“Sometimes it’s not so easy than what it looks”

So now let’s see…

Oh, right! I was left on the part of become a teacher. Well my first week just ended today. And I have to say, it wasn’t as easy as I though in the beginning that it would be. Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids! But sometimes they got the power to make me go crazy!! And I MEAN that.

I have 16 kids in total. Ten from second grade and five for first grade. I’m in charge of second grade group, and I love it! But the first grader kids… Two of them are always so lazy, while the other three are so noisy. Only one kid wants to know, more than that, he is the only one who KNOWS how to do it!

I’m having trouble here, mostly everyday. I lost too much time from the class in control them that I’m afraid that we never finish the program!!!

Though I’m not surrendering I wonder…

Is there anyone out there who can help me?

Nat.

A new path begins!!!

Hey! Just to say that I got a job as an English Teacher!!!! Yeeiihh me!!!

So, if you have any suggestions to make me about how to introduce myself to primary kids, please tell me!!!!

Nat.

Following the path to the future…

How much different are your thoughts now after four weeks of intensively being exposed to new ideas? How much have you grown? What goals are you going to set for yourself? What is next for you? How will you apply what you have learned in class? Where would you like to take this knowledge?

Ok. Easy not so easy questions.

I did grow. I did change. But in a good way of course! What it’s not so easy is to detail all the changes that I made on the way, I think. I learned so much! And TKT was so different from what I first thought that it would be about! But don’t get me wrong, actually it was more fascinating than what I could have possibly imagine.

Though it wasn’t that hard, it wasn’t that easy either. There were so many different tasks and fun activities that I could never stop of doing things. And that was something good for me because I get bored so easy… hehehe.

Today I saw the essay that I wrote when the TKT course started. I know, too many grammar mistakes! xD (by the way, Word does NOT correct accourding to context, only corrects WORDS). Though my goals from back then haven’t change, I do have now more goals to acomplish. You see, I didn’t know that I could LEARN how to BE a GOOD teacher. Not only from the title but really be that person who guides students in their learning.

There are so many different tools that I can use in classes, not only in books but also in the web. Electronic devices that can help me to reach my students and really motivate them in learning English. I have no idea that English class could be this fun. Now I have accuared so many knowledge that I want to share it with the whole world! (hahaha) and at the same time I want to keep on learning. It’s just amazing!

Now I know for sure that I want this. I want to be an English teacher.

Now, to set new goals for the future!

So many! But for now I will concentrate on the basics. The first thing I’m going to do is the TKT exam so I can get my certification of teaching knowledge and so I can get a job as a teacher. (Yeiiih!) and then I would like to keep improving my english knowledge, so I’ll practice and study more in order to get the CAE certification.

Of course I’ll keep on going after that. Courses, congress, trips and traveling of course! But, as my father used to say:

“One step at a time”.

Active/Passive… Backtalking?! ?_?

I read an article on this site http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/jones/jones012.shtml which is a synopsis of the book Tools for Teaching by Dr. Fred Jones, who comments on how educators can use body language, calmness and silence to reduce back talking and other attitude interruptions. Its a bit large, but its worht it to read. And I have to say that I agree with him in so many different points. But I believe that the best way to explain why Im agreeing with him its by mentioning an example.

Here is my reflection on the topic:

In every single classroom there is always someone or someones… talking. And I mean in EVERY single classroom. It doesnt matter if it is an art class, deport class, science class, or language class. Its just the same in each and every one of them. But what it does change, is the way that teacher acts at those specific moments of “chatting”.

Fist we have the classic teacher who yells all the time, and of course the classic student who do not care at all what the teacher has to say. Sometimes it can really get into your nerves! For me its always difficult to deal with students that can not keep it quiet (and Im not even the teacher). Sometimes the teacher and the student get involved into a discussion, which ends with the student being report to the principal or just being knocked out of the classroom.

Im not saying that  they do not deserve it (because sometimes they do), but there are people that just can not seem to understand or that dont have respect for anything. But there are other times when the teacher is so desperate (for not saying lacking of patience) that doesnt even take the time to see if the situation was really that bad. It all depends on how the class goes. I have run into teachers who do not know HOW to teach, they just give you lots of information and when you ask them to solve a doubt that you have on  the topic THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO ANSWER, THEY DONT EVEN KNOW THE ANSWER!

So, I have to ask them, how do they ever expect their students show interest on their classes?

But there was another situation where a teacher acomplished to keep quiet the whole class, specially the students who used to talk all the time. And how did he do it? Well, he just started asking that single student questions about the different topics that we saw on the day. Not the whole class, but just at the beggining, whe he noticed the student was distracted and of course at the end of the class. In order to not make a fool of himself by not knowing what was going on, he HAD to pay attention to the class.

The teacher did not had to disscus, nor to yell. He only had to be…

…CLEVER.

Nat.

Final week!

We recently begin our last module on classroom management. And this time we have to ask ourself to think about what our classroom looks like, or how do we felt as students in our last EFL class.

There are certain things that I remember most. Like for example the clasification exam. To be honest I felt it kinda easy, I was so worry about it that when I saw that it was not that harder I felt happy hehehe. And I know that I did not do it so well on the exams of modul 1 and 2, but I always find it hard to study on weekends! So I tend to not study those days hihihi =P

I believe that I did grow so much in this course. And I specially love the fact that I haved the opportunity to meet so many interesting people and that we could share our knowledge day by day.

Of course there were some moments kinda boring, but I did enjoy spending the time surfing on the web in order to make a good report on my blog. I liked the fact that I get to see all the tools on the web that are great for teaching and learning!

Now, Im determinated to be an english teacher. I do love this job! And I cant wait to learn more!

Nat.

Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy…? O.o

We just saw this topic on class today. You may be wondering WHAT it is. So I will answer your question next…

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification of learning objectives within education proposed in 1956 by a committee of educators chaired by Benjamin Bloom (that’s from where it comes the name, or so I belive).

It refers to a classification of the different objectives that teachers set for students (learning objectives). The image that you are going to see next shows the “steps” that you follow when you use this tool; starting from left to right:

Now, there are some things that I belive are worhted to read. Like for example:

“The way to reach students is to understand how they think, and build from there… The rediscovery always stimulates a great boost of mental activity… We need to teach people to do, think and create, rather than learn by rote…”

This were thoughts that I found on a web site (a blog) and that really got me thinking. It is true that we need to know our students needs and abilities to be able to reach them and to help them learn in an easier way. But there are so many different ways of doing it, that sometimes I get confuse.

It is a process. That I understand. And like a process, we need a structure not necessary static, but flexible for all our different kinds of students that we might have on classroom.

On the next image you can find all the components of this great tool, all the things that each stage involves.

After I see the concept, I can tell that Blooms taxonomy helps me to understand better the way that a student improve his/her learning skills and reach the knowledge of what he/she is seeing on class. Leads them through a path where they can apply, analyze and evaluate in order to create their own knowledge. And that for me it’s something amazing! I can see where they might have trouble and find solutions that will help them to understand better what they already know and use that information to increase their knowledge and be able to apply it to so many different topics.

Now, it might be a little confusing by the time you have to put it on practice. So I will give you an example below that it will help you to adapt your activities to this tool.

It’s a glogster that I made by the way, I hope it helps you!

http://n474li3.glogster.com/glog-4718-978/

Nat.

Short note… Topic: Depresion… Example: “The Beaver”.

I haved trouble trying to decide what category give to this topic… Let me explain you why:

I went to the cinema yesterday at noon and I saw this movie called “The Beaver”. What’s this about?, you may ask. Well this is the main plot that you will find in any tv or internet commercial:

“The beaver tells the story of Walter Black (Mel Gibson), a man who has lost his way in life and is dealing with an extreme case of depression. His wife Meredith (Jodie Foster) has told him to move out and his oldest son Porter (Anton Yelchin) hates him. Just when he is about to call it quits, Walter becomes friends with a hand puppet named The Beaver, who takes total control of Walter’s life. With The Beaver constantly attached to Walter, he is able redeem himself at work and with his wife and youngest son. It isn’t long though before living life through The Beaver catches up to Walter making his life even worse than ever before. It is now up to Walter to take back his life or to lose everything he has worked his entire life for and live it forever as The Beaver.”

I believe that”The Beaver” is a really DARK and DEPRESSING movie. As the film continues, you really saw how deep Walter’s depression is and that he is in serious need of help. It’s really an original and interesting take on depression, which has never been seen before. The entire third act was remarkable. It was a truly powerful and scary because it showed the true side effects of depression and just how deep into the depression Walter really was.

But something that was really annoying, was the fact that it was VERY obvious he was ill, and yet no one really get him to wake up and take him to a place where he could receive treatment. It’s like everyone cared yet no one really took the time to guide him to the light so to speak.

And that is why, to me, this movie was very touching. I will tell you why.

My father was my best friend; the only person that I believed truly cared about me. And suddenly he died from cancer. It was HORRIBLE but not as much as it became LATER. Two years past and I almost FLUNK the college. I was under a big depression and I wasn’t even aware of that! This leads me to another reflection…

The way we live, the things that happen to us everyday, the things that affect us somehow, interfere not only in the way that we act, but also in the way that we study and LEARN! (Specially in the life of a student).

Sometimes you will have to deal with students that more than just being unmotivated, they are passing through a state of depression. And sometimes, the way you try to reach them is what makes them feel: first unmotivated, second uncomforted, three sad… and you don’t want to thing about the last one.

Just as we have different learning styles or multiple intelligences; we also see things and feel them in different ways. Some of us are more sensitive. A student who fails not necesary do it because he doesn’t understand or because he isn’t smart. Sometimes it’s just that they have so many things going through their heads that they can’t focus on learning.

And after analyzing this topic, I came to the conclusion that, since we are mend to create a relation with our students in order to reach them and help them to learn, we are obligated to give them guidance not only as teachers of school, but also as one of the many teachers of life. And even more since one of the motivating strategies is to involve the family in your student’s learning!

You don’t know what kind of problems they might have. And sometimes those problems are related to the school, because they feel fear of failing! But you can create a place where they  can free themselves from the pressure from outside and to help them decide if and what they want to learn in order to live better. To tell them that there’s no need in feeling bad for failing, but to teach them how to use the knowledge of the mistake so that they don’t commit it again.

At least, that’s what I thought…

What do YOU think?

Learning philosophy

I’m an intrepid girl! =D So I decided to do a glogster in order to put my learning philosophy. I had to say, this is my first time using this tool (at least on the web), and I’m fascinated by how easy is to work with it! I really have fun!

Anyway… You’ll see that there are two squares in my glogster with percent’s of learning styles. Well I accessed to the sites that you will find below, those pages have test that you can do in order to see what kind of learning style dominate in yourself (great isn’t?) So I put them completely so that you did not have trouble trying to read them from my glogster image. Each url has its own image result:

www.howtolearn.com/start/learning-styles-inventory

Still, I did not get so pleased with this result! So I made the second one and this was the answer that it gave me:

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm

Now, this one really adapted to the concept that I have of myself, and so I liked it most!!

Now FINALLY! I was able to do my glogster. And this is the result:

http://n474li3.glogster.com/naaatt/

Quite simple maybe, but clear and consistent.

So, this work leads me to another direction (or subject):

How can knowing my learning styles and intelligences help me as a teacher? and how important is it to know the learning styles and needs of my learners?

The first one is very easy, or so I think. If I know myself better I can improve my methodology by working on my weak spots. This will help me to understand better the students that I have with learning styles different from mine. On the order hand, I can take advantage of my learning skills to create different kind of ways to teach and be able to reach all of my students by letting them interact with me in very dynamic ways.

To answer the second one I have to take back the concept of motivation. Because if I pay attention to what my students had to say, I can give them confidence in speaking and in development his/her own way of learning. Kinda like let them make more rich their knowledge, by letting them explore theirself. And this will serve for them to realize what complications come to them at the time of learning and which way of learning do they need in order to understand a topic better.

Gosh, I’m confused xD You did understand me, right? I hope so. =P

So that’s all for now, we’ll write soon!

Nat.

Hot topic!

So, here’s a question for everyone who reads me…

How would you think that is more proper to teach?

By giving all the information to your class or by let them search information, bring it to the class and combine it with yours? How will this help them in learning?

Webos???? xD

Something to admire and laugh!!! =D