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Those Pesky Native Speakers....AGAIN!

The question I most frequently get asked - probably because I grew up speaking English myself and my daughters went through the Swiss public school system - is “how do I deal with native speakers in my classroom?” I will discuss this below starting with my own experiences and then generalize those points to some more practical tips. First of all, I would like to state that I get irritated by the question. Teachers in Switzerland have a 3-year degree in education and a lot of fieldwork. In every subject there will be learners who are more or less motivated, more or less interested, and have had more or fewer experiences in a subject. So when I get asked about native speakers, I think “have they not learned how to differentiate instruction?” and that they have it wrong. Teachers are not responsible for teaching native-level English (they cannot), but they ARE responsible that every child has an active, positive experience where they make progress. They ARE responsible for not just “follo
Hello! I am now in England visiting the PHSH teachers. They seem to be having a very good time and learning a lot. They've had an outing or two and a tour of the town of Norwich. They've now been in two different classes. The only negative comment I heard was: English schools are rather traditional . So I'm wondering what this means and also if we can really say Swiss schools are different or more 'modern'! Right now I'm sitting here in a great workshop about using the Web. The possibilities are endless!!

Looking Forward!

What's the difference between "forward-looking" and "looking forward"? An initial thought leads to time: are forward-looking things less probable because they take place in an undetermined point in the future? Are things you look forward to more concrete, in the shorter-term and thus more probable? Who knows - but it is sure fun to think about it!! I am looking forward to this upcoming semester because: I get to teach a lot! My grandfather is coming from the US and we get to go to Lauffen am Neckar ( http://www.lauffen.de/portal ) and take a trip through time. I get to go to the mountains ( http://www.nationalpark.ch/ ) with Ally, Zoe and Patrick. I get to go to the Leonard Cohen concert in Zurich ( http://www.leonardcohen.com/ ) with Patrick! I get to go to the zoo with my students. Somehow it seems a bit simplistic, but isn't it these simple things that keep us happy?