TEFLexperiences: The End of The World....Communicating with our ...

TEFLexperiences:


The End of The World....Communicating with our ...: The End o f Th e World....Communicating with ou r S tu d ents in their World!   People keep asking me how my blog is going....oo...

The End of The World....Communicating with our Students in their World!

 

People keep asking me how my blog is going....oops!

I seemed to have neglected it somewhat, one of my students asked me why and I replied it seems I have no time to write an amazing and well-informed article.He looked at me and simply said

'Miss.Sharon, a blog is supposed to be about your thoughts and what's on your mind. It's not a book!'

As Panayotis is a wise 17 year old blogger, I decided to take his advice! 
What's on my mind????

I walked into my YL classroom on Monday, with my hands full of Christmas colouring pages and activities......

'Miss. Sharon! No homework today because it is almost the end of the world' 

'That's right! 12/12/12 is the end of the world'

'No Vicky, it's going to end on 21/12/12'

'Do you think it will end, Miss. Sharon ?'

All of this conversation was taking place in L1, they are a class of 8 year olds.

Miss.Sharon was stunned into silence and excused herself. She ran to the office and checked with the boss that she had not misunderstood the children. My fears were confirmed. Apparently, the Greek TV had been going on about this theme for a few days now.

As the economic state of Greece gradually worsens, many people are glued to their TV sets, listening to the next cuts/tax increase/suicide/fuel prices for heating and so it seems, The End of The World is not neglected by the media powers.Fewer parents are working and so these messages are heard in the home on a daily basis. The worrying point is; it's not just the parents who are listening to this doom and gloom.

Back in my classroom, thinking on my feet (as any teacher has to) I returned to a now growing debate amongst the 8 year olds, which had moved onto mentioning God and earthquakes....
I raised my voice and used one of my classroom language techniques to quieten the children down..1..2..3...ZIP! My YLs know this is time to mime zipping our mouths...

Silence!

Time for divergence- I explained the world could not possibly end on the 12th or the 21st of December because I was flying to England on 23rd and I wanted to see my family and play in the snow.

'London? Will you see Big Ben?'   'It's my birthday on 27th December, so the world can't end for me'

'My birthday is March 10th, so the world can't end for me'

'Red buses?'      'Snow men..I love the snow'

At last, I was able to bring out my Christmas activities and produced a snowman to cut and stick...back to using L2..back to Christmas songs and back to a feeling of security and happiness. Penelope hugged me continually and Sophie blew me kisses...Pandelis whispered in my ear that he was happy the world was not ending as he was waiting for Father Christmas to come. Peace at last!

Later in the day, I decided to bring up the scenario when my teen class arrived and get their opinions.This led to an interesting and informative class debate. I asked for their advice...did I handle the Junior Class in the right way or should we have discussed the matter further? They seemed to think I did the right thing and for once, we left the course book aside and had an open discussion; using their learnt phrases to express opinion,agree,disagree  about homelife in Greece and their worries and concerns for their own futures.

In the evening, I returned home and as this whole "End of the World' issue was bothering me and the effect it was having on such young children, I asked my worldy-wise 15 year old what he thought.

"Mum, you should have just told them it's a great phrase for songs...just like 'all around the world'.....you know that song..'it's the end of the world as we know it'!"

 Good point son! Maybe I 'll use the topic with my advanced students later in the week, along with a few idioms!! 

World of your own    the best of both worlds  

  do somebody the world of good 

set the world on fire       what is the world coming to??????

 So, I am now pondering on the fact that it is the end of the world as I know it when it comes to my teaching practices. Building a good relationship with your students is a cornerstone to classroom management. The learners of today need their teachers time and attention more than ever before.We need to tap into their prior knowledge and schema, as it has been said by many educators "children are not empty vessels". They enter our classrooms with their own ideas, conceptions and a wealth of information. This can not be ignored and needs to be built on by teachers.

Taking the time and energy to build a good relationship with your students will payoff in the end.


Sometimes, we can grab their attention- and sometimes their hearts- with simple questions that are not to be answered in any right or wrong way but just to be pondered and thought about...just as I am writing my blog today!


 For my son and my students: It's the end of the world as we know it but I feel fine!!!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY

TEFLexperiences: #eltsummary- Too much TTT..

TEFLexperiences: #eltsummary- Too much TTT..: To launch my blog, I have shared a copy of the #ELTchat summary I wrote for the chat which took place on Halloween night...it seems ...

#eltsummary- Too much TTT..

To launch my blog, I have shared a copy of the #ELTchat summary I wrote for the chat which took place on Halloween night...it seems fitting to start my blog with an #ELTchat summary,  as it is mainly due to the colleagues I chat to every Wednesday night that I decided to write a blog. It is down to my Personal Learning Network friends that I even feel worthy of contributing some thoughts on teaching EFL...so join us on Wednesdays and share your views on the current topic....

#ELTCHAT – Halloween 2012

Teacher Talking Time (TTT)…Is it a Trick or a Treat ???

 

As children all around the world were knocking on doors and collecting their goodies,  #ELT chatters were gathering around the cauldron of twitter to discuss whether TTT is a good thing or not . This was followed by a great discussion on how to engage learners to take control of their lessons.

“Take control of their lessons????” I hear you cry……

So do we ‘gag’ the teacher and allow our little pumpkins to take over???

Overall it appears that TTT is a problem most teachers are aware of and ‘talking at’ the learners does not necessarily mean learning is taking place.

The only advantage of TT mentioned on this spooky night was the fact that TT is sometimes the only source of hearing L2 outside of the classroom. This point was backed up by the fact that listening to the teacher for a purpose is always a valid excuse for the teacher to talk. Plus, students should be exposed to a variety of listening genres.

The chat predominately discussed three areas.

·         How to control TTT.

·         Mixed ability classes/Quiet students v loud students/Cultural issues.

·         Methods and Activities to enable the learners to take control and become more autonomous.

    Becoming Aware of unnecessary TTT and stamping it out!

Ø  Be observed, ask a colleague to tick how many times T talked and how many times S talked.  (This was considered a huge task for the person ticking)!

Ø  Ask a colleague to video your lesson and reflect on your TTT.

Ø  Loud and exuberant personalities need to be left at the classroom door and these teachers especially need to be aware of their domineering manner.

Ø  The equation is: The less we talk the more students talk.

Ø  Teachers should be only facilitators. Give instructions and then follow up.

Ø  Overcome our problems of pregnant pauses and allow silence to take place in the classroom.

Ø  Take a step back, stand at the back of the classroom.

Ø  Don’t lecture and be an equal.

Ø  Talk to motivate, guide, instruct. Filling the gaps as much as it is needed to fulfill your objectives.

Ø  Allow for fluency time rather than accuracy.

Mixed Ability Classes

Ø  Some classes just don’t seem to have little to say for themselves. It’s hard to ‘wind them up’ whereas other classes never stop talking and are too talkative and the teacher can’t get a word in.

Ø  Beginner classes need a fair bit of TTT ‘to get the ball rolling’/keep it going.

Ø  Some cultural interference can be an issue.. Some students are exposed to lecturing, explicating, etc and this is difficult to overcome in the L2 classroom. Teacher is expected to be the model.

Ø  Sometimes students just don’t have the vocabulary to continue.

Ø  Some students ‘hog’ (stop others from joining in) class discussions and quieter students do not have the chance to join in.

Methods, Activities and Solutions

Ø  Allow students to feel they have a voice- something to say.

Ø  Students should have a reason to talk and then they will be motivated.

Ø  Provide more guided prompts/use gestures instead of words.

Ø  Promote pairwork, group work, role plays.

Ø  Share and discuss learning intentions with students, allow them to make decisions/offer opinions.

Ø  Set up an activity and monitor- leave human instincts behind (don’t butt in all the time)!

Ø  Create more student-centered activities, especially skills orientated.

Ø  Task Based Learning activities are always successful to reduce TTT and increase STT.

Ø  Strong students are assigned ‘leader’ roles in order to encourage and work together with weaker/quieter students. Be careful the ‘leader’ isn’t too over the top!

Ø  A variety of approaches helps TTT and ownership.

Ø  ‘No hands up technique’.  Student raises his hand to ask a question and another raise his hand to answer. http://teachingexpertise.com/articles/the-cool-no-hands-approach-to-assessment-for-learning

Ø  ‘The ball of string technique’. Pass a ball of string and each student contributes when the string is in his hands.

Ø  ‘Entrance and exit tickets technique’. Students write down on a piece of paper what they want to say and their remarks.

Ø  Use YouTube videos, set them a task and off they go. Include a Ted Talks to start a discussion.

Ø  Penny Ur’s Discussions that work. http://fulbright.state.gov/uploads/b9/f5/b9f5c81284b6a8f7f48182cb825d530b/TURKEY-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE-TEACHING-WORKSHOP-DOCUMENTS.pdf

Ø  Use multiple choice questions rather than direct questions, to maximize participation. Use ABCD cards…

Ø  Ask students what they are interested in.

Ø  Use the flipped-classroom method. http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/

Ø  Use Wall wisher for students to write as the lesson progresses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATKt_4d-Uek

Ø  Rearrange the classroom furniture to encourage learners to face each other and not talk to the back of another student’s head!

Ø  More activities to generate classroom chat – mingle/problem solving/dialogue improvisation.

Ø  Maureen McGravey’s three A’s…Ask, Answer and Add. Check out Sandy Millin’s blog and comments which also mention the ball of string technique! http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/teacher-teacher-finish/

Ø  Adapt Course Books, take the topic from a different angle, organize preparation time to adapt and improvise.

Ø  Chain Conversations. See links below.

Ø  Students could ask their own questions about a text.

Ø  Great ideas for use of sticky notes. http://t.co/1AaqFEYA

Ø  Use the Marshmallow Challenge. http://t.co/WR07QS7Y

Ø  Paint the walls with Idea paint. http://t.co/A3EgAfoi

Ø  Use running dictation. http://www.learnenglish.de/Teachers/rundictation.htm

Ø  Chinese whispers.

To conclude, there are various issues regarding the topic of TTT and as chatters proved there seem to be endless solutions and tips to overcome the issue.

I would like to add a personal note here…For fifteen years I was guilty of TTT….I am typical of so many teachers, I love to be the centre of attention! During my first observed lesson for my DELTA Module2, my TTT was my weakness. I sincerely apologise to any student who wanted to talk and  I didn’t acknowledge the fact. Taking a step back, accepting silence and using different techniques helped me but most importantly the fact remains the teacher needs to be aware of their TTT.

The Halloween chat finished on a simple note…LESS IS MORE…..THE SIMPLEST WAYS ARE THE BEST…A great tag line as my fellow chatters mentioned!

So..clean out the skeletons in you cupboard and encourage learners to talk!

A few sites to help you along the way…

            http://edition.tefl.net/ideas/games/speaking-games-false-beginners/ for all learners

1. http://bbcactiveenglish.com/pop-goes-english_information.html for Young Learners

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/ for young learners

http://efltheatreclub.co.uk/ for all levels

Welcome to my blog!

I hope to develop a blog that discusses everyday classsroom experiences..where we can reflect and take a pause to think..and hopefully develop as EFL teachers. Blogging is a new experience for me..so bear with me while I try to work out how to blog while reflecting on my teaching....