the effort that has gone into making the course .

Kindest regasrds , Marc Tucciarone

Madrid

Well,I like each seminar that British Council gives teachers because it is very interesting innovative and update course.Besides,each seminar I learn many things about ELT field and enjoy it so much.It is so fascinating and new way to learn to teach in these hard times of Pandemia.

Anyway, This course helps teachers to work effectively from Home without losing the objective.Furthermore,Educators inspire us and we share ideas ,opinions among attendants and it is very crucial to learn from each other.

Finally, I like recommending Educators to encourage attendants to participate actively and also praise them with certificates who finish the content of the seminar. Due to virus, all people can not afford a certificate.So, all people can be eligible for a certificate or not .I don't know the requirements to be eligible.I think educators must explain what eligible means and also British council gives us useful courses online and they are always training teachers from around the world.I express my gratitude to British Council for bringing us free online seminars.They are awesome.

I very much enjoy the hands on approach that Claire Ross models. Her interaction allows for dialogue, posing questions for information and she provides helpful and encouraging feedback.

Posted articles and handbooks are always helpful. Usually a multitude is made available. This allows me to select, read and save materials according to the time I spend on looking into these.

I tend to end up feeling better equipped to teach once I completed a FuturLearn British Council course. Their approach is inevitably upbeat and encouraging.

This particular course has helped me become more confident to teach online. I now feel teachers worldwide have made much progress in becoming skilled in delivering the curriculum via different online forums. It is so good to share ideas and learn from each other, especially now we are much more confined to our own homes to provide teaching and learning.

el curso ha sido de gran provecho ya que he conocido y aprendido más de lo que esperaba,todo lo que nos han enseñado ahora creo me va a ser de gran utilidad ya que con esta situación del COVID 19 no tenemos seguro el regreso a las aulas para dar clase de manera presencial y aún así que regresemos también va a ser de gran ayuda este curso ya que ahora se me esta solicitando que incluya un plan de clases por línea para que los alumnos se vayan incorporando cada día al uso de la tecnología; que de antemano ya todos tienen con una cuenta institucional en la que se les debe enviar actividades. también los padres de familia tendrán que adaptarse y colaborar con sus hijos en el trabajo en la computadora o cualquier otro equipo lo que beneficiara a ellos ya que aprenderían el uso y conocimientos de las diferentes herramientas que nos ofrece la tecnología actual

Absolutely innovative and inspiring.
All the questions which were needed to be answered were very interesting.
The information that was given along side with this specific material was provided in abundance.
The tutors give an excellent presentation for each parts of this course.
I found all the links which this course has generously offered, very useful,because it gave me more /other perspective to add to my teaching method.
Also ,this is a fantastic opportunity for all the teachers from around the world to talk about their teaching experience, comment on each others opinion and most importantly,to share each others ideas.
It has been an amazing" teachers adventure."
I love it!
Thank you.

I have completed up to week 3,3.9 by now. On my point of view,I am very lucky to find this typical online course,when I was in a big issue as a principal. on how to guide my teachers to conduct effective lessons for primary learners in my school. This course provided me with lot of useful information,methods and techniques ,
Having completed this online course now I have confidence to conduct School Based Teacher Development programs on planing, conducting and assessing on line lessons. I have collected lot of links to guide my teachers for extra reading about on line teaching and learning. I would like to thank all the lead educators and all the teachers who shared their knowledge and experiences.