Teaching experience at Ricitos de Oro

Before starting, it is necessary to note that the affection, love, children’s respect is gratifying and encouraging, since, on several occasions there was despair and confusion in the implementation of the plans but the persistence, support and guidance of the teachers who helped us to find some solutions to barrier objects were different every time about the practices and learning project.

Throughout the implementation of the practices we understood that we played a teacher profile feature (being perceptive) to conclude that some activities were necessary to repeat them in most cases to see that children did not enjoy more than using their imagination with pictures and colors, although they studied in a closed space which they should stand through the day.

With the above, we are identified with the new school by the constant adjustment and management of our planning, deducing that the flexibility and rectification of their teachers are teaching characteristics.

Say hello to our pupils :)

England presentation

This event was important to me, we were able to plan a class for my partners about English Culture (England) they learned as much as us. We enjoyed a lot. We made this class in two days. In fact the class finished with a game, our “who wants to be millionaire?” version.

Finally, the closure was English music presentation. It means Editson and William played 7 songs while the classmates were eating. Of course they sang with us too. We had a really good time

Next video is a sample that we did in order to simulate a England Public house (We are not guitarrist, we did it for academic purposes)

If you want to learn about British culture, please click HERE and HERE

Working experience

It is for me a great honour to be able to make this breef but well documented report about my personal experienced obtained here, at the U.E. "Ramon Vivas Gomez" state school. From February to June, 2010.

The Field work begins with the entrance into the classroom, in which most of the students presented a slight lack of attention, which progressively was evolving positively until they get a full, dynamic attention to the point they started developing, performing and taking part in all the activities appointed.It's necessary to punctualize that at the begining, the objectives were not acomplished 100%, it is with the progress of the activities we achieve the goals. Children, at the beginning reacted in an apathetic, distracted, scattered manner, but, according to my personal experience they started

involving in the activities, little by litle to the point they became affectionate and requested me to stay for the following school year. They even wanted me to give

them class.

It is so rewarding to achieve such important goals, specially, concerning the children's education, this experience was only based in infusing them values, the same our society has lost nowadays. I am so pleased to to watch their improvement and keep the satisfaction that I have taught them well, according to their level.

The PPP Approach

Here there is something similar with the content based, task based and participatory approaches. It is that PPP is divided in three phases.

Presentation

Practice

Production.

The most interesting thing is realistic situation are planted in the classroom. At the moment that our partners did it, they showed a lot of resources, like pictures, images and so on. Later they asked us to build the meaning of the key words. Also, the team (of this method) was focus in our participations because the wanted to correct us if we made mistakes just like the theory says. Later, they asked us to make a conversation with someone in the class. Their idea was practice the dialogue familiarity. Of course, the team always was careful in order to correct us again. Finally, they let us to make the final step, It means we were free to interact to everybody, the team were not correct us unless if we asked them. They did a good job.

 

This is a kind of images that the group showed us (This picture was taken by Diana Carolina)

Reference:
English Raven (s/f) "The PPP Approach to Communicative Language Teaching"

Ascendent up method

This method is quite similar to the teaching strategies, "teaching through the film". It means the learning is through a video; the difference is that you can use songs too. So, the four skills are used constantly. For example, when the activity is applied, the teacher asks to the students writing their reactions first. After that, they can share their ideas to whole the class. In our point of view, the activity requires a lot of patience and dedication. Also, the ascendant up, method should be apply to students with intermediate or advanced language skills, just like the group applied in the classroom.

here, the teachers are introducing a song.

Content-based, Task-based and Participatory approaches

We applied this method in classroom. It was interesting because the teachers (we) and the student (my partners) were always interacting. As the method’s name says; it has three parts that it must be developed carefully because every part has relation with the others. Of course, any topic can be used, all depends what the students likes. The context is very important in order to catch the attention. For example: we chose to talk about the World Cup (nowadays, who do not like this topic?)

We planned the class about the soccer. So, the first part (Content-based) we selected a specific vocabulary and we tried to have a short conversation about it because the main idea was the student makes prediction or guesses of the meanings the words through pictures.

 

This is a kind of examples did it in content-based

The second part (Task-based) we prepared two things; a video and a material where they had to fill the blanks according with the vocabulary learned, The function of video was like ice breaker and a support World Cup material. The main point is learning not qualifying
The third part (Participatory approaches) we (the teachers) plays a game with them. We called it vocabulary’s game and the rules are simple. The player should mention quickly a word according to the topic. For example; the referee, goal keeper, red card, footballer and so on… If someone think a lot or repeat the vocabulary he/she would lose. Every activity liked a lot and the professor of English IV, Jhonny Angola said that it was original because we used the four skills at the same time.

They are playing the vocabulary game (Diana Peñaloza was the winner)

 
The idea in this method is the simple things because the student should not feel the pressure in any moment. He/she should feel comfortable. It is the only way to success.

You can download the suporting material created by Editson Delgado, Gabriel Sandoval and Jennifer Sánchez HERE , HERE and HERE

References:

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and principles in language teaching. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 

Oxford University Press (S/F)  "Content-based, Task-based and Participatory approaches"

Total Physical Response

It Was Developed by James Asher in the 70s. Its specialty is to stimulate and associated physical responses with the language learning, it means, combining activities and listening strategies with sounds of laughing, screaming, whining, and so on. This indicates that listening and speaking have main focus because up till now, the language is learned practicing these skills. According to these characteristics, TPM is recommended for beginners in language learning, since it specializes in simple language, capturing the best interest of children. For this reason, we believe that the exponents were not in need of applying the method among ourselves because we could be to bore.

Please click HERE to find out more

Communicative Language Learning

This method has other influences. That is why some strategies applied have certain similarities. Of course, the important thing is to have communication, it never be interrupted (inside or outside the classroom,) for this reason, the student has the power to manipulate the communication or (private) dialogue proposed because the idea is gett ing to know the student with the language. The teacher must be careful when he choose a strategy. For example, he can choose among:

1) Private Encourage Dialogue among Students

2) Established an immersion environment of instruction

3) Retention by Instructional Aid songs.

Everything depends on which strategy is more appropriate with the student.

Choosing the strategy is not easy. The teacher must know how to diagnose; the problem was presented by our classmates. We realized that presentation of this subject was easy to them but the execution of it was so hard.

The explanations of the strategies referred to this method are HERE

The Desuggestopedia Method

It tries to go beyond of the four skills; it tries to promote motivation and meaningful learning through the senses. Really it is a clever idea and quite advanced for its time (in the late 70s) created by Georgi Lozanov. That is why the class’s motivation must develop through images and videos of nature (flora and fauna) with music’s touch that stimulates the brain and its metacognition (clasical music would be an excellent choice) and later, pass to special activities those are applied in order to use the feeling and satisfaction.

We believe The Desuggestopedia Method (TDM) can be applied at any level of learning English. As we observed in class, our classmates took great pains to our needs and participation by dynamics created on the basis of our features. However, we recommend being careful at the moment in designing them because we think that only the animal’s activity was not according to our ages. In generally, the class and the method was great.

Please click HERE to find out more

Next video was shows a master piece Bethoven's moonlight sonata played by Wilheml Kempff (the team used the song at the classroom) please enjoy it!

The Silent Way

The method was created in early 70’s by Caleb Gattegno. This innovated the role of the teacher because he/she tries to avoid to speak with his/her student while they are practically working, teaching, learning, correcting, sharing and doing the class by themselves just like Gattegno said "the teacher works with the student; the student works on the language."

The silent way does not means that teachers do not planned the class, on the contrary, the must think about the resources and topics because this method works with key words (nouns, verbs, values and so on…) written on the color coded.

We believe that our classmates worked so well in it (they used the urban tribes topic), because we did not have any problem with the activities. However, we think that Silent Way should be applied in an intermediate or advanced level students because the listening and speaking are used a lot and the fluency is very important.

Next video, the teacher gives instruction (notice the color coded on the blackboard)

Please click HERE to find out more

The Direct Method

It is also known as natural approach, developed towards the end of the 19th century. It is named direct or natural because emulates the target language context. This means that the class handles spontaneously and very participatory itself as if it was a family reunion. This corresponds to the explanation focuses synonyms, comparisons, demonstrations and not translations. The idea is learn to use the target language not analyze or study it.

It's really difficult to apply this method without having the necessary resources like pictures and objects (learning by association). For that reason, our partners of English IV used certain images, stories and even songs in order to make the class a little more entertaining. We clarifying that certain questions were asked and answered (in English) for participants with the idea of leaving no doubt. In conclusion, listening and speaking skills are important and often use them in TDM. So, the classmates recommended develop the mentioned skill first, just like when we were babies.

In this picture the classroom was singing.

Please click HERE to find out more

The Grammar Translation Method - One of the ancient methods

It is the most common method for teaching English in elementary and high school, in despite of advances in teaching. It was even shown in the presentation by our classmates who emphasized the key points of this method. For example reading, vocabulary memorization, rules of grammar, punctuation marks and the explanation of this method in the mother tongue (Spanish) rather than target language. We are not saying that the grammar translation method is the worst of all, in fact, our perspective it would be the best way to learn a dead language.

  

Zaida explains a exercise during the class

However, in the acquisition of a language, it would be quite difficult to learn easily. Actually, it would even dislike of limitation and traumatized by the process extremely slow. For instance, our student’s English life, after many years of contact with English (five years in high school and five in the university) we still have difficulty of fluency. Just like GTM class in English IV, It a little bit boring for having the same. In short, this method unbalances the skills because it only focuses on Reading and writing and forgets listening and speaking skills completely when all these should be developed simultaneously.

Next link is a short but great presentation about GTM (Including exercises) http://www.slideshare.net/vacoka/grammar-translation-method-presentation

The Audio Lingua Method

The Audio Lingua Method is used by some professors around the world. Where the target is always to introduce a dialog (the first step at the beginning of the class) to acquire new vocabulary, to distinguish the different pronouns and how the students can use them with verb to be, to make questions, and finally they are able to build a perfect grammar sentence without the use of their native language.

Honestly, the method is not boring at all, but neither is easy because the professor and the students need to concentrate and put an effort together. The hardest part fot the teacher is... that he must create various activities to transmit the basic knowledge to the student, putting to the test the four skills simultainiously (Speaking, Listening, Reading, and writing). In that sense, the student can learn and they can answer automatically without stopping to think in their native language because this is one of the bad habits that the learners have to overcome.

Finally, the psychology is a big part in this method because those who teach need to be patience, they have to allow or learn that some of their students make mistakes, and they will have to correct it and congratulate them as many times as possible because it helps to develop correct habits. For this reason, the professor must show confidence and all of this can occur when they always know what happened, what’s happening, and what will happen.

This is a sample of Audio Lingual Method
 


















Please click HERE to find out more

A fresh look at brain - Based education essay

More than one decade had been long since John Bruer began his criticism to the education based on the brain, in which express that education should not begin from the neuroscience, it should begin from the teaching and learning according the developments of the sciences.
Recently discovers about brain as neurogenesis (the production of new neurons in the human brain), have gotten meaningful tests describing that education is close with brain activities and from that is easy the way to learn and how people got better teaching techniques.
However, if education based on the brain is defined as: “the strategies commitments which are the principles of the brain comprehension” so is teacher’s responsibility decide reasonably what kind of strategies to use in order to improve the brain and its high capabilities to get an optimum teaching – learning process. In the same way, Bruer says that:”Brain is in all school’s work. Ignore it would be something irresponsible”. That’s why brain is complete stretch to learning-teaching process.
Some critics say that knowledge branches as the psychiatry, psychology, cognitive sciences and other, are not relate with brain-based activities, which is complete absurd to Bruer, because if you put apart the brain from those disciplines, those wouldn’t be disciplines.
Now, the brain based learning could not be exclusive from neuroscience, it has to be study first by a multidisciplinary view. This learning process, is daily affected by multiples factors (stress, nutrition, social conditions) in the school, but is the teacher’s responsibility to reduce those factors.
An important factor in the cognitive process, is the physical activity, in this case, when this is reduce or totally eliminate from the school curriculum, it is eliminate in first place of the learning process in the classroom and daily students routine. This relation is co-relating to the neurogenesis part. However, the physical activity should be volunteer, it means, should not be an obligation for students when they are going to do it because it makes a conflict feeling which affects the cognitive process too.
The brain based learning, had been deeply studied in the last decade, even countries as Canada, Japan, Australia, South Korean, England, Southafrica, New Zeeland, Argentina and other, have developed excellent investigation work about it. The most important universities (from those countries) are the pioneers about cognitive science and neuroscience in education, which allows a productive advance in the learning – teaching technique, being an active consequent and active reference.
In conclusion, the brain based learning is not an easy topic to discuss about. The advantages and disadvantages of its studies and its applying in the new schools, is an empiric effort to all those who are looking for new strategies to improve the education. It’s a debate between all the people who agree and disagree that education and learning, as human been activities are totally close to brain activities.

Reference:

Eric P. Jensen (2008) “A Fresh Look at Brain-Based Education”

Brain and behavior

Can show that they will always different according to age and sex

For centuries the human beings have not avoided compared, differentiated and even established functions that mark notarially the life between men and women. It turns out quite interesting to observe that some of them already continue these functions instinctively, it means, no one should have learned or shown them. Probably, everything mentioned is inherent in the (human) brain of every sex at the beginning of his/her existence, in other words, from his/her babyhood, childhood, and adulthood.
the main idea of all this is to try to understand certain behaviors between both sexes, although it is true every being living (and independent from his/her sex) has a brain as an also every brain of the individual it is a quite complex system that the current science has not able to understand it not in 50 % with all its advances. So, it turns out to be quite complicated to extract responses or hasty conclusions. As express Marian Diamond in his article "male and female brains": "the objective of my talk is to discuss whether the brain of one sex is Superior to the brain of the other" otherwise, it is possible that it turns out to be quite insulting to determine that sex is more intelligent.
Now then, the brain has three principal parts, the hind brain, mid brain and forebrain and divided into two hemispheres and every hemisphere has special functions, no matter the individual sex. It is thought (and with the help of rats experiments) that the difference of the behaviors relapses on cortical thickness. It means, the cortical thickness is the key factor that shows how it can be difference the sexes.

And so, in the studies of Mariam Diamond shows that in accordance with the cerebral cortex and its thickness can be influence enormously the way of acting of every sex. As a date awesome, the female sex is always that it develops the cortex first than masculine, noticing that in the majority of the cases female has the symmetrical cortex. Nevertheless, if the female is not ovulating, her cortex one will grow to the same step as that of the masculine one.
Finally, with all this information helps to justify, understand a little more the tendencies of every sex and show that the instinct masculine role is to defend his territory and the feminine role is always to look for the well-being of her family and offspring. Of course, it is information generated by rats. Nevertheless, with these conclusions, they make to notice that there are no so much differences with the human beings.

For other hand, it is necessary determinate other brains behaviors, in other words, there are more brains zone to investigate, just like hemisphere brains, For example: According to Judy Willis (2008) in her article “More about neuroscience and learning” there are brains regions most associated with different learning tasks, there are many significant processes occurring in our head at the time the students and general people are learning contents, although, the way the information is presented is very much related with the student’s engagement with it; educators need to support the student’s abilities as well, in order to influence the neural activity so their strengths and challenges will come to light, that is why Willis agree with Gardner’s about how those with different intelligence strengths learn more successfully when they can be engaged through those strengths. When students recognize their own strengths and learn how to develop them, the brain appears receptive to the new information and also can achieve higher levels of cognitive networks. It is pretty much about a correct recognition of brain potential and then a fully motivation.

For that, teachers and curriculum specialists are studying different methods to consider around these revelations. The contemporary schools have to adapt their modules into this big force of finding real steps to allow student’s development. Many successful brain-compatible strategies for individualized learning include experiential learning, experimentation, exploration, movement, and the arts, nevertheless teachers and parents need to be careful, first everyone has to understand how mind works; it is not about getting a multiple intelligence (cause sometimes students could limit their opportunities to access information), the main point around the learning process is for the information to become personally meaningful. Preferred learning style instruction is also more likely to evoke positive emotional responses, so affective filters will not block information access to the brain’s processing centers and information can become knowledge.
Also, Marian Cleeves, a neuroanatomist in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley believe that the environmental factors are extremely important when it comes to show the influence they have on the brain formation, both the pre- and postnatal. Cleeves wrote an article called “What are the Determinants of Children’s Academic Successes and Difficulties?”, here she made reference to a published in the Ming Dynasty in 1237 when women were advised to behave favorably during pregnancy so that their offspring would be bright and survive well. Good behavior included: "Sit and walk dignified and sedately; maintain a good temper”. Despite teachers are responsible for the education of a person, parents can and need to play a very active role in developing a child’s behavior.

According to Cleeves and some of her investigation results, parents and teachers have to provide a positive emotional support, love and encouragement, also children need to follow a nutritious diet with enough protein, vitamins, minerals and calories (this will help to develop the branches on the nerve cells, an atmosphere free of stress, social interaction, freewill and the chance to assess the results of his or her efforts, otherwise, these young students could present attention issues, isolation, delay learning, between others. In order to prevent all that, there is nothing to be underestimating, parents and teachers can use imaginative toys, rich language environment, music and art to enhance all kind of knowledge, respecting the brain’s time to transfer information into its association cortex. The mentor who really cares and listens is the one who remains in her/his mind when she later needs support.

References:

Marian Diamond (2003) “Male and Female Brains”

Marian Cleeves Diamond, Ph.D (1999) “What are the Determinants of Children's Academic Successes and Difficulties?”

Judy Willis, M.D., M.Ed (2008) commented on “More about neuroscience and learning blog”