2082. Getting ready for action



Some teacher or expert at teaching says that tablets aren’t good for our students, for they don’t write with handwriting. 

Others say calculators shouldn’t be used: better use paper and your mind. With calculators you wouldn’t think. 

I’m in favor of using tablets and handwriting and calculators: there’s an "in between" both, or changing from time to time. 

Something useful, which teacher Angela says (see TeacherLingo by clicking on the link at the right hand of my blog) is that we can use warmers to shift into English after another school subject has been taught. 

For example: writing a dictation, making questions, talking to them, relaxing techniques, asking them by using the grammar pattern we’re learning, etc. Some of the previous warm-up’s are of mine too. / Photo from: esquí en Sierra Nevada - Granada - Spain. We're waiting for you to come here!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3709. How to Be an Authority in Class?

  We well may be finishing one more school year – if you are for example a committed teacher, like most of you are. And we want our dear students would learn a lot, as well as they would be happy.  I was wondering what an ideal teacher should be like. One of the main premises is he or she must be an authority in class. Are you one? Am I one? I guess an authority teacher is the one who achieves their students would actually learn.  I don’t mean those teachers ought to be like a sheer guard in front of a gang of convicts. So let me show you what I’ve seen in some classrooms, and which accounts for being a real authority.  You know, that teacher must treat his or her students in an exquisite way. I mean, they should respect those students in class – I’ve seen it and I’m now thinking of a teacher I had at high school who was an authentic authority – he treated his students – us! – in a tactful way – he never humiliated a kid at all in class. And when he met us out of the...
Read more

3125. Working as a Team in the Classroom

Image
  We teachers should be updated about education trends or research trends, more if they seem okay. What I mean is that quite many teachers are trying the following working scheme. The class plus the teacher would be a working team. Anyway this does not mean the teacher is secondary or minor role, or he cannot present topics, like for example grammar patterns. The point is roping the class into a process of learning: the students also are the main characters at this play. The teacher would boost their learning, for example by making them participate more, and also by doing everything that would put them as protagonists of the lesson, together with their teacher. In other words the teacher would foster and boost his students’ creativity. In the lesson there would be the teacher’s creativity plus the students’ creativity too. The class with their teacher is like a work-team or group. The trend is creating thinking classes, thinking individuals. / Photo from: arion2render...
Read more

3566. We Adults May Be Superior to Children at Learning...

Two posts ago I told you that we adults have a lot of positive features in our favor to learn a second or foreign language, and we do have indeed!  Also lately I’m commenting on H. D. Brown (1989). You can peek at the last posts from this blog. From that great book now I’m quoting something else about the way we grownups learn that language. Here you are, “It’s not ridiculous, is it, that adults are potentially superior to children in foreign language learning? If we could only harness that ability! Research on successful language learners shows that a significant portion of adult success is attributable to optimal conscious learning. You need to be just childlike enough to relax with the language and not be overly worried about all of its details. But at the right moment, you need to be able to monitor yourself or your language with your zoom lens, then take corrective action. In short, try not to think too much about your language learning process, but allow yourself optimal o...
Read more

1851. Each student is unique himself

Image
The point is helping each student in your classes as the way they are.  Or in another way, students are diverse, right? With weeks passing you get acquainted with each and every one of your students, and you get to know what you can expect from any of them.  Also think of high-achievers: they oughtn’t to get bored.  You could think you cannot be after each one, for you have many students in the classroom, but with a spark of love of benevolence and patience you can more or less treat each kid as he is.  I mean not to make as many classes as students ther are, but the premise is treating each kid as he is, even demanding more than what you guess at first. / Photo from: entradasalhambragranadaalbaicin Alhambra 2013 iaa es. I live in Granada, where Alhambra palaces are
Read more

3708. When Was the Last Time Our Students Read a Full Book?

  Today I would like to point out a couple of points that may help you out, mainly if you are a teacher, like I am.  You know, a lot has been said about the student’s motivation in class, and that’s fine, for our lessons don’t need to bore our dear students and a whole herd of cows alike.  However, if for example a kid in class achieves to solve a math problem, or to write an essay in English (say, his target language), about a given topic, well, he will get perfectly content. There may be nothing better than the student would strive to do things fine, and learn a lot of things from his teacher.  Effort and struggling may also be paramount in class, and alike at home with their homework. I mean, the school and the classroom are not theme parks, as Gregorio Luri says.  Second thing today. I’d also like to pinpoint the use of books, paper ones. Miguel Ángel Martínez-González stands up for the use of paper books instead of a lot of screens. On this blog I’ve said s...
Read more