Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Would you like to be a sense-ational teacher?

Are you an innovative teacher who is always looking for new pedagogical strategies when you teach in the classroom? Are you interested in helping your students develop their full English skills? Do you encourage your students to make use of their five senses when they learn a foreign language?. If your answer was yes to any of the above question, then you may well be a teacher who is putting into practice Multisensory Teaching. Multisensory Teaching is a new and useful tool that teachers are using to teach English in schools. This magnificent teaching strategy is connected with the use of the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

It is well known that teachers should be conscious of Multisensory Teaching. Nevertheless, most teachers do not take advantage of the five wonderful channels their students that have. During my work experience obsevations at Saint George’s College, I have seen something different happen.. In most classes I have observed teachers activate their students’ five senses. For instance, teachers encourage their students not just to use their eyes to see or their ears to listen to carefully, but also, to take risks and to use their body or taste in order to learn.

The implementation of this new way of teaching has had positive results on students’ lives. They even do not hesitate to say that they like English classes because they have the opportunity to develop their skills through watching movies, singing English songs, using their bodies to learn different English topics such as prepositions, parts of the body, types of clothes, and so on and so forth. Teachers who are keen on exploting new abilities in their students advise that if teachers use the Multisensory Teaching strategy in their classes, they will have more interactive and fun classes than teachers who are just focus on grammar or vocabulary.

My best piece of advice for teachers is to analyse your teaching styles and strategies inside the classroom. If you improve your educational practices, you will be able to give your students the chance to discover their personal strengths. Besides, those analisis will help you to identify that there are many different learning styles present in a classroom. As I wrote above. The good new about this is that I strongly believe there are many alternative teaching methods that can be used to help students in this process of developing their five senses. In this point, teachers have the huge responsibility to understand that each student is a unique world. It is also important that educators remember that, the more emphasis you put into developing your students’ ablilities, the better results you will receive.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

A disorganized Letters soup!


Take this game, and use your field independent ability!

AORGHBURTONDKASDIFLRAULARSOEIÑ
URITJFLBRYANDIOENDLAOSLOPFG
RAULSJYEODNADLODPSUNGKL
SURITHFJGLORNZALESYFIG
AWSEQTRYFUMARIALOPDFÑXNV
OITKFYHEDFNKHOHS
FGDERASXNCHETOKLIPD
POIUYTREWQASFDFGHJKLL
MNBVCXZASWQEDRFAAAYHGUTJHOKOH
LOJHIIIHDYEHDNCOEODMHADJFKOEL
IRJJGLSNFHGNFVBNMRTYUIOSDFGHJKA
READSFCJUIRGPDETRICKLHIOKJSA
WEADSCXVFRANKINFKGLOJPLÑP
CARTERMDJGIIHKROGLS
DFNELSONJDKFIEJDJSOLEROYUTRHDKG
HJUEYRHFMALOSUEDURRELLDAIOLSYU
QWASXDFERFOJUANDJUFIEGKÑPALOPIDAS
JIURJFKLHJUAOELIASZDCK
OIUYTREWQASDDD
JHGUIEHOTJEARMR
ASEDRFTGAPOLTIUYTOSASPL
UYTERASDXCZVFGKJOIOPIUYTR
SKGIROLTUYABCKAYCOWIREERALLS
RTEACHERSJUFIEFNFJYTRASDXCL
JAIRAMORIENRPSLAAORLEPFMGEOIUYTREWASDS
ARJRHOEIHYEWARMANDOJKGFADSOI
EÑLKJHGFDSAAERSTDFGFYTUIOMN
LJGFORTJORTOIASZDEFJNAOHRGLH
YTREASDZACQWNLIOHPDENLDNGOR
KJUIYTRAESAZDCPBMBSLPVMRNPOI
LIONASXZWEIDNGHEKSLNKLEASFJSSNFG


Look for these words.

1. Burton
2. Bryan
3. Raul
4. Maria
5. Chet
6. Detrick
7. Rankin
8. Carter
9. Durrel
10. Juan
11. Leroy
12. Teacher
13. Armando
14. Nelson

Good Luck!

Friday, October 23, 2009

IMPROVING YOUR MEMORY!!

If you don't remember where you left your keys, your bag or your BIP! please! take this test and inhance your memory!

Who did say these phrases?

a."Ok, you can be the teacher, now!"
1. Miss Johnson
2. Mr. Advani
3. Troy Jones

b."But, I'm reading now!"
1. Miss J
2. Troy Jones
3. Hakim

c. "I'm so mad at you I could spit, I don't want to talk to you"
1. Hakim
2. Dr. Horner
3.Miss J

d. "Will you let me come back to class and take my final tomorrow"

1. John
2. Hakim
3. Michael

e. "I sent him home"
1. Mr. Parker
2. Miss Grady
3.Miss J

f. "You are a winner"
1. Danny
2. Miss J
3. Jenny

g. "You are the best teacher I've had as far as teachers go"
1. Miguel
2. Troy Jones
3. Danny

h. "You are a good class and I enjoyed working with you today"
1. Mr. Mack
2. Miss J
3. Mr. Pablo

i. "I look forward to the next opportunity to share a learning experience with you"

1. Mr. Parker
2. Mr. Simms
3. Miss J

j. "I know they do not love me"
1. Miss J
2. Junior
3. Hal

k. "Three brains are better and faster"
1. Miss J
2. Hal
3. Mr. Parker

l. " Not like the guys in the movies who kill animals and stuff"
1. Jenny
2. Attiba Mack
3. Mr. Parker

m. " I am going to grade it on how much effort you put into it"
1. Miss Grady
2. Miss J
3. Mr. Simms

n. "...but I know I have to get an education so I can earn enough money to go and look for my mother one day"
1. Nikki Anderson
2. Mr. Advani
3. Miss J

ñ. " I want to know, honestly, what you would do if you were me"
1. Junior
2. Miss J
3. The Academy Math teacher




Now, check your answer! JUST in case you have finished!! okay!!!!
a.3/ b.3/ c.3/d.2/ e.2/ f.2/ g.2/ h.2/ i.3/ j.2/ k.1/l.1/ m.2/n.1/ ñ.2//

Saturday, October 10, 2009

""Dangerous minds""

An interview with Miss Johnson. A teacher with fire in her heart.

Miss Johnson, tells our dear readers. What did you feel when Mrs. Nichols explained you that English II-P class needed urgently a teacher for the next day?
Well, I felt many things. Mrs. Nichols told me that they were 44 students. First of all, I thought that I had not any concrete tool to teach them. For example, I did not have any copy of the book students were using. On the other hand, however, I felt that situation could be a challenge for me. And I also thought that if teachers encourage their students to take risks I had also do the same, and just believe in my students and I.

Were Hal Gray pieces of advice good ones for you?
Yes, totally. He gave pretty meaningful pieces of advices which I still really appreciate.He taught me, for instance, that it was not an intelligent idea to try to outshout students. He told me that did not work at all. Mrs. "You just stand up in from of the class and wait for them to shut up" Hall told me,and I have realized it really worth the time.

Do you think you have taught your students to be nice and respectful?
That's what I hope. I have given my best trying they could understand that they have to respect each other, and that it is pretty necessary to be nice. I remember, once I told them that one of our principle rules will be: BE NICE. As I have seen, I think it has worked not successfully, but at least they try to be nice and respectful.

You have been witness of the big change that your students have experimented during these semester. What do you think is the key to achieve all those wonderful changes?
It is a hard question, you know, I have just tried to listen what my students want to tell me. I think that the biggest problem that Education has is the fact that teachers do not pay attention to what thier students feel or think. As teachers do not take into consideration their cultures, what they really need. We just impose them contents which do not have relation with their lives and with themselves.

Once, you let them to write on the board everything they knew about you. Did you feel they knew you?
Of course, yes. Despite of I told them to write what they really want to. They were pretty respectful, and none of them hurt my feelings. They wrote things such as: wears red boots, we can see them, you are fair. Those phrases soaked through my heart. They show they are making an effort in order to know me. I really appreciate that.

Do you think teachers in your school are not interesting in encouraging students to believe in them?
To be honest, and as Hall adviced me once, all teachers have their own way of teaching, and maybe, because of the bad experiences they could have had, they are unmotivated to teach and learn from their own students. So I think that I also have to be tolerant with them and show them students can improve and, teachers have to believe in all their potencial.