Hi all,
If you want to get information on the teaching strategies applied in your English classroom, the following websites may help you meet the students' needs in class. http://www.effortlessenglishclub.com
http://www.esl.about.com
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com
Hopefully they will help you.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Resources for Science
Here is another great website for science teachers - www.visionlearning.com. There are complete modules for each subject that includes the reference text which would guide the teacher in setting the content framework of the lesson. It is also a rich information source for the students as well. For every module there is a quiz for formative assessment. There are also several links such as research articles [mostly from google scholar], power point presentations, science news and other websites that teachers and students can explore for enrichment activities.
Learning Materials from VOA
http;/www.voanews.com is a good website for teachers, especially English teachers who want to provide learning materials for their students. In this website, teachers can find many interesting topics for reading activities in classroom as well as listening sources. Also, teachers can download the listening texts and provide interactive learning for the students through Idiom dictionary, Wordbook, EFL Teaching Community, etc.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Magnificent Google Earth Experience
Coming here in the United States as an ILEP Fellow offers me a lot of magnificent experiences such as meeting people and later establishing strong bonds with them, observing and teaching in an American classroom, and learning brand new things from my university classes (Educational Assessment, ILEP Seminar, International Education and Digital Classroom). As a teacher, who is a digital neophyte, I appreciate my technology class because I learned so many things from my classmates and professors Dr. Chris Peters, Dr. Ryan Visser and Ms. Ana Baldwin. What amazes me so far is the value of educational websites and applications to improve the teaching-learning processes. I would like to single out the functionality of Google Earth because I thought that it only presents the places of the world and their capital cities. However, as I engrossed myself in exploration activities, I discovered the wonders it can do to make my classroom activities more interactive and engaging for the students. As a stranger to this "newfound digital world", I am motivated to make myself more comfortable with technology and embrace its principles with the ardent hope of making myself a digital native before coming back to my country.
To cite a very concrete example, I am attaching here the maps of the Research Site where my students conducted their scientific research on Rehabilitation Continues: Copper Uptake and Survival of Leguminous Plants in Suyoc Mine Waste Dumpsite of Manila Mining Corporation, Placer, Surigao del Norte, Philippines. Image 1 is the map made the students for almost two weeks using the MAP INFO Professional v.8.5 software under license to Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau while Image 2 is the site map that I did using Google Earth in less than five (5) minutes.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Memorable moments
I had a great surprise today when we returned to Edwards Middle School. There were cards made by the students I worked with some weeks ago. I was really happy to see that we could learn from each other . I will take all those kinds words as reward as I know that it is exactly why teaching is so important: building knowledge ,and changing minds and hearts.
Also, we got lovely cards from Mrs Sheila Martins ( Ira's Partner Teacher) thanking us for the presentation to the 6th graders. Actually, it was such a nice moment and It was nice to learn that students got curious to research more about Brazil.
Indeed, two memorable moments we will take with love to our countries!
Isabel
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Learning Style
What is your learning style? Find out on this site http://http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz
Internship Reflection
What an experience at Seneca Middle School ! It is a completely different educational system. Here every teacher is free to select whatever he wants to teach as long as he follows the South Carolina Curriculum Standards as established by the State Department of Education. In my school, periods last for about 45 min. on Monday and Tuesday, but 90 min. for the rest of the week. I like this, because it gives the teacher and students the chance to cover a lot, using different activities. In the Cat's class period, which lasts for 30 min with classes just for boys or girls, they learn social and moral values. To motivate and encourage students, teachers have the SMS Wildcats cards, that are given to clever students to have privileges within the school.
To link between the subjects, students learn about the Greek myth in their social studies periods, so my partner teachers have selected "The Lightning Thief" novel, which is related to the Greek Myth to cover the "types of fiction and nonfiction standard" . They design various activities that reflect students' understanding of the events and, at the same time, follow the standards. One of the activities I like most is "The Hermes Herald" newspaper, in which students create a newspaper/newsletter based on events in the novel.The Publisher program is used in this activity. Each student is part of the following departments:
* Lead story reporter.
* Ask Aphrodite advice column.
* Astrology department.
* Editorial staff.
* Advertising department.
The teacher is the editor-in-chief and arranges meetings to see what each department has come up with. Consequently, all the time students write, read, proofread and edit. This is really a good project that develops the reading and writing skills. My partner teachers are creative and use the internet a lot
MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE ANATOMY CLASS
My partner teacher Mr Darrell Jernigan welcomed me for the first time to his anatomy class and from that time onwards that class became my favourite class in the school. The wonderful interaction of the students and the innovations the teacher used in the teaching learning process and assessment, made the class a cut above the rest. My first on hand teaching experience in the American School system was with this class and I found my students interacting with me in an excellent manner and responding positively to my methods of teaching which were really new to them. At the end of the day it was a highly satisfying and rewarding experience. The real life experience of a python feeding on rat in the animal cage in the class in front of the students and the teacher using the same for explaining anatomical features of snakes, the proceess of swallowing and digestion and about the habits and habitats of python was wonderful. My dissection class with anatomy students demonstrating the digestive system of cat was a great experience. The curiosity and interest of students and the disciplined way of doing the lab was highly commendable. The rapport the students had with me and their respect and dedication towards me was a really valuable experience. These are only a few glimpses of my internship experience at the Seneca High school.
http://worldofteaching.com/
This is a site where you can get access to free presentations for high school students.
You can use and alter these presentations freely or any power point template used in this presentations site for other teachers. It is also a great place to look when searching for diagrams to prepare your own presentations.
If you have any powerpoints, you can consider submitting them for other teachers to download too. It's all about sharing and helping others.
There are presentations for several subjects including Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics, English, History, Geography and Spanish.
Join the worldofteaching community website and also have the option to register as a 't u t o r' (a free service)
Finally, it also has links that direct you to other teacher resources. Also don’t forget to visit SitesforTeachers.com- a searchable index of hundreds of educational sites.
Visit this world to make the dissemination of teaching better for the future.
You can use and alter these presentations freely or any power point template used in this presentations site for other teachers. It is also a great place to look when searching for diagrams to prepare your own presentations.
If you have any powerpoints, you can consider submitting them for other teachers to download too. It's all about sharing and helping others.
There are presentations for several subjects including Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics, English, History, Geography and Spanish.
Join the worldofteaching community website and also have the option to register as a 't u t o r' (a free service)
Finally, it also has links that direct you to other teacher resources. Also don’t forget to visit SitesforTeachers.com- a searchable index of hundreds of educational sites.
Visit this world to make the dissemination of teaching better for the future.
My Interview
School Placement Task Inventory
1. Principal
Garry Culler is the principal at Edward middle school. The school principal is the highest-ranking administrator at school. According to him, principal typically report directly to the school superintendent, but may report to the superintendent's designee, usually an associate superintendent, in larger school districts.
His main jobs are:
a. Responsible for the overall operation of the school. Some of the duties and responsibilities are delineated in state statutes. States and school districts have also set expectations for him through his principal evaluation criteria and procedures.
b. Monitor instruction increased along with the responsibility to help teachers improve their teaching.
c. Improve the school instructional program
d. Create a shared vision within the school community and success in implementing new organizational structures that engage teachers in shared decision-making. He has discovered that engaging the entire school staff in making decisions results in more commitment to school reform initiatives.
e. Facilitating the school's interactions with parents and others in the school community. This responsibility includes working with parents when disciplinary issues arise, when students are not succeeding academically, and when parents have concerns.
f. Interact with parents who serve on school advisory boards, parent/teacher organizations, and booster clubs.
The main challenge is legislation requires the removal of principal when school is classified as low performing (students do not meet achievement expectations) for a specified period of time the fore he must make sure everything works well.
2. Assistant principal
.............. is the assistance principal. He is in charge with students’ disciplinary, be a liaison between school and parents, supervision of students with the buses, locker combination and the distribution of students’ text book. There are 780 students it means a lot of books that he should distribute and for that he got help from PTS (a parents- teacher’s organization) that will come in the beginning and at the end of the school year. They volunteer to scan the bar code of the books. The scanner really help the school to tract the books.
The main challenge is dealing with parents. From 780 students, there are 20% of them have problem with disciplinary. Some parents were very difficult to contact. They gave false numbers and sometime they already moved to a different address without telling the school.
3. Partner teacher
Sheila Martin is my partner teacher. She is one of the English teacher for 6th grade . There are three teachers for English. They are reading strategies , English literature, and writing strategies teacher.
In this semester according to the curriculum she has to teach about Capitalization, comma rules, prepositional phrases, friendly letter and business letter. She has to make sure that the students will use all of the materials in their writing. Before teaching she always writes the steps of teaching in her teacher’s daily plan book.
For writing strategies she taught the students to use different map to collect their ideas. She introduces variety kinds of map. They are tree map,circle map,flow map,bubble map, multi flow map, double bubble map, brace map, and bridge map. She always asks the students to work in group before asking the students to do their individual project. She will start the lesson by giving a topic to be discuss then ask the students to choose the map that suite with them, based on the map the students will write their draft. She will check them then give them back to the students to write the final writing. She is a good partner and for that I’m grateful to be her internship teacher.
4. A. Physical education
Roger Brown is one of Physical Education teacher in Edward middle school. According to him for P.E, they use a fix curriculum designed by the South Carolina State. The materials are basketball, volleyball, badminton, athletics, four squares, and sit up. There will also be test for the students concerning those activities. The test result then will send to the parents.
P.E is mandatory. In a day they have six period of teaching for 6, 7, and 8 for 2 semesters. Each class consists of 38 – 40 students. The activities are carrying out in the gym or athletic field. The students can also join a basketball summer camp in summer.
The biggest challenge is not every student have a good motivation to do sport. Time has chance; the students are preferred to sit in front of their computer rather than doing sport.
5. Art
Mariah Smith is an Art teacher. Art is not mandatory. Art class is divided into related art, graphic art and visual art. There are also other classes that walk side by side with art. They are music class such as string and band, carrier class such as architecture and wood shop and health. The students that chosen music class can’t join the art class. The school divided the time by 12 weeks for art, 12 weeks for carrier class, and 12 weeks for study hall.
The art class uses a specific curriculum standard by federal and state. Mariah uses technology while teaching in the classroom. She uses the promethium board, internet, power point presentation, movie and computer. For 6th grade students, the students will have basic fundamental of colors theory, 7th grade will have a chance to apply the colors theory into their drawing and 8th grade will make graffiti. They can make graffiti in a chair, cupboard or at the wall.
The biggest challenge is because there are 25 – 30 students in a period of time. The students are so diverse. Some love art and would like to develop themselves as an artist while some students just join in for fun.
6. Librarian
Valerie Boatwright is a librarian. She is a new librarian. She came to the school last August. She used to be a math teacher then she continued study and got her master degree in counseling. Being the librarian her main jobs are supplying the reading materials and collaborating with teachers and students. She is helping by a librarian clerk named Judy. She has been in the school for 17 years.
There are many books in the library. Most of them are fiction, non-fiction, bibliography and general science. There are many comfortable chairs that the teachers and students can use while reading in the library. There are fifteen computers with internet connection that can be using both teachers and students. There is a printer that the teachers can use for free and $ 15 cent a piece for students who use it and there are laminating, scanner, smart board and copy machine where teachers are free to copy the lesson and test sheets that they will distribute to the students in the classroom.
The biggest challenge is the budget cut make it difficult to add new books.
7. Computer Lab
Dr. Steve Lewis is a man who in charge and taking care for all of the computers at school. He is the literacy specialist, a technical support and a technology project skill in track. There are 238 computers at school which are used by the teachers, the school stuff office and the students.
The school has a computer lab with 40 computers in it and a portable lab with 30 laptops that can move from one classroom to another classroom.
The materials for the students are Word, Excel, Internet, PowerPoint, movie maker and wed-side design.
The biggest challenge is time. He has a limited time doing everything because there are so many things that he should handle by himself.
8. After school program
Bailey tailor is used to be a substitute teacher in Edward. Now she is incharge with the after school program. She said the target of the programs are :
a. Students of working parents who go home to an empty house
b. Students who need extra aid for homework or subject area
c. Students who need to participate in activities to enhance positive school community and help prepare their futures
The benefits of the programs are :
a. The Student: program will target all developmental domains.
b. The Parent: reassurance that their child is in a safe environment and receiving life long skills to achieve a successful future.
c. The School: Program will prepare more productive students in the classroom. The school will benefit financially.
The mission/ vision of the program is Be Your Best!!!
Mission Statement: To develop, mold, and motivate students to achieve their best through character, school success, citizenship, friendship, and to become higher esteemed individuals.
As the students grow as individuals, the program grows to meet their needs and develop the best of themselves.
It will need a lot of hard work and secretive to make the program work because the program just started on this early March. The numbers of students who participate in this program is not many but she is sure it’ll be increasing though time.
1. Principal
Garry Culler is the principal at Edward middle school. The school principal is the highest-ranking administrator at school. According to him, principal typically report directly to the school superintendent, but may report to the superintendent's designee, usually an associate superintendent, in larger school districts.
His main jobs are:
a. Responsible for the overall operation of the school. Some of the duties and responsibilities are delineated in state statutes. States and school districts have also set expectations for him through his principal evaluation criteria and procedures.
b. Monitor instruction increased along with the responsibility to help teachers improve their teaching.
c. Improve the school instructional program
d. Create a shared vision within the school community and success in implementing new organizational structures that engage teachers in shared decision-making. He has discovered that engaging the entire school staff in making decisions results in more commitment to school reform initiatives.
e. Facilitating the school's interactions with parents and others in the school community. This responsibility includes working with parents when disciplinary issues arise, when students are not succeeding academically, and when parents have concerns.
f. Interact with parents who serve on school advisory boards, parent/teacher organizations, and booster clubs.
The main challenge is legislation requires the removal of principal when school is classified as low performing (students do not meet achievement expectations) for a specified period of time the fore he must make sure everything works well.
2. Assistant principal
.............. is the assistance principal. He is in charge with students’ disciplinary, be a liaison between school and parents, supervision of students with the buses, locker combination and the distribution of students’ text book. There are 780 students it means a lot of books that he should distribute and for that he got help from PTS (a parents- teacher’s organization) that will come in the beginning and at the end of the school year. They volunteer to scan the bar code of the books. The scanner really help the school to tract the books.
The main challenge is dealing with parents. From 780 students, there are 20% of them have problem with disciplinary. Some parents were very difficult to contact. They gave false numbers and sometime they already moved to a different address without telling the school.
3. Partner teacher
Sheila Martin is my partner teacher. She is one of the English teacher for 6th grade . There are three teachers for English. They are reading strategies , English literature, and writing strategies teacher.
In this semester according to the curriculum she has to teach about Capitalization, comma rules, prepositional phrases, friendly letter and business letter. She has to make sure that the students will use all of the materials in their writing. Before teaching she always writes the steps of teaching in her teacher’s daily plan book.
For writing strategies she taught the students to use different map to collect their ideas. She introduces variety kinds of map. They are tree map,circle map,flow map,bubble map, multi flow map, double bubble map, brace map, and bridge map. She always asks the students to work in group before asking the students to do their individual project. She will start the lesson by giving a topic to be discuss then ask the students to choose the map that suite with them, based on the map the students will write their draft. She will check them then give them back to the students to write the final writing. She is a good partner and for that I’m grateful to be her internship teacher.
4. A. Physical education
Roger Brown is one of Physical Education teacher in Edward middle school. According to him for P.E, they use a fix curriculum designed by the South Carolina State. The materials are basketball, volleyball, badminton, athletics, four squares, and sit up. There will also be test for the students concerning those activities. The test result then will send to the parents.
P.E is mandatory. In a day they have six period of teaching for 6, 7, and 8 for 2 semesters. Each class consists of 38 – 40 students. The activities are carrying out in the gym or athletic field. The students can also join a basketball summer camp in summer.
The biggest challenge is not every student have a good motivation to do sport. Time has chance; the students are preferred to sit in front of their computer rather than doing sport.
5. Art
Mariah Smith is an Art teacher. Art is not mandatory. Art class is divided into related art, graphic art and visual art. There are also other classes that walk side by side with art. They are music class such as string and band, carrier class such as architecture and wood shop and health. The students that chosen music class can’t join the art class. The school divided the time by 12 weeks for art, 12 weeks for carrier class, and 12 weeks for study hall.
The art class uses a specific curriculum standard by federal and state. Mariah uses technology while teaching in the classroom. She uses the promethium board, internet, power point presentation, movie and computer. For 6th grade students, the students will have basic fundamental of colors theory, 7th grade will have a chance to apply the colors theory into their drawing and 8th grade will make graffiti. They can make graffiti in a chair, cupboard or at the wall.
The biggest challenge is because there are 25 – 30 students in a period of time. The students are so diverse. Some love art and would like to develop themselves as an artist while some students just join in for fun.
6. Librarian
Valerie Boatwright is a librarian. She is a new librarian. She came to the school last August. She used to be a math teacher then she continued study and got her master degree in counseling. Being the librarian her main jobs are supplying the reading materials and collaborating with teachers and students. She is helping by a librarian clerk named Judy. She has been in the school for 17 years.
There are many books in the library. Most of them are fiction, non-fiction, bibliography and general science. There are many comfortable chairs that the teachers and students can use while reading in the library. There are fifteen computers with internet connection that can be using both teachers and students. There is a printer that the teachers can use for free and $ 15 cent a piece for students who use it and there are laminating, scanner, smart board and copy machine where teachers are free to copy the lesson and test sheets that they will distribute to the students in the classroom.
The biggest challenge is the budget cut make it difficult to add new books.
7. Computer Lab
Dr. Steve Lewis is a man who in charge and taking care for all of the computers at school. He is the literacy specialist, a technical support and a technology project skill in track. There are 238 computers at school which are used by the teachers, the school stuff office and the students.
The school has a computer lab with 40 computers in it and a portable lab with 30 laptops that can move from one classroom to another classroom.
The materials for the students are Word, Excel, Internet, PowerPoint, movie maker and wed-side design.
The biggest challenge is time. He has a limited time doing everything because there are so many things that he should handle by himself.
8. After school program
Bailey tailor is used to be a substitute teacher in Edward. Now she is incharge with the after school program. She said the target of the programs are :
a. Students of working parents who go home to an empty house
b. Students who need extra aid for homework or subject area
c. Students who need to participate in activities to enhance positive school community and help prepare their futures
The benefits of the programs are :
a. The Student: program will target all developmental domains.
b. The Parent: reassurance that their child is in a safe environment and receiving life long skills to achieve a successful future.
c. The School: Program will prepare more productive students in the classroom. The school will benefit financially.
The mission/ vision of the program is Be Your Best!!!
Mission Statement: To develop, mold, and motivate students to achieve their best through character, school success, citizenship, friendship, and to become higher esteemed individuals.
As the students grow as individuals, the program grows to meet their needs and develop the best of themselves.
It will need a lot of hard work and secretive to make the program work because the program just started on this early March. The numbers of students who participate in this program is not many but she is sure it’ll be increasing though time.
Teaching resource website
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
This is a good website that I am using. It offers various teaching resources from lesson plans, worksheets, videos, & student- activities. It can also help teachers create different forms of puzzles in its puzzlemaker. You don't need to log in to use the different resources it provides. There are sites also for parents and students such as tutorials,virtual labs, games and interactive videos. Although it is named discovery education, this site also provides materials for English, Social Studies and Math. Hope you'll find this site useful too, you're just a click away :)
This is a good website that I am using. It offers various teaching resources from lesson plans, worksheets, videos, & student- activities. It can also help teachers create different forms of puzzles in its puzzlemaker. You don't need to log in to use the different resources it provides. There are sites also for parents and students such as tutorials,virtual labs, games and interactive videos. Although it is named discovery education, this site also provides materials for English, Social Studies and Math. Hope you'll find this site useful too, you're just a click away :)
Sites presented last class
http://www.animoto.com/ Create stunning video slideshows. Turn your photos, videoclips and music into video masterpieces to share with everyone. Fast, free and shockinly easy. http://www.wallwisher.com/ Wallwisher is an ONLINE NOTICE board maker!!! It is ideal for making announcements, wishing people, keeping notes and things you can do with post-its. Eduardo
allfolkstale.com
http://www.allfolkstale.com/
this is a good site to look for stories and folk tales. English teachers can use this for teaching narration. The stories have all the aspects of narrative writing. It would also increase the interest level of your students
this is a good site to look for stories and folk tales. English teachers can use this for teaching narration. The stories have all the aspects of narrative writing. It would also increase the interest level of your students
Monday, April 4, 2011
Personal Learning Network (PLN)
Many teachers within a school are used to asking each other for help. Teachers are usually very willing to help each other with instructional strategies, classroom management techniques, and other slices of a teacher's professional life.
But what about when a teacher goes home and has no peers to ask for help or advice? More and more teachers are turning to the WWW and creating an online, personal learning network (PLN). The PLN, as defined by the Educational Technology Guy, can extend beyond your peer teachers at school, it can encompass Web resources and teacher-based discussions in online forums.
As you can see from the graphic above (courtesy of this blog) here are many, many resources from which you can choose to focus your professional learning. One person's PLN will be very different from another's PLN. A middle school science teacher's PLN would focus on sites related to middle school instruction, classroom management, as well as lower-level science, whereas a secondary English teacher would be very different.
A few PLN sites are here:
- The Educator's PLN: http://edupln.ning.com
- Classroom 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com
- Google for Educators: http://www.google.com/educators
- Edutopia (Please view the "Community" menu at the top & consider "Liking" Edutopia on Facebook): http://www.edutopia.org
- PBS Teacher Connect: http://www.pbs.org/teachers
Lastly, here's one teacher's take on how she was able to create and thrive in an online-based PLN. She presents the 8-step system that she went through here.
Please explore the WWW for PLNs that might be of use to you. It's truly a great way to enhance your teaching! If you find something worthwhile, please comment on this Blog post and let us know what you've found!
Websites for English Language Classrooms
The following are two websites that are very helpful for English language teachers to use in their classrooms to make their classes more interactive:
www.rong-chang.com
www.manythings.com
www.rong-chang.com
www.manythings.com
My Unforgetable Day At Edwards Middle School
One of my most interesting moments within our period of internship was a day that I spent at Edwards Middle School with colleague fellows from Seneca High School. What took me away from Seneca High School to Edwards Middle School was a program organised at Edwards to assist a colleague give a presentation to the students about my wonderful country Ghana. There was however, an additional arrangement to observe some middle school lessons and this is where I met someone that I consider as simply wonderful and a blessing to the noble profession of teaching.
This teacher is one of the best examples of an excellent modern professional. Her skill in use of technology for the lesson was exemplary. She exhibited excellent creativity by incorporating games in her lesson for the day which the students just loved .She also used realia, the web, interactive teaching methods and was gifted in the way she involved all her students in the lesson. Simply put, there was a hundred percent student involvement in the lesson.
For someone who all of a sudden gets five strangers in her class to observe her teaching, she was very confident. She exhibited no signs of nervousness or shyness during her teaching. She was very patient and passionate about what she was teaching. There were indicators that she simply loved her teaching and she was good at it too. Her enthusiasm actually rubbed off on her students as they really enjoyed her lesson.
From this excellent professional, I have been exposed to the use of technology while not losing track of traditional methods of teaching to lessons effective. To ensure that all my students reach their maximum potential, I am willing to “steal” from this wonderful professional in Edwards Middle School.
This teacher is one of the best examples of an excellent modern professional. Her skill in use of technology for the lesson was exemplary. She exhibited excellent creativity by incorporating games in her lesson for the day which the students just loved .She also used realia, the web, interactive teaching methods and was gifted in the way she involved all her students in the lesson. Simply put, there was a hundred percent student involvement in the lesson.
For someone who all of a sudden gets five strangers in her class to observe her teaching, she was very confident. She exhibited no signs of nervousness or shyness during her teaching. She was very patient and passionate about what she was teaching. There were indicators that she simply loved her teaching and she was good at it too. Her enthusiasm actually rubbed off on her students as they really enjoyed her lesson.
From this excellent professional, I have been exposed to the use of technology while not losing track of traditional methods of teaching to lessons effective. To ensure that all my students reach their maximum potential, I am willing to “steal” from this wonderful professional in Edwards Middle School.
Partner Teaching in Edwards
Teaching has always brought the best out of me and observing and teaching in Edwards has generated mixed feelings of happiness and sadness in me.
The teaching periods for the teacher in Edwards have their advantages and disadvantages.
The good thing is the teacher has her classroom, she is comfortably settled with her identity all around. It helps her to be in control of the group. Hay, you get into the class and you know you have to conform to her rules or you get into trouble. That helps with discipline.
The uncomfortable part for me is the fact that you settle in one class for hours,teaching the same content over and over to the same group who always come in the same order everyday. The boredom makes me tired.
The tracking system also sadens me. I see so many with so much potentials losing confidence in themselves. some of them are not pushed hard enough- and at that age I dare say they need to be pushed to save themselves.
The teacher is helpless when it come to pushing them, because the children have their rights not to learn if they think so. This in a nut shell is the teacher's frustration- which makes me more than sad.
Apart from teaching them about my country and county's schooling system I have taught them a real content lesson. On the school term's content is poetry and my partener asked me to take if I could- of course I did.
I started the lesson which was very interactive and got the students themselves to come out with wonderful ideas of the poem. The next day we continued with the language and imagery used to enhance the poem, we reviewed the whole poem and on the third day my partner and I had a test which I marked and gave to her.
The response of the groups, both to my class discussions and discoveries on the one hand and to the test on the other hand draws attention to the fact that they are all capable of learning academic content.
I am looking forward to another lesson in the content syllabus on folktales.
The teaching periods for the teacher in Edwards have their advantages and disadvantages.
The good thing is the teacher has her classroom, she is comfortably settled with her identity all around. It helps her to be in control of the group. Hay, you get into the class and you know you have to conform to her rules or you get into trouble. That helps with discipline.
The uncomfortable part for me is the fact that you settle in one class for hours,teaching the same content over and over to the same group who always come in the same order everyday. The boredom makes me tired.
The tracking system also sadens me. I see so many with so much potentials losing confidence in themselves. some of them are not pushed hard enough- and at that age I dare say they need to be pushed to save themselves.
The teacher is helpless when it come to pushing them, because the children have their rights not to learn if they think so. This in a nut shell is the teacher's frustration- which makes me more than sad.
Apart from teaching them about my country and county's schooling system I have taught them a real content lesson. On the school term's content is poetry and my partener asked me to take if I could- of course I did.
I started the lesson which was very interactive and got the students themselves to come out with wonderful ideas of the poem. The next day we continued with the language and imagery used to enhance the poem, we reviewed the whole poem and on the third day my partner and I had a test which I marked and gave to her.
The response of the groups, both to my class discussions and discoveries on the one hand and to the test on the other hand draws attention to the fact that they are all capable of learning academic content.
I am looking forward to another lesson in the content syllabus on folktales.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Valuable lesson from the Internship Experience
Co-teaching at Edwards Middle School has been an interesting experience. It´s been more than delivering content, it's been about learning about people.
One special moment about internship was when I had the chance to have students reading about three different Brazilian wild animals and comparing with an American wild animal. Thus, we have the following steps:
-Watching short videos about Brazilian wild animals
- Reading and researching about the animals
-Filling out a KWL chart about the reading
- Filling out a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting one Brazilian and one American animal( in pairs or in groups)
-Creating lyrics to a well known melody about the animals( in groups)
Throughout the activity, I could see a change in students' behaviour when their become more comfortable in working in groups, their interest and the lovely presentations in which they sang their songs.
It was,indeed, a great moment because I was finally teaching, and facing the challenge to work with a subject I do not master that well: Non-Fictional Reading Strategies.
Even being worried about how it would work,I'm glad I decided to go on because every smile, every question, the vision of students' engagement and joy are priceless. Those moments will be forever in my heart as they reassure me what really matters in teaching: the joy and fulfillment of creating knowledge.
One special moment about internship was when I had the chance to have students reading about three different Brazilian wild animals and comparing with an American wild animal. Thus, we have the following steps:
-Watching short videos about Brazilian wild animals
- Reading and researching about the animals
-Filling out a KWL chart about the reading
- Filling out a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting one Brazilian and one American animal( in pairs or in groups)
-Creating lyrics to a well known melody about the animals( in groups)
Throughout the activity, I could see a change in students' behaviour when their become more comfortable in working in groups, their interest and the lovely presentations in which they sang their songs.
It was,indeed, a great moment because I was finally teaching, and facing the challenge to work with a subject I do not master that well: Non-Fictional Reading Strategies.
Even being worried about how it would work,I'm glad I decided to go on because every smile, every question, the vision of students' engagement and joy are priceless. Those moments will be forever in my heart as they reassure me what really matters in teaching: the joy and fulfillment of creating knowledge.
Podcast and Free online course
If you are interested in creating a podcast in which you can use text, video or audio,try Podomatic.
Also, you can join the Electronic Village Online courses with free online courses provided by TESOL. Take a look at the courses they offered this year (http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/33481412/Call_for_Participation2011)
I hope you enjoy them!
Isabel
Also, you can join the Electronic Village Online courses with free online courses provided by TESOL. Take a look at the courses they offered this year (http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/33481412/Call_for_Participation2011)
I hope you enjoy them!
Isabel
interactive science/ math tutorials and classroom tools for other subject areas
http://www.skoool.com
I share this educational website to science and math teachers because I find the contents/activities very interesting and interactive for the students. This is sponsored by Intel Education and available in virtually more countries such as those in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, Middle East and South America. And what's cool is that this site is free. Check it out now and embrace the new concept in education, especially on the teaching-learning processes.
http://www.glencoe.com
These free on-line teaching resources provide classroom tools such as Chapter Test, Quizzes, Standardized Test Practice, Internet Laboratory Experiments, and Web Quests, to mention a few. Produced by McGrawHill-Education, it caters to a wide arena of disciplines such as Science, Mathematics, World Language, Social Studies, Language Arts, Reading, Technology Education, music and even Accounting. Please check it out now.
I share this educational website to science and math teachers because I find the contents/activities very interesting and interactive for the students. This is sponsored by Intel Education and available in virtually more countries such as those in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, Middle East and South America. And what's cool is that this site is free. Check it out now and embrace the new concept in education, especially on the teaching-learning processes.
http://www.glencoe.com
These free on-line teaching resources provide classroom tools such as Chapter Test, Quizzes, Standardized Test Practice, Internet Laboratory Experiments, and Web Quests, to mention a few. Produced by McGrawHill-Education, it caters to a wide arena of disciplines such as Science, Mathematics, World Language, Social Studies, Language Arts, Reading, Technology Education, music and even Accounting. Please check it out now.
Teaching Resources for Biology
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072437316/information_center_view0/#
This site contains animations, chapter quiz and outlines that can be used for full class discussion or group work. It is also a good way to save money because you don't need to buy the book or the CD that comes with the book.
http://www.ted.com/themes/browse
ILEP-SEMINAR: What I like about my Internship
The weekly internship at Seneca High School always brings new learning and fresh insights. Science teachers really exert effort in order to help students who find difficulty, particularly those who are lagging behind and those who are at risk of failing. I salute those science teachers who come to school an hour before the first class or stay behind for another hour just to be available for students who might come for tutorials. My heart goes out to the teachers because most of the time students do not appreciate the help extended to them but instead think that extra work are just to make things more complicated. Perhaps, high school students are all the same across cultures. I observed a class where the discussion was guided by a KWL chart. By facilitating students to fill out the three columns, lesson development and conceptual understanding seemed more organized. In another class, the teacher asked the students to come up with their own experiment procedures so that they would be able to test a principle. In another activity, instead of just asking the students to gather data, he asked them to identify the possible sources of errors if they were not able to get the data trends that they were expecting. These kinds of activities enhance the critical thinking and reasoning of students which is very important in science. But what I appreciate most is the Teacher Cadet elective class. Although not all the students who are in this class would take education in college, it is still a very relevant and direct effort to recruit students into the teaching profession. I hope this kind of elective would also become feasible in the Philippines.
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