WELL,I AM SAD BECAUSE WE FINISHED OUR BEST SUBJECT. I REALLY ENJOYED IT, AND ALSO I LEARNED A LOT. THANK YOU TEACHER, AND THANK YOU CLASSMATES. GOD BLESS YOU.

Teaching large classes.
This video is really nice because it gives you many information about how to overcome many of the problems when teaching. The video was developed with children, but I think you can adapt it to teach teens or adults.
There are 3 things that we have to take into consideration and they are:
Pedagogical planning, classroom learning system and students behavors.
These factors are important if you want to work in a sucessful way with your large class.
1-Pedagogical planning:
This is one of the most important things in a class, and of course in large classes.
Something that called my attention is the diagnostic test that you must do at the begginig of a level, topic, class etc. This is a nice tool that can help you to know the way you are going to prepare the material for your classes. Remember that you have to plan every thing you will do because if you do that, you can be prepared to face problems that will come when teaching. Also a teacher has to be very creative, and for example if at the beggining of a term the teacher doesn´t know the names of students, it is useful to write their names in little name cards.
2-Classroom learning systems:
Well, I think this is very important too because if you have a physically organized classroom, it is possible that your students learn better. Also,when you have students´materials in the classroom, it can motivate students to work harder.
But in this point there is something that is kind of impossible in our country; it is that students have to have enough space for them to be capable to move their bodies. Unfortunately in our country we don´t have that, and some students have to receive their classes in very small rooms.
Another nice activity that I could see is the “self check and peer check work”. This is amazing if you want your students to feel as a real part of the class and as if their opinions are really relevant for the teacher. When you have large groups this can be nice for you because you learn that a large class is not always a difficult think; you learn that you can make your students help you, and they will be happy to develop your activities.
3- Students behavor.
This is something that is difficult in our country because there are a lot of problems especially with teens, but I could see something nice in the video, and that is that you don´t have to think that misbehaving students are stupids. Every person´s behavor represents what they are living, if they have problems etc, so a teacher has to think in it and try to help students.
I think that if all teachers have that idea clear, our society would be different, and we might avoid the kind of problems that we have nowadays like: students trying to kill themselves.
But a teacher also has to know how to apply every role in the classroom as an authority, teacher, friend, parent etc. In this way a teacher has to show confidence, but also respect because your students are going to treat you in the way you treat them.

HELLO EVERYONE. Today I want to share what I think about the use of Internet tools in English classes. To do that I will answer some questions...

1- What is your feeling toward using Internet tools with your EFL students?

Well, I feel that Internet tools are one of the best tools that a teacher and a student can have to conquer their objectives; this is because Internet offers you many resources that you can not find with other tools. For example, a teacher from another country could invent a technique to teach children or teens, and this technique could be useful for a Salvadorean teacher. In this way you can share your knowledge and learn about others´,so Internet tools are very important because they can help you to teach English as a Foreign Language in a easier and effective way.

2- How didi you feel the last time you were working with Internet tools?

Saturday, Nov 29,2010

To be honest, I have to say that it was nice when I was trying to enter and explore new things, but the problem was when I did not find what to do. I faced many problems trying to enter to a page, but the worst was when I saw a classmate watching a video, and I couldn´t do it.
After trying many times, I could sign on a page, and I felt very happy. Also, I realized the importance of a teacher in motivating students to investigate, try new things and look for new resources in order to learn as much as possible.

3- Can you see any importance in using Internet tools with EFL students?

Of course. As I said before, Internet is an excellent resource to teach EFL because you teach the language in a way that you make your students feel like if they were studying their own language. When you are learning in your native language, you feel identied because you understand what you do. The same happens when you use nice tools like Internet. You can apply activities that are used to make students feel comfortable with the language and help them to develop their abilities.

4-Would this use meet any intelligence we had studied so far?

I think that the intelligence that you develop the most is the Interpersonal Intelligence because remember that those kind of people like to socializate. When you use Internet tools you have the chance to have many friends by the different sides like the blog, wiki, facebook, e-mail, voxpop etc.You can study and share many things with your friends and classmates; also, this helps students to feel their learning more active and interesting. But, you also use the visual intelligence, logical intelligence etc.

Well, I am waiting for your comments . GOD BLESS YOU.

Contextualizing Language


Well this topic is kind of new for me, but I can see that it is very interesting in order to make the teaching process more effective. When you use contextualization, you involve many things at the same time because you teach relevant things for the students and things that they want to know or talk about. It is important to have an idea of their likes, desires and things that are valuable for each student, for example something that is important for a teen like talking about girls and boyfriends, it is not important when you are teaching to kinder garden students.
In this way the teacher has a big responsability because you have not only to teach the topics that are assigned for the level you are teaching, but also you have to make it nice and dynamic for your students. In this process you have to consider their capacities, the environment and the social expectancies.

In the video I could see that students were motivated to participate. They did things that were relevant for their level eg. Children like to move their bodies and sing; teens like to make dramas or presentations like those they have in the real life e.g. talk about drugs, sports, hobbies etc.
I think that this kind of teaching is acceptable in our society because we know that we live in a world in which we have to communicate with others and interchange opinions, and as in this type of teaching students learn as a team (it can be in groups or pairs), it becomes easier for teachers to have succes in their objetives.

But, there is something that we have to take into consideration, and it is that teachers that develop this method have to be very creative, transmit that they also enjoy what they do because there are some teachers that don´t enjoy their job, and they don´t pay so much attention to students´ necesities. Specially in our country I think that if we want to use this method as a way to teach students according to their needs, we have to train teachers because most of them would not be prepared enough to teach around contextualization language.

THINGS THAT A TEACHER HAS TO CONSIDER.

1-ESTABLISH RAPPORT. Well, the first time I heard about this, I didn´t understand the term, but what I can say now is that it is the relationship between students and teaches.This relation is useful for both because it makes the teacher´s job easier, and it allows students to learn throughly. In this point the teacher has the power to choose the way of his class because if you do not interact with your students, or you do not create a friendship with them, the results are going to be disastrous.
A teacher must be integral, and she/he has to combine a lot of elements in a class.eg.

-To be a friend, but to be a leader at the same time.
-To inspire trust and respect too.
-Make students to know that they are intelligent, but not know-all.

This is related with:
2-BALANCE PRAISE AND CRITICISM

As I already mentioned the teacher has to have a balance, and this also includes a balance when you gjve praise or critism to your students. You have to know that if you do not apply these resources in a good way, you can affect your students instead of help them.
For every action we have different results, and something that is nice for you, can be destructive for your students, so you have to analize what your are going to do, to say, to use and to apply in your class and with your students.
This is going to help to:

3-Generate energy. When you are sure about what you are doing, and you enjoy your job, you can create a classroom energy. Remember that the person who is front as a model is the teacher, but if the teacher wants to sleep, students cannot feel motivated.
At school I didn´t like English because it was boring, and I imagine that my teachers only wanted to earn money because they didn´t look happy when they were teaching. I thought that English was boring, but now I realized that it is not. The problem is that teachers do not transmit
that energy that students need. They do not make students feel the necesity of learning, so most people at schools hate English.
In this example we can see the importance of the teacher´s behavior during our learning process. So, as English´s teachers we have to be the first who enjoy our class and what we teach; if not, we are going to be an obstacle for our students´ process.

TEACHING BEGINNING LEVELS.

This is one of the greatest experiences in a teacher´s career because in this area you can see very quickly the results of your job.

• About the role of the teacher:

With begginers, the teacher has a big responsability because students do know anything, and they are going to reproduce all things that the teacher does. If you are motivated in your class, they are going to be motivated too, but if you do not like what you do, and you do not enjoy to teach, they are not going to learn.
A teacher has to guide the class, but it doesn´t mean that you cann´t let students to participate. What you have to do is to make your students talk, participate and have the curiosity of knowing new words and vocabulary. Also you must help them in order to develop their knowledge.
A teacher has to be a friend with students so that they feel comfortable. Also a teacher has to be very patient because some children learn very slow.

• Authenticity of language:

Remember that students are interested in things that they can use "now"; it means useful vocabulary, phrases to share with their friends and greetings, so you have to make the language interesting for them, make topics according to their needs, and be very careful with your classes.
In this level you have to repeat a lot in order to make them learn something. Use words that they can use every day and not difficult topics which are boring for them.

• Students creativity.

Some people think that because children do not know so much about the language, they aren´t creative, but this is no true. Maybe children cann´t make a great composition, or a nice dialogue, but they can show other kind of creativity for example: When a children make the mimics of an animal, when they play games, make gestures and when they try to answer a question. This is creativity for their level because although they do not know so much, the try to communicate each other.
A teacher has to see this nice features of students´ proccess in learning a new language, and strengthen this in order to make them feel motivated.

TEACHING TEENS.

Well this is the most difficult area for a teacher because they have to face a lot of problems:
When we are teens, we need a special treat because we are in an age of transition between childhood and adulthood, so teens cann´t be treated like children,but neither like adults.
All teens need attention to their questions, their curiosities and their problems. You have to talk about things that they lke if not you are not going to catch their attention. So teachers must be:

-Very creative to make topics interesting for students.Remember that students like to talk about fashion, soccer and girls, so teachers must make their topics nice for students, and they have to understand that there are some topics that are boring for students, but a teacher has to make them great. (Attention span).

-Very dinamic because you cann´t transmit something that you do not feel. Teens also need to use their body in order to learn something; this does not mean that you are going to be moving your body all the time, but you have to develop games and present your topics in a dynamic way (Sensory input) .In this period we also need pictures, videos, games, but the most important is the attitude of the teacher.

-Teachers have to know their students.
Because teens are in a period of transition, teachers have know students because they must think in everyone. A teacher has to prepare an activity and be sure if that activity is going to be effective for all teens in the class, or only for some.

-Hard workers because teachers have to prepare a lot of material.
A teacher in this area has to prepare a lot of materials. It is true that teens start to develop their logical and abstract thought, but this doesn´t mean that they do not need a lot of explanations and variety of resources in order to understand something.

-Very patient because teens are changing and they can be rebel,or difficult to treat.
Most of teens are difficult to understand, but a teacher has to play a lot of roles with them: like a friend, like a parent, like a counselor and as a teacher.

Finally I think that teaching teens is one of the most difficult jobs that a teacher can have, but if you love teaching, you are going to notice that this can give you a lot of satisfaction.