Tutor-Private Teaching and Learning

“I`m not a very creative person”. You can hear such a phrase rather often nowadays. What does it mean? Too much criticism or a real fact? What is, if you haven`t had an original idea in years? Does it prove that you are an ordinary person without any talent?

Is it possible to learn to be creative?
A lot of people of various ages doubt about their creative abilities. There are many children among them. In this situation a good teacher can help them. The experts on creative thinking have carried out some special suggestions that might be helpful. According to these researchers children can learn to be more creative. As most of parents are busy working teachers are to analyze some creativity tips and recommend them to their pupils.

Brainstorming.
This method may help a child to come up with creative ideas. A teacher should ask his pupil to write down every idea that comes to his pupil`s head. A child shouldn`t be afraid to express his ideas even if they seem to be silly or crazy. It`s very important to persuade a child not to judge his ideas. Judging or criticism might make a child freeze up. In the atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding a pupil can relax and allow his mind to be playful. Only after making a long list of ideas a teacher and his pupil can discuss them all and then choose the best one.

Getting ideas from the things around you.
People prove to be not very observant and quite often cannot say what surrounds them. A teacher can ask his pupil to look around more carefully. If a pupil keeps his eyes open he will be able to see a lot of traditional things that will turn out to be unexpectedly new. A pupil should try to combine ideas that already exist.

Breaking the rules.
There are a lot of rules that regulate our life, but constant sticking to rules may prevent a child from coming up with new ideas. If a child doesn`t want to stay within the rules, that no longer make sense, if he is not afraid of breaking them, he is sure to become a creative person. Thomas Edison once said: ”Genius is ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent of inspiration”. So, if you want to become a genius, work hard and don`t give up.

In what way do people usually choose their future profession? While they are at school and making the decision doesn`t? threaten yet, everything seems to be cloudless. But one day you go to school for the last time. What to do after? You realize that the time to choose one job out of hundreds has come. It`s a hard choice, but nobody can make it for you. Usually a person asks himself a lot of questions. What is he good at? What does he enjoy doing? Does he like meeting people? Does he prefer using his hands?

Why do young people choose teaching as a career?
Many young people choose teaching as a career. It`s not surprising: after the parents the teachers may be the most important persons in your life. I don`t feel like underestimating the teachers of other subjects but foreign language teachers are quite different. It`s natural. The lesson of a foreign language, where pupils can write, read, speak as well as sing songs, play games, paint pictures, organize performances, cannot be compared with any other lesson. Teaching is not at all easy, but teaching a foreign language is a real challenge to your character, abilities and talent. No wonder that foreign language teachers are sincerely admired and loved by most pupils at any school. A good foreign language teacher is genuinely interested in what he is doing. If he isn`t, he won`t be able to organize discussions and debates in class or use language games.

Teaching a foreign language is a constant stream of decisions.
For pupils it`s very important to experience real communicative situations in which they are taken seriously as people. Learning is more efficient if the learners are actively involved in the process. The degree of a pupil`s activity depends on a teacher, who tries to arise pupil`s curiosity, to make him laugh and to take the tension out. If a teacher has a sense of humor, if he smiles at his pupils, they won`t be afraid of making mistakes, they won`t get nervous and will be eager to work. A good language teacher integrates theory and practice and learns all the time. He learns from life, from colleagues and from his pupils. John Steinbeck, writing about his school days said: “I`ve come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and you know how few great artists there are in the world”.