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

June 2015
Different levels of learning in the same ESL classroom
by Rob Wylie
Teachers need to be as prepared as possible before every time they enter the classroom, this includes for the class itself but also for any other questions, queries or problems that may come up throughout the class. However, no matter how well you prepare there is always the chance that something will catch you off guard and take you by su...

17

June 2015
Teaching English in Bars. Love learning with a cup of coffee!
by Rob Wylie
Teaching English in a bar? Throughout your whole life you may have spent your class time in a classroom, meeting room or office. But do you always need to learn in these types of places? Are there other environments which can provide perfect study locations? Why not teaching English in Bars? ...

16

June 2015
Is grammar important?
by Elena Riches
Learning a second language essentially consists of 'Reading', 'Listening' and 'Speaking'. 'Writing' isn't particularly necessary unless the student expresses that they want to learn to write and, even then, it can be learned quite easily once the speaking and reading have been mastered. So, is grammar importan...

12

June 2015
Developing Technology in Education Collaborative Project
by Gerardo Matos
To develop a collaborative project that presents the Oxbridge English Teaching System and how we incorporate technology in it...

12

June 2015
Proficiency Levels In English. Building Level Placement Parameters
by Matthew Gichohi
Recently the Academy's teachers came together to discuss what they need to keep in mind when deciding their students' proficiency levels in English and if advancement is warranted . The discussion was motivated by a lack of consensus on various students' levels and their progress. In a system where communication is prioritize...

09

June 2015
Teaching Students From Diverse Backgrounds
by Elena Riches
One of the challenges that teachers can encounter is having to teach students from diverse backgrounds in the same class as this makes the teacher obligated to meet the needs of different language students where differentiated instruction is required. This would not always apply to school classes but private classes, where you could have a mi...

05

June 2015
Icebreakers for the ESL classroom
by Rob Wylie
An icebreaker is a game, activity or event which is often used to welcome new people into a group or to help start group work and conversation. The idea is that the icebreaker will help everyone involved feel as comfortable as possible with one another especially when participants do not know each other. It should be used as a way of introduc...

02

June 2015
How to get students talking and enjoy the experience
by Elena Riches
How to get students talking in English is one of the biggest challenges if you are a new TEFL teacher. There will be times during your experience as a teacher where a student finds it difficult to openly talk and if you can't encourage them to do so, neither of you will be be going anywhere fast so, let's see how to...

29

May 2015
Teaching English to Beginners: No Spanish, Please!
by Rob Wylie
When teaching any level of any language there are certain things that we teachers need to remember, but how do these things change depending on the level? What is it that changes when teaching English to beginners? ...

29

May 2015
Context clues: Putting language in perspective
by Vincent Chieppa
...