The new teacher's role during social distancing. Part I

During social distancing, we need to rethink teaching and learning philosophy and how to prioritize our relationship with students. More than ever, they need coaching and support to understand anxiety and fear. Planning, teaching, assessments and marking paper will always be important but now there's a call for teachers as life coaches.

Here I suggest one thing you can do to support and coach them. On the following 2 weeks I will share more ideas.

1. Hold reading conferences by video or phone

So little has felt normal about this new version of school.  Schedule one conference a week with some students class via Zoom, FaceTime, or an old-school phone call. They choose a story in English they have at home and read you a few pages. Give them a compliment and something to work on and I ask them some comprehension questions about what they have just read. It also provides a way to do a little teaching tailored to each individual child—reminding them to look for little words inside hard big words, or to remember that the author's lesson is usually something more widely applicable than the specific plot of the book.

The conferences will provide a time for each child to tell you how they're doing, what's on their mind, and what they've been up to during the odd days of this new reality we're all living from home. Here's a foundational truth of teaching: One-on-one time with a student deepens your relationship with that child. The pandemic hasn't changed that truth.

I hope you enjoy the idea. Next week, more hints...

Stay safe and take care of youtselves

Promoting fair assessment for special needs' students

Assessment is a tricky task of teaching but when it comes to students with special educational needs, there is a vast number of aspects that have to be considered. Depending on the disability, a student may have trouble with:

- Holding a pencil

- Hearing a question clearly

- Focusing on a picture

- Recording an answer in time even when he or she knows the answer

- Concentrating on a task in the presence of other people

- Answering a question at the pace needed by the rest of the class

Traditionally, teachers have assumed that all students either have these skills or can learn them with just modest amounts of coaching, encouragement and will power. But that is not really the case for SEN's students.

So, considering the facts above how can teachers find a better assessment?

There are a number of strategies for modifying assessments in ways that attempt to be fair and that at the same time recognise how busy teachers usually are.

These strategies include:

1) Supplementing conventional assignments with portfolios. A portfolio is a collection of a student’s work that demonstrates a student’s development over time. It usually includes some sort of reflective or evaluative comments from the student, the teacher, or both (Carothers & Taylor, 2003; Wesson & King, 1996).

2) Devising a system for observing the student regularly and informally recording notes about the observations.

3) Recruiting help from teacher assistants who are sometimes present to help a student with a disability.

If you have a student with a learning disabilities, talk to your peers and principal to find the best way for assessment. Also, don't hesitate to contact to discuss and share ideas

The Power of Student Engagement in ELT .

Have you ever considered the power of student engagement in your classroom?
If you have, you are on the right track. But have you thought of the impact of greeting your students with a warm 'Hello' as they enter your classroom?
If you haven't.... check out this information:

* accademic engagement increases by 20 points when students are greeted at the door by their teachers.
* disruptive behavior decreases by 9% with greatings.
* on the course of a day, greetings can add 1 hour of learning to students.

Amazing, isn't it?
I wish you all a bunch of warm greetings and lots of engagement.

Reference:
www.edutopia.org
https://twitter.com/edutopia/status/1155494620500918274?s=20

Why is reading comprehension so hard for your students?

Hi friends!!
If you or your students want to thrive on reading skills...this passage will suit you perfect. Enjoy the reading!

It is a fact that questions related to comprehension reading have now become a mandatory part of every competition and various examinations, it is used to check one’s logical ability. Also it is clear that students struggle to master reading skills, at least in Brazil. But why??

Well, in the case of English language tests and various competition exams, answering comprehension question is not an easy task and many students often wonder on “how to answer comprehension questions more effectively”

There are many reasons why students feel this way while doing comprehension questions.

• One of the main reasons is that most of the students are so familiarized with an easy level of reading comprehension questions that they easily get flustered when they see passages that have a harder vocabulary and meaning.
• Most students fail to understand the language and hence they lose interest in studying for such answers. But in reality, with proper practice and hard work one can easily conquer comprehension questions and they can be used to gain marks easily in a competitive exam. Here are a few important tips for answering comprehension tests

• Do not Use Outside Knowledge
• Make logical Guesses
• Review the Answer at least twice
• Always read the instructions Carefully
• Always go through the Questions First

And you? Is there an effective reading comprehension tip to share with us?

Why using games in the classroom?

There are many reasons why games should be used in the classroom. In today's post I will focus on the most relevant ones:
1) Games portrait real life. There are RULES, OBJECTIVES and OBSTACLES.
2) Games are voluntary.
3) Games offer choices.
4) Choices have consequences.
5) Consequences offer feedback.
6) Games offer freedom to experiment.
7) Games offer freedom to fail.
8) Games offer freedom to try on different identities.
9) Games offer freedom of effort.
10) In games, participants are involved in an imaginary situation, with explicit roles and implicit rules ( Vygotski)
11) Games lead to a greater degree of self-regulation, the participants actions being determined by the rules of the game. (Vygotski) .
12) When involved in games, participants' concentration and application to the task are much greater than in academically-directed activities contrived by the teacher.

Tapping into motivation in ESL classes

Hi there,

Motivation will be the topic of the week. I will write from the students' perspective.

Pay attention to these 3 models of students' motivation in class. Can you see how a student belongs to a group or the other?

* Deep learners respond well to the challenge of mastering a difficult and complex subject. These are intrinsically motivated students who are often a joy to teach!

• Strategic learners are motivated primarily by rewards. They react well to competition and the opportunity to best others. They often make good grades but won’t engage deeply with a subject unless there is a clear reward for doing so. They are sometimes called “bulimic learners,” learning as much as they need to do well on a test or exam and then promptly forgetting the material once the assessment is over.Handle strategic learners by avoiding appeals to competition. Appeal to their intrinsic interest in the subject at hand. Design your assignments (tests, papers, projects, etc.) so that deep engagement with the subject is necessary for success on the assignments. Do so by requiring students to apply, synthesize, or evaluate material instead of merely comprehending or memorizing material.
• Surface learners are often motivated by a desire to avoid failure. They typically avoid deep learning because it they see it as inherently risky behavior. They will often do what it takes to pass an exam or course, but they won’t choose to go beyond the minimum required for fear of failure.Handle surface learners by helping them gain confidence in their abilities to learn and perform. “Scaffold” course material and assignments by designing a series of activities or assignments that build on each other over time in complexity and challenge. Encourage these learners often and help them reflect on what they’ve learned and what they’ve accomplished.

Source: Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 40-41.

The X-ray of successful English learners

Hi fellow teachers,

Have you ever considered how the study habits of your students can affect their level of ability and performance?
So on this post, I will share with you relevant research information about it. Researchers have categorized students into 4 different groups:
1) the weekenders: if you belong to this group, you only study on the weekends. So, keep your eyes wide open because this habit may make you lose motivation as you feel you can't learn at the speed you want to. You are probably binge studying and this does no good to your motivation and performance.
2) The 9 to fiver: if you show this study habit, you usually study at work, at those short moments you get some free moments. No good! Studying requires a specific moment of concentration and attention and your work environment is not the best place.
3) Daily students: if you take some minutes every day to study you are on the right path to succeed. You will see more positive results in your performance and that will make you feel more motivated towards learning. Beware that a 15-minute study routime is good enough! Remember, don't binge studying.
4) Daily student at bed time: according to research, students who take 15 minutes studying English at bedtime are the ones who show better performance results. Studying at bedtime is a brain-friendly habit so why not giving it a try?
Check below a graph which contrats your studying habits and your abily.

Lesson plans. What I planned vs. What happened

Do you know that only 8% of New Year’s resolutions are only?  41% of tasks on people’s to-do lists are never completed. 

Plans are regularly ignored or discarded as life happens. Plans don’t tell you anything except people’s intentions. But my goal today is not talking about your personal plans and resolutions. My point is to make you reflect whether your lesson plans make part of these statistical figures. So I invite you to answer the questions below:

How often are you capable of meeting your lesson plan? I hope more than 41%!!!!!!! It's advisable that teachers can accomplish their lesson plans something in the area of 80%. If you are writing your lesson plans and not accomplishing it on a regular basis....there is a couple of thing you had better take into account:

Does your lesson plan fit your students' interests and not yours?

Are you attentive to your teacher talking time? The overall TTT during a class should be 30%

Are your instructions clear enough so that you don't need to repeat them many times?

Are the group arrangements effective? Sometimes I see teachers tendind to teacher-whole group format too much. This arrangement can be very time consuming if you want everybody to have a say. 

And last but not least, disruptive behaviour... I dare say this is reason number one for teachers losing focus and energy in class...so if this is the reason for you feeling frustrated about not meeting your lesson plans needs, ask for help to find the best strategy to solve it.

I hope I shed some light on this topic for you... And remember....the reason your lesson plan is not working may not be the lesson plan itself...there are other things to take into account. 

Count on me if you need help. I hope you enjoyed the reading. 😀

Can you recognize Thesaurus Syndrome?

If you came across the paragraph below. What would you think of it?

When I went to the meeting, I took the leaflets that my team had prepared because I wanted to show my colleagues which flyers our team wanted to use. We had worked hard to produce pamphlets because we were aware that another organisation had used brochures very successfully. My colleagues agreed at the meeting that the booklets that my team had prepared were appropriate for our customers.

Well, we can observe that although this writer can get his ideas across, he fails in choosing the right words, in other words, Thesaurus Syndrome.

Before using ‘thesaurus words’:
– Find a sample sentence that uses the word. Compare it with your phrase/sentence. Is your usage appropriate?
– If you see a list of words in a thesaurus, pick the one with which you’re familiar… at least you can’t go wrong!
– The best way of expanding your vocabulary is by reading. I don’t just mean Nobel Prize winning novels, Shakespeare and 18th century poetry. A scathing film review can offer as much in terms of new vocab and interesting turns of phrase. 

To conclude this post I will quote Stephen King: “Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.”  

That's food for thought, isn't it?

Great apps to study on your own!

Hi guys!
I highly recommend these two apps for teachers and students who study by their own. One is a prepatory for TOEFL. The other is highly engaging because you can practice your grammar while competing against people all over the world! Very fun!!

Top 12 TED Talks for teachers

In Brazil, we are now getting close to the end of classes (about 1 month to go). Hence, I believe it is time we watched some awesome videos that are very inspirational in the sense of showing our real value as teachers and educators. Enchant your students, you can really change their lives for good.

Follow the link for this top 12 videos:

https://www.weareteachers.com/ted-talks-teachers/#

Parent meeting: questions any teacher must be ready to answer.

Hi friends,
Every time there is a parent meeting, teachers may get anxious about the questions. But what we need to have in mind is that parents are not educators and they usually come up with questions that are superficial and not benefitial for the learning process at all.
So why not preparing a meeting, answering all the questions suggested below. You will show your work and parents will feel confident about you.

 Questions 

1.     What academic standards do you use, and what do I need to know about them?
2.     How will you respond if or when my child struggles in class?
3.     What are the most important and complex (content-related) ideas my child needs to understand by the end of the year?
4.     Do you focus on strengths or weaknesses?
5.     How are creativity and innovative thinking used on a daily basis in your classroom?
6.     How is critical thinking used on a daily basis in your classroom?
7.     How are assessments designed to promote learning rather than simple measurement?
8.     What can I do to support literacy in my home?
9.     What kinds of questions do you suggest that I ask my children on a daily basis about your class?
10.     How exactly is learning personalized in your classroom? In the school?
11.     How do you measure academic progress?
12.     What are the most common instructional or literacy strategies you will use this year?
13.     What learning models do you use (e.g., project-based learning, mobile learning, game-based learning, etc.), and what do you see as the primary benefits of that approach?
14.     What are the best school or district resources that we should consider using as a family to support our child in the classroom?
15.     Is there technology you'd recommend that can help support my child in self-directed learning?
16.     What are the most common barriers you see to academic progress in your classroom?
17.     How is education changing?
18.     How do you see the role of the teacher in the learning process?
19.     What am I not asking but should be?

Practice your listening with movies! I have some suggestions

 Do you want to practice you English in a more contextualized setting, using real language. Check this ones out. I highly recommend

https://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/videos3.html

http://en.ver-taal.com/trailer_blooddiamond.htm

http://en.ver-taal.com/trailer_blooddiamond.htm
http://movies.clubefl.gr

Hope you can benefit from it!

Vo

Tabela Montessori - educando para a responsabilidade

A perspectiva pedagógica de Maria Montessori teve um impacto global e renovou muitos métodos educativos realizados até então, a ponto de “chocar” os setores do ensino clássicos e mais conservadores.

Hoje, este método que enfatiza, acima de tudo, a liberdade de aprendizagem e a responsabilidade do próprio aluno no processo de aquisição de novos conteúdos, não é apreciado na maioria das instituições. Podemos encontrar este método em algumas escolas particulares onde são trabalhadas muitas dessas estratégias interessantes, mas a pedagogia de Montessori não é o pilar da nossa educação atual (pelo menos não no Brasil).

Pirâmide de Aprendizagem de Glasser

O psiquiatra americano William Glasser (1925-2013) aplicou sua teoria da escolha para a educação. De acordo com esta teoria, o professor é um guia para o aluno e não um chefe .

Glasser explica que não se deve trabalhar apenas com memorização, porque a maioria dos alunos simplesmente esquecem os conceitos após a aula. Em vez disso, o psiquiatra sugere que os alunos aprendem efetivamente com você,  fazendo.

Além disso, Glasser também explica o grau de aprendizagem de acordo com a técnica utilizada.

A teoria de William Glasser vem amplamente sendo divulgada e aplicada pro professores e pedagogos mundo afora, é uma das muitas teorias de educação existentes, e uma das mais interessantes, pois ela demonstra que ensinar, é aprender!

English Certificate GET YOURS NOW!

Below I am going to go over a few key reasons why learning the English language and having a certificate are so important to the professional world:

• Being fluent in the English language can improve your chances of obtaining a job. It allows many applicants to market themselves as bilingual which is a trait that many companies seek. It is crucial when working for international firms and organizations.
• People who have undertaken English language courses find that it is easier to travel anywhere they please. 

• English is the unofficial language of business. It is a key language in business both domestic and international and many different components of business are completed in English.
• Many universities, colleges, and institutes of higher education are making English a requirement before enrolling in their programs.
• Being able to understand the English language makes surfing the internet easier. Most of the computer programs and computer software in the world today is coded or written in English. Many search engines use English as their primary language.
• So what are waiting for? Validade your knowledge or start studying as soon as possibIe. Above I send an institution which certifies your knowledge. Have a go!
• 
  

Approach, methodology and techniques. All you should know in a simple way!

Whenever a teacher starts working for a new school he/she will always be asked to follow a new approach, methodology and techniques. I have already gone throught this situation a number of times and here I try to explain this terminology in a simple and short way. Hope it can help you somehow! 😄

Desenvolvimento da Escrita para crianças

Queridos pais e educadores,
Compartilho esta tabela da Neurosaber que ilustra muito bem o processo de escrita dos pequenos

Where is the WEB driving education?

The question of this post has been o my mind for some years. Fortunately now, some answers have emerged because I have been taking a course on Web Science at the University of Southampton which aims at shedding some light to attendants where the web came from, where it is now and where it may go.

Needless to say that the World Wide Web has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate, and educate. We increasingly live in a Web-dependent society in a Web-dependent world. The Web is also the largest human information construct and it is growing faster than any other system we know about.

As educators, we need to understand the current, evolving, and potential Web so that we can get the most of it in our classes. If we just standstill, things change at the speed of light and our teaching practice may become out of date. It is our role have an awareness of current and emerging research questions for Web Science.

In brief words Web Science is the study of the social behaviours in the Web at the inter-person, inter-organizational and societal level, the technologies that enable and support this behaviour, and the interactions between these technologies and behaviours.

Take some some time and have a look at this dense but cutting edge topic. Feel free to share any comments with me or make any questions if you will.

To start I invite to watch the TED talk :

Tim Berners-Lee: The next web | TED Talk | TED.com

https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web

Useful Apps for Education

A mobile app is a computer program designed to run on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.
Apps are usually available through application distribution platform, which began appearing in 2008 and are typically operated by the owner of the mobile operating system, such as the Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store, and BlackBerry App World. The term "app" is a shortening of the term "application software". It has become very popular, and in 2010 was listed as "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society
I have been using a number of apps in my classes but I will list below some that are really resourceful for classroom management and general study.

1) Coin Flip full free : Wanna flip a coin for a hard decision? This app let you select your favorite coins and sport backgrounds to try your luck. Beautiful coins from 28 nations and different beautiful backgrounds to choose. Students love it!
2) Random Student Picker: This app is designed for teacher who want to quickly and easily pick students at random to answer questions, complete tasks or join groups. Classes can be added by entering names or copying and pasting. 
3) I love English (English videos): English Conversation Listen" is a helpful app to practice english conversation for everyone. With more than 1 english channels categorized in 6 levels, you can strengthen your english speaking and listening skills perfectly.
4) Too Noisy Lite online:  As the noise level in a classroom increases beyond an acceptable level the noise level meter dynamically indicates the level of noise, and the background graphics within the app change to reflect the noise levels.

What about you? What apps have you been using in class? Share with us!