02 January 2015 / by Radmila Gurkova

Always look ahead, look at the future of English teaching education! Happy 2015!

A new year has just begun, bringing us 365 possibilities for our brand new resolutions to come true! New wishes, new dreams!

Looking back at what we’ve achieved in our “teenage” organization (12 years now from our foundations!), we cannot feel more mature, more certain about the route we’ve chosen. We started with a few but firm convictions to change education in English in Spain and these beliefs are sill the fuel that keeps our engines moving to more global goals and achievements. We started as a small group of like-minded teachers, but we are now more than 800 professionals all over the world and growing! Building together the future of English teaching education has been exciting and rewarding. A challenge that we’ve decided to take hand in hand with those who care about English learning, with those who believe in quality education as a sum of everyone’s experiences.

Our wishes and dreams, which are also our resolutions for the New Year, are to go beyond the boundaries of any country and condition and make English learning and teaching a profession that everyone, who believes has a teacher inside, can develop successfully from any part of the planet.

Our list is short but generous, and it is our present for those who love English. Here are our three resolutions for the 2015.

For creative souls, teachers to have a voice and see how their ideas make English teaching education evolve. If you think you have a voice because you participate in forums, wait to see what we can do with your ideas and opinions. We have created a community of teachers who gather together regularly to share their experiences and express their concerns about English teaching education. After hearing their ideas, we implement them through our activities and we next analyse the outcome. We keep what we like and we keep improving what still needs developing until we reach consensus. What was yesterday a single idea of a single teacher can be today a shared practice by hundreds of teachers worldwide.

For vocational teachers, we’ve created a platform with ready to go classes designed for their students. If you think you have good materials at hand only because there are thousands of pages in the Internet you can choose from, wait to see our platform, which has always the right class selection for your students. More than a data base for activities that you have to browse, read, evaluate, select and adapt, we offer you ready to go classes based on carefully prepared syllabi with aims, objectives and activities that you can prepare with one glance only and that contain all the visuals that you need for class usage. If you have a tablet, a laptop or a smart phone, you will have all you need for your classes without wasting a minute of your time to look for it. Simply because it will be there for you.

For globetrotters and adventurers, we have developed a teachers’ mobility and job creation initiative using a system that works. Getting a job and being successful in the English teaching profession is the best wish we can have for all our teachers. Don’t wait to be called for a job, create a job and become your own boss in English teaching education. Hand in hand with OxbridgeTEFL, you can take this profession with you wherever your adventured soul takes you and start working with no initial investment but your own time.

What do you need to become successful in the English teaching education area? A nice cosy place to gather with students and our system to provide you with classes and an app for student management. If you think you are your best manager, we believe we can offer you the best educational project and the best student management system ever created for English teachers.

Three wishes, three objectives that will become a reality in 2015! Your voice to matter wherever you go, whoever you teach, whatever your aims are. If you have a mobile device with you, you’ll have OxbridgeTEFL as a travel mate in your journey in English teaching education.

We can’t wait to share our world with you! Happy 2015!

 

23

February 2016
You are how you think
by Paola Tanc
A lot of people often say that you are what you eat, but it really should be "you are how you think". Let me explain. My name is Paola, I was born and raised in Mexico City, meaning that Spanish is my native language. I had always been a very shy little girl, living in my perfect little bubble and having a big family meant that I didn't re...

19

February 2016
Sharing Experiences: Food
by Toby Knight
Food. I love it. We have to eat it to survive but more importantly it defines who we are, where we are from and represents countries and cultures. ESL conversations require both students and teachers sharing experiences and in my opinion there is no better topic than food. Consider this: Spain has more restaurants, bars and cafeterias than al...

18

January 2016
Building professional identity in a community of practice
by Ana Garza
When we decided to start our careers as teachers by working for someone else, we started to participate in a community of practice ...

15

January 2016
The joys and tribulations of web classes
by Rafael Olivares
It's 8:30 in the morning. Your 3 students from Valencia, Zaragoza and Barcelona are getting ready for a web class. In half an hour, they will all be enjoying their 30 minute web class with each other and their favorite teacher. No, they will not be commuting to Madrid at the speed of sound in order to be together in class by 9:00, nor will...

11

January 2016
A perfect ESL conversation
by Paola Tanc
I'd like you to look back at your past experiences as a student. What were the best memories you had about those classes?What could you do to recreate them in your classroom? Personally, my best memories are the ones where I had the most fun. When the teacher thought outside the box and did something different and challenging for a change....

08

January 2016
Teaching Taboo Subjects
by Toby Knight
When I first started teaching I found myself teaching an activity about relationships to normally out-going group of students. Less than a minute into the discussion one student announced that she did not want me to ask her any questions as she had recently ended a relationship and was too upset to talk about the subject. It was obviously an ...

18

December 2015
Eating your way through Spain
by Rafael Olivares
If you are living and working in Spain, it is more than likely that you will have heard someone utter the words: "Spain has some of the finest food in the world." And yet, many foreigners working as TEFL teachers become quickly disillusioned with Spain's gastronomic offerings. The reason behind this dissapointment lies in the difficulty of...

14

December 2015
Dealing with those difficult students
by Rob Wylie
Despite the majority of students being motivated and professional, there is always a possibility you may come across one or two “difficult” students who come to class with a negative attitude. I’m sure that as teachers we can all relate to this and have some form of experience when it comes to having to work with a person who arrives to class...

12

December 2015
What you need to ask yourself before creating ESL activities
by Paola Tanc
Creating ESL activities can sometimes be frustrating, at least that's the case in my life. I sometimes find myself in need for inspiration, so I google some conversation topics that might interest the students, or that's what I think.  I start working on the activity until I feel that it is perfect, I submit my activity and wait for the day w...

07

December 2015
ESL teachers' frustrations. Is there a way out?
by Ana Garza
Monday. 8:30 in the morning. A mixed-level group of unresponsive adult learners. Is it me? At least it’s only three of them. Or maybe that’s the problem. Is it their personalities? Perhaps it’s that they’re not interested in the activities. But everything played out so well in my mind last night… questions and answers, role-...