fany

Today I got back the essay I had turned in to Ellen before the TKT course. Boy was that fun to see! Honestly, I am very happy to find that all those goals where met.  I saw so many great tips and techniques from the books and from Ellen!  We were able to share experiences and different opinions. I realized many of the things I do are really on the right track. Also,  I actually felt like a student!!!!!!

 I’ve got to admit I’m  a bit exhausted…but I learned so many valuable things! My new goal is to never  forget this experience and what I learned from it and constantly take it into my classroom. I will share all these great ideas as much as possible with other teachers and future teachers.  Also, I shall never quit my professional and personal growth. The more I grow the better for myself and for my students. I’ve realized that we never end our learning. What we begin as babies (well, fetus) never stops….unless we decide that we will make it stop. Wanting to keep learning more and more is what makes a person very special.

 But my biggest goal of all is…..to never forget that breathtaking and heart-warming sensation I feel in my chest every time a child’s eyes spark with understandment….I swear that makes absolutely every single effort worth trying!

I totally agree with Dr. Jones! It will only make things a lot worse if a teacher follows the student’s silly game of backtalking. They only want to kill time, throw the blame, look “cool” and make the teacher look silly. Balktalking to the student will only waste even m0re class time. It’s all about serenity and no agressive body language. Even by the way the teacher abruptly stands up from his desk, walks over to the student, rises his voice or crosses his arms will tell the student that the teacher is really angry and will fall into their game.” Backtalking will only aggravate the situation and show that in reality the student is in control of the discipline not the teacher. 

I remember a math teacher I used t0 have in school. Under intense situations he was the most serene man you could ever see. There were several class clowns but there was one in particular that really tried hard to get on the teacher’s nerves. Sad to say, but it was kind of like his little personal goal. Fortunately,  he was never successfull. The teacher would never backtalk and would calmy write his name down on the board and then go back into his teaching.  Right after the bell rang the student was told to stay and talk with the teacher.  Or the teacher would ever so calmly call on the student and have him go into another class to work for a while. The student gave up pretty soon. I even remember him saying “This guy takes the fun out of everything.” In my experience, not following the student’s backtalking game puts a stop to whatever it was that was getting 0ut of hand. I remeber one time one of my students gave me a really “smart mouth” answer and thought he was very cool because the whole class started laughing. I remeber showing not even the smallest smile on my face. I just gave him a look that said “oh, yeah you’ll be hearing from me” and continued the class. The class stopped laughing and  student just sat there frowning. At the end of class I spoke to the boy.

I find Bloom’s Taxonomy quite interesting. It really enhances the process of teaching our students and it can and should be used at many different levels of teaching English. All of these levels of intelectual behavior are very important in a significant learning process. It would be a shame to be missing any of them in  classroom activities…which unfortunately commonly happens in some classrooms. For those of us that are very visual, the graphic really helps us create a picture in our mind of what we always must remember to reach when having a task or project done in class.  This wil help me a lot because if I learn to follow it  I can take my student’s thinking processes into much higher levels. Which is awesome!! This will help me build “more complete”  lesson plans. My students will develop all kinds of wonderful skills!!

Choosing My Dream Job!

1. (Recalling) –>Write 3 reasons why you chose this job.  Make a list of all the main duties you will have in this  job.

2. (Understanding) –>Make a cartoon strip describing a typical day in your dream job.

3. (Applying)–> Dramatize this typical day. 

4. (Analyzing)–> Compare, criticize and question other dream jobs in your classroom.

5. (Creating)–> Complete a job application and write a persuasive letter for why you should have this job in the future.

HEY!! Please check out my GLOGSTER!  I hope you like it. Please comment!!

http://fanny00.glogster.com/my-learning-styles/ 

It was awesome to see how I AM!!! These test results explained a lot of things to me! Ha ha ha. Why I’m always singing  and enjoy absolutely every part of a song, why I love to memorize people’s names and numbers, why I love to get my hands dirty with glue, paint, water, juice, clay, glitter……and the list goes on! 

Knowing our own learning styles as teachers can make our teaching  a bit simpler and a lot more fun and memorable for our students. We must realize that each one of us is very different and unique. We all learn but we all learn in a different way. There is no “wrong” way to learn or only “one” way.  By knowing ourselves, we can kind of “open our eyes” into seeing that we ourselves have unique ways of learning.  We ourselves feel a lot better and comfortable with certain styles.  So, why not be flexible and adaptable with out students?

Knowing our student’s learning styles will help us differentiate among our students and adapt our lessons plans so that we include target activities for each group of children with a certain learning ability. You can never expect that one thing is going to work with every child. Or that absolutely all your students will love  certain activity. “Diversity”  is the key. But not just and diversity, one that is carefully planned in order to reach each child.  If you know a child’s learning style you’ll have the key for  child’s  significant learning in your hand! You’ll know what to include in your lesson plan in order to keep that child or children motivated and truly engaged in class.

Using Literature Circles is an excellent way to involve each student in class and hear each one speak. Since each student is given a specific task, they become fully engaged in the story. Basically, there are and infinite amount of roles the teacher can assign. Just to mention a few, there is the  moderator, they write down any questions. Then  there is the lexicographer,  they write all the important vocabulary. There is also the character analyst,  they write down important information about each character.  The fact that each member participates gives the activity a whole new feeling. All of a sudden reading w doesn’t seem that boring and monotonous. Students begin to actually enjoy reading since they feel they are  a part of something and they are interacting with peers.  Since the activity is timed, they can practice reading sub skills  such as skimming.  This skill is ideal for looking quickly through a certain amount of text to get the whole idea or searching for specific information or word. I had the opportunity to experience literature circles with my TKT peers on Friday  and to be honest  I had a lot of fun. We experienced exactly everything mentioned before. It was really nice to see how well we can all work as a team.

What better way to have students speaking than to start off with an image! I chose the fotobabble because it is fun and simple. I chose a picture and recorded myself giving very specific instructions. I decided to upload a picture where you have to find 10 differences between two policemen.  Obviously the students would begin to speak as they have to point out the differences. They have to give detail or specific information about the policemen. Please check out my fotobabble and…find the 10 differences!

http://www.fotobabble.com/m/R0V1OTFUTFRNYVU9

Oh yeah! I’m liking these! Usually, the moment you tell your students that they will have to answer some questions from a story the whining begins!  But if we kick in a little fun and creativity you can have your kids step out of the ordinary and while they’re answering the questions  actually have a little something called FUN!! Each one of these graphics are ideal for having your students think and produce answers without really feeling a lot of pressure. I liked the flower one because it is simple yet cute. Kids can answer it and lightly color it after reveiwing. Plus….why not recycle and review the parts of a flower while you’re at it? Or why not go further and have kids cut them out and put them all together to make a giant ”story flower” garden on a giant piece of green-colored paper? I also really liked the sunflowers in the pot one (slight tendancy I have towards flowers ha ha) its colorful and due to the structure of the questions it kind of gives kids a lot of freedom to write; gives them a more relaxed feeling that they can write what they liked best.