Teaching enviroment and its aspects

If a student doesn’t learn the way we teach, we should teach them the way they learn.

I do understand the challenge we teachers have in our hands. Considering this saying, I caught myself thinking about it and how I could contribute. How can we manage to teach 10, 15 or even 30 different students?

Taking into consideration that we all have different learning styles, maybe the best way to teach is by having as many different approaches as possible. That said, teachers should know, beforehand, how to provide different kinds of input. You can add visual, auditory and kinesthetic activities in a varied way. Do not have students sitting all the time, or doing the same type of activity. Gardner’s theory is a bit more complex than that (and I might talk more about this matter in another post), but bare in mind that students are humans, who have emotions and, just like you, may need some help to find motivation.  Fun is also a good way to catch students’ attention. Add music, video, art, and other kinds of resources to increment your class. And it’s also important to change the activity every 15 to 20 minutes, because of the attention span. Create a pleasant environment for learning, one that you would love to be a student and also remember to make it meaningful.

Growth and providing conditions to learn

The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.  ~Mortimer Adler

I think that one of the biggest challenges in life is that, even though we want something really badly, we just can’t make other people feel the same. This turns teaching very difficult.  For that reason, teachers have to look for different ways to motivate students. Motivation, another tricky word. It is impossible to motivate somebody because motivation comes from within. So what can we do? Well, we can provide moments, activities, games and use other resources to instigate curiosity, to make this motivation flourish.

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. – Albert Einstein

Being a teacher goes beyond teaching itself, it is the magic of making students realize the answer without you telling them. It is being able to provide activities in which students don’t even realize that they are learning.

Behavior Management Means Preventing Problems Before They Start

Talking about Behavior Management, or what Patricia Friedrich called: Positive Peace

Positive Peace is when you provide a harmonic environment for the students to learn. You can achieve this goal through some simple actions:

• Select meaningful texts: because we need to take into consideration the age of the student and their interests, not only the texts that are grammatically correct.
• Teach necessary language: If you teach more than what the student can handle than he will be unmotivated.
• Teach cross-cultural communication: Students need to know that nowadays there are not only American and British English, we also have other countries which English is the native language spoken.
• Discuss English around the world: It is important for the students to know about other places.
• Impact of your actions around the world: in terms of culture. What is nice to do and what is not.

To manage your classroom it is important that you implement some ground rules. This will make the students beware of the importance of respecting the rules and teacher, as well as being aware of your expectations. In this process, it is also very important to bond with your students and remember: Your students will not hate you because you are being consistent as a teacher. At the end, they will value your work, kiss you and hug you as if you never called their attention.

Organize yourself, be neat and care about your students, always.

Sowing seeds

In teaching, you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work.  It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.  ~Jacques Barzun

Teaching for me is like sowing seeds. If we want a plant to grow up, we have to water it and care about it. The same thing happens to our students.

The water would be the knowledge and information, and we also should care about them. Bonding is extremely important. Your students should trust you, this makes our work easier.

But bonding is not exactly an easy thing to do. So we have to overcome this kind of problems to provide the best education we can, and also for them to give everything they can in order to learn.

Here is a video that tells a story I like very much:

People often ask why?

Why did you choose to be a teacher?

Of course, I have fun, I enjoy teaching, but most importantly, I want to make a difference in somebody’s life.

This is a profession that is not valued in many countries, and people may not understand why we decide to become teachers. There is something interesting about it. Some people don’t feel passionate about it, and honestly, I cannot think why they would like to become teachers, because it is hard work, although some people would think the opposite. It seems an easy job, for some, it may be, considering that they don’t do their job properly, and that is why education may not move forward.

It is hard sometimes, we feel that society takes us for granted and they often do. We face challenges every single day, either concerning parents, students, coordination, society or whatever other reason there is. It is a tough career. But if you dare to become a teacher, face the consequences and deal with the issues. And, continue sowing the seeds… of love and knowledge.

Bullying – #1

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
Maya Angelou

Bullying has always been a delicate subject at schools. I, myself, faced bullying she I was a child. Kids can be very mean to each other and they may not realize the power of words and how they affect people. That is why we have to teach at early ages to respect each other.

According to Wikipedia:

Bullying is a form of abuse. It comprises repeated acts over time that involves a real or perceived imbalance of power with the more powerful individual or group abusing those who are less powerful.^[2] The power imbalance may be social power and/or physical power. The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as a target.

Bullying consists of three basic types of abuse – emotional, verbal and physical. It typically involves subtle methods of coercion such as psychological manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Although the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying,^[3]some US states have laws against it.^[4]

Bullying in school and the workplace is also referred to as peer abuse.^[5] Robert W. Fuller has analyzed bullying in the context of rankism.

Bullying can occur in any context in which human beings interact with each other. This includes school, church, the workplace, home, and neighborhoods. It is even a common push factor in migration. Bullying can exist between social groups, social classes and even between countries (see Jingoism).

As teachers, we should not allow this kind of behavior. I do believe that teachers have this role – to encourage students to be friendly and respect their friends.

You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Joel Osteen

Who is responsible for the learning?

We, as teachers, have a great responsibility in our hands. If we only realize the power we have, then we have to be willing to take responsibility for our actions. This does not mean that everything that happens is our fault, but it means that we should plan ourselves beforehand in order to provide the best education we can.

On the other hand, we have the student’s responsibility, because after all, there is just so much a teacher can do. Students have to be responsible for their part, this is a two way street and both, teacher and student have to do their part.

That means that teachers should establish deadlines and meet them as well. As a teacher you want your students to hand in homework in time, just as much students want teachers to correct them i time.

“He who dares to teach must never cease to learn”- John Cotton Dana

Teachers should always be willing to learn, be humble to accept their flaws, and so, put some of our feelings aside and concentrate in the students’ feelings. I’m not saying that this is an easy thing to do, but to be a great teacher, we have to learn to look at our students differently.

Homework: give them or not?

According to students, homework isn’t the best part of the class… The question here is: Should teachers give homework?

Some people believe that it is not necessary, some people think differently, but what is the right thing to do?

I think that the right answer would be: it depends.

It would all vary from their age, content and most importantly, the level. We should consider that students nowadays have been extremely busy with their schedules. In private schools we often see 4 year old kids who have a very busy life and the older they get, the busier, with extra curriculum activities. So, taking into consideration all of this factors, what can we do, as teachers, to help them?

I personally believe that it is important to give homework, but not a lot, just enough for them to remember what they have learned during the class. Here are some tips about homework:

1. Give meaningful tasks.

2. Don’t make them write pages and pages of homework, we are looking for quality.

3. Start giving homework since the very first day, so the students will get used to the routine.

I attended to the BRAZ TESOL 10 and one of the talks was about “Managing your teaching: accountability, tangibility and feedback” by Élcio Souza and one of the things he said was that we should vary the time of giving homework. We usually give the homework at the end of the class, and Élcio said that after we give homework, the students stop paying attention. I do believe that students need to have a routine, but maybe he is right. I have already done that: once I had a student that every monday had to leave early, so I had to give the homework early. The students always seemed surprised. As Élcio said, when you give the homework in different moments, they have no choice but to pay attention to the rest of the class.

So, avoid the feeling that- now that the class is over I don’t need to worry about anything- by giving homework at different moments of the class. If you like, try it and give me some feedback, I would love it.

Number games using a die

Die game

 

I must say that I really enjoy dice games and I believe the students do too. This is a very simple game, actually. 

It should be played in pairs, but I guess you can make it work in trios  also. All you need is a sheet like the one in the picture per student. It doesn’t have to be this drawing, in fact you can draw whatever you like (be creative!​)

You need to write numbers from one to six, you decide how many times.

The kids will take turns throwing the die. If player A throws the die and the number 2 is facing up, then he uses a marker or a colored pencil to color one number 2. If his opponent ends up with 2 and it is already colored, then he loses his turn. 

Each player (if you are playing in pairs) will have 3 numbers. Whoever finishes coloring all his/her numbers first is the winner.

Word battleship: a great way to practice spelling

Battleship!

Why not transform the battleship game? The original Battleship is all about saying the coordinates (number and letter) and sinking the opponents’ ships, right? What about having words instead of ships? 

You will need:

– two grids per student (if you make it big, then it will take a long time to finish the game). You can make a grid using EXCEL. Remember that the first row must have letters and the first column must have numbers (or vice-versa).

-Pencils or markers.

This game should be played in pairs. Each student must have two grids: One is the attack and the other is the defense. They write their words on the defense grid. Then they “attack” their opponent and they need to write on the attack grid to keep track of the squares they already called. 

Suggestion: You can also tell students to use different colored pencils to color the grid when they miss the letter. They can pick a color to write when they “hit” the letter.

 

Using flashcards to teach

As an ESL teacher, I often use flashcards to teach. I think they are incredible, honestly, and that is why I would like to share this amazing game. Kids love it ad it is great because they have to use their imagination and memory. This is a speaking activity and you can also ask students to spell the words afterward.

It is called Mouse Hole:

Mousehole is an incredible game and kids love it! You will need to get a cardboard and make holes in it. Mine looks like a pocket so I can insert the flash card inside it. Kids will have to guess what picture is behind the holes. You can divide students into teams and play against each other.

Suggestion: After guessing the picture ask students to spell, or to write on the board.