Micoteaching

Today at class we have performed our CLIL microteaching. I really enjoy this class because I could see different activities that may never I had thought of. The pity was that we couldn't see all the presentations for lack of time, but I really enjoy the one I have seen.

In addition, after each presentation all the groups and the teacher gives a number of suggestions for improving our activity.

With my group are working The Water Cycle and our activity was aimed to How to Save Water. The activity consists in the teacher gave a series of pictures that had situations where water is wasted. The students had to create a phrase beginning with:  I can save water by.....

At the end of the activity we would create a song with phrases created by the students and We will Rock you music, where the chorus would be: I love saving water.

After the comments from the teacher and peers, we realized that we need to restructure the activity and give students the possible sentences and they will choice  which one is right considering their image.

Developing CLIL

This entry it's about the article Developing CLIL: Towards a Theory to Practice by Professor Do Coyle. In the last years, CLIL has become a subject of ineterest in different sectors of European education systems, covering a wide range of geographical areas.

As Marsh says, CLIL is when a foreign language is used as a tool in the learning of a non-language subject in which both language and the subject have a joint role. That means that you use, in this case English, to teach and specific content of another subject, but doesn't mean that you use that content to teach, for example, new English vocabulary. If we ant to achieve this in a successful way  it requires that the two teachers, the specific subject and English teacher, work together  in the process of designing and developing the CLIL unit.

Research shows that CLIL can:

•  Raise learner linguistic competence and confidence;
• Raise teacher and learner expectations;
• Develop risk-taking and problem-solving skills and grammatical awareness;
• Motivate and encourage student independence;
• Take students beyond "reductive" foreign language topics;
• Encourage linguistic spontaneity (talk) if students are enabled to learn through the language rather than in the language;
• Generate positive attitudes and address gender issues in motivation and out cultural awarness back on the agenda.

Do Coyle talks about the 4c's framework that support CLIL pedagogy. As we can see at the picture, the pyramid shows that each one it's related to the other and communicaton is located in the center of the figure, but why? If we want  the CLIL to be successful we need to integrated learning to use language and use language to learn so teachers need to plan, monitor and evaluate CLIL learning and teaching from different perpsepectives.

Rethinking Classroom Management

This entry it's about the article Rethinking Classroom Management by Natàlia Maldonado and Pilar Olivares. The main idea is that we need to define a new concept "teaching and learning management". 

The authors differentiates between three interrelated areas to analyse in ordeer to understand this new concept.

Organisational issues: We live in democratic societies, and this must be transported to the classroom. Every classroom should have clear rules and rights, but can not run in parallel to the Society and be created and elected only by the teacher. As a result, the rights and rules of the classroom should be the result of a negotiation between the students and the teacher. In this metaphor, the students also respect them more, as they will be part of a community where they have helped to create and they understand the meaning of each one.

Curriculum issues: Every country has its own curriculum that gives specifications of each area, but the teachers task is to develope it according to its context. If we want students to do meaningful learning activities should be poweful enabling pupils to think deeply and critically, give them the opportunity to become creative and innovative and enable pupils to respond positively to opportunities, challenges and responsabilities. Working on a cooperative way it's a good way to pupils help each other and build a knowledge together. Also, working individually develops selfs discipline and personal gratification.

Social issues:  Pupils learn more and better if they are in a safe, secure and accepting classroom. In relation with the teacher, it implies a model of behaviour that awakes a reciprocal responses from students. Teacher's respect for pupils should be reciprocated/responded by their respect for the teacher.

On this video link we can see a good example of classroom management

http://www.schooltube.com/video/530e38fb32e9e1542ebb/Classroom%20Management%20That%20Works%201

Home - School Connections

At class, we have talk about the importance of Home-School Connections because among other reasons, when families and educators and communities work together, schools get better. Also, parents are an essential link inimproving academic success.  

We have been talking about different ways to make this connection, but the one that caught my attention was Muffins with Mom.

The idea is to spend time between parents and child in the school setting. It can be a moment to spend time together, but we can also take advantage of these activities to establish a connection between home and school.

Muffins with Mom could be a good moment  for children to explain and show, in this case to mothers, what they have learned in school and to show all their works, their play areas, etc..

We can also spend this moment for mothers to help children in their tasks. Finally it can also be a good time for mothers to establish a closer relationship with teachers, establishing a climate of confidence to work together for the educational development of children

Multiple Intelligences

The Multiple Intelligences theory was proposed by Doctor Gardner on his book :Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Itelligence that differentiaties itelligence into specific type of cognitive abilities with a very weak correlations between them.

According to Gardner there are 8 different abilities:

Logical-mathematical: This area has to do with logic, abstractions, reasoning and critical thinking.

Spatial: This area deals with spatial judgment and the ability to visualize with the mind's eye.

Linguistic: This area has to do with the facility with words and languages. This includes reading, writing, telling stories and memorizing words along with dates.

Bodily-kinesthetic: This area deals with the control of oe's bodily motions and capacity to handle objects skillfully. This includes a sense of timig, a clear sense of the goal of a physical action, along with the ability to train responses.

Musical: This area has to do with sesitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones and music.

Interpersonal: This area has to do with interaction with others. Individuals who have high interpersonal intelligence are characterized by their sesitivity to others' moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations, and their ability to cooperate in order to work as part of a group.

Intrapersonal: This area has to do with introspective and self-reflective capacities. This refers to having a deep understanding of the self: 

Naturalistic: This area has to do with nurturing and relating information to one's natural surroundings.

Consider the theory of multiple intelligences is very important for a teacher because the fact that a student is unable to resolve an activity does not have to mean that he hasn't acquired the knowledge, but it could be that the activity is not the most appropriate for his type of intelligence. For that reason it is very important for teachers to take into account all possible intelligence that can be in the classroom and have a variety of activities to cover all of them .

This is an example of a person multiple intelligence

Meeting individual needs with young learners

This entry it's about the article "Meeting individual needs with young learners" by Peter Westwood and Wendy Arnold. This article it's a summary of the issues raised in a online discussion forum organized by the IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) Young Learner's Special Interest Group.

In all the classrooms of the world we can find a common element: every learner has his own individual differences. As teachers we need to promote a learning environment that enables to use methods that allow learners to adress these differences in positive ways. In the article, we can found the most commonly strategies to adapt their approach to teaching.

Differentiated resource materials: allows us to take into account the different ways of learning of each student.

Whole-group activities (Hands on): This type of activities enable all children to participate successfully in a shared experience by allowing for a range of different outcomes. Activities often focused on practical work around a central theme to which all children contribute to the best of their individual interest, abilities and talents. 

Small-group activities: Can be used as a way to organize the classroom or as a way for the teacher to meet more closely the needs and concerns of the students. Also, teh article give us the example of a Portuguese teacher that use this system for all groups rotate through a variety of activities, but one of those was with guidance from the teacher.

Students and teachers interactions: The best way to meet the individual needs of each student is through the interaction between teacher and student. it's a good way to help those students who need individually  help during a lesson. But if we want this to be effective it is necessary that the teacher has a good knowledge of the characteristics and needs of their students.

Projects: Project works enable children to pursue their own interest, while applying basic skills at their own level of competence. In this picture we can see an example of a  water cycle project.  

Multiple intelligences (MI): Many teachers use the Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Model, that recognize children's unique abilities ans strengths, to help them to recognize and respond to individual differences.

Symbaloo.edu

Symbaloo it's a very good tool to compilate online resources and built our Personal Learning Environments (PLE).

Symbaloo could be a very useful tool for pupils because they can have all their resources together and at the same time, allows the teacher to have a control of them.

It's very easy to use and allows multiple choices from blogs to video conferences. Furthermore, give us the option to be private, public or only choose a group of people.