Ronnie’s #1 Tip for Teachers

Hello, there, everyone out in wherever you are.

My name's Ronnie, and this might be the first time you're ever watching me.

Hello.

Or the 42nd time, or you just watch me all the time.

Hi.

How's it going?

Hmm.

But I'm an English teacher, and through my years - 25 years - oh, am I that old?

Of teaching, I've come across a lot of teachers, not metal English teachers, but my personal

teachers that they're just not really good.

Nah, they're okay people, you know.

They don't have anything against them, they look good, they don't smell bad, take showers,

but they're just...

They're lacking something, some magic about how to teach people.

I mean, really, honestly, anyone can be a teacher if you go to school and go to university

and get your teaching degree, like, "Whoa, graduation, I'm a teacher, yeah!"

I didn't do that.

Nope.

I learned teaching through my experience, through - oh my god, so many mistakes I made.

I don't even want to go into the mistakes I made, but I want to share this with you

because I've taken English teaching courses that I had to take - god, they're such a waste

of time - and it all comes down to you, and your ability to communicate with your classroom,

your ability to be a nice person, a warm person, someone that the students want to learn from.

Yeah.

And so, to do this, I wrote a book, and I know that's crazy because I hate reading.

I hate it.

I hate reading, but I did write a book, and I want to share with you one excerpt from

my book that I hope helps you in your path of teaching.

Maybe you've been doing this for a while and you're just like, "Oh my god, I want to read

something funny." Buy my book.

Or if you're new at teaching, or new to teaching, and you're like, "I don't know where to start."

Yeah?

Buy my book.

So, just buy it, and it's funny.

I've got some cool stories you can...

You can look at, you can read, and basically I just want to help you because there are

some tricks, there are some magic to this whole teaching thing.

Let me go through Ronnie's teaching tip.

Trick number one, the mistakes.

Oh, yes.

I told you at the beginning of the video I've made loads of them, but this one I'm not focusing

on myself.

I want to focus on our students because, hey, they're what makes us come to work every day

and put on a clean shirt and teach them.

If it wasn't for our students, we'd have no job, oh my goodness, we'd be homeless, I wouldn't

have food, I wouldn't get to eat cookies every day.

Okay.

Ronnie, back up.

Okay?

Back up.

Come forward.

Let's focus on the students.

So, students are going to make mistakes.

We make mistakes, but we have to learn how to fix them.

Okay?

So, especially with younger or new...

Not younger, but newer students, students that are just beginning to speak English,

they're going to make loads of mistakes, and what you don't want to do-okay?-is single

students out.

You don't say, "Hey, you said this word wrong."

Okay?

You're going to say it again.

Say the word again.

"No, that was wrong.

That's terrible.

Are you even listening to me again?"

How do you think that makes the student feel?

It makes them feel like shit.

If I was that student, I would not come back to your class.

Don't make examples out of the student that doesn't know or doesn't make a mistake.

"Oh, oh, oh, hey, Kevin, yeah.

What's present perfect?"

"Oh, Kevin doesn't know present perfect.

Ha ha ha."

Don't do that.

Why would you do that to people?

People are in your classroom to learn, to get encouraged, to have confidence when they're

speaking this new language.

Don't squish them down.

Make them feel better.

Make them feel like they want to learn about this stuff.

I have a teacher, and I'm taking music lessons.

I've never played this instrument before.

All of a sudden, during our practice, the conductor will stop, point at one person in

the back-that's me-and say, "Ronnie, you did that wrong.

Are you listening to me?

What's going on?"

Why...

And he gets angry, and I'm like, "Dude, why are you getting angry?"

Relax.

It's a mistake.

We're practicing.

If I was a professional at this, if I make a mistake, oh, shit, that's pretty bad.

But if you're practicing something or you're learning something, please, don't get angry

or mad at your students.

Don't say things like, "You aren't listening to me.

Don't yell at them and speak louder."

Oh, guess what?

They're listening, but they don't understand.

There's a disconnect.

It's your job to help them.

Don't ask the person who made the mistake to correct it, because obviously they don't

know the answer.

It's like Ronnie in math class.

My math teacher would say, "Okay, Ronnie, what's 42 minus 3?"

"42?"

"No, Ronnie, what's 42 minus 3?"

"I don't know."

"Ronnie, what's the answer?"

"Dude, I don't know the answer.

As many times as you ask me, I still am not magically going to know the answer, like 38."

That's 39.

The person obviously doesn't know the answer.

Don't bother them.

They made a mistake, move on.

"Okay.

Oh, yeah, that's not right.

Anyone else?

Does anyone else know the answer?"

Get your students to help each other.

This is the best technique when you're in a classroom learning environment.

What I do is I write all the mistakes on the board.

When students are speaking, I write down their mistakes.

All mistakes, pronunciation mistakes, vocabulary mistakes, doesn't matter, grammar, and I write

it on the board.

You know, it's fun.

What they do is as a class, maybe in small groups, maybe in partners, maybe individually,

they correct the mistakes together.

And this is helping them communicate with each other in English.

Maybe one person knows the answer.

Cool.

When that person knows the answer, they get rewarded from you, and everyone else is like,

"Wow.

Good job, Jo.

You knew that answer.

Cool."

Awesome.

If you've got younger kids or children, you can give them prizes.

You can do fun things like quiz time.

It's like, "Okay.

What is the correct pronunciation of the thing that you go to in the summertime and you swim

in the ocean?"

Beach, yeah, beach is the right answer.

You get a point.

If you encourage people to help each other, your classroom is going to be a much happier

environment.

And guess what?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Check this out.

Read the last thing.

Teaching material for next class.

As an English as a second language teacher, sometimes we just run out of material.

We've taught them all the past verbs, the present perfect, present perfect passive,

and you're just like, "Oh my god.

What am I going to do?

What am I going to do with my class?

I don't know what to do.

How did the class start?

Here's the people.

Oh."

You've got what your students need to work on right in front of you, right in front of

your nose, there.

Oh, okay, people are having problems with the "th" sound, so guess what?

Grab some pronunciation material to teach them the "th".

You're never going to run out of material if you focus on your students' mistakes and

how to correct them in a kind way.

You want to encourage your students.

So if you're interested in becoming a better 

teacher, not being a boring,  mean teacher-okay?-grab

my book.

This is my website, englishwithronnie.com.

Head over there, grab the book, read it, you're going to have a laugh, you're going to have

a giggle, and you're going to learn a lot.

You're going to see your students are going to have a good time in your class, and they're

going to like you.

That's it.

I'm out of here.

Thanks for watching.