Demonstrations

 Hello Everyone! This may sound nice for some and sad at the same time for all but this is the last Entry of this first-year semester

 and to close it the best way we had demonstrations of the teaching skills (speaking, writing, listening, and reading). There were four groups total and let me share some pictures of them and how it was as the final activity in English Didactics I.

How did they do?

Listening 

There were two groups presenting the Listening into a class demonstration and now it was our time to SHINE! The activities we picked were simple. The first activity was about a single listening where students needed to grab as many verbs as they could, but what they did not really know is that we had a Kahoot game right after the activity which was surprising somehow. 😄 Then we played a piece of Twenty-One Pilots - Ride where a group of students was asked to pile the right lyrics in the order it was sung, adding that it was a fast part of the song, and the rest of students had to write at least two sentences and identify what grammar tense it was. 

The second listening group had some entertaining activities such as Telephone where 2 groups had to pass the message by whispering it and the last person in the raw had to say aloud the sentence received, nobody transmitted the full message. 😂 And, they played a song and we had a group of words so we needed to listen and circle the word we caught from the lyrics. It was challenging I got to say. 

 

Speaking

All the speaking activities were really interesting since they involved a large group of the class and the activities carried out were creating a story out of an image but the story would be shared in the group and had to make sense. The same group developed the use of modal verbs with which students had 15 seconds to give advice about a situation given and so. They also developed a spelling contest, it was fun to see. 

The second group based their activity on an opinion, here we were given the question *what age is too young or too old to get a tattoo?* and as usual I was asked to answer 😁

Writing
For writing demonstrations we had some activities that involved organizing words in a sentence and writing an invitation letter where mine was about a life party planned by spider-man 😅 

The next group asked us to write a sentence out our names spelling, example> F- future, E - extrovert, and so on. I would lie to you if I tell you what I wrote 😇 neither I took a picture of it, sorry. but it was a good activity. 

Reading
So, many of us like reading, and some others do not. Although that brings me a conflict when comes to reading since I really like reading and I consider I have good comprehension, nonetheless, when reading is something demanded and I do not feel like reading I do not get any idea, not like that but I do not really focus on the lecture. These groups came with some texts to read, the first group provided us a text about cybersecurity and then answer some questions, I did not do that well though. Later, we completed a puzzle about the same topic. 

The second group included a text along a Hot Potato game whereinto the ball there were questions about the reading which I had and needed to answer, and I did not pass it 😅 I am telling you when I need to learn from the reading I need to be alone and focused 100% into the text to better comprehend what it is written. But, it was challenging and I liked it. 

THAT IS IT!

We finished one more semester and with this, we count nine already! We are about to be graduates and I did not believe I would be this far hehe 😅😌 I am very glad of how much I learned these few months but it is guaranteed that there will be more knowledge around the corner in order to have the teacher knowledge. 

I got to thank teacher Orlando for being really kind and supportive with the class and let him know that he is a great teacher and I can see how passionate he is about it. 

See you next semester. TIME FOR SOME REST!! 😊

Teaching Receptive Skills

             Welcome back to a new blog Entry! This time we learn about teaching receptive skills.

                                                   What does teaching receptive skills mean?

You will probably remember in your first years of learning that your English teacher always brings their tape recorder everywhere for listening activities in the classroom. This is so important for the student to develop their comprehension through listening, it also can be by podcasts, music, movies, etc. 

Same as reading, students need to read so that they are able to improve their comprehension and their vocabulary, and others like communication skills. It is important that they know the differentiated instructions to meet the need of the students and in this way, you will have an impact on the learning of the students.

In each of these approaches, you will need materials, for listening the well-mentioned tape recorder, podcasts, videos, etc, and for reading you may have an easy reading, something short for better timing and comprehension, and information that can be productive and easy to soak by the student depending on their level. 

And that is a bit of what the receptive skills are about. I am pretty sure that this will help anybody to understand better and do a good job as teachers because the way you measure the success of teacher is by the progress of their students. 

Have a good time and I will see you in the upcoming Entries where we are going to develop all these activities in the classroom.

See you in a bit!!

Teaching Speaking

 Hi Guys! It has been a heavy week since I did not post anything. To be honest, I have involved myself in many responsibilities that I could not foresee the impact on a daily basis. But anyways, here I am to explain a bit about Teaching Speaking.

As natural speakers, we have three dimensions at the time of it for instance:

- Transactional or Interpersonal

- Interactive or Non-interactive

-  Planned or Unplanned

The speaking will be influenced by our environment and that is the conversation type we will have. For example, when I find my friend on the street it will not be a transactional o formal conversation, all the opposite. It will be the same as speaking with the President, it will not be a friend-to-friend conversation. Now, how is it in the classroom?

In a Classroom will be more common to make use of Role-plays. Not the only one but it is practical for students and easy to recreate by the teacher, and easy to understand by the students. Here students can practice their pronunciation and confidence in speaking with a friend or many of them. We can add other approaches such as grammar or vocabulary by speaking about something specific, it means, I can ask a simple question such as "What types of cars can you see on the street?" by asking this question we are asked to answer with a specific vocabulary and subsequently practicing the pronunciation for car brands. 

A new technique we learned was Jazz Chants, have you ever heard about it? 

It was created by Carolyn Graham who had the inspiration after listening to people on the streets playing jazz and practicing a bit herself. 

If you are curious about it I suggest you get more info but... In a nutshell, it is about following a certain rhythm, the rhythm of Jazz, and explaining that the English language follows these 4-period rhythms where you practice your pronunciation and I dare to say your intonation too. 

As part of the activities, we created a Chant by giving a sentence. It was fun and interesting to apply in future classes. So, it will be all so far and I hope we keep on track for the last weeks of classes. 

See you next Entry!

Body language & coordination, and improvisation

This class was another day of practice and how to become a better teacher by knowing what they are willing to do in order to be great in their field. 

We started with a keeping focus activity. For this, we did two rows where we had a classmate face-to-face so we could be serious for a minute. It was very hard, especially with that friend of yours, but I did it. Following that activity we did something similar and we walked around without losing eye contact with the person. 

Next. We had to express emotions. I can say it was a really good activity to get out of their comfort zone, especially for those who are very shy and afraid of being in front of others. 

Here we walked and pretended to be models and kind of flirted with our mates using our faces. Unfortunately, I did not have videos or pictures of it, because you would have liked too much. Well, just the following...

In the last part of the class we acted out a movie scene that another group chose for us, and so did we. It was a challenge. I had watched Shreck many times but I have never memorized dialogues from the movie. But I can say it ended very well. 

All my classmates participated in it. Also, there was another where we acted in silence. At that moment we had to improvise a scene depending on the background music we had given by our classmates. I believe ours was the best, far from reality but still nice!!. I will share one of our classmate's scenes for you to have an idea of what it was about.

And finally, I will share a Jonathan of Luck for the next class>

See you in the next ENTRY!!

Voice Projection

 This week we had an interesting topic that I did not know teachers were taught with. In order to know more just join me next so you also know what this is about.

Voice projection is the strength of speaking. Thanks to this teachers are able to speak out loud clearly. So, it all starts from the expansion in the diaphragm where we accumulate air and use that same air to produce strength in the vocal tract that generates a strong voice without hurting your throat. 

We had some fun and useful practice with the whole classroom in order to work out our voice projection. Before this, we watched a video explaining the commercial voice which are>

* Organizational 

* Sales

* Natural

It is very hard to highlight the differences between practice but theoretically is

- Organizatinal. Mostly used for formal conferences or ads on TV. It is neutral and conveys formality.

- Sales. This is a bit more interactive with the voice and you sound more catchy for you to grab the listener's attention and sound persuasive.

- Natural. For some is harder to reach this tone, but the fast way to explain is that you sound with intonation and make it the most natural possible to one's ear.

Our classmate Nidia works on the radio every morning and has experience with voice projection. Fortunately, she was giving some tips on the best use of our voice and taking advantage of it. 

Besides that, We had some practice where we made two rows one in front of the other we had a conversation, but the teacher will say "move" and we must have step back to continue the conversation, so in this way, we could have a good voice projection.

But the most fun is that we had to imitate "female", "infant", and "male" voices as part of the practice of imitation too. Even we pretended we were top models and kind of flirt using expressions. It was good for confidence exercises. 

It was pretty much it this week. In the next one, we will practice a movie scene and have a pantomime scene too. stay safe and aware of the next Entry!!

Describing Teachers

 Hi there, we are back with some more knowledge. 😁

We carried out the Midterm exams throughout the last week. It was a really good week in terms of education. Now, let's get started with the new topic which is DESCRIBING TEACHERS. 

Being a teacher is a big task that not everyone will develop because it may seem huge, but is a vast experience that will fill your heart when you get to know and work with people. it is why we need to know the following aspects: 

- Teacher´s role in a classroom.

- As an organizer prior to a lesson.

- As performers (as activity and behaviors)

- Their rapport (the way they connect with each student)

- As teaching aids.

- As native or non-native speakers.

Each of them will be described as:

•  Teacher´s role in a classroom: here the teacher may be a controller by leading the way to learn, a prompter by being a reminder of activities upcoming, a participant by taking part in the students' environment, a resource by providing help to them, and a tutor by giving feedback about a project. 

• Teacher as an organizer: in this aspect, all teachers prepare the material on how to develop something before, during, and after. 

• Teacher as a performer: this is the way the teachers act or involve in the activity for students either to connect or help with the teacher.

• Teachers in rapport: this is the way they recognize the students by calling them by their favorite name, and so; they listen to students, respect them, being equal with all students.

• Teacher as Aid: this takes over certain ways to help such as providing research sources, giving instructions, and conveying meaning through expressions. 

• Teachers as native vs non-native speakers: in the context of English teachers sometimes if they are not native speakers will face a barrier of inferiority, but still they are able to connect and understand better the students and native speakers will have a big confidence towards the class.

That would do it for this week. Although, the second session of the week had to be from home because there is an important event at the campus of the University. 

Next week you will have more pictures and new adventures! 😄

Describing Learners.

 As we understood the learning styles, it is time to describe them. 

Let´s remember those learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and read/write. Now, to describe them we take into consideration aspects such as age, learner differences, language levels, motivation, and background. 

1. Age. For age, we have young children, adolescents, and adults. With each of them, we got to identify the approach we are having, in that way, we are able to communicate and have a certain engagement with students.

2. Learner Differences. Here, we need to identify the intelligence that these students may present so we have the idea of a better way to work with them.

3. Motivation. Understanding that we have students, so whose goal is to reach a certain level of knowledge, meaning, there is a means to reach that goal they have, we need to work with the motivation towards what they want, being their propeller.

4. Background. There is something beyond attending class, every learner has a background that we as teachers need to value. Sometimes, they come from a hard time situation in life and that is why they lose motivation, they have a scholarship, and so on. 

So, it is helpful when turning into a teacher. It is something to take into account.

Besides that, we had a visit from the call center Cognizant about how to be ready for a job interview and prepare your CV formally and professionally.