Expecting And Getting The Best From Our Students

WHY SHOULD WE AS EFFECTIVE ELT PRACTITIONERS HAVE HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR ALL OUR STUDENTS?

    We ELT practitioners should have high expectations for all our students because we hopefully have a broad vision, and we definitely believe in our students; besides, we expect all of them to learn. Indeed, one of our main objectives or goals should be to make them critical thinkers; that is to say, we teachers will be really satisfied if we see that every day our students are on the way of success; for sure, we must be conscious that they may face challenges to conquer the real world.

HOW COME WE NEED TO COMMUNICATE THEM TO OUR STUDENTS?

 In any case, familiar, friendship and even matrimonial, communication is an essential factor that cannot be omitted or ignored. Therefore, at any place such as communities, workplaces, schools, and universities, communication is definitely a priority. In this regard, English teachers should look for the best ways for having a clear and effective communication in their classes; this will takes place when the teacher can recognize the importance of it. Besides that, many resources or teaching materials that can be really useful for us to provide a clear communication that does not need to be only by talking but also by gestures, mimics, and even by teaching materials as I mentioned before.

HOW DO WE SUPPORT THEM TO ACHIEVE THEIR LEARNING EXPECTATIONS?

   To help our students to achieve their learning expectations we teachers give our best through bringing energy to the class, appositive attitude, and willingness to work in such an expected way. However, we need to consider that our students have different learning styles and all of them learn in a different speed, and also we need to consider that teaching combines the essence of good classroom management, organization effective planning, and the teacher’s personal characteristics, all of which will help us to clarify our goals and objective to help our students to achieve their learning expectations. Indeed, teachers can use assignments and extra-class work as good tools to see if they achieving their objectives.

HOW DO WE DEMONSTRATE THAT WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR STUDENTS' LEARNING?

   We demonstrate that we teachers are responsible for our students’ learning when we are able to recognize or accept at to what extend our students have learned or have not. Such understanding will leads us to the engagement to continue exploring and taking risks as teachers and facilitators. Furthermore, we teachers demonstrate that we are responsible for our students’ learning when we are concerned not only with our students’ learning but also with our own learning. In fact, we demonstrate a clear interest and responsibility for our students’ learning when we care about them, and ensure that students recognize this caring and feel supported and engaged. Finally, we English teachers demonstrate that we are responsible for our students’ learning when we are willing and dedicate time and energy to the profession.

  HOW BENEFICIAL WAS THIS BOOK TO HAVE A BETTER IDEA ON WHAT TEACHING IS ALL ABOUT?

The book qualities of an effective teacher has empowered my teaching strategies, skills and my own desire to know more and more about teaching. That is why, I believe that this book has been so beneficial to me that I will never forget what it taught me about teaching. So every time I got to the classroom, I always remembered that an effective teacher should always give the extra-mile to really foster rapport and to really create a positive learning atmosphere; that put me into a plan of being a courageous but at the same time a humble teacher. Another aspect I remember is that the book showed us how to empower or teaching skills and I did empowered my teaching skills through reading and analyzing this book.  

   

A DAPA ON MY LAST DAY AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

      Eliza started at three ten p.m by greeting the class.

      She asked students to stand up and form a circle.

      Then students had to sit down.

      She gave instructions to the class about the warm-up activity

      Teacher wrote on the board some words that students had been studying previously.

      She exemplified the activity.

      Teacher CCQ students.

      Students had to move to the right every time they heard the written or target words that were on the board.

      The teacher was narrating a short story containing the studied words.

      Students seemed to be on task.

      Students had not to remain in the same seats; they had to move on if not they would receive a penalty.

      Then the teacher asked students to return to their positions or seats

      After, the teacher asked everybody to clap because all of them did it well.

      Students could brainstorm their ideas about the target topic they had been studying.

      Finally, the teacher did some questions to her students.

      The warm-up finished.

ANALISYS PHASE (A)

ATWIKA CM, Eliza seemed to be very happy, confident and comfortable towards students’ attitude.

ATWIKA Giving Instructions, she tried to provide a clear direction to students; besides, she provided an example of the activity.

ATWIKA CCQing, she asked one student about the procedure of the warm-up and she tried to make him be confident and not ashamed as he could not express himself in English.

ATWIKA VAKTing, Eliza wrote some words as the main ones to be heard by students for them to move or change seat, and that definitely helped students to predict or to have an idea of what the war-up was about.

PLAN OF ACTION (PA)

   If I had the opportunity to do my warm-up activity again, I would do it differently. However, I would bring colorful words or materials to provide my students a better visual-aid; I would KISS instructions and in stating the purposes of the warm-up. Besides, I would bring materials, as I said before, that may represent my warm-up to make it more interesting and mainly because I know that the ninety percent of students are visual. Definitely, I consider that I should bring more energy to my class to have a meaningful learning.

Some questions I am thinking about or questions to reflect on:

·         How can I VATing my activities in the classroom?

·         What should I do to KISS my instructions?

·         How could I be more energetic?

·         How can I involve all my students?

·         How can I time my activities?

·         How could I minimized TTT and maximized STT?

 

Advice for novice and pre-service teachers

ü  Plan your activities accordingly to avoid improvisation.

ü  Apply the right level of difficulty to each activity.

ü  Think about how to time activities accordingly because it is necessary to maximized time in the classroom.

ü  KISS it; don’t forget to CCQing.