Eleventh blog entry

Classroom Management

The classroom management refers to a process that teachers guarantee the classroom instruction, the order and effectiveness in which students will learn.

The main goal of classroom management from my point of view is to create and to maintain a good environment that allows students and the teacher to have a good relationship that facilitates the learning process of students.

 Classroom management is not just for teacher’s sanity. It is for the good of your students too. They cannot learn under a chaotic environment and the idea behind classroom management is to prepare them for the learning process

Also the classroom management refers to managing the students, studying in the classroom, the teacher and students’ behavior and the activity; it is the way teachers organize what goes on in the classroom. It contributes directly to the efficiency of teaching and learning as the most effective activities can be made almost useless if the teacher does not organize them efficiently.

Important principles of classroom management

•    Be Definite Know what you want and expect in the classroom.
•      Be Aware teachers have to be aware because students will misbehave. Things will go wrong. And this is our job to be aware of everything that can go wrong in class.
•    Be Calm and Consistent teachers have to be calm and consistent throughout their class.  They have to treat them as they would treat another adult no matter how childish their behavior is.
•   Give them Structure Children demand structure and order in the class.  After knowing what you want in your classroom, it’s time to explain that to your class. Tell them in details your expectations and how you want them to behave in your class.
•   Be positive Always be on the lookout for good behavior and let them know that they are doing a good job.
•    Be interested I think this is one of the most powerful principles in classroom management. By developing a good relationship with your students, you can influence them better towards better behavior and performance in the classroom.
•     Be flexible Trust your instincts and judgment when the situation calls for some flexibility.
•  Be Persistent The classroom management techniques you apply in class might not work immediately. Give it a chance to work before trying something else. Do not give up on your students. Understanding their family background can help you understand better why some of your students misbehave badly.
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The effective use of classroom management by teacher it is very important for them to succeed in their job because, if teachers don’t know how to have a good classroom management, they won be able to do their job in the best way as they should, so that is why teachers have to know the importance of classroom management not only to do their job well but also to help students to learn in the best way as possible.

Tenth blog entry

My motives for teaching

My main motive for teaching is that trough teaching I have the opportunity to help others to be able to reach their dreams and their full potential; I see this as legate for the future generations. Also I get motivated when I see people learn at least a little bit from me and that makes me want to keep going in the same way and to get better as a teacher. I want to become a teacher in order to transmit knowledge of what I know and all the things that I have learned.

Rewards or incentives I got from teaching.

To get rewards or incentives go beyond of having a salary every month for me it is more important to help others to reach and to make their dreams come true; I think money is a plus but what it really matters to me is that I have the opportunity to change somebody life and to help that person to succeed in life. When my students learn the contents, they do the activities that I prepared for them;  when I see that they have accomplish the activity, there is when I get my reward because I have helped somebody to learn and that is a priceless feeling to any teacher;  that is definitely the best award to me.

Do my motives interfere with my students needs?

I don’t think that my motives interfere with my ability to put the needs of my students ahead or mine because my main motive is to help my students to learn in order for them to reach their dreams and their full potential and this is also my rewards because when it comes about my work as a teacher this is the best reward that any teacher can get because there is nothing better than to see others learning and becoming successful.

Ninth blog entry

Things I like about working with teenagers.

There are many things that I really like when it comes about teaching teenagers. Well we all already know that the teen years are a time of transition from becoming a dependent child to a young adult who is capable of taking care of themselves. During this stage of transitional physical and mental human development, teens tend to seek independence.

What I like about teaching teenagers is:

•   Teenagers are highly motivated people, who have a desire to be involved in the class activities.
•  They are enthusiastic; I sow this attitude, when I gave them interesting and meaningful activities in which they learned and had fun at the same time.
• They are energetic; they really like to play fun actives and they always try to give the best of them but only when they are interested in the activity.
• The passion of the students to be self dependent; they are always trying to do all the activities for themselves without the teachers help.
• They like to ask question if they haven’t understood the topic of the class.

I really like these attitudes of teenagers because if they feel involved in the class and also if they feel interested in the activities they tent to learn easily and that is why teachers have to look for the most suitable activities for teenagers.

The things I don’t like about teaching teenagers are:

•        They get distracted easily, especially when they are doing an activity in which they don’t feel interested in it.
•       They are rebel because they don’t like to follow the rules and they want to do the things that they like to do even though, if those things are not good for their academic development.
•         They are very talkative because they like to be taking in the class instead of being paying attention to the class.
•          They are very competitive and as a result they get involved in faiths with their classmates.
•          They complain about everything that happen to them

Even though teaching teenagers is a hard job is definitely a great experience to any teacher and I haven’t been the exception. I learned a lot from this experience because now I know how to teach teenagers; especially I know how they behaved and in the future when I have to teach teenagers again I will be ready to help them to learn in the best way possible.

Eighth blog entry

What can the World Wide Web offer ESL/EFL teachers?

The World Wide Web for sure it can help ESL/EFL teachers. The internet is very useful   for teaching English. Teachers can use it for getting information for their classes, including teaching plans and material for classroom use. 

There are a lot of pages in which teachers can put their students to study a specific topic because in the net we can find a lot of English pages, that were created with the purpose to help people to learn English in a easy way and the majority of these pages are easy for students to understand the contests and we can take advantages of these resource.

When we take advantage of these resource we are helping our students to learn in a better way, because they can find these pages interesting and the class it will be more dynamic and result more interesting for students because not all our students are interested in learning English but if we use these tools, we can stimulate our students to learn English also they are going to understand that the learning English could be a interesting and enjoyable process.

The internet is a way for students and teachers to learn and to connect with others for example the teacher can use the social networking to communicate with their students and to help them to accomplish a task; also the teacher can ask their students to send their homework to the teacher e-mail.

So the internet is an exciting resource for teacher. When teachers use the internet to teach the internet can make teachers’ live simpler and can provide more information and resources that help students to learn better also the internet can be fun for students and teachers alike.

Seventh blog entry

How can the standard-features word-processing programs be exploited for teaching writing skills?

All the standard-features word-processing help us to teach writing skills. Most of us are familiarize with word processing packages such as Microsoft Word and this because well have been using Microsoft office since we were in junior high school. Also help us when we have a document the required to be type on a computer but office not only helps us to present our teaching job but also help our students to elaborate their homework. Nowadays this kind of technology has become very important in our daily life because is not longer often to present a hand-written homework to our teachers.

Standard Features word processing are:

All word processing applications allow us to:

·         Enter and edit text

·         Save

·         Print

·         Cut/copy/paste

·         Check your spelling

This standard features word processing help us as well as our students, because it allows us to type our information and in the same way we are practicing our writing skill, while we are typing a lot of words, we also are remembering how to write those words and to express our thoughts when we are accomplishing specific task. Also it helps us to look for information; when we do not know exactly what should we write or when we do not know a certain word but the standard features word processing also check our spelling, because sometimes we are not so sure what is the correct way to write a word and this feature indicates us if we have committed a written spelling.

Base on that previous information, I can say that these features help us a lot because we can improve our writing skills as well as our students will improve their writing skills too.

Sixth blog entry

Do you think technologies should play a central or a peripheral role in second language teaching and learning?  Why?

I think the technology should play a central role in learning a second language and also in teaching the language. Technologies help us a lot, special when it comes about learning a second language because it provide authentic source of the language also technologies help us to keep in touch with the second language especially when we do not live abroad and we do not have enough contact with the language.

Technology can help students be better learners. It gives us the tools and those tools are valuable in communication as well as providing information. Technologies is constantly involving us for all the things the it gives to us because technology not only gives us the opportunity to relax watching a movie, listening to music or just searching the net just to have fun but wiht technology we can improve our skills especially our listening and reading and these is possible through watching a movie or listening to our favorite music it also give us the opportunity to chat with native English speakers.

Having technology makes research much easier. Before the invention of computers and the internet, students had to go the library to get their resource material. It is said that technology helps students to learn in many ways. With the help of technology the learning can be made more interactive to students because students will be able to understand the topics by simulation of real world problems also they can see more clearly how things happen and works.

I can say from my own experience that technology really helps people to learn; I used to learn English trough internet and found it very useful, I can add that, it is one of the best way to find a lot of exercises and materials, especially when you leave abroad.

Definitely technology helps us to learn a second language as well as to teach a second language because it gives us the tools that we need to learn and improve our skills; it also facilitates us the access of information and to communicate we native English speakers.  And base on that we have to take technology into account when we are teaching a foreign language because using it we will help our students to learn in a better way.

Reflection on my Teaching

Reflecting on my Teaching

Was the instructional objectives met? How do you know students learned what intended?

Yes, It was met because my objective for the present simple class was “at the end of the class students will be able to use the simple present correctly” and they learned how to use the simple present during the class and I know that because they did a homework and base on that homework I realized that they learned also when I did the review they demonstrated that they had learned the simple present.

Were the students productively engaged? How do you know?

My students were productively engaged because they performed all the activities well, when I thought them simple present. I had prepared for them interesting and effective activities in order for them to learn the simple present in an easy form and they did; also I tried to look for the most suitable activities for them.

Did you alter your instructional plan as you taught the lesson? Why?

No, I did not alter my instructional plans because I consider myself as a very organized person and maybe a little bit too much. I like to have everything prepared and also I like to have some extra activities just in case of one activity would not work  well in the class, but I did not need any of the extra activities, that I had prepared because I chose the most suitable activities for my students and those activity worked well in the class so that is why I did not alter my instructional plan for the simple present class.

What additional assistance, support or sources would have further enhanced this lesson?

To present the simple present I did it through poster. The poster helped me to teach them because every time I thought them a class and I used a poster or any other support to give the class; I realized that students paid more attention when I used posters, audios or flashcards and that is why every class I tried to have additional assistance.

If you had the opportunity to teach the lesson again to the same group of students, would you do anything differently? What? Why?

Well I think that I did a good job when I tough the class of simple present but also I know that I have to improve more to be better when I am teaching. I think if I had the opportunity to teach the lesson again I would not make a lot of change because I think I succeed teaching the  simple present, but I would change when I was asking for participation, because not all of them did participate in the class but the majority did, but if I had the opportunity I would like to make all of them participate, I would look for some activities that would help me to make them participate, but that is the only thing that I would change about the simple present class.