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.

My First DAPA

DAPA

      Karla started at seven o’clock by greeting the class.

      She asked students if they knew how to play tennis.

      Victor Hugo answered her.

      Teacher asked the rules of playing tennis.

       She gave instructions to the class but she did not CCQ.

      Teacher divided the class, boys and girls.

      She gave some pieces of paper.

      Students had to scramble the words.

      Students seemed to be on task.

      Students had to show the opposite group the scrambled words for them to guess.

      Each group had ten seconds to guess each word.

      Then the teacher said who the winner was.

      After, the teacher asked some questions.

      Students shared their ideas.

      The warm-up finished.

ANALISYS PHASE (A)

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

ATWIKA Giving Instructions, she tried to provide a clear direction to students but in somehow they were lost.

ATWIKA CCQing, she could have asked one student about the procedure of the warm-up, but she did not.

ATWIKA VAKTing, Karla brought some color pieces of pares representing the tennis game 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 Karlita’s warm-up activity, I would do it. However, I would be clear in given instructions and in stating the purposes of the warm-up. Besides, I would bring materials 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.

Monitoring Student Progress And Potential

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

    The relevance that feedback and homework have for effective teachers is that they are some tools used to make a positive impact on students. In other words, teachers use feedback and homework to assess the learning needs of a broad range of students within their classroom and surely this empowers students to learn.   

Why does assessment play a central role in teaching?

    Even though some teachers do not know the purposes or the role of assessment in teaching, assessment remains an important part of effective teaching since it is used as an extension of the classroom. In this regard, we teachers can know if we have reached our objectives or goals. Besides, establishing the three basic purposes of homework: practice (the reinforcement of familiar concepts that need to be defined), preparation (exposing a student to a concept that the class will study in- depth on the next school day), and elaboration (facilitating the exploration of related concepts) will help us to have a clear idea about assessment and about our own objectives or purposes that are to know students’ progress and potential. Indeed, we effective teachers should establish a guideline for us to assess our students because assessment is a central element of the teaching process and it is used to determine the effectiveness of a lesson in terms of student engagement, to evaluate students progress, as I have mentioned above, and as a basis for continuing instruction.

What are some effective ways of monitoring students’ progress?

Effective teachers use a variety of assessment practices to monitor students learning, including formal and informal assessments, and formative and summative assessments. In fact, they monitor student progress informally through such techniques as scanning and circulating around the room, or simply talking to individuals or small groups of students about specific tasks or activities. Furthermore, more formal monitoring of student progress includes teacher-made or standardized tests, projects, or writing assignments. In addition, effective teachers frequently use in-class tests and a variety of inputs’ and constantly monitor student progress and they usually probe and collect information from the learners with whom they work in class.

How does this mangement parameter will empower my own teaching and learning style?

First, this management parameter empowers my teaching and learning style by adding more creativity to my life, and also by making me feel proud of myself since my classmates and I worked so hard that we even gave  blood, sweat, and tears to do this extra-class work.

Then, this management parameter made me more capable to work in team with my classmates and to be patient and afable even when I am used to working in groups or teams. 

Third, this management parameter made me a more courageous teacher because I had to present my topic in front of my classmates and in front of my beloved  English didactics teacher, whom I really appreciate and thank for having shared his amazing teaching knowledge to us, and I also had to give a class demo about "Routines" that for sure my team and I prepared or planned with much care.

Implementing Instruction

How can teachers implement effective instruction in their classrooms and make them conducive to meaningful learning?

      Teachers can implement effective instruction in their classrooms and make them conducive to meaningful learning through effective strategies, to communicate effectively and to support students’ engagement in the teaching-and-learning process. Studies emphasizes not only a teacher’s efforts at planning instruction, but also successfully implementing strategies appropriate to the content and instructional goals The literature on instruction suggests that students whose teachers develop and regularly integrate inquiry-based, hands-on learning activities, critical thinking skills, and assessments into daily lessons consistently out-perform their peers. Therefore, flexibility and adeptness with a variety of teaching strategies contribute to teacher effectiveness; teachers are obliged to look for the best strategies to implement instruction in their classrooms and make them conducive to meaningful learning. Definitely, some strategies that might help teachers to reach an effective instruction in their classrooms are combining instructional techniques that involve individual, small-group, and whole-class instruction. This allows them to monitor and pace instruction based on the individual needs of students.

Why is communication of content and skills knowledge a characteristic of good teachers?

    Communication of contents and skills knowledge is a characteristic of good teachers because communication is fundamental to any profession that requires interaction among people and within an organization. Teaching is no exception. Clarity on explanations, an important communication skill, is manifested in two primary ways in teaching process. The first, for example, relates to the teacher’s ability to explain content clearly and in focused manner pointing out concepts and relations; in this way, students learn and absorb what it is being taught in class. The second one, however, concerns the teacher’s clarity in terms of explain directions for how students are to complete an activity. Clearly, effective communication in teaching requires teachers to clearly understand subject matter and how to share that subject matter with students in a way that come to own it and understand it deeply.  

ORGANIZING FOR INSTRUCTION

ORGANIZING FOR INSTRUCTION

      How do you focus on instruction?

      Well, I try to follow what I have planned, and I try to manage time during the development of the class. One important thing that I take into account in my teaching practicum is to give my students clear instructions every time I start a class, a task, or an activity. I also try to persuade my students’ interest through activities that emphasize the need for them to experience success. Since the beginning of each class I try to model a good behavior and a deep interest in the TL because that lets students know that these two keys are important as it is presented in the book “Qualities of effective Teachers” where it is said that effective teachers see consistency and organization in their classroom as important because they allow the central focus of classroom time to be on teaching and learning. Therefore, for me it is pretty important to have this in mind when organizing for instruction.

      How do you maximize instructional time?

      I, for instance, remember the first day of my teaching practicum time was not enough and I was disappointed and in somehow frustrated since I had not finish everything I had in my lesson plan. However, I did not know that much about planning, timing, giving instructions, and so on. But now I do know how to make arrangements if something it is not working in class.  So for the next classes, I planned my classes more carefully and made an appropriate use of time. Besides, actually I am trying to maximize instructional time through tasks that allow not only my students to have responsibility but also accomplishment in regards with the teaching and learning process. Furthermore, the teacher whom I am working with and I always follow a sequence in our classes because in that way students know what is next during  class, coming up next week, or next month. That is why, I really like that teacher’s organizing for instruction because he is always informing and monitoring students in regards to lessons. Indeed, for every class I try to prepare my students for the day’s activities, and follow a consistent schedule and maintain procedures and routines established since the beginning of my teaching practicum. To be sincere, I try to make clear and smooth translations and maintain momentum within and across lessons.

      How do you expect students to succeed in your classes?   

As the book “Qualities of Effective Teachers” in its chapter four presents that effective teachers believe in their students and expect all of them to learn, regardless of their skill levels and starting points, I, of course, believe in my students; therefore, I can assure that they will learn no matter if they show a higher interest or not, but I will do my best for motivating and showing them that I believe in them and that they have the capability to learn English. For example, I had three students who were always talking, bothering, and never working in class. Once I talked to them and told them that they were able to learn if they wanted and also that they had to take avenges of time and not to lose it. Hence, they changed their behavior and now they are participating actively in class.

      How do you plan and prepare for instruction?

       I, for example, take into account not only the students’ level but also the students’ strengths or challenges; in other words, I think over my students’ needs before organizing and preparing for instructions. I, in fact, interview some of my students in and out of classes to see if they have learned something about English and to see how much familiar they are with the TL because this helps me to incorporate new things that are connected to prior school experiences or real-life-situations.

      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?

      First, I always ask my tutor about what class I need to prepare or the content I have to develop. Then, I look for appropriate information, tasks, activities, drawings, etc. Besides, I have loved to be prepare with extra material if something does not work; once, I brought to my class an activity that I believed that it was very difficult for my students to do it, so I changed the activity and chose another one, considering that my students did not have the appropriate vocabulary and they could feel frustrated. That last-minute change helped me or even more it saved me from chaos. But I am sure that I need to do more researchers and get more information to better my instructions.  What I actually do is to talk and share ideas, experience and in some instances materials with my classmates, and until now that has been a good strategy.       

 

Classroom Management and Organization

      The first day I taught English to junior high school students, I did not know if I had to talk to hem in Spanish or in English, or both at the same time. The problem was that I was very nervous because they were looking at me the entire time, end the teacher was paying attention to what I was saying, too. However in my second class, the thing changed, two or three students asked me “Teacher, do we have to make a semi circle again?” I was amazed by that attitude and question. I had taught them that routine unconsciously, but it worked because I did not need to ask them again to do a semi circle; they did it by themselves. Another important thing is that now they are getting accustomed to work in pairs and groups something that I did not see during the classroom observations. Therefore, the chapter three of the book qualities of an effective teacher has empowered me by given me some ideas about how to better my classroom management skills. In fact, before my teaching practicum finishes, I promise myself to accomplish the following objectives in the next simple but realistic action plan:

ü  I will consider myself a successful English teacher if I include more practice than theory in my lesson plans. (In my two first classes, I did not leave enough time for students to talk and practice what they were learning).

ü  I will feel proud of myself as an effective English teacher if I work on creating a positive classroom climate and then if I work academics into the content than leaping into content during the coming weeks in junior high school. (During my first week in junior high school, I did not finish my lesson plan, so I was worried about it, but then I realized that the most important thing is not to try to cover all the theory if not that students learn more effectively).

ü  I will be happy if I learn at least in an eighty percent of accuracy my students’ name in the next week.

ü  I promise myself to organize each material I will bring to teach in classes.

ü  I will establish a consistent, proactive discipline, and I will also do an appropriate use of the classroom space.

ü   I will feel proud of myself if I establish a sense of community, peer work and team work, too.

ü  I will try to make use of training, feedback, and praise whenever possible and necessary.

ü  I will encourage my students to have self-discipline, so I will be a good example for them in regards to self-discipline.

ü  I will consider myself as an effective teacher if I am able to maintain clear rules and procedures, and credibility with students through a fair and consistent implementation of discipline.