The purpose of this blog is to post different information about educational issues, so that we can interact in a very useful and creative way making use of technology.
Hello again dear bloggers!! I hope everything
is going on well with you. I’ll be brief this last time. I was teaching in the
English Access program. My last class there was on Monday 12th. The
class was divided into 4 principal parts. The warm up. A reading activity. A
speaking activity (Group work) and, finally, a “find someone who” activity. All
of them about modals which was the target language.
The warm up
In this class, I developed the
popular “rabbit wall and arrow” warm up. It was just to set the mood of the
class and give a little bit more time for the late comers. I saw the students
felt better and had fun when doing it.
Reading
The main objective of it was to
identify and underline the modals. Before developing that, I showed these
images to the class so that they started using the modals. “He might be sad;
they must be angry” and so on.
It worked very well under my view point. To
finish this, I elicited some of the students’ responses and I read along with
the class in case that there were new words or a problem with pronunciation.
Discussion (speaking activity, group
work)
This activity was successfully
achieved. In groups of 4, they discussed questions about real-life situations.
Questions such as: “Should marijuana be legalized? What must you do in your
country to obtain a driver’s license” among others. In this way, I think the
students practiced consciously and unconsciously the modals. Plus, it was a
thought provoking activity. To close this, I elicited some responses to see
what they thought about and to see if they used the modals for sure.
“Find someone who”
This is a popular and common
activity. I noticed that the students enjoyed this as it contained interesting
questions. This was for using the modal “can” only. To close this, again, I
elicited some of the students’ responses.
The class was very good, I think.
However, one of the things that went wrong was the fact that not all the
students were there. Also, I forgot to write the objective thought I did it in
the middle of the class. Then, I think that I did maybe not a great job but a
good one.
Hello everybody! I hope everything
is fine with you all. Sorry for the delay of this second entry, but there were
some inconvenients and I could not teach before.
To start, I can say that I was sort
of tired that day (Friday 9th) it was a very busy day; however, when
being there in the class with the students I forgot all those stuff. I started
the class like 3 minutes later. I greeted my students and asked them how
everything was to which everybody said “fine” and “nice”; after that, I encouraged
the class to participate in the session by saying that the class was going to
be a nice experience. Later on, I started with a warm up called “Emotional
Mirror”. Here I leave you what this consists on in case you want to put it in
practice: players in pairs, facing each
other. One starts talking in gibberish, with a specific emotion (angry, happy,
in love, you name it). The other instantly copies the emotion of the first
player, and speaks in his own gibberish. No need to try and copy the other
player`s gibberish, and both players keep talking, no pausing allowed. After
about 10 seconds, the second player changes emotion, and the first one immediately
follows her. I saw that my students really enjoyed this activity. They had a
lot of fun and that was a great beginning for the class.
Afterwards, I started the class by
showing a collage which contained many images of actors and singers who at the
same are also actors. I asked the class to tell me who of the actors they knew.
They knew some of them, so they started to remember some movies and share some
opinions about them, and that was the idea as the class was going to be developed
about vocabulary related to movies. It was a great and thought-provoking way to
begin with the first activity. The first activity was a series of questions. It
was a discussion, so I asked the class to work in pairs.
These are the questions I gave to
them.
Honestly, I noticed that my students
were working with motivation and were discussing the questions excitedly. After
some minutes, I elicited some responses in general so that some of them could
share their ideas with the wholes classroom. I did that to close the activity.
The next activity was a conversation
about movies which contains some phrasal verbs. I put my students to read the
conversation; boys and girls participated, so everyone were included. Afterwards,
I clarified the meaning of some of the words they found there. I gave examples
and the meaning of some of them. A good way to clarify the meaning of the words
is to say the opposite such as: “succeed” “failure” and so on, and, it was with
that activity that I finished the class.
What went wrong? When giving me
feedback the teacher told me some of the aspects that I could improve; the
classroom arrangement is one of those aspects. Also, my concern about the time
that I had, and the necessity of having an objective. Even though he told me
the things that I could had done better, he also told me the positives aspects
too, and that is great. So, generally I can say that it was one of the classes
that I have liked and enjoyed the most because I know that my students enjoyed
it as much as I did as well. I hope to keep improving and doing my best and
hope you all guys too. Any comment, suggestion or recommendation regarding the
class is welcomed guys.
Once
again bloggers, HELLOOO! It is nice to know that we are in our last semester.
We almost finish the major, and I am happy because of that. Let me tell you
that for this first class, I prepared only two activities. For this period I
was assigned the English Access program. I can say that the group is really
nice. I could notice that they are willing to learn English, and when you have
a good attitude from your students, and to that you add the fact that you
really want to do your best, I think everything works better.
To
start the class, I developed a warm up called “throw the ball”. I gave my
students a little ball, and the one who caught the ball had to say a verb in
simple present and then throw the ball to another classmate. The other student
had to say the verb that the person who previously threw him/her the ball had
said, and so forth. I saw my students enjoyed the activity (BTW the topic was a
review of the simple past tense). As I said, I only prepared 2 activities. The first
one I developed was a famous “find someone who”.
As the topic was the past
tense, I gave my students a piece of paper which had some situations which, at
the same time, had to make students form questions with the target language and
also respond them. Everybody interacted with each other, and that is what I
wanted. I got involved with them and I saw they enjoyed going around and
speaking with all their classmates. Then, I elicited some of the answers that
the students had given. It was nice. Once I was done with that activity, I
developed the second one which was called “Tell me about…”
For this, I asked my
students to form groups. I told them to count from one to four, so that at the
end the “ones” work together, the “twos” the same, and so on. Afterwards, I
gave each group a set of cards which contained some topics.I told them to put them face down. As they
were a lot of cards, I asked them to take turns to speak about the topic they
got. I think this was successfully achieved. I see my students speaking a lot;
also, I clarified many doubts since they are pretty curios about many words,
and that made feel cool as I had no problem to cope with that.
To
close, I must say that the TTT was perhaps a %15 or %20 of the class; hence,
the STT was like %80 or %85. I saw that you have to put them to work, so that you
give the majority of participation to them. It was nice. It is very different
to work with adults than children. You have to be prepared for everything with
them. To finish the class, I just elicited some of the opinions that the class
had been discussing with the cards. I thanked them for their collaboration, and
that was it. A truly nice experience. (I owe you pictures btw).
Hello bloggers! After
having finished this subject, I can say that there are plenty of things I have
learned; however, I think I’m not able to say “Hey I learned this much”. These
six months have been pretty cool for me. I love technology. I really liked to
be knowing and trying new things; that’s what we need. A different class,
different activities, different ways to reach a certain objective. Basically,
it was nice for me the fact of changing things that might be boring in
traditional way into attractive and meaningful ones. I think that there is a
wide range of tools on the internet, but it is up to us to look for them and
try something new. I can say that the
tools we’ve seen this cycle have been useful. If you chose them teacher,
CONGRATS. I know you’re a pretty smart person. I think that the more the
student acquires participation, the greater the learning experience. All the
tools are nice. Voxopop, Voicethread, delicious and the rest that I don’t
remember but I know that sooner or later I’m going to use them.
B) What attitude must be
needed to work with online tools.
The attitude is almost
everything in life. In this case, we must take first a positive attitude. I
consider that if we have a good attitude, then we will have patience. First we
learn to walk and in a couple of months we´re able to run. It is the same with
technology. In order to work with technology, you have to be aware that you
have to go step by step till you get to work well with any website or tool. Trying
something new is always challenging, so if you don’t like challenges you will
probably quit with trying some technologies. Also, perseverance is important.
The fact of being trying something till you get it and perfect it is key. I think that technology is sometimes a
challenging but creative way to face today’s students. We have to know when,
how to, and how much the use of technology is beneficial for us. We have to be
careful when making use of it.
C) How these tools can be implemented in other subjects. Give specific
examples, please.
There are many ways in
which these tools can be implemented. For example; blogger can be used in any
subject you want. If it is English, grammar, literature, or any other, you can
perfectly tell your students to write an essay; use it for reflective learning,
etc.
Voicethread can be
implemented in a literature activity. The fact of giving your opinion about a
certain book with images, videos or simply writing is cool. It gives that
flexibility we sometimes need as students.
Also pandamian is a
good tool if you want your students to create pieces of writing. It might be
used in any subject but especially to develop the writing skill.
Edcanvas is good not
only for students, but also for teachers. If you are a teacher then, here you
can create a virtual class. It might be cool for making websites or any other
activity that you think it would be meaningful for your students. I think with
technology there are no limits.
Also, for literature,
any level of English or grammar, Slide.ly is perfect to make students practice
the writing or compositional skill.
Finally, I really liked delicious as it a nice tool for students to store only the websites that they
might find useful and helpful. It would be nice to use it in an investigation
which would require many information from the web, in that way, SS would be
able to keep a register of every website they find meaningful.
D) What are some things that should be added or left out in a future course
Well, all of the tools
that help to make the acquisition of any content easier, creative and
attractive should be added. I think if
we look for meaningful and useful tools, there might be numerous; we will certainly
find many tools; however, more than adding or leaving out, teachers should look
for ways to incorporate those tools and technologies in the classroom, more
specifically in the teaching learning process. We’re walking on a technological
path, so teachers should be able to make use of it. They must be updated since
students are modernized with many apps which day by day are emerging.
E) Suggestions
My suggestion is
simple. Try to use technology as much as possible or at least try to mix it
with traditional methods. Every day, people spend hours and hours in front of a
processor, so teachers must know how to work with students who are totally in
contact with many devices. They must take advantage of that orientating and
focusing that time in something which can be pretty useful and helpful in
learning anything. I consider that here in our country, we are sort of immature
implementing technologies and it seems that humanity is acquiring
all the right technology for all the wrong reasons. Let’s change bit by bit
that. Ideas
Try to include apps to develop certain
contents. Technology tells you “the world is yours”. Transmit that to the
students.
Try to look for ways to explain the
use of e-tools easier; make your students go and look for tutorials or make
them investigate even more at home so that they don’t remain with the knowledge
gained in a classroom.
Make “technological sessions” in
which your students show any app or software they know how to use. Make them
associate those apps or tools with the fact of teaching anything.
Try to enhance motivation when using technology
and try to be updated with what is happening around the world with the use of
technology.
Hello dear bloggers! First of all, let me
congratulate you because you have also finished your practices. I think we all
have done our best. I’m proud and glad of being with a group like you (Teaching
practicum I).
Well, getting in matter, in this last practice
of the last period, I had to make a review on the use of There is/ there are,
and also the use of some, and any. To start, I developed a warm up activity
called “hangman”, which everybody knows what it consists on. I took into account
the previous topic, which was furniture, to develop this warm up. After
developing this, I began to ask my students what they remembered about the last
week and the themes they had been seeing. Some of them said “there is/ there
are”, and at that time I pasted the same chart I had used in my second
practice, so that they remembered even more. (This is the chart I used)
Later on, I asked my students when was that we
used those words, and at the same time, I asked for some examples. They gave me
many examples; nevertheless, I only used 3. With those same examples, I invited
them to form the negative and interrogative form. I saw they had no problem,
and since it was a review I did not provide a huge explanation, but I made
emphasis on the usage of each of them. The following point to be developed was
a review of “some and any”. For this, I made use of the same dynamic of asking
my students when was that we used “some” or “any” (I asked this, because,
again, it was a review so they already knew). I pasted a little chart with very
concise information so that they could remember well (this is the chart)
They provided me some examples, and, in this
part, I wrote on the board my own example with a mistake to see if they noticed
it. I realized some of them did and some others hesitated about it. I had spent
like 20 minutes of my class by that time. Afterwards, I “passed the ball” to my
students so that they could practice. For the practice of there is/ there are,
I pasted on the board the image of the house I had used in the previous class, and ask the
class to elaborate 4 sentences using
“there is” and 4 using “there are”. This is the image.
After having done that, I asked them to
pass the sentences to the negative and to the interrogative form. I monitored
the class all the time. As they had developed a written activity I varied in
the next one, being this a speaking activity. For this, I gave some copies to my
students with some questions, so that they used the target structure.
I asked these questions 1. how many rooms are there in your house?
2.Is
there a TV in the dining room?
3.Is
there an LCD screen in the living room?
4.How
many chairs are there in your house?
5.Is
there a second floor in your house?
6.Is
there garage in your house?
7.How
many bathrooms are there in your house?
The activity was a success, and I was very
satisfied with what I had done. All the things worked the way I had planned
them. I had some other activities that I could not developed because of the
time, and also the SS had to present homework later. So, to finish my class, I
just thanked them and talked about the good characteristics that they have as a
group. I left the class clapped.
Hello everyone! Hope everything’s good. It was
on Monday 6th that I taught my second class in Basic English. Let me
tell you that before performing, I felt excited because I had put a lot of
effort in this class. The content to be taught was there is/ there are, and
also prepositions of place. Though the class I developed was just about
grammar, I did my best to make it simple, nice and varied. I did not do it in a
traditional way.
To start the session, because it was Monday I
started with a warm up called “rabbit, arrow, wall” in which the teacher asks
students to stand up and make two lines in front of the board; in this
opportunity, each team had to choose the character they wanted to be; they
could either be a rabbit or arrow or wall. All the team members had to be the
same character. Both teams were given 10 seconds to decide what they wanted to
be. After 10 seconds both team faced each other and do the respective action.
Students really got animated. I really enjoyed the activity. Everybody got fun.
I prized the winner group again. To get in matter with the topic, I asked the
class a couple of questions so that they got familiarized with a reading called
“The house of the future” which was like an introduction to the topic. Here it
is the image.
I
proceeded to read the image and made emphasis on the words “there is/there
are”. I underlined them and extracted some others examples from the same text.
After giving some examples, I continued explaining the negative, and the
interrogative form. I could see that students did not have any problems
understanding this. I kept on giving even more examples using realia. After
giving examples with realia, I projected an image of a house. (This house
specifically)
This image helped me a lot to keep on providing
even more examples. Examples such as : There is a tv in the living room. (Affirmative
form)
There isn’t a tv in the bathroom. (Negative
form)
Is there a tv in the living room? (Interrogative
form)
I gave and asked many questions like these
above mentioned; thus, the whole class was involved in the explanation (They
are clever).
In order to introduce prepositions, I did it
along with there is/ there are. I said that if we say that there is something,
we have to say where that something is located. “There is a marker” Where? I
said and put the marker “on” a desk, so they said “the marker is on the desk”;
then, I put it under the desk, and then in my pocket so that they follow the
same pattern; I did this just to prepare them to see the preposition.
Afterwards, I showed an image containing the majority of prepositions.
I used this image.
To explain
each of them, I used realia again; Even, I put myself as example for
prepositions like “in front of”, “next to”, “behind”, and also I put some
students, if it was the case, to make the examples even clearer. I noticed the students got
the meaning and use of the preposition quickly and with no problem. This made
feel satisfied and happy. To make even clearer the use of prepositions, I did
use ,again, of the image of the house (the one which is above) to checked if students
had gotten what I said; I put an emoticon called “Tiburcio” on that image in
different places; then, I located Tiburcio above the roof and asked my class “Where
is Tiburcio?” Tiburcio is on the roof, they said. Is Tiburcio on the floor? (With
Tiburcio still being on the roof) No, he’s not. He’s on the roof. I did that
using all the prepositions as the image allowed me to do it. To close, I showed
a video in which all of the prepositions were depicted; I could see the
students really enjoyed it. Here I leave the video in case you want to see it.
In this way, I consider that though it was a
grammar explanation class, it allowed me to do develop it in an interactive and
creative way. It took me a lot of time to prepare this, but now I can say it
was worthy. I am really happy with what I did.
Hello bloggers! Thanks for reading
my blog. In my first experience with this group (basic level), I taught a
little bit about adjectives of feelings and the other part about the past tense
which was my main aim. In the observation I had done, I could notice the group was
pretty active and participative, so I did not have any problems with their
participation and collaboration. As it was the first class, I started it by
introducing myself and, again, I also made clear 3 important points for a class
to be developed with no difficulty. I briefly talked about discipline, respect,
and participation. I tried to give confidence to my students so that they felt
comfortable with me.
To get in matter, I began the session by asking my
students how they were feeling by that moment (as the first part of the class
was about adjectives of feelings) and then, I developed a warm up activity called “barnyard” in which each
person is given the name of an animal with approximately three-five people
having the same animal. I spread the group across the room and no one was
allowed to tell which animal he or she was. At my signal, each person had to
make the noise of the animal that he or she had been given. The first group that
found all of their animals and sit down were the winners. I rewarded the winner
group by giving them some candies.
Having done this activity, I, again, asked them how they felt when
making the noise of the animals they had. Some of them said they felt nervous,
some of them embarrassed; some others were happy,
and so on. When telling me their answers, I pasted different emoticons which
showed those emotions (here’s a picture of that moment so that you get a better
idea).
Keeping on with that part, I asked my
students how they usually felt when being in different situations as for example,
when someone passes away. I asked them how they felt when they watched Real
Madrid and Barcelona lost in the champions’ league, so that I could get their
emotions; in fact, some of them said they were disappointed; some others were
sad, angry and so forth. Afterwards, I asked them to take their books out since
I worked with a speaking activity. It was pair work.
After finishing that activity, I
asked my students some questions. I asked them what kind of music they liked;
who their favorite singer was, and if they liked Michael Jackson (MJ) music.
After listening to different opinions, I gave some copies with a reading
containing general data about MJ. The purpose here was that they identified the
verbs in past tense. Then, I read along with them and they told me the verbs
they had found. I wrote them on the board, and also I wrote some words which
were mispronounced. The next step of the activity was for them to respond some
questions with the information of the reading.
They had to use the target
structure. I must say that I did not explained any grammar point; however they
got the message as the teacher told me when giving me feedback. At last, I
checked the answers and some other aspects, and I could see they had done
everything and that they had not had any problem. It was in that way that I
finished my first class. It was nice. It was a communicative class. They are
pretty active and we as teacher must turn that energy into our own favor.
It was on Wednesday the day I taught my last class in intermediate
English II. This time, I had to explain the use of the quantifiers since the
topic was countable and uncountable nouns; it was the grammar part. For us,
this might seem something which we get effortless; however, being at that level
the situation changes. More than explaining, I tried to exemplify each
quantifier. I had words such as much, many, a few/ few; little/ a little;
several, plenty of etc. To start the class, I asked the students to tell me
general information about countable and uncountable nouns to see how much they
knew about it. After that, I invited them (the students) to tell me some count
and some noncount nouns they knew; I took like 5 minutes to do this. It was the
warm up.
To get more in depth, I asked my students to take out some material
that my tutor had already provided. I must say that I changed and personalized
a little bit the lesson. I start explaining the material and, to some extent,
it was pretty hard because some students did not get what I was saying. The
topic was sort of tough for them because for some quantifiers such as a few/
few and little/ a little, what changes is the meaning and not the structure.
So, explaining that the difference is in the connotation/ meaning we give to
the sentence was hard as I saw some students that could not really understand
it, and, for sure, there were some others that understood the point quickly.
Though the material was digestible for them, I tried to make it even clearer
adding some other examples. What I also saw was that some of my students were
not paying attention and, when giving me feedback, I commented that situation
to the teacher and he told me that In that case students have to be aware that
there are moments in which they must be there in class and know that they are
responsible for their own learning. I had never called the attention to my
students, but this time I had to do it. Moving on with the explanation, I also
want to say that 50 minutes were not enough to explain a topic like that.
Probably, if I had had more time, I would have felt more satisfied; anyways, I
think I did a good job in general terms. I organized the content in my own way
and I could see students liked that because the way it was established was a
little bit complicated for them. I show a chart in which every word was sorted
according to the usage. Sometimes it is necessary the fact of making the
content the easiest possible to the students; remember that we have to think
the way they think. Here I leave you a chart that I used to explain the topic.
