Some pictures of my teaching

Effective Teaching: What Does It All Mean?

Why should we as effective ELT practitioners have high expectation for all our students?

I think that we as effective teachers have to have the greatest expectations for our students because we have to understand that all our students are able to get everything they want, and they can be able to reach all their goals. Effective teachers succeed when their students succeed, so if we want to be effective teachers, we need to transfer knowledge and provide the necessary opportunities so that students can take advantage of that and reach their goals.

How come we need to communicate them to our students?

It is pretty important that we as teachers let our students know our expectations because they need to be aware what we expect from them and where they are going in the whole learning process. We have to show our students that we really care about them and about their learning.  

How do we do that?

Well, we can easily communicate our students our expectations and our care about them by showing them that we are giving the best of us for they to acquire the best knowledge so that our students get the awareness they need to continue increasing their own learning. Another way to communicate our expectations is caring about students' needs because they are going to know that we care about their learning because we want them to succeed in their everyday lives.

How do we support them to achieve their learning expectations?

The key for supporting students to achieve their learning expectations is effective communication which requires that teachers must be adept at facilitating students´ own search for knowledge. Effective teachers, in fact, do care about students and ensures that students recognize this caring and feel supported and encouraged. We, as effective teachers, need to care not only about our students but also the classroom and positive learning environment.

DAPA

DESCRIBE

10:10 I started the class by greeting my students.
10:12 I established and told my students the purpose of the first activity and gave instructions, I developed my warm-up activity.
10:22 I started explaining the topic that was present continues.
10:24 I asked students to work in groups of five.
10:26 I gave my students some pictures that reflected activities in people’s everyday lives. Students had to create sentences based on the pictures using the present continues.
10:28 Students seemed to be on task.
10:36 I asked for volunteers to check the sentences.
10:40 Students read the sentences and corrected all mistakes.
10:45 I brought the class to an end.

ANALIZE

ATWIKA giving instructions, I need to KISS my students. Even though my instructions were short and simple, I forgot to CCQ my students in my second activity, and ATWIKA CCQing is an important part in the activity. ATWIKA CM, when you start the class, you must be self-confident and your attitude toward the activities would help to be successful.  

PLAN OF ACTION

In the near future, if I have to teach this topic once again, I am going to continue using writing activities because in this way, students develop their writing skills; besides, after writing the sentences, students are able to read them without fear of being wrong since they know it is time to check them. Also, I am going to continue stating the purpose of the activities because I as teacher need to send the signal to my students of what they are going to get; in addition, I am going to bring more colored materials because students will be able to manipulate them.

Questions I am still thinking about or Questions to reflect upon…

How can I VAKT my activities in the classroom?
How could I minimize TTT and maximize STT?
How could I time my activities properly?
How could I involve all my students in each activity?

 

Suggestions

Don’t forget to KISS and CCQ.
Apply the right level of difficulty

How benefit was the book to have a better idea on what teaching is all about?

 Well, when I began to read this book, I feel that there was an ideal work of teaching where the classes were wonderful and fascinating, but when I was in the real life I could see that it was not true. While I continue reading the book I discover that such a world doesn’t exist, but it is our responsibility to build it in each class. So that I consider that this book benefit me in the way that now I know that what I have to do for improving my teaching is what makes me different from other teachers. I learned some roles of the teacher for example role of caring, role of fairness and respect.  I learned many things that I didn't know about classroom management and organization. I learned how to provide feedback. Finally I have to say that this book helped me to improve my practicum at school and I know that this book will be really useful now that I'm a pre-service teacher but also when I'll begin my career.

DAPA

DAPA

7:00- Karla Pinto greeted the class. Then, she asked if some students knew how to play tennis. Immediately, VH, who is one of our classmates, answered that question. Besides that, Karla asked if someone knew some rules about tennis. After that, VH answered the question again. After that, Karla explained the warm-up activity, and gave some instructions. Then, she divided the class into two groups (boys and girls). Later, she gave some pieces of paper, which contained some words, to each group. Besides that, students had to scramble the words each piece of paper had. Students seemed to be on tasks. After that, the boy´s group had to guess the disorder word that the girl´s group showed them. The girl´s group did the same. Finally, Karla ended her activity at 7:10.

ANALIZING:

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

At the beginning of the warm-up activity, Karla showed self – confident. Neverheless, she overcame this problem when she continued explaining the warm-up activity. ATWIKA CM whenever you start your warm-up activity, you have to show energy, enthusiasm, positivism since in that way, your students are going to perform the activity better.

INSTRUCTIONS

Even though she gave long explanation, the majority of the class caught the instructions. ATWIKA instructions, they need to be clear, short and simple since in that way, teachers are going to practice some important parameters, time, momentum and discipline.

CCQ: Karlita, for sure, CCQed the students. The problem was that her voice was soft; that is why, the students at the back did not hear her. ATWIKA CCQ, to have the great results in an activity; you have to give clear instructions about what students are going to do. Besides that, you, as a teacher, have to be mobile if your voice is soft since that action will help you to be heard for the majority of your students.

VATKING :ATWIKA VAT King, it is essential to make activities simple, interesting and comprehensible. To achieve that, teachers can use visual aids.

Plan of Action

In the future if I use this activity I will:

• Kiss the instructions to know if they have understood what they are going to do. 
• Use more visual aids to help my students understand what they have to do. 
• Give simple, clear and short instructions. 
• Take into account the level of English to write the words. 
• Be more mobile to catch my students’ attention.

chapter 6

Monitoring Student Progress and Potential

What’s the relevance that feedback and homework have for effective teachers?

Feedback and homework are pretty important because those give the teacher the opportunity o check what they are doing and students to improve in a specific topic or aspect during the learning process. First, feedback is a form of input on someone’s work, and it may be given in different forms. This happens when a student or the teacher or a classmate critiques or comments on someone’s performance. In this way, the person that is being critiqued is able to recognize and to learn by his or her own mistakes. Feedback plays an important role in students` development in the classroom because by means of feedback, not only are they able to correct their mistakes, but also they are able to improve the things that were not accomplished correctly. Furthermore, homework is relevant for effective teachers. Effective teachers not only assign homework but also check it regularly. Therefore, I think that we as teachers need to pay a lot of attention when assigning homework so that we can get the best out of our homework assignments. Effective teachers consider that the important issue is the quality of the homework not the quantity. It is important that we as teachers assign students homework so that they can practice, review, and understand better a new topic.

Why does assessment play a central role in teaching?

Effective teacher must be able to establish ways or forms of assessing students since this process is a way of determining how much knowledge students have gotten from a certain lesson. When a teacher assesses students properly, he transmits to the students a message saying that the teacher has clear expectations for them. Assessment does play central role in teaching. It is important because the teachers can see how students are doing. It provides feedback to the teacher about which strategies are working. A teacher may find weaknesses and strengths in the students and do something about it, but how could the teacher know if the students have learned if the teacher doesn’t use different ways to assess students. Assessment may be formal or informal, and it may also be formative and summative. I think that an effective teacher needs to use a variety of assessment practices to monitor student learning, including formal and informal assessment, and formative and summative assessment as it is said in the chapter of the book.

 

What are some effective ways of monitoring student progress?

Most traditional teachers are accustomed to using only the summative assessment. However, it is now important to use different and maybe even creative ways to measures students’ progress. Some effective teachers use pre-assessment techniques to support targeted teaching. Also, whenever students are on task, it is necessary that the teacher be monitoring, circling around the room. All effective teaches take notes of the difficulties they observe. Standardized tests, projects, assignments and even quizzes can also be a good way to monitor students. No matter how the teachers monitor students, if the teacher does not provide feedback or does not reteach parts of the lesson that students didn’t understand, the teacher simply won’t take advantage of his monitoring students.

Management parameter: space

How does this management parameter empower my own teaching practicum?

I consider that space is one of the important parameters that will empower my teaching practicum in different instances. Formerly, the arrangement of the classrooms has to do with the environment the teacher wants to have in the classroom. I think that teachers` arrangement of classroom space send messages about their image of the learner and the kind of learning they intend. Moreover, the teacher has to know the way he or she is going to arrange the classroom in order to make students get involved in his or her classes.  There are many different ways in which the classroom can be arranged such as in semi-circle, in a circle, in a u form, and so on. It depends on the teacher which arrangement of the classroom works best for him or her. In my case, the arrangement of the classroom that works best for me is the semi-circle of the desks. The students are motivated because they are not really facing the teacher but all the individuals in the class so that they feel in confidence to express themselves freely. Besides, when the teacher connects the image of the active learner to the square room arrangement, the learner becomes the center. This is one of the traditional ways: When a teacher ties the empty learner image to the rectangular room arrangement, the teacher`s function is to fill the learners with knowledge. This way, in my opinion, should be avoided in our classes. Furthermore, when the teacher ties the social learner, children learn about their own feelings, the feelings of others, and the study levels and consequences of interactions. Second, I need to say that the role that each ownership plays inside the classroom is something that I will have in mind while teaching since it can better my students` feelings. I think that if I can apply all the pieces of advice that I read and learned during this mind map presentation, I will be able to better my teaching practicum as I will offer my students a better environment for learning. Finally, I can say that know certain important aspects about space is pretty important because the arrangement that the teacher gives to his or her classroom influences a lot in the environment in the classroom and of course in the students development during the learning process.

                                                                                                           

IMPLEMENTIN INSTRUCTION

HOW CAN TEACHERS IMPLEMENT EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION IN THEIR CLASSROOMS AND MAKE THEM CONDUCIVE TO MEANINGFUL LEARNING?

Teachers can implement effective instruction in their classroom and make them conductive to meaningful learning by doing the following:

• Changing the strategy they use.
•  Changing the methodology of the evaluation system.
•  Giving clear explanations.
• Creating the appropriate kind of material.
• Selecting the appropriate activities.
•  Creating activities in which every student participates actively.
•  Implementing individual work, peer work and work group.
•  Implementing strategies appropriate to the content and instructional goal.
• Explaining the homework assignments in a clear way.
• Asking students suitable questions.
• Taking into account students´ interests, ages, level of English.
• Applying basic principles to their classes.

WHY IS COMMUNICATION OF CONTENT AND SKILLS KNOWLEDGE A CHARACTERISTIC OF GOOD TEACHERS?

Well, teachers’ ability to give clear and focused explanations to students and to clarify expectations for achievement is important aspects of effective instructional delivery. That is, teachers need to express what his or her expectations. Teachers need to present to the students the units or the lessons within a well-organized set. Communication is fundamental to any profession that requires interaction among people and organization. Communication of content is also very relevant. And if teachers want to communicate content or skills, they first need to know the subject matter, and then they need to know how to share it with students in a very understandable way.

HOW ARE YOU DEALING WITH STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN YOUR OWN TEACHING PRACTICUM, AS THE AGE OF YOUR STUDENTS IS A CRITICAL ONE?

Even though the ages of my students are so critical since the majority of them is thirteen years old, I try to involve every students in the activities; that is why I choose meaningful, easy, and funny activities. Moreover, I give reward for those students who participate more in the class. Besides that, I call students in random order because in that way, they pay much attention since they do not know who is going to participate. And finally, I try to clarify all their doubts even though time is a big problem for me.

Organizing for Instruction

How do you focus on instruction?

I consider that I focused my instruction on the students` learning as the central purpose of schooling communicates an enthusiasm and dedication to learning that students reflect in their own behavior and practice. I think that teacher have to provide opportunities for the students t succeed. Moreover, I actually do not understand the point that some teachers try to let their down in their evaluations. I mean if he evaluations are so hard that most students flunk them, the teaching process does not have a good purpose instead this is showing that teachers lack of didactics principles. Indeed, my point is that if I want my students to learn, I have to provide the opportunities they need to succeed.

How do you maximize instructional time?

I maximize instructional time by creating a lesson plan for every single class. The lesson plan contains everything that is going to be developed during the whole class. Moreover, every single activity that I will develop has its own period of time. That is to say, the activities cover a limit of time in the class so that I do not abuse and surpass the time given by each one of them. For each class I give, I create an agenda before I start the class. In this way, the students can have a glimpse of what they are going to do so that they are aware of the time in the class.

How do you expect students to succeed in your classes?

 Well, I guess that every teacher in the world has high expectations for their students, and so do I.  I want my students to learn the best from each class and from the whole period I will be teaching them. Talking about high expectations, I guess I can encourage my students to learn day in and day out. Besides, encouragement plays an important role in every student’s mind. If students are encouraged, they will learn the best of every single class. However, I have to understand that students have different ways of learning and they in different rates.  That is, teachers have to realize that each student learns differently; one could be visual, another auditory and etc. So, teachers need to provide different set of materials for the students’ needs. Moreover, it is important for teachers to understand that each every student learns in different rate than another; this does not mean that some students do not learn because they do learn if the teacher does a great performance. Finally, I can say that all the points I mentioned before involve my criteria about how I expect my students to learn.

How do you plan and prepare for instruction?

 Well, I always plan and prepare by creating my lesson plan in which I take into account the students’ needs    in the subject. The point is that I take into account the students ‘abilities, strengths and also weaknesses as well as their interest level. Knowing all these characteristics, I try to do a well-prepared lesson plan in which I perform activities with my students that I am pretty sure that I can fulfill all their needs so that they can learn.

Do you make last-minutes changes when things are not working? Based on what premises, have you made such changes? Did they work? What needs to be done to better your instruction?

Sometimes, I make changes when the activities I have prepared are not working as I expected them to work, and I realize that when students do not want to do the activities or when the activities are giving them a hard time. Moreover, I always have a plan B when these situations happen, and actually when I change the activities, they really work, and I can notice it in my students` behavior. In fact, to have a plan B for each class I give is the thing that I need to better my instruction. 

Classroom Management and Organization

Well, classroom management is a sort of important characteristic or technique that effective teachers must have or apply.  It is important to emphasize that by means of classroom management effective teacher are just not teachers who know how to support students learning  through instructional techniques, strong curricular, material, and rapport with the class. The effective teachers must create an overall environment conductive to learning. This supportive learning environment requires that teachers practice skills in the classroom organization and management; it also requires consistency in behavioral expectations and responses.

By knowing and applying all of this, I think I am able to empower in a great deal my classroom management. Right now, I guess that I am like in middle of classroom management completeness because in my first class, I started talking to my students about the respect that was going to be required in the classroom, and I also talked about the responsibility I had with them; moreover, I started creating a good rapport among themselves and among them and me. Fortunately, the students are really nice, and they understood what my point was.

To get further through my classroom management, I am looking forward to helping my students develop their language skills by means of my classroom management. The lesson plan and materials I use, for example, are construct in a way that allows students to practice and at the same time improve their language skills. So I can say that the lesson plan is one of my strategies to guide my students to a great performance, and materials which also are really important contribute in a great deal to it.

My classroom management until now is quite of organized; however, I prepare a plan “B” for every class I teach just in case something does not work as I expect. As a conclusion, I can say that this really helps and empowers my performance because it has shown me the way that things in my teaching should be done.