English Teaching professional blog from Michelle Ocriciano

In the first post of 2021, Michelle Ocriciano discusses the challenges of the coming year before suggesting we look for hope in our own strengths by using the VIA character survey, which can be applied to many aspects of our lives not just teaching.

In Michelle Oriciano’s last blogpost for the year, she reflects on 2020 by acknowledging the difficulties faced by ELT professionals and recaps on how important it is to look after one’s wellbeing, before rounding up with a proposal for our industry in 2021 and beyond.

In September, Michelle Ocriciano described types of memory and memory overload; then last month she discussed interleaving and how it can be used to set homework. In this blog, she rounds up her memory-in-teaching-practice mini-series by introducing retrieval practice.

In our ‘new normal’, many teachers are having to cover the full curriculum regardless so are glossing over content just to ‘cover everything’. Changing this situation is often beyond our control. So, let me offer a type of practice that may ease this burden on students and teachers.

In the last few months, I’ve attended too many webinars to count and racked up countless hours on Zoom… and now have trouble remembering all types of things. And I’m not alone. Somehow the combination of physical distancing and long hours in front of a computer have affected our memory, but why?

Much of Michelle’s teaching took place in language institutes with a maximum of 15 students in class. But when she started teaching in state schools, she faced a new reality: 24 groups with 40 students each. To cope with these numbers, she had to adapt and use technology to support her teaching fast!

Recent events in the US involving George Floyd may have brought up topics such as racism and discrimination to our ELT classes. Some of us embraced them, whereas others questioned what ELT has to do with this type of topics. So, let's talk about social justice.

As we go back to the new normal, schools are starting to think about ways to increase their number of students. An unfortunate and unethical way of doing it is by advertising their "Native English teachers”. Read on and find out a better way to advertise courses with product differentiation and design thinking.

As remote teaching becomes the new norm, we may be shifting our attention from how to use technology to teach online to what we are teaching and how students are responding to it. Not following deadlines or completing tasks can be closely related to the collective trauma the world is facing right now.

As we adapt to the ‘new normal’ in the Covid-19 virtual world and beyond, issues related to the use of L1 have emerged with some teachers feeling uncomfortable as learners slip into L1 in breakout rooms when using Zoom or similar tools. But Michelle’s motto is ‘Let it go!’ Read her blog to find out why.