Category Archives: classroom culture

Critical Pedagogy and Teaching in the 21st Century 


Written by - Guest Contributor

By Christine Smart-Wiseman

I have spent over a decade developing my research in community-setting adult ESL classes. I have found the path to empowerment for newcomers somewhat difficult. Students face many obstacles, including discrimination, racism, and the increasing challenges of settling into a country where English is not their first language. I have also realized that my own positionality, as well as the positionalities presented in teaching materials, can compromise students’ abilities to relate and succeed. This means that my own ideas, and the ideas presented in ready-made materials, often reflect the status quo—not the typical adult ESL learner. So, what can we do about this in the classroom? There are two key ways educators can critically reflect on their teaching practices.  Continue reading →

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Creating Community in the ESL Classroom 


Written by - Guest Contributor

By Kali Thurber

Make a Difference in Your Community Word Cloud - Female cupped hands around the word COMMUNITY and a relevant word tag cloud against a blue green bokeh background
image source: bigstockphoto.com

Over the past four years, I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on community. I only became personally aware of my deep need for a sense of community when my social life was suddenly limited to my immediate family during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. Despite having two wonderful people to share my small Toronto home with every second of the day, I felt isolated and craved groups of people to share my various experiences, thoughts, and feelings with.   Continue reading →

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Establishing Rapport with Learners: Challenges & Solutions


Written by - Ozma Siddiqui
Image source: Unsplash, photo by Luann Hunt

Teaching is a rewarding profession, but it does come with its challenges. One important aspect of teaching is to establish a rapport with the learners. A teacher who is unable to communicate with her learners in the first few days is at risk of “losing” her class altogether. Research shows that learners learn better when they find the content interesting and like the teacher! In fact, a positive and favourable learning environment is necessary for effective communication in a classroom that learners find safe and supportive. This article will pose some challenges and offer solutions that will ensure student engagement.

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Challenges of Large Classes


Written by - Ozma Siddiqui
Image taken from: Big Stock Photo

Advantages of Bigger Class sizes 

Most public schools globally have larger class sizes than private schools. This is due to the fact that accommodating larger groups of students lowers the cost of building extra classrooms, buying extra equipment and hiring more teachers. On the other hand, it is often argued that children from diverse backgrounds bring different perspectives and experiences to the classroom, making for a varied learning environment. 

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Student Engagement Strategies That Work


Written by - Ozma Siddiqui
Image taken from: Big Stock Photo

As the day wears on, it’s not uncommon to see learners becoming unfocused, disengaged with classroom tasks, restless, noisy or silent. The most demotivating aspect of disinterested students is their unwillingness to learn. A Gallup student poll (2014) reports that nearly 50% of the learners were “either not engaged (28 percent) or actively disengaged (19 percent) in school” (Collier, 2015). 

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Supporting Literacy Students to Become Independent Learners


Written by - Derek Czajkowski
Image: Bigstockphoto.com

I was taking the chairs down from the desks and putting them on the floor before the morning class, when a student came in and said:

“Teacher.”

She shook her head and pointed to herself.

“Me,” she said.

She motioned for me to sit. Since that day, the students have put themselves in charge of the chairs.

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Managing Disruptive Behaviour


Written by - Ozma Siddiqui
Image taken from: Big Stock Photo

While teaching young people is often not easy, managing classrooms with students of mixed abilities and diverse backgrounds can be really challenging. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is getting a class to be quiet. Picture this: it’s the first day of school and you are required to be the homeroom teacher for a class of boys in their early teens. Boys at this age can be a handful! 

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Should Literacy Students Help Each Other With Assessments?


Written by - Derek Czajkowski
Image source: www.bigstockphoto.com

As I watched my literacy students doing, or, in several cases, trying to do, a formal assessment task recently, I thought of that old joke: schools are places where students go to watch teachers work. I questioned my competence. We’d spent over a week doing skill building activities, spiralling back to skills and activities, reviewing, repeating, repeating, and repeating. Oh, the repetition. I checked comprehension. Checked again. The students nodded. They did well in the lessons. Then the task. Back to square one.

The stronger students finished first, of course. However, instead of sitting quietly waiting for the others to finish, some of them did what they’ve been doing in class: helping their weaker peers. This being a formal assessment, my first impulse was to stop this helping, or as the academic term has it, cheating.

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Getting to Know Each Other Better in the Language Classroom


Written by - Cecilia Aponte-de-Hanna
Image from Padlet search engine “Team Work.”

In my very first TESL Ontario blog post, I shared an activity to help teachers remember their students’ names.1 It also happens that the activity helps students learn each other’s names and, as a result, helps to build community. By addressing each other by name, students are more likely to build bonds and feel valued. Building community is a process, however, and although this activity is a good start, teachers can incorporate other activities throughout the term or academic year to make the process memorable.

The following activity is one I use to help strengthen students’ sense of community by letting them share something about themselves that highlights a positive attribute. This activity also gives the teacher the opportunity to do the same.

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First Day Back


Written by - Jennifer Hutchison
Back to Class
Source: Jason Goodman on Unsplash

As the streetcar lurched toward George Brown College, I gazed at the familiar storefronts, churches, and coffee shops that lined the route. How could everything be the same when it felt so different? I was nervous, panicked even. After all, I hadn’t taught in-person for close to three years. I berated myself for checking off the box to teach on campus. Wasn’t it easier to stay enclosed in my basement lair? I rechecked the supplies in my backpack and pulled out the instructions sheet for the tenth time. Offices have moved here, photocopiers are now there; do this if you need to print something, do that to access the computer system. Ughh.

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