Look inside  here.

The idea of writing the book Creative teaching, sustainable learning, published in 2017, was sparked by the enthusiasm as well as the questions of teachers-to-be and practicing colleagues attending my workshops on teaching English as a foreign language which I have been offering nationally and internationally for almost 20 years. Being in contact with many language teachers, listening to their questions and seeing their needs, kept the motivation alive to write this book alongside my teaching in a Waldorf school from grades 5 to 13.

The writing process took place parallel and in synergy with the creation of an international online platform for the professional development of teachers - www.e-learningwaldorf.de - which started with offering online-courses for foreign language teachers from around the world. I decided to produce the book via Book on Demands because I wanted to remain independent and decide on the layout of the book myself. Fortunately, I have a partner who could look at the language and a son who helped me with layout and design.

The subtitle of the book - “a holistic approach to foreign language teaching and learning” - indicates the core intention of my many years of teaching English as a foreign language to kids and teenagers as well as the core message of my book “language learning is not merely a matter of accumulating words and managing grammatical structures, acquiring a new language involves the whole human being and at the same time  has a changing effect on the person who has embarked on this journey.”

Therefore, I argue that planning lessons and teaching foreign / other languages should be based on a thorough understanding of natural language learning as well as learning processes in general. At the same time, we need an openness and understanding of the interests and developmental needs of the children and young adults we teach - in each class anew - so that we can shape the lessons according to the young people we actually have in the classroom.

While the first third of the book covers these more general aspects of language teaching and learning - together with some thoughts on lesson planning and annual structuring of the content we teach and the methods we apply - the other two thirds of the book focusses on the various competences that language learners have to acquire and the skills they have to master.  In separate chapters the book offers many suggestions for activities, tasks and projects that invite pupils to engage with the other language through meaningful and interesting activities and acquire the language bit by bit at their own pace along the way.

How can we encourage pupils to listen and speak, to enjoy reading and discover their own voice in writing? How can drama and poetry help to involve pupils with the language? How do we deal with corrections in meaningful and manageable ways? And what can we do in order to meet the wide diversity in learning and language skills within the group of learners we face? How can language teachers integrate a variety of analog as well as digital media in age-appropriate ways and hence support young learners in the important process of developing media literacy as well as media competence and maturity.

Even though I would not call it a material collection, the book does offer a lot of very practical advice for language teachers. I have been told that it has been helpful for new teachers and experienced colleagues alike. The book is written with the heart and head of a teacher who has been and is experiencing foreign language teaching as a truly enjoyable and rewarding profession - even after 25 years of classroom experience!

 

The book is available as

Book: ISBN 9783746011479

E-Book: ISBN 9783746051567

It can be ordered through

Book on Demand book shop

https://www.bod.de/buchshop/catalogsearch/result/?q=creative+teaching%2C+sustainable+learning

Amazon bookshop

https://www.amazon.de/Creative-Teaching-Sustainable-Learning-holistic/dp/3746011477/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678023780&sr=1-1