week #15: Putting It Together and Starting Again – Another Model

According to the reading, there are some factors and conditions that foster your development as a teacher. To be a good teacher it not only to have a good character, and a great personality; this influence a lot in the way the students see the teacher, but  there are some others characteristics that the teachers should take into account in order to succeed as a teacher.

In order to be good teachers we should follow some elements such as, “it is important to see teachers as actively involved in constructing knowledge and making meaning, through their own actions”. In my opinion, this means that teachers should be creative in order to be involved in constructing knowledge, demonstrate to the students that their knowledge is not based only in theory, but is based in practice and experiences collected from many areas.

On the other hand, the reading mentions that “relates to teacher´s knowledge of the students themselves, as learners of a particular age, deriving belief and values from a culture and having preferred way of acting and learning”. In my opinion, this means that the teachers should know their students in order to act in the correct way while is teaching. For example, we as teachers should know the students background, their culture in order to build a good environment in class.

week #14: Teacher development through reflective teaching

According to the reading; “Since the early eighties a number of approaches to teacher development have been proposed and implemented in classrooms. These approaches include the teachers-as-researchers, action research, clinical supervision, and the critical pedagogy perspective, among others”.

I think reflective teaching is very important since the teachers organize themselves before start a class. “According to Julie Tice, Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works - a process of self-observation and self-evaluation. By collecting information about what goes on in our classroom and by analyzing and evaluating this information”. So according to this information, I think that an effective teaching teacher is the person who really cares about the students necessities. It is a person that improves his/her knowledge in order to give his/her best in class. It is the person who motivates, and helps his/her students to give their best.

Teaching Video

 

Hello guys,

This is my teaching video, it is giving me an error, if you have the same problem you can go to blackboard, under discussion board and find it in there as well. Let me know any inconvenient and your feedback about the video.

Thank you

week #13 Building Community in the Classroom

“The beginning of the year is a time for creating a sense of community, and your room is the gathering place. Here, all children can feel secure, nurtured and supported by the environment, each other, and YOU.”.

My Opinion

I think that building a good community in class from the beginning of the year is very important, since the students learn about loyalty, problem solving, being human, and the most important, they learn about fellowship. On the other hand, it is important to mention that by creating a good community in class, the students learn that there are no physical, racial, and economic differences; they learn how similar they are and the importance of working in groups as a community.

In addition, as teachers we should help the students to feel comfortable in class, by giving them a warm place to learn. But, as the reading says, “The essential element to creating a sense of community in your classroom is YOU! It is not the number of toys and materials or the size of your space that really counts. It is your loving, compassionate attitude towards the children in your classroom family that creates a joyful community”. So, teachers should have the patience and wisdom to teach their students, to build a good community in class.

Week #12: Classroom Management

At the moment to talk about classroom management there are many aspects that should be taken into account. For example, it is very important to take into account the adolescence in students, why? Because, this is the moment in which the students experiment significant changes that provokes different behavior in class; so, as the reading says, it is important that the teacher remember that the students have difficulty straddling the overlapping worlds of childhood and adolescence; so, that is why they should use the appropriate rules in order to manage them in class.

I think that that to know about classroom management is helpful for teachers, since without management the classroom will be unfocused and no learning will be able to take place. Although the adolescence is very difficult to manage, it is very important to keep organized the class and apply different rules. The teacher is responsible for providing an environment in a class that helps all students to learn. Also, it is important that the teacher keep in mind that the class management is the technique that establishes a good learning environment.

On the other hand, it is very important to mentions the student’s parents in the classroom management. Parents are an essential support in student’s education. Teachers need to guide the parents on how to help their children in education. They not only need to tell the parents about the students struggle but about their potential and they should offer parents inputs on educational programs that will help their child. So, teachers/parents communication is useful for the student development and for their discipline in class.

I think the organization of the classroom is very important for the classroom management; so, that is why there are some tips that the reading mentions that I think are very important to apply in class, for example:

·         Make sure all students can easily see you when you are presenting information on the board, overhead projector screen and instructional displays.

·         Keep in mind potential distractions such as windows and doors, interesting displays, and small work group areas.

·         Leave plenty of room around desks so that you can get to each student when monitoring.

·         Locate your desk, work areas, and instructional areas where you can see all of the students all of the time.

·         Plan to seat students who need extra help or attention close to where you will be most of the time.

Week #11: Assessing Learning

I think assessment is the most important in teaching and learning. It provides opportunities for students to improve their knowledge, practice and receive feedback. When teachers assess the students their study is more effectively when they know what they are working towards and what their results are. In order to assess a student the teachers usually use the traditional test.   Although, the tests are very important to evaluate them, and have good structures in which the students demonstrate their knowledge, I think that it is not sufficient to demonstrate that students will keep that knowledge; since, some students use to study and memorize the topic one day before the test and then forget it. So, it is important to take into consideration alternative assessment in which the students can practice what they learn in each class.

As the reading mentions, “Alternative assessment uses activities that reveal what students can do with language, emphasizing their strengths instead of their weaknesses. Alternative assessment instruments are not only designed and structured differently from traditional tests, but are also graded or scored differently. Because alternative assessment is performance based, it helps instructors emphasize that the point of language learning is communication for meaningful purposes”. So, besides using tests, the teachers can use different activities to assess the students; for example, the teachers can ask the students for a final project in which can use a rubric to evaluate its content, they can ask to the students for presentation in which they put in practice the topic and their speaking, and where the teacher can use a checklists to evaluate the student performance, etc. To conclude, there are many activities that teachers can apply to assess a student, activities that can help them to practice the topic and keep in mind what is learned.

Week #10: Motivating Learners

Gaining your students’ interest and improving their motivation will increase the likelihood that they will commit the time and effort necessary to achieve the learning objectives (Clark, 1999; Dembo, 1994; Gagné, Yekovich, and Yekovich, 1993; Smith and Ragan, 1999).

I think motivation is very important in learners, why? Because, without motivation they won´t succeed. Motivation increases the learners´ desires and their want to do something, either better or worse. It puts them in action, increase their desire to participate in class and achieve their goals. But, in order to achieve that motivation in learners the teacher should assess some motivational techniques.

The reading mentions that “Language teachers promote or discourage students' engagement by the ways they define successful language learners”. To promote engagement in language learning:

Ø  Encourage students to use the language spontaneously to communicate ideas, feelings, and opinions.

Ø  Identify informal out-of-class language learning experiences.

Ø  Ask students to evaluate their progress in terms of increases in their functional proficiency.

So, this is very important, because as the reading says “Students' motivation for learning a language increases when they see connections between what they do in the classroom and what they hope to do with the language in the future”.