The need of Research in Class

Constant observation of the class is the key to perceive needed changes. Every teacher has to be a researcher, identify possible modification that ameliorate the performance of students, their cognitive skills or simply their attitude.

Of course there are classes that work perfectly but in education almost everything can be improved and it is within our salary to try our best to help the students as much as possible.

Dealing with hypothesis and research questions can be tough at first but once we carry out several research and manipulating primary sources ourselves, it becomes easier and more efficient. A little bit of knowledge on descriptive statistic will be enough for any teacher to conduct valuable experiment where one can deduce important conclusion that affect the class.

Important mention regarding the conclusions. Before extrapolating any results to outside our class or sample, more research and replication must be made. We must be humble in our conclusions before generalizing. This can lead to wrong methodology or adaptation in other context with different traits to our original one.

From this blog, I want to encourage teachers from all over the world to research in the class in aid of the students. Anything can be worth, from using a different methodology to avoiding language classes early in the morning.

Prueba FTP Links

English Preposition Links

Primary school Education

I am starting to understand and feel what the education at this level has to be. I believe the context for me has been somehow weird to adjust , practicing with college boys is very different from teaching primary school. At first I thought there was only one foreign language education with some differences but within the same book. I was wrong.

Methodologically, primary school is not complicated to teach, my bigger improvement and maybe one of my weakest points was discipline, i considered myself as a very dynamic instructor. But kids at this age cant assume continuos changes in their everyday class day. The process we repeat over and over in class with small changes (new concepts) is the only path they understand (or at least a big percentage of the class).

In new chapters I will share, how different a sixth grade class is from a second grade class. I realized that they belong to the same system but they are world apart, we have to be ready to accept the reality of the schools nowadays, sometimes it is not what is looks like.

How to make a diary for your internship memory....

Amador Jimenez Garrido

Diario para la memoria:

February 26th
I went to the designated school for my formal presentation before my first day of class. I introduced myself to the principal who knew me through my father and also was expecting me since UJA sent a very detailed letter about my future presence to course an internship with the school.
That day they were celebrating the day of Andalucia, so most teachers were out in the playing field. He introduced me to most of them as the new practice teacher for the next 3 months.
We agreed a time and place for my tutor at the school to pick me up and start the classes

March 3rd
I arrived to the school on time as agreed; I met many other teachers at the teacher’s room. I had a meeting with my tutor and the principal where we discussed my weekly schedule and also they presented me some projects they wanted me to run at the school.
That day I had two classes with sixth grade, A and B, and another one with fifth grade. During the kids playing time I had to stay at the regular classroom looking after them because it was a rainy day so they were not allowed to leave the class to go to the playing fields.
The last hour, I stayed in the teacher’s room working on the memory and searching for recourses, most specialized teachers don’t have a class in this frame, it is mostly used for the teachers to develop program and solving school and classes issues and researching in general.
In general it was a day of presentations, my introduction to new methods of teaching, introduction to the kids, to some parents and so on.
At the end of the day I was really happy with the happenings, I felt happy with my performance and I knew all would be easier than supposed.


March 4th

That day an author visited the school. Kids had read this book so he was going to present it from a different point of view and as well to answer the question of the kids.
In my second hour of class the teacher left the class for 15 minutes so I took the charge of it, I improvised several oral and written activities. The teacher arrived so we continued with the normal pace of the class.
I noticed that I had to adapt my writing for the kids, specially for those times when I was asked to write in the blackboard, its especially important to separate our regular writing for the writing the kids should see in class.
After playing time, this author visited the school. He is from Cadiz, at first the kids were not able to understand what he was saying so he adapted his speaking a little. He was very funny and professional at the same time; we could see how he had everything thought for a kid’s presentation according to their ages. He answered the kid’s questions and told a few stories.
After the book presentation I went to a class with a different teacher, Sara, she is teaching earlier ages like second grade. It was a big impact to see how different the teaching experience can be from one grade to another. I introduced myself to the kids.
I noticed how the pace of this class was especially slow and the relation teacher-pupil is quite different.

March 5, 2009
My third day was marked by a horrible day out there, heavy rain plus strong wind.
I had a few classes today, two classes with sixth grade and another one with fifth grade. I also had some time in my final hour to collect information for the memory.
I noticed that after three days the school work is routine, its needed to repeat the same pattern in the school, this way the kids can predict what the teacher or activities require them to do. If we introduce new “rules” the kids can get lost. It is good to introduce changes every now and then because in life there are ups and downs and they need to get use to them and be ready to face them positively.

New experiences coming up!

As my last teaching experience came to its end, i have lots of new things to tell in my blog. As any other long term education experience, this settled on me so many new concepts and learning situations.

College learning is far from primary school education is many ways, but at the end, and after a deep reflexion, we are doing the same act, and it belongs to the same brand, Education. Driving is going to be driving always, but of course it wont be the same driving a car or a larry, but lets think in a experienced car driver trying a larry slowly and making his best to adapt, of course we are thinking the same right now, Yes He Can! its exactly the same process for teaching.

In my future entries I will be expression opinions about GRE, the exam everybody needs to access to GRAD school in USA. This exam is taking my time and mind at the moment. It is a medium difficulty exam that can be prepared by any student individually as far as his/her math and mainly english skills are acceptable enough for the challenge.

Glad to be back dear readers!

Saludos,

Amador

Language teachers in a Computer Lab (PART 2)

As I said in my previous entry, Computer Labs is the future in language classes, the old fashioned book is going to be soon replace by computers, in fact, the best schools provide their student with a computer in the regular classes, this act, open the class to the world wide web, so that student can get more information about the thing the teacher is explaining, in the same moment.

Another aspect I would like to attach strong attention is that the computer can never substitute the teacher, there is only one teacher. The computer can perfectly swap the book but the teacher is the fixed and necessary element in every class, no matter the branch of study.

Before the start of the use of the computer with education purposes, teacher should use 1 or 2 classes to drill the student about the proper use of the computer, and how to fix problems. This 2 classes will be recovered as the class flows better during the semester.

In general, a teacher of nowadays cannot feel out of place in a computer lab, it is easy to handle and mainly, students needs the computers to develop their skills more quickly and better.

Language Teachers in a Computer Lab (PART 1)

Once again, language learning and technology. This time I will express my idea of what are the roles of a teacher in a computer lab.

What is different in going to a computer lab with students and the students doing the work by themselves? nowadays, 95% of the students have the internet at home, and the other 5% has it just right around the corner. The difference resides in the use pupils take from the internet, when no teacher in the class the students tend to avoid long processes and this means not take the advantage the software can extract.

But it is true that many are the teacher that feel like babysitters in a computer lab, just helping computer issues or just solving very simple steps some students jumped because of their possible difficulties with the hardware. That is right, that is not the best language teacher scenario. What can we do for that? it is probed that computer lab, when they work perfectly (software and hardware), are the ultimate tool for language learning, a computer can repeat a word as many times as the student want, without the necessity of having the teacher in front of us for such matter, remember (one teacher for 30 students!!!)

What teachers need is to make sure every computer lab have at least one responsible for the hard and software problems, instead of the teacher doing somebody's else job.

End of part 1 - To be continued...