Open Class

Open Class!

When my coordinatior says "open class", I inmmediately have a headache. We all know that it means working  a lot, practicing and preparing lots of activities and decoration. But.... in the end, students and teacher enjoy it a lot. And parents also love listening to their children speaking the language.

Last week, I had my open class with 5° year from Primary School and it was a success! We prepared a newscast, in which the different characters of the stories we had read were interviewed. Everyone could act and talk, and they had great fun playing they were someone else!

Science Fair 2

Science Fair 

Language Evolution

With 5° we studied language: what it is, how it has evolved and a bit of language acquisition. Then the students made infographics. They are really creative!

Thank you Sara Racker for your help!!!

Science Fair

We had the Science Fair at school and here I leave you some pictures of the projects we did.

"We are what we eat" is based on the photographs I showed you in previous posts. The students investigated eating habits from different countries and created their own pictures.

With another group we made a technology timeline.

Feedback

Good effective feedback is essential in education, but it's so difficult to provide.

In my case, giving feedback is the most difficult task a teacher has. I do not always know how to talk without hurting the students' feelings or selfsteem because one negative word will last forever and will definetely erase all the positive ones. I still remember feedback from my teachers along the years and I do not want to be remembered because of that.

So choosing the right words or the best way to give feedback is not easy and it is something to think about.

What I always do when giving feedback is the following:

And I never forget to praise my students! They are always waiting for it! We all are. :)

Happy Teacher's Day

We are what we eat

https://time.com/what-kids-eat-around-the-world-in-one-week/

This is an interesting article about eating habits and food around the world.

I have worked with the photographs within the topic "food" and it was a good ice breaker.

Clothes

Look at this activity I have done with first grade students! Isn't it lovely?

Beauty, different conceptions

With 5° Year of Secondary School we are working the unit "Beauty." We learned physical and personality adjectives, how to describe a person and how to use the comparative and superlative form of adjectives with modifiers. 

We also talk about what beauty is and we discuss if physical appearance is as important for women as for men. I showed them Dove's campaign called "Dove Real Beauty Sketches," which, in my opinion, is really good. A really interesting debate was generated among the students. 

Other class, we read  and compare two different descriptions of women. One was the song "Just the way you are" by Bruno Mars and "Sonnet 130" by William Skakespeare. 

It was a challenging activity, but as it was something new, they were engaged. And again they had plenty to say about it.

SONNET 130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; 
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
   As any she belied with false compare. 

Read and compare how the following elements are described:
	Sonnet	Song
Eyes
Lips
Hair
Face
Voice/ Laugh

Useful Apps to use in the Classroom

Hi!

Hope you are doing great!

I want to share some useful tools which can be used in our lessons. I've tried them and students really like them!

First... KAHOOT! 
YOU CAN USE IT TO PLAY INTERACTIVE GAMES. YOU NEED TO HAVE PHONES OR COMPUTERS WITH INTERNET CONNECTION.

Second... MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX.COM
IN THIS WEBPAGE YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN COMICS. IT'S GREAT FUN!

Hi!

Today I want to share one activity I did as a final task while working with Present Simple and Present Continuous.

As the final task of the unit, the students had to create a photonovel comparing what they usually do on wednesdays and what they are doing today that is a holiday. The students took some photos at home and others in the school. Then they wrote the script and did the photonovel in class.

They enjoyed the activity and in this way it was clearer for them the difference between Present Simple and Present Continuous.

A Pedagogical Sequence for Introducing Tasks

I'll use the following six-step instructional sequence to tell you how I am going to work the unit "Giving Directions" with 5° grade of Primary School.

Step 1	Look at pictures of different cities. What shops can you identify? What shops are there in your town? Identify the names and match them with the pictures.
Step 2	Read and listen to a conversation between two people asking and giving directions. Practice the conversation.
Step 3	Listen to different dialogues and match the conversations to the maps.
Step 4	Listen to the dialogues again and complete the written conversation with the missing words or phrases.
Step 5	Pair work. The teacher will give the students a map and they will have to ask and give directions according to the map.
Step 6	Final task: students have to make a mock up of a town and bring their toys to class. With the toys, they will have to create dialogues asking, giving and following directions.

Halliday's three macrofunctions of language

When I was teaching 2° grade some years ago, we did the following activity, which can be analized according to the macrofunctions of language described by Hallyday.
After studying the toys and numbers up to 20, I asked the students to bring their toys to class. We designed a toy shop in the classroom and put prices to the toys. Some students were the sales assistants and others the customers.
Students loved the activity and it showed how much they had learnt!

TASK	MACROFUNCTION	MICROFUNCTION	GRAMMAR
Role Play. You are in a toy shop and you have $20. Your partner is the sales assistant. Look at the toys and prices, what do you want to buy?	Exchanging goods and services.	Asking about and stating prices.	How much is it?/ Here you are/ Thanks/ Vocabulary: toys and numbers.

Why teaching?

Hi! Welcome to my blog! I'm an English teacher who enjoys her job! 

Although sometimes it gets hard to encourage students or even ourselves, it's a rewarding profession. That's why in this blog I will share activities, ideas and experiences which have been useful or haven't worked in the classroom. 

Let's start!