I'm teaching English..

Daily Routines

2011-11-15T02:20:00.003+01:00

There we go with some links where you'll find some links to practise daily routines and hose chorus!

Daily Routine, by Elvira S.
Find this and other daily routines exercises in English Exercises .org
GALAXY 5-What´s for lunch?, by beny
Find this and other daily routines exercises in English Exercises .org
daily routines, by Cathrine Baldwin
Find this and other daily routines exercises in English Exercises .org
HOUSEHOLD CHORES, by Isabel
Find this and other daily routines exercises in English Exercises .org
Everyday Activities, by Anna Pessoa
Find this and other daily routines exercises in English Exercises .org

Scaffolding

2010-03-30T22:43:00.001+02:00

How teachers interact with students as they complete a task is important to the students' ability to perform the activity. Scaffolding is an instructional technique whereby the teacher models the desired learning strategy or task, then gradually shifts responsibility to the students.

Clay and Cazden (1992) point out two scaffolding strategies in teaching reading: working with new knowledge and accepting partially correct responses. In the first strategy, when a teacher suspects the child does not have the ideas or words needed for a particular text, he/she may explain some part of the story or contrast a feature presented with something he/she knows the child understands from another reading. In the second strategy, the teacher uses what is correct in the student's response but probes or cues the student, so as to suggest good possibilities for active consideration.

Another scaffolding strategy is for the teacher to model the appropriate thinking or working skills in the classroom. Such modeling helps children learn to operate in the school culture. Harmin (1994) notes the applicability of Rosenshine's Guided Practice technique for developing student understanding and provides an actual example in language arts instruction in the classroom.

Recognizing what you do know in a problem, as well as what you don't yet understand, are aspects of metacognition in problem solving that are similar to a scaffolding approach. Perkins & Solomon (1989) point out that an expert's behavior appears to be strongly driven by prior knowledge. When faced with an unfamiliar problem, he or she may construct a similar but simpler problem. In this way, the expert learner manages his/her own gradual self-regulation and enables him/herself to grow to meet the new task successfully.

Source: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1scaf.htm

Easy Vocabulary Quizzes with Pictures

2010-01-25T11:05:00.003+01:00

Visit this page and refer it to you students for them to practise; you can find interesting materials and funny quizzes!

www.maythings.org

The Kingdom of Time

2009-04-28T12:05:00.006+02:00

Teaching the time in English is sometimes a difficult challenge, since in some cases the kids do not even know how to express time in their own language!! My work mate Pablo had a lovely idea: he invented the Kingdom of Time and the characters King Past and Queen To, ruling on each half of the clock. I drew the illustrations for the idea. I tried to use colours that are normally a problem for the kids to remember, as purple or white or green and grey contrasted. I also combined dark and light colours to play on with the description of our characters, together with many details. Many clocks are drawn all over the poster and some hourglasses to introduce the idea of different means to measure time.

I upload here the pictures, even though, as Blogger resizes pictures, fell free to contact me if you want a larger size picture to use it in your class.

Prepositions of Place and Movement

2009-03-01T13:51:00.006+01:00

From this activity here >> I got some sweet drawings for the creation of an activity to test... guess? Prepositions of place and movement :P

It's always good to look at things through a different perspective during the coffe break..

2009-03-01T12:37:00.008+01:00

I some times really enjoy to read once and agian this comic strips on the cupboard doors in the staff room at the English School where I work. Since I satarted my new blog about photography, I take photos of EVERYTHING; and here we are... who is Jon Marks??
He is an ELT writer, illustrator and web-designer based in Italy. He has twenty years experience in TESOL, and has taught and trained teachers in several countries. We can check his web-site here >>.
And it can also be productive to check this other site, in which we can find funny and creative ideas arround the super-hero Grammarman for our English classes. Ihope you enjoy it!

Children Learn What They Live

2009-02-24T02:34:00.004+01:00

If children live with hostility,
they learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule,
they learn to be shy.
If children live with tolerance,
they learn to be patient,
If children live with encouragement,
they learn confidence.
If children live with praise,
they learn to appreciate.
If children live with fairness,
they learn justice.
If children live with security,
they learn faith.
If children live with approval,
they learn to be themselves.
IF children live with aceptance and friendship,
they learn to find love in the world.
I want to teach my students
How to live this life on earth
To face its struggles and its strife
And improve their worth.
Not just the lesson in a book
Or how the rivers flow
But how to choose the proper path
Wherever they may go.
To understand eternal truth
And know the right from wrong
And gather all the beauty
Of a flower and a song.
For if I help the world to grow
In wisdom and in grace
Then I shall feel that I have won
And I have filled my place.
And so I ask for guidance
That I may do my part
For character and confidence
And happiness of heart.
Teaching is the choicest of professions
because everybody who is anybody
was taught how to be somebody by a teacher.
In the hearts of every teacher are the memories of a child.

This poem was read by Christine Brook during her seminars at the MacMillan's Teachers Training Day ongoing in Malaga on 14th Febraury of 2009.

The Hundred Languages of Children

2009-02-24T02:08:00.005+01:00

The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.

Loris Malaguzzi
(Transaltion by Lella Gandini)

This poem was read by Christine Brook during her seminars at the MacMillan's Teachers Training Day ongoing in Malaga on 14th Febraury of 2009.

Classroom discipline

2009-02-15T23:06:00.005+01:00

Long since I posted the last time... The following has not been writen recently but more or less a year ago, during my course of CAP. It is the summary of quite an interesting and inspiring article by Penny Ur about classroom discipline [the article is found in Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge. C.U.P.]. The chapter is Module 18 and it is divided in five units, the first three are oriented towards a definition of discipline and the creation of a disciplined atmosphere in the language classroom; on the other hand, the fourth unit is rather concerned with how to deal and prevent discipline problems; and finally, the last unit is drawn towards a critical analysis of actual episodes in which some problems have arisen.
I hope the reading of this is of some use and I strongly recomend to go trough the actual book for the consult of a wide range of concerns.

Unit One: What is discipline?

In this unit, the author makes us thinking about how to articulate an appropriate definition of the complex concept of discipline, a hard-to define-in-words one. It is suggested a discussion task based on brainstorming to elaborate a comprehensive definition of ‘discipline’, a possible one is given to us as follows:

Classroom discipline is a state in which both teacher and learners accept and consistently observe a set of rules about behaviour in the classroom whose function is to facilitate smooth and efficient teaching and learning in a lesson (Ur, 1996:270)

The author recalls our attention on the “subtle and interesting distinctions to be discovered within the concept of ‘discipline’. An invitation to reflection is made by means of the comparison of pairs of concepts such as: a) ‘control’ vs. ‘discipline’; b) ‘authoritarian’ vs. ‘authoritative’; and c) ‘power’ vs. ‘authority’.

Unit Two: What does a disciplined classroom look like?

In order to develop this unit, a new task is proposed: eight possible characteristics of a disciplined classroom are given as follows:

Learning is taking place.

It is quiet.

The teacher is in control.

Teacher and students are cooperating smoothly.

Students are motivated

The lesson is proceeding according to plan

Teacher and students are aiming for the same objective

The teacher has natural charismatic ‘authority’.

(Ur, 1996:260)

We are asked to value them on the basis of their relevance for classroom discipline. This evaluation is to be followed by a rethinking process after the reading of the author’s commentaries. In general lines, these comments give us a perspective view by questioning the preconceived ideas and judgements we could have initially in considering the different statements.

Concerning characteristic 1), the author prevents us from not taking as a matter of fact the correlation ‘discipline and learning’ for us to be aware that we can have a disciplined classroom in which little or no learning is taking place, since it is something related rather to the learning value of the activities chosen.

To sum up the author’s opinion on characteristic 2), I will just quote the following paragraph:

…disciplined classes may or may not be quiet, indiscipline ones are usually noisy. There is, therefore, arguably some positive correlation between quietness and the level of discipline. (Ur, 1996:261)

About characteristic number 3, I think that it is quite agreeable that “how authoritarian or liberal, rigid or flexible the teacher is in the operation of (this) control” (Ur, 1996:261) is a question apart, but the teacher has always to be in control inside the classroom in order to create a disciplined atmosphere.

Concerning ‘smooth cooperation’ between the members of the classroom, the author exposes it as the most outward manifestation of classroom discipline; attention is put on the ways in which this cooperation is brought about.

Following this point, the correlation between ‘motivation and discipline’ is considered as not an absolute one, but it is rather considered on a probability basis, being “a class motivated to learn, more likely to be easy to manage”.

Again, characteristic number 6, is considered a probability case, rather than a cause and effect in relation with discipline, and leaves the door open to improvisation, since “changes and improvisations do not necessarily lead to indiscipline, and may even prevent it” (Ur, 1996:261).

About being teacher and students aiming for the same objectives, the author defends that it is not necessary for the students to share knowledge and agreement on lesson objectives with the teacher, although the possibilities are open, since it can raise motivation and cooperation.

Finally, in dealing that charismatic ‘authority’, the author points it as a valuable personal characteristic of some teachers that facilitate their work, but she considers that for those teachers who lack it, it is just a field in which a harder effort has to be invested.

Unit Three: What teacher action is conductive to a disciplined classroom?

To answer this question the author eposes in a first place the different factors that contribute to classroom discipline and that are potentially within the control of, or influenced by, the teacher, the author emphasizes the following:

Classroom management

Methodology

Interpersonal relationships

Lesson planning

Student motivation

Apart from this introduction, the development of this unit is again carried out through a new task proposal: it is given a list of 22 practical hints for teachers on classroom discipline. This list was originated form the responses of teachers when asked which hints from experienced teachers they had found more useful in their classrooms. We are asked to chose and discuss which would be our top-ten form the list:

Start by being firm with students: you can relax later.

Get silence before you start speaking to the class.

Know and know students’ names.

Prepare lessons thoroughly and structure them firmly.

Be mobile: walk around the class.

Start the lesson with a ‘bang’ and sustain interest and curiosity.

Speak clearly.

Make sure your instructions are clear.

Have extra material prepared (e.g. to cope with slower/faster-working students).

Look at the class when speaking, and learn how to ‘scan’.

Make your work appropriate ( to pupils’ age, ability, cultural background).

Develop an effective questioning technique.

Develop the art of timing your lesson to fit the available period.

Vary your teaching techniques.

Anticipate discipline problems and act quickly.

Avoid confrontations.

Clarify fixed rules and standards, and be consistent in applying them.

Show yourself as supporter and helper to the students.

Don’t patronize students, treat them with respect.

Use humour constructively.

Choose topics and tasks that activate students.

Be warm and friendly to the students.

Adapted form Wragg (1981:21) in Ur (1996:263)

The original list included items from 1-20 in order of overall importance, the author included item 21, since it is considered relevant and worth discussing; and item 22 just as an attractive misleading one. The author’s top-ten includes items 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 15, 17 and 19.

Finally, in this lesson, we are called to aim a final the ‘ultimate goal’: that students share with the teacher the responsibility for the maintenance of classroom discipline. This may be considered “to some extent a function of the maturity of the learner” but in the author’s opinion, it “can be fostered by the teacher”. According Ur, the way to do it is to “get them used to the ‘feel’ of orderly classroom process, (and) then gradually to begin to share decision-making based on this” (UR, 1996:264).

Unit Four: Dealing with discipline problems

This unit is intended to furnish a starting –point from which develop strategies for the prevention and treatment of discipline problems as they may arise in the class. The author stages her advices from three different perspectives:

before the problem arises,

when the problem is beginning, and

when the problem has started.

First of all, the main premise to bear in mind is “Prevention is better than cure!”; it will be helpful to carefully plan and organize our lesson, to have a constant “momentum and feeling of purpose, which keep students’ attention on the task in hand” (Ur, 1996:265). Moreover, this feeling will contribute to our own confidence and ability to win the trust of students. It is very important then to make sure our instructions are clear, assertive and brief, for the students not to have the feeling that thy can get lost, on the other hand, leave a door open to negotiation between students and teacher can be also useful in this respect. It is also enlightened the very importance to be aware and keep in touch with what is going on in our classroom, in order to be able of the prevention of possible problems.

The second slogan proposed is “Do something!” hen the problem is beginning. For this, we should:

Deal with the problem quickly; prevent escalation, don’t be “over-assertive”.

Keep you cool: don’t take things personally.

Don’t use threats; they are often a sight of weakness. Express them as a cause-effect expression and only as real, factual options we should be ready to put in practice, not as a weapon to make an impression or intimidate.

Finally, when the problem has exploded, the priority is to “act quickly-don’t argue!”. Three advises are proposed: In a first moment, sometimes a measured “swift, loud command will do the trick”; but in other moments, to give in is a perfectly respectable option, and put us in a position to fairly demand something from the students in turn; and in a last moment if we are pushed into a confrontation, a way of diverting or sidestepping the crisis can be to make an offer they cannot refuse l9ike postponement, arbitration or compromise.

Unit Five: Discipline problems: episodes.

In this unit, we are given five different episodes of discipline problems and we are asked to critically analyse and discuss them, on the basis of our own experience and knowledge of the subject treated in this module, in order to be able to answer the three following questions:

What caused the problem?

What could the teacher have done to prevent it arising?

Once it had arisen, what would advise the teacher to do?

I will quote the five different episodes and then I will comment on briefly the author’s comments.

Episode 1

The teacher of a mixed class of thirteen-year-olds is working through a class reader in an English lesson. He asks Terry to read out a passage. ‘Do we have to do this book?’ says Terry. ‘It’s boring.’ Some members of the class smile, one says ‘I like it’, others are silent awaiting the teacher’s reaction.

(from E. C. Wragg, Class Management and Control, Macmillan, 1981, p.12)

Episode 2

The teacher is explaining a story. Many of the students are inattentive, and there is a murmur of quiet talk between them. The teacher disregards the noise and speaks to those who are listening. Finally she reproaches, in a gentle and sympathetic way, one student who is talking particularly noticeably. The student stops talking for a minute or two, then carries on. This happens once or twice more, with different students. The teacher does not get angry, and continues to explain, trying (with only partial success) to draw students’ attention through occasional questions.

(adapted from Sarah Reinhorn-Lurie, Unpublished research project on classroom discipline, Oranim School of Education, Haifa, 1992)

Episode 3

The teacher has prepared a worksheet and is explaining how to do it. He has extended his explanation to the point where John, having lost interest in the teacher’s words, begins to tap a ruler on his desk. At first the tapping is occasional and not too much noticeable, but John begins to tap more frequently and more noisily, building up to a final climax when he hits the table with a very loud bang. The class, startled by the noise, falls silent and looks at both John and the teacher to see what will happen.

(adapted from E. C. Wragg, Class Management and Control, Macmillan, 1981, p.18)

Episode 4

The teacher begins by giving out classroom books and collecting homework books.

Teacher (to one of the boys): This book’s very thin.

Boy 1: Yeah, ‘tis, isn’t it

Teacher: Why?

Boy 1: I’ve been drawing in it.

Boy 2: He’s been using it for toilet paper, sir.

(Uproar)

(adapted from E. C. Wragg (ed.), Classroom Teaching Skills, Croom Helm, 1984, p.32)

Episode 5

The students have been asked to interview each other for homework and write reports. In this lesson they are asked to read aloud their reports. A few students refuse to do so. The teacher tells these students to stand up before the class and be interviewed by them. They stand up, but do not relate to the questions seriously: answer facetiously, or in their mother tongue or not at all. The teacher eventually sends them back to their places, and goes on to the next planned activity, a textbook exercise.

(adapted from Sarah Reinhorn-Lurie, Unpublished research project on classroom discipline, Oranim School of Education, Haifa, 1992)

(form Ur, 1996:261)

The author considers that the causes for the problem in episode 1 was probably the fact that the book chosen was indeed boring, and also that this was difficult to prevent. Once the problem has arisen, the advice given is to neutralise the challenge and propose a further discussion on the text later on, with the class or with the challenging student apart, and devote some thought to the selection of texts in the future.

Episode 2 is considered a common situation and the causes of the problem are based, according Ur, on the lack of firm and consistent rules. As a prevention, the teacher should have be more insistent on the rules and cut up each murmur firmly form the start, for the students not to tacitly accept as normal their disobedience and inattention to the teacher. Once at this point, to reverse the situation appears a difficult challenge and it seems to be necessary to hold a serious discussion with the class, in order to agree with them on explicit new ground rules for them to strictly implement them form then on.

Concerning episode 3, the cause of the problem appears to be, in the author’s opinion, the teacher’s over-lengthy explanation, together with the child impatience, and the failure to pick up and stop the disturbance when it started. The author’s advice in this situation is rather than reprimand John, to use silence to instruct the class to start their work, and then go to John separately to make it clear the unacceptability of his behaviour, for him not to repeat it in the future.

Following this, the author concludes that the main problem in episode 4 has been “the teacher’s mistake in getting into an argument with one boy in the middle of an organizational routine involving all the class”, and he should have treated the problem later privately; but once that there is uproar, he should try and regain order and finish the routine to treat the problem of the notebook with the boy alone.

Finally, analysing episode 5, Ur considers that the problem is rooted in the lack of authority of the teacher, and the mistake of permitting undisciplined students to be the centre of attention in the group; on the other hand, the reaction of the teacher is considered as the right one in this situation.

References

Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge. C.U.P
Sarah Reinhorn-Lurie, 1992, Unpublished research project on classroom discipline, Oranim School of Education, Haifa.
Wragg, E. C. (ed.) (1984) Classroom Teaching Skills, London and Sydney: Croom Helm.
Wragg, E. C. (1981) Class Managemet and Control, London : Macmillan

Insights Into TEFL. Blog

2008-11-19T23:23:00.003+01:00

Insights Into TEFL is a blog I have recently discovered, as you may guess it will be rolling out within the list of blogs we have on the sidebar. It is self-defined as A specially selected collection of good ideas and explanations about Teaching English as a Foreign Language from experts around the world, and personally I have found it very interesting indeed!

I have “stolen” from this page an object which is now embedded on the right sidebar and through which we can listen to different interviews covering some issues related to TESL: the Insights Into TEFL potcasts [Postcasts and Interviews with Jack Richards, David Nunan, Guy Brook-Hart and more]

End-of-term Exams..

2008-11-19T22:09:00.002+01:00

Father Christmas is here as well as holidays, and before all this happens: End-of-term exams! The lovely obligation of testing your students... I think it's even more stressing than being on the other side of the matter... As a new teacher, this duty is taking from me more time than I had expected. I find a great challenge to choose appropriated and relevant activities for them not to frustrate their expectations. This is leading me to a lot of research within all the media I have handy. In a quite untidy way tonight I will just throw in here some sites I have found interesting as for the preparation of oral exams:

From the web page English Specialist we can get a list on Conversational topics as a general guide to oral exam at an intermediate level, which consists mainly on ideas and some vocabulary which may be useful at an oral language exam. I find it worthy reading.
Oral English Activities is a page provided with a wide range of activities for an oral English class. Activity 25 is aimed in the assessment of speaking skills and it offers some ideas and topics for English oral exams.

The main links to this pages have been added to the sidebar list of links.

Vaughan Radio

2008-11-14T20:37:00.005+01:00

'Listening to authentic material'... there is quite a good site to which I am addicted in the last times... Maybe this post is a kind of giving publicity but I promise I don't get any advantage nor profit with it. I am aimed just on let those who read this site know about a really interesting place to improve our English in a fluent and dynamic way.

Aprender Inglés con Vaughan Radio

Uno de los métodos para aprender inglés más cómodos y de fácil aplicación es escuchar conversaciones en inglés. En este sentido Vaughan Radio es una emisora que te proporciona inglés gratis durante 24 horas al día.

Vaughan Radio ofrece una variada programación con clases de inglés en directo donde se trabaja la gramática y el vocabulario. Actualidad, cuentos, noticias, lecciones... y todo en inglés.

Vaughan Radio emite en diferentes ciudades españolas con las siguientes frecuencias:

101.0 FM -
91.8 FM -
87.6 FM -
99.2 FM -
Vaughan Radio Madrid
Vaughan Radio Vigo
Vaughan Radio Valladolid
Vaughan Radio Santander

Y aunque no vivas en una de estas ciudades, podrás escuchar esta cadena a través de esta web.

Links to the place are also found on the sidebars. I hope this is useful to any of you!!

Who wants to read comincs?

2008-11-13T00:38:00.002+01:00

I came into one of my more noisy classrooms with those comics among my things. I had taken them into the school just to share with my mates, but rushing into the classroom I had the crazy idea: offering my comics to nine-year-old kids.

Bingo!

They all wanted them, no matter what they were about, no matter which language... they just wanted them. Ideas were coming to my mind at once. “OK! This is a competition: the two quietest ones can borrow one of them each.”

Now there is a disciplining routine in the classroom based on “silent callings of attention”: at the beginning of the lesson I write their names on the whiteboard, in the most visible corner inside a box. If they annoy, they chat or they misbehave, they get a bar next to their name. If one student collects more than three bars during the week, they are out of the competition which takes place the last day before the weekend. Three bars gives the feeling that they are treated in a flexible way, but keep them in alert.

Up to now, they play the always-fair game of “guess the number I wrote on the whiteboard” (and which' obviously, I keep covered). Thus they practise numbers, I guess it will be a good go when we study irregular verbs.

It seems to be working all right, I never have to stop the lesson to tell anyone off. Some kids who were more noisy are always quiet and those who were less noisy but still chatted sometimes although not aloud enough to disrupt and make me stop, are also on the sight now.

The experiment will be three weeks old tomorrow and one thing which I think it's helping to its success is the sense of complicity and responsibility the whole thing has for them, since they are borrowing my own books and comics, instead of borrowing them from the school.

I will keep on reflecting about this, my first genuine “trick” I didn't read in any book!

Classroom observation (II)

2008-11-05T23:24:00.003+01:00

Panic. Panic was what I felt today when I was going to be watched again. It was the time, 7-year-old kids were coming and I was delayed from the previous class. I couldn't find my CD and my boss -the observer, form now on- was already in.

Quick, quick, think what to do!! The first 15' minutes of my lesson were all right but the rest of the lesson plan was mainly based on that CD. I had to improvise and plan other things in a coherent way. Of course my observer was absolutely lost and he didn't know what was going on.

I freaked out when the class was over. I am stupidly exigent with myself and I was feeling really disappointed, but the feedback wasn't that bad though. Obviously the fact of not having ready the CD in time was a lack of organization, but on the other hand I got some congratulations for my use of language during the whole lesson. The most remarkable idea from the feedback I got back was

set the kids to some time of silence and individual production, so that they can focus on their own work by themselves

Definitely the classroom environment was disrupted by the presence of the estranger and as for me I didn't feel anyhow happy with the class -maybe it's in my nature- at the end, I think that having solved the situation more or less all right is a good sign. Perhaps my work mates persuaded me of that, thank you guys!

By the way, the CD was just there on the shelf next to the rest of my CD's!! right under the blanket I use when I put the kids to do an activity on the floor as I had done in the last lesson.

Don't take things for granted and ensure things are ready for when you need them.
If not, a good preparation and knowledge of the handy things and materials you've got will for sure make “improvisation” a lot easier!

Classroom observation (I)

2008-11-05T00:49:00.005+01:00

Classroom observation is an interesting practice from both sides of the matter. In my short experience as a teacher, or before, as a teacher learner, I have done little observation, and I have only once been observed. It was during a very unreal lesson and there was not time really for a popper feedback.

Today I was there again: being watched. At the beginning I was somehow scared, but definitely it has been a great experience. When I face the classroom, mainly the very young kids, I always feel that I should be doing it much better, I guess that it is a normal feeling, but some pieces of advices and indications are always very well come.

Some of them may seem common sense but the true is that when you are there in front of the children you just try to do your best to involve them and sometimes it is difficult to manage every single aspect and factor. I have read so much theory that when I think on implementing it into the classroom I don't really find the ways sometimes!

Being observed on the battle-ground has provided me with quite a lot of good ideas and reminded me some important points. There we go with some tips!

Try to use every opportunity to introduce new vocabulary, as for children are always introducing little objects and matters of their own interest during the lesson, don't panic and get any advance of their spontaneity!
Use English as much as possible and if you have to use Spanish, or their mother tongue use it after addressing to them first in English so that the communicative effort takes place. If you speak to tem first in their mother tongue, there will be no reason to keep on listening to you if they already understood the message.
Demonstrate rather than explain, it will save loads of time! Explore intensively the TPR approach overall at early ages. Start with very simple examples of actions and exaggeratedly play mimics and gestures for your students to get miming through action.
At this young age, receptive skills should be paid much more attention, so that you should not make them speak too much or long sentences neither read aloud. For this emphasis on the reception of language, visual aids as realia or flash cards are very useful, but the main tool we are provided with is the blackboard. It focuses students attention and even calls the to actively take part in the development of the activities in a very productive way. They normally want to write on it!
Expose the children to as much as possible English and real language! Instead of set them to read or speak, speak to them yourself, don't expect long responses from them and use listening activities as an important tool as it exposes them to a wide variety of voices and tones.
Be very strict with the use of classroom language in English instead that in their mother tongue.

As for my professional development I was also advised to tape or record my lessons so that I can watch me myself and look for my own ways to improve!

Halloween!!

2008-10-26T10:46:00.008+01:00

In the last times I am always rushing from one place to another and there is no time for blogging. Just lesson planning, activity making and preparing... I have to say that I am learning a lot from those little monsters!! but they have all my time for them in and out from the school, I hope this is not going to be always this way...

Anyway, here it comes Halloween and it is time for our little monsters!
I am doing some research for activities and ideas for tat day and this post is aimed in that way, it will be a summary of all the places I find interesting and worthy visiting.

This link will take you to a pdf. document in which Carolyne Ardon compiles and extends activities for Halloween from the British Council. It is definetly quite inspirating! Many of the activities are to be worked with on-line and a few others you can print. There is a story maker for the kids to write their own stories, which I think it is a very useful tool.
DLTK's web site offers a great variety of activities for young, and not so young learners, specially the Holliday Activity site. It's quite a good resource for printable materials you can also adapt to your necesities:

Make your own books! Five little pumkins, an illustrated printable eight-paged ministory for kids to make their own minibook. It has nice pictures in it and they can colour and a simple story which can be also presented as a poem.
Within the Seasonal Tracer Pages we can find interesting ones to arrange a nice review of the Alphabet for the young ones for halloween, and by the way they will learn new vocabulary related with the day we are concerned. Some of them may be a bit tricky!!
I particularly like the "Happy Halloween" word mining game together with its explanations and templates form the same web site. They have to make as many common words as they can from the letters in "happy haloween", it is a great spelling practice for the young students and a challenging activity for not so young ones!
Together with this activity, there are many workseets you can easily print for different levels and which will ensure a fun linguistic experience!
From this same place I have printed colouring printables featuring haloween characters on which they will have to draw the details missed. This is a good activity for very young students and a goood practice for colours and part of the body-face and clothes!

Looking for a right start...

2008-09-15T01:37:00.001+02:00

After all day searching the web for the ideal way of breaking the ice in my classes tomorrow I cannot really say which one fits better with my objectives. I know little about my the children I am meeting... scarcely the number of students per group and the average age of the group.

Many icebreaker games seem to be very interesting and dynamic, but they are not focused to my actual reality. I am not experienced enough and I know little about my students so that I am afraid of being too original and then not being accomplished to the necessities of my students, or even worst not being capable to manage a given situation if the game is too fun or noisy for the school.

I have found some places really interesting and they had been added to the side bar Links, apart from them some proposal via forums I have read can be useful, to wit:

Some brainstormed ice-breaking ideas to the firs day class by Dani Dias.
Some ideas and variations on it by several contributors as reply to a query Little Sague shot, asking for ideas to start with on the first day of a brand new class.

I also find it very useful to read the following reflection quoted from Icebreakers for ESL Classes at the web site How-TO&Education on Esquidoo, by acautrell:

Do You Need Icebreakers? | Why use them at all?
Icebreakers are actually pretty important. You want your students to relax and enjoy class time enough that they can attempt communication. Nervousness is a major barrier to learning! And language learners need focus and participation in an English classroom in order to improve their communication skills. Icebreakers can make your students see that your classroom is a safe place to practice, make friends and even make those mistakes that are necessary to learn English.

Icebreakers are a tricky thing. Done properly, they help students to get to know each other and adjust to their new learning partners (you and their other classmates). Icebreakers can also be perceived as a waste of precious class time by students who are accustomed to very different styles of teaching and different levels of classroom formality. Some students may have spent years learning English in formal classes using mostly lecture and the grammar-translation method of teaching. They may lose respect for a teacher who forces them to play childish games when they have the very serious task of improving their English for education or better jobs.

With that in mind, how can you use icebreakers effectively? Your goal in choosing an icebreaker game or activity would be to make the game relevant to what you are learning in the classroom. If your class focuses on conversation and public speaking, you should do speaking games or activities. If you're teaching a reading skills class, have students start using reading skills from the first warm-ups. Writing classes can do written icebreaker games to be shared with the class.

This makes me think whether I really need an amusing icebreaker activity for my first day of class or should I simply arrive trying to be as calmed and relaxed as possible so that I can try to get to my students in a less striking way, but maybe being more self confident.

Finally, I have enjoyed some readings about the TPR or Total Physical Response as a way of making students more relaxed in the classroom, besides its use is recommended in the hand outs with comments and advises I was given in one of the interviews with the director of the school. Since I find it remarkably interesting and useful I created a separated point for TPR on the side bar.

In relation with the last point, to finish this post I will just mention an outstanding children game that may be of much use in our classrooms, Simon Says. It involves uttering commands and selective listening so that children has to obey and perform only those commands preceded by the structure “Simon says” as quick as possible in order not to be eliminated.

Divide and conquest

2008-09-14T13:34:00.005+02:00

Hello again! It may seem that we have abandoned the ITEBlog but it is no way the case. Last week has been a stressing at least for me, I had two meetings with my boss and at times I thought it was going to be impossible for me to cope with the situation. First day I was accompanied by one of my mates. We were informed about the rules of the centre and the way we had to behave in this or that situation, all the things children could do and we should foresee and prevent, how we should wear... all these things can be described by an endless accumulation of musts which at the moment were falling over me as really hug significant loads. Once I stopped to think it I soon realised tat most of the things were common sense and the rest could e called prevention and advice, all made in the basis of a prolonged experience of the centre.

In my second interview with the director I was by my self and that was the day I was given my timetable, the books and all the materials and the method for my classes. I will have been assigned seven groups within six different levels belonging to primary education. And a high mountain of books, resources and cd's which I could hardly transport myself. Luckily I was picked up and rescued at the school door, otherwise I think that I could have withdrawn at that very moment!! I breathed deep and determined to divide all the information in small parts that I would interconnect afterwards -this so very reasonable decision came after crying, suffering anxiety and being ridiculous fit in a discourse line depriving myself of any skill to face live. :P At the end laughs and creative and positive energy impulsed by friend's advices...
My first advice to others in my situation: keep friends near so they can convince you of how stupid you are when you think that the situation is biting you down!

The day after I went to spend some time at the school to get familiar with the space. Ii may seem ridiculous but it made sense for me to go there, stay for a while in the classrooms, look at the posters, have a look to the books at the library of the staff room...
Posters quite scared me because they can be the most immediate visual resource we have in the classroom, but they can also make evident a lack of knowledge about something. In this line, there is a poster about birds, with kinds and descriptions of the birds themselves and of their most characteristic features, of course accompanied by the respective picture, not a drawing or simplified picture but a proper photography!! Even with all that information I was totally unable to infer which birds were the most of those on the poster!! I have been thinking of removing the poster form the wall...

Apart from all this dissertation, I have been surfing the net searching for activities to start the first lessons and plan the week. I found some very interesting sites that have been added to the side-bar links. I just put them there, but I promise to organise them some day when I get along with al these things.

I hope to survive to my first week and to find some good ways to break the ice for the different levels these days, of course ideas and proposals are welcome!

Thank U, Ada!

2008-09-07T19:01:00.006+02:00

Hi friends, you must forgive my dear friend Ada for exaggerating about my experience as a teacher! But I hope this Blog to be a long and fruitful walk of two old friends...but anyone's invited to contribute!
We will try to add a "downloads" section with relevant resuorces for teachers of EFL, as well as another section with interesting links for teaching EFL, though both are still in the making.
Any contribution will be wellcome. There is still a great work to do but...how exciting! don´t you think so?

Two walking together..

2008-09-07T18:40:00.006+02:00

Today I have decided to invite my friend F. Sinatra to take part in this project, we were mates at Uni and since then a solid friendship has kept us together, although not always geographically close.
He is more experienced than me in teaching English as a second language in proper centres and at the moment he is a state teacher of secondary education.
His views and experiences will give a different perspective to the development of this blog. I am so pleased with the idea of the two of us walking together again!
Welcome to the I'm teaching English.. blog, F.!

Ada..

Inspiration

2008-09-01T17:30:00.008+02:00

I will try to walk after all the teachers who took my hand, touched my heart and opened my mind...

Here we are!

2008-09-01T13:00:00.001+02:00

Ok, ok... here we are! It is the 1st of September and the summer is over. Towards the middle of July I had an interview and got the job. As simple as that, apparently. It will be the first time I work as a teacher in a proper centre, and I will have to face with a whole class, a reduced one, luckily!
In this blog I intend to carry out a kind of journal of this experience from the very first moment, reflecting on my readings, preparation and experiences -and even my fears!- regarding the teaching of English in this new stage. I feel very excited and one of the outstanding point of this new project of life is that I will be teaching little children, new focus for me I am really looking forward to!