Diffucult Personalities ;)

We all have different personalities. Some people are more easily going but others are really difficult to deal with. We teachers many times suffer the effects of decontrolled behavior. I do not believe myself to be the adequate person to provide tips or recommendations in the subject but I will try...

• First of all, we must respect other people's personalities. Do not believe yourself with the right to change people that is very disrespectful. 

• Do not devote all your time and effort to difficult people. Many times their intention is to call your attention in excess.

• We love our students but we must not let them go beyond the boundaries of respect. We must be sympathetic but firm too.

• Try to include your students and treat them in the same way you treat the rest of the class. Do not take revenge on them; we must never forget that we are professionals. 

• Finally, explain your students that you understand that they may have strong personalities but make clear that you will not allow them to be disrespectful. Ask them to respect themselves, and their partners too. 

Free Reading

I love reading in my bed with the soft light of the lamp and the house in complete silence. For me reading means to open my mind and let my imagination and curiosity run.                                   My best reading experience was the short story 'The Secret Life de Of Walter Mitty' written by James Thurber. It is the sorrowful story of a man who wastes his life daydreaming. I really enjoyed reading it since I felt strong empathy with Walter. I also loved the film based on the short story since it provides poetic justice to the original character.   I must say I tend to daydream often!

Read to me

These are two of my favourite books, they are amazing. I read them to my daughter and to my students. What is more, I used the story ' Can I Play Too?' during my practice lessons last year, students really enjoyed reading it. You can use it to teach lenguage structures or to read for pleasure with your students.                                                                                                                            

What book do you read to your students?

Games

Today I want to share a game for young students. Divide students in five groups. Give each of them a category (mammals,insects,birds,etc). Then you ask them to observe the cards and to write some characteristics that they know. Start the game by asking 'Who is going to eat you?' Students say aloud what animal they are and the rest have to say if they can eat it or not. Never forget that students love games. 

Test Time

Anxious students tend to suffer a lot during test time. That is my case, I get too nervous and anxious when a have an exam. Therefore, exams for me do not only mean studying hard but also searching for techniques to lower my anxiety. I want to share with you my studying techniques for anxious students.

Take your time to study

Do not start studying two days before the exam (if you are able to). When you already know the date of the test, you can start studying a bit every day. This gives you time to read and reread the notes and to take down notes.

Make a summary

If you profit more from visual techniques, summaries, word maps, time lines and charts will help you a lot.  Try to write the summary with your own words but include relevant words and definitions that you need to incorporate to your vocabulary.

Check and study from the summary

Read your summary and check if you do not need to add more information or to correct anything (language, spelling or conceptual errors).

Practice aloud

Ask questions to yourself to see if you can answer them without relying on your notes.

Share and make connections

Share your notes or what you have study with your classmates. Helping one another it is highly enriching. In the same way, it is useful to make connections between the topics and the real world such as, personal experiences, films or songs.

Relax

When the test is very near, just try to relax. Once a teacher explained that the brain can only retain small pieces of information per day. So it is useless to spend the whole night before the test studying, you will only get tired. Listen to your favourite music, sleep and eat well. Be optimistic and remember that we always have a second chance.

But don't be lazy; you won’t have a third or a fourth chance!!! (Sorry, my anxiety is talking again)

First Language Acquisition Stages:

•   Cooing: (0-4 months) the baby starts producing vocal sounds.

•   Babbling: (6-8 months) the baby produces syllables such as ‘mama’ ‘dada’

• One –word stage: (12-18) babies start to understand and produce words such as ‘food’ ‘dog’ ‘toy’

• Two-word stage: (18-24 months) children produce two-word combinations such as ‘doggie big’ ‘mama go’

•  Telegraphic stage: children began producing full sentences.

It was highly useful for me to learn about these stages and to understand that the time varies according to each child. Although they may be going through a silent period, language is still being developed in their minds. My daughter almost omitted the two-word stage, I remember that she only said ‘mama milk’ and nothing else. But she became the ‘talking-queen’ during the telegraphic stage. So remember, language is not a formula, it is a very complex subconscious process going on in the child’s mind. 

Hi, again!

I want to share a class which I presented to my young students a week ago, and that it was quite engaging. The aim of it  was to prepare students to describe their own family members at the end of the unit.  In the same way, I prepared these activities taking into account that not all the student’s families are constituted in the same way (obvious but important!).

•        Students listened the song ‘we are family’ of the Ice Age 4. I asked them if they could recognised the song. And then we connected it to the characters.

•        I gave them a photocopy with some images and adjectives. We played a short game in which they had to say the name of each character as fast as possible. Then we wrote them on the board.
•                  Students had to underline the adjectives that better described each character.  
•             Then they read and justified their answers.          
•          I explained the use of ‘she is’ ‘he is’ and ‘they are.’ 
•       They chose adjectives and wrote full sentences.

Materials:

'We Are Family' Ace Age 4  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnXmGscq7OE

Worksheet https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PxMJrxeRelPSVlsR16Grpm2opzarpbUW78NzBqiPk8g/pub 

                                     

 

                        

Instructional sequence of a task

Step 1: Watch the trailer of the movie ‘The Circle’ and say what the theme is. Work in pairs.

Step 2: Watch an interview with the director and actors. Match each name to the corresponding opinion about the film.

Step 3: Read a short review about the movie. Underline words, sentences or phrases which express the writer's opinion

Step 4:  Watch the interview once more and pay attention to word stress, tone and body language.

Step 5: Write a review of the film and read it aloud. Work in groups.

Step 6: Each group choses a movie and makes a review of it. Finally students share their works with the rest of the class.

'The Circle' trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCOXARv6J9k

Pedagogical task

Task	Macrofunction	Microfunction	Grammar
Role play: You are trying to get your driver license. Follow your classmates instructions in order to get it.	Exchanging goods and services.	Following instructions.	Simple Present tenses, imperatives, negatives.

Task	Macrofunction	Microfunction	Grammar
After Reading the book ‘Can I Play Too’ play the role of the characters as you imagine them. Then compare the performance with the book’s pictures	Aesthetic	Peer interaction	Verb to be, simple present, modals.