A positive classroom environment:

I think that a positive classroom environment depends on the teachers and students attitude. As teachers, we can start improving our personality and behavior, and then, we will lead the students into the environment we desire.

The respect toward each student is fundamental; we can have fun with them, but we also have to set some limits. Having a fun class doesn’t mean to disrespect the others.

Each student is important in the class; therefore we have to value them as persons and assist their needs.

There are teachers who try to intimidate their students to have a, let’s say, a peaceful class, but students don’t learn appropriately in those circumstances because the environment is tense. Teachers have to learn to manage with those disruptive students so that the rest of the class can be normal and the environment can be amazing.

Teachers have to drag students into a relaxed relationship, and they also have to work as a community; as members of the community, teachers have to be reliable and real friends.

This is what I consider can contribute to create a positive classroom environment.

Teaching across proficiency levels

Teaching a foreign language is always challenging, since we have to manage with a class that is pursuing an integral learning.

Role of the teacher:
Teaching at some levels has different degrees of difficulty, so teachers and student’s performance will vary.

As teaching beginning levels is considered the basis of the foreign language process, the role of the teacher must be very active.
As beginners are students that have few or no knowledge of the target language, the teacher is going to be the spring from which students will absorb the knowledge. Teachers have to be the model to follow, so they have to speak accurately and clearly so that students can understand the transmitted message. As the teacher is the center of attention, he has to be careful with the pronunciation of tricky words. Teachers have to manage students interacting activities in order to take advantage of peer support, given that we always have students who have a more advanced knowledge or better understanding than others.
When students are in a beginning level they act as if they are babies who learn to talk in their native language; therefore, the material presented in the classroom has to be as abstract and meaningful as possible.

Authentic y of language:
When teaching beginners, teachers have to be very conscious that they are working with students who may not have the expected expertise to understand simple language spoken in a high speed, so they have to make pauses and stop using technical language. As everything goes from the simple to the complex, teachers have to start with easy patterns as greetings and commands, lots of repetition and activities appropriate to this level. As the course advances, teachers should increase the difficulty of the spoken language.

Student’s creativity:
For being creative, we have to speak, draw or act, then, as students don’t have lots of vocabulary, their creativity is limited. But they can be creative in their context; for example, when students invent words in the target language, make assumptions of certain grammatical matter, or inquire in something related with the target language, they are being creative. Teachers have their students write and speak freely to let them be creative and discover hindrances as they perform and then correct their mistakes. We are very intelligent and what we need is an appropriate guidance and constant motivation.

Teaching English across age levels

Now that we have study some theory about teaching in different ages and with my experience as student, I can conclude that teaching children, teens and adults has its own differences and teachers might find it hard to teach one of these levels.
Particularly, I would teach teens rather than teaching children and adults because I find it mentally and physically tiring to control children behavior as they perform in the classroom. When we work with children, we have to treat them softly, and we have to have an array of techniques to lead them since we rarely negotiate with them and therefore, sanction their fault.
It is true that teaching children may seem easier according to content since we teach them Basic English, but we have to deal with the maintenance of their attention span and their motivation.
Working with adults is cool as they are more conscious about what they want to learn, and their attitude toward education is more responsible than the majority of teens and children. However, sometimes we find troublemaker students while teaching adults, and at some point it is difficult to work with them. I would like to work with teenagers because they face a crucial phase in which their identity is being shaped; therefore, what a teacher does to help them is always unforgettable. We can influence positively on teens identity by helping them to overcome their difficulties. As students need real friends and affection, the relationship that exists between students and teachers is special. You can negotiate with teens as you do with adults, and the best part is that you can have fun with them, but you have to set limits so that you can keep the due respect.