Do What You LOVE....

Hi, Mates.... How are you.? Today I want to share with you something that I love (apart from teaching) I love cooking... Nowadays I make cakes... Actually I am not a professional, but I do my best to create nice and tasty cakes. I think that it is very important to do everything we love, we need to take risks and try it. If we do what we love, I am sure that we will always do our best. When we feel motivated, comfortable and happy, everything is perfect.

DO WHAT YOU LOVE... LOVE WHAT YOU DO.!!!

Do you want to share with me something that you Love to do.? I will show you some of my cakes, I hope you like them.!!

Have a nice week.!!

Our students...

Hi, Mates.!! How are you? Last class we have been talking about dealing with difficult students.! We, as teachers, know that each of our students is different as regards their personalities. At least once in our teaching experience we have coped with one or more difficult students in our lessons.!!!  

Let´s talk about two categories: "The Clams and The Indecisives"

On the one hand, the Clams are silent and unresponsive. Just when you need an answer you get a few words, or just one word or a grant. From my point of view, one of the best way to cope with the clams is to get them to talk, asking open- ended questions, trying to be as friendly as possible in order to make them feel that they are not in danger when talking... But I also think that we need to give them their time to talk, the clam students prefer being in silence instead of talking with us; we don´t have to force them to talk because they will feel worse and we would not help them... And remember, when your Clam student is open to talk, be very attentive to what he or she says.. They will appreciate it.!! 

On the other hand, the indecisives have a hard time making decisions and when they finally make a decision, they may not be confident about it... I think that we, as teachers, can help our indecisive students to look objectively at the facts, help them to put the possible solutions in order of priority. When they need to make a decision, we can tell them that they could think about the pros and cons of making o not making that particular decision...  

I think that I have been both of those type of students, but not in an extreme position... I only talked when it was extremely necessary; if not I always preferred being in silence.. I also have been an indecisive student. I have always found difficulty in making decisions and I was not confident about them once I have made them... 

And...... What about you? Do you think that you could have been one of the different types of students we have discussed in our lesson? 

Have a nice week..!!! 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

My first Book!!!

Hi mates..! I know that I haven't posted in my blog for some weeks, I've been studying for my last Final exam of 3rd year!
In this ocassion, I will tell you one of my favourite books.!  It is called "cuentos de miedo" I have read it when I was in 4th grade of primary school.. It was in Spanish, of course jeje.. My partners and I were allowed to choose any book, most of them had chosen "The Jungle Book" but I hadn't...

To tell you the truth, I don't know why I have chosen that horrid book. I am not fond of those kind of books but it called my attention... When I read it, I loved it, it includes several short stories.. We were asked to read it at home, and then we had to retell it in front of the class, I close my eyes, and I still remember my partners' horrified faces..

Maybe I remember my first book so well because it had been the first time that I was going to read a whole book... Nowadays I still have it in my library...

I am sure that you also remember your first book!! If you want, you can tell which was your first favourite book!! I read your comments!

Have a nice week

Teaching practicum experience

Hi Mates.! In this ocassion I want to share a nice experience at the school where I am delivering my practice lessons.! First at all, I want to say that I am not an experienced teacher, I have only taught as a substitute teacher in some state round schools, apart from the teaching practicum lessons. 

Today, I delivered my second practice lesson, and I was really surprised. My students were engaged in the topic that I have planned for them ( personality adjectives, Zodiac signs related to facebook and emojis). Although their level of English is elementary, they participated a lot, I could realize that they were interested in the pronunciation of the Zodiac sings and adjectives, so I focus part of the lesson on pronunciation. You need to see their faces when trying to pronounce each word correctly. I felt happy because my students were motivated. They share their personal information, their birthdays and zodiac signs. 

When I decided to become a teacher of English, some people told me that I didn´t have the appropiate personality to be a teacher because I am quite quiet and shy. But I knew that I wanted to become a teacher so I continued. Being a teacher is a wonderful profession. You don´t only teach a subject, you learn from your students and it is really enriching. 

I also want to share this nice quote. I hope you like it. What do you think about teaching and becoming a teacher?

Have a nice week.!! 

What about having fun in the classroom?

Hi, there..!! How are you.? I hope you are fine... Well, in this occasion I want to share some ideas that I think they could be interesting for you.! What about having fun in the classroom? I think that it is very important to maintain a good atmosphere in our classes. From my point of view, If our students feel comfortable in the lessons, they will be able to success in the learning process. 

I think that games could be a great tool to engage our students in the classroom. Most of them love playing games and we can enrich our lessons wonderfully. I know that it could be time consuming but it would be great if we could plan or incorporate funny games. Students will love it. There are lots of interesting and useful activities which include games... I will share with you some interesting ideas:

Board Race

• Split the class into two teams and give each team a colored marker.
• If you have a very large class, it may be better to split the students into teams of 3 or 4.
• Draw a line down the middle of the board and write a topic at the top.
• The students must then write as many words as you require related to the topic in the form of a relay race.
• Each team wins one point for each correct word. Any words that are unreadable or misspelled are not counted.

Pictionary

• Before the class starts, prepare a bunch of words and put them in a bag.
• Split the class into teams of 2 and draw a line down the middle of the board.
• Give one team member from each team a pen and ask them to choose a word from the bag.
• Tell the students to draw the word as a picture on the board and encourage their team to guess the word.
• The first team to shout the correct answer gets a point.
• The student who has completed drawing should then nominate someone else to draw for their team.
• Repeat this until all the words are gone - make sure you have enough words that each student gets to draw at least once!

Two Truths and A Lie

• Write 3 statements about yourself on the board, two of which should be lies and one which should be true.
• Allow your students to ask you questions about each statement and then guess which one is the truth. You might want to practice your poker face before starting this game!
• If they guess correctly then they win.
• Extension: Give students time to write their own two truths and one lie.
• Pair them up and have them play again, this time with their list, with their new partner. If you want to really extend the game and give students even more time to practice their speaking/listening skills, rotate partners every five minutes.
• Bring the whole class back together and have students announce one new thing they learned about another student as a recap.

Maybe you have already seen these kind of activities. If you like this topic, I will look for more information about it. Let me know what you think about having FUN in the classroom.! Thanks.!!

Exam situations

Hi..!! Well, last week we had a term test of English and its teaching and I must confess that I was very nervous and worried about it. In fact most of the times that I have to sit for an exam I get stressed. No matter if I studied or not, before starting the exam I feel that I know nothing. It is really annoying.

One strategy that I find very useful is preparing summaries of all the topics that I have to study for the exam. I cannot study directly from the photocopies, I need to highlight with markers, write down something to help me or if it is important I use exclamations marks, I need to write what I need to revise.

Another useful tip could be taking notes in class. I use to write what I consider relevant and then when I need to study for an exam, I review and read what I wrote in my notes.

P/D: Don´t feel nervous in an exam and do your best. (I need to continue working on not feeling so stressed jajaja)

Hi everyone.!!! Last class we have been talking about First Language acquisition... We talked about the different stages in acquiring a first Language (cooing, babbling, one word, two word and telegraphic). I want to share a personal experience. My little sister Sofy is 22 months. I have seen her cooing and babbling.. Now she is in one word stage. She says several words such as Mamá, papá, nene, luna, agua, mimi  ( Noemi, my mother's name), torta and pisa (which is pizza but she cannot pronounce zz yet) although she doesn't produce full sentences, she understands everything you tell her. That is the reason why it is so important for children to be exposed to the languague, we need to provide them input. Unfortunately I don't have any video showing how my little sister is acquiring her first language. I hope you like it. See you later.!!!

Hi everyone... I have decided to post this image; it is a phrase from Haim Ginott. When I started the teaching training college, one of my teachers read this quotation. And it made me think about how important this wonderful profession is. I hope you enjoy this post. Some of you may remember this phrase... Our role, as teachers, is relevant and fundamental in our students´ lives.... 

Reflect
Select a target task and develop your own instructional sequence using ths six- step procedure as a model.

             

Step 1 Schema building	Look at a school schedule of two girls (Karen and Sally). Identify key words (days of the week and subjects). Teacher will ask if they know those subjects and if students like them.
Step 2 Controlled practice	The teacher will provide learners with a brief conversation between Karen and Sally. They talk about their schedule, their preferences and teachers. Firstly, they listen to it and after that they try to put the dialogue in order. In pairs, they practice the conversation.
Step 3 Authentic practice	Listen to different native speakers talking about their favourite school subject. Match the conversations with the correct description of subjects.
Step 4 Focus on linguistic elements	The teacher sticks on the board some words taken from the dialogue between the girls.  Students have to form sentences in the blackboard; they come to the front in turns. They also have to stick different faces which represent likes and dislikes (like, love, don’t like and hate) in each sentence.
Step 5 Freer practice	The teacher gives students photocopies with different drawings related to subjects. For example, a ball (sports) with a sad face (don’t like).  So, students have to write sentences. For example, I love Art, I like Maths, I don’t like Sports and I hate Science. Students will read their sentences aloud. If they finish quickly, they may create their own drawings and sentences with likes and dislikes.
Step 6 Pedagogical task	Students will write their own school schedule. They will talk about their own preferences (like, love, don’t like and hate) and will share their information.

Reflect
Select one or two pedagogical tasks and elaborate them in terms of macrofunctions, microfunctions and grammatical exponents.

Tasks	Macrofunctions	Microfunctions	Grammar
You go shopping with your friend. You need to buy clothes. You need to consider the prices of the different shops. Make a list of the shops and their prices. Decide on the best place to buy your new clothes.	Transactional or Service (exchanging goods and services) Aesthetic (enjoyment)	Making comparisons.	Comparisons with adjectives.
You are at your cousin´s party. You do not know his friends. So you decide to introduce yourself to a group of four people.	Interpersonal or Social (socializing)	Exchanging personal information.	Stative verbs demonstrative: this Yes/no questions.

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