EXPECTING AND GETTING THE BEST FROM OUR STUDENTS

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

We should have high expectations for all our students because we have or do a function as profesional people. We need to have high expactations about our students because we have the obligation and responsability to empower the students' knowledge.

I know that i am not a profesional teacher yet, but I work as practitioner as a profesional teacher.So, I have the responsability to take care about my students who have to work hard and who have to become good students and to have sucscessful in their lives. We have to have good expactatios for our students to whom we need to motivate.

students appear to be propelled by curiosity, driven by an intense need to explore, interact with, and make sense of their environment.

Unfortunately, as students grow, their passion for learning frequently seems to shrink. Learning often becomes associated with drudgery instead of delight. A large number of students--more than one in four--leave school before graduating. Many more are physically present in the classroom but largely mentally absent; they fail to invest themselves fully in the experience of learning.

Awareness of how students' attitudes and beliefs about learning develop and what facilitates learning for its own sake can assist educators in reducing student apathy.

Also, student motivation naturally has to do with students' desire to participate in the learning process. But it also concerns the reasons or goals that underlie their involvement or noninvolvement in academic activities. Although students may be equally motivated to perform a task, the sources of their motivation may differ.

HOW COME WE NEED TO COMMUNICATE THEM TO OUR STUDENTS?

We need to communicate them to our students because they need to feel comfortable with us, and communication is a tool that help us to rupport with them.

I rememner that when I studied that I did not feel comfortable in junior school because I did not have good classmates and I did not have friends, so, one day I talk to my mathematics teacher who is a good person. She always talked to me every day about the classes and about my problems to study. I mean that I feel confident and comfortable in his classes because I did not have friends, but I knew that I had a good teacher who help me to feel comfortable in the class.

HOW DO WE DO THAT?

A rule that I practice is to be friendly with students, but not to be a friend.

We can communicate with them talking about the classes and about their needs which they have to take a counnt to improve thei grades.

We as effective practitioners have to be careful with students because it's possible that they like us not only as teachers, but also as girlfriends our boyfriends.

In fact, if we have a strong communication with them, they can feel better in our class, but we have to be careful because there are students who likes to be noisy when we create a realation that is similar a friendship.

HOW DO WE SUPPORT THEM TO ACHIEVE THEIR LEARNING EXPECTATIONS?

We can help them to achieve their learnig expactations doing quizes or evaluating them and different forms and times because if a student has problems with something he or she has the

probability to improve.

HOW DO WE DEMONSTRATE THAT WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR STUDENTS' LEARNING?
We can demostrate that we are responsable with our students monitoring student progress and helping them to develop their potential.
There are things that students learn of us; for example: 

• We demostrate interested for our students learnig being on time in the classroom.
• Checking their homework assessments.
• Helping them with their problems in some skill.
• Showing energy when we teach.

Etc.

A DAPA OF ONE YOUR LESSONS.

Lesson plan : simple present

Time: 45 minutes. From 7:25 a.m to 8:10 a.m

1.     I  greeted my students, then I told them that I felt confortable. Some of the students told me that they were tired, then I told them that I undertood them.

2.     I told them that we were going to study anew topic about the simple present.

3.     I told them that we were going to do a warm-up activity before starting the class.

4.     I tolgd tudents the purpose of the activity.

5.     I explained students the name of the activity, then what they had to do.

6.     I told them the steps of the warm-up. The stesps were:

·        Choose a number of students to form two lines.

·        Students have to throw the die, then, they have to take a piece of paper that is in one of the boxes, but it depends on the color side of the die they got.

·        Give students 2 minute to answer the question the paper has.

·        The rest of the students have to answer questions which will be asked by the teacher.

7.      Ater the warm-up activity, I started the class askin tudents some verbs that they knew.

8.      I wrote the name of the topic on the whiteboard.

9.      I explained the personal pronous.

10.  I wrote the rules of the simple present on the board giving some examples about them.

11.  I explained one more time the rules to stundent, then I told them that the have to do sentences using the rules and explanations studying in the class.

12.  I gave them some pieces of paper which contained the exercises to complete.

13. I checked them their work.

14. I explained them the negative form of the simple present tense.

15. I wrote the auxiliary do + no, then I explained it to students.

16. I geve students other pieces of paper which other exercises.

17. I cheked the exercises with students.

18. I told students that we were going to do a warp-up.

19.  I chose students who had to write sentences using one of the verbs that they remember

20. I told students that the class was over, then I old them that they had to write 10 sentences using verbs that were not mention in the class.

Critic.

·        The explanations were simple, ut according to the topic.

·        I had to be with more energy in the class.

·        I was not sure about what to do with my warm-up.

In the near future I will use this lesson plan and  I am going to do some changesñ

For example:

1.      I will so another warm-up activity that pertmits me to involve all the students.

2.      I will use pages with the rules of the simple present to save time.

3.      I try to be more energize to show interested for may teaching.

 

Questions to reflect upon.

1. how can I  do another warm-up activity in my class?
2. how can I use materials to teach this topic?
3. how can I save time?

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

This book helped me to improve my cay to teach because it was a tool that i have been using to learned and to teach.
Now, I have a better idea about what is teaching and I know that teaching is not only know about something, but also know how to teach.

MONITORING STUDENT PROGRESS AND POTENTIAL

WHAT'S THE RELEVANCE THAT FEEDBACK AND HOMEWORK HAVE FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHERS? 

 

All of the teachers have had and will have students who do not like to do activities in the classroom our don`t enjoy to study. Well, when we have students like them, we can provide homework assessments to create interest in them to study or to learn a little.

Well, the relevance that the feedback and the homework is that we as a teachers can see that good or bad process learning about our students. If students have problems with English we have the opportunity to help them to get solutions for improving her or her English.

Every teacher has to have a purpose when they provide homework to students, we don`t have to do anything without a purpose.

Moreover, the homework is a tool that a teacher can use in his teaching.

Effective teachers create a relationship with parents who have the responsibility to check the students` work.
Homework is important because it`s a tool for effective teachers to assess the learning needs of students.
Also, homework empowers students to learn.
Feedback on completed homework is particularly important.
Feedback is one of the most powerful modification techniques for increasing learning outcomes in students.
The feedback is important for effective teachers because it`s another tool that can be used to correct negative things in the learning process of students.

WHY DOES ASSESSMENT PLAY A CENTRAL ROLE IN TEACHING? 

Assessment plays a central role in teaching because teachers can know the students ‘learning.

Assessing the students is an opportunity to know if our teaching is good or bad.

WHAT ARE SOME EFFECTIVE WAYS OF MONITORING STUDENT PROGRESS? 

Some effective ways to monitoring students learning are:

·         Formal and informal assessment to monitoring students’ learning.

·         Use a portfolio and project assessment as the culminating event.

·         Use techniques as scanning and circulating around the room.

·         Talking to individuals or small groups of students about specific and spend time thinking about how they can better reach students.

·         Doing standardized tests, projects, or writing assignments.

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 classroom following different ways; we have some examples in our teaching practicum doing a lot thing that we previously thought to do when we are doing our lesson plan or that we do in the momentum of the class.

These things can be activities or strategies that we as a teacher do. Strategies are tools which help us to develop our perfect and good classes. We do activities that help students to understand the English class and help us to teach.

If our teaching is good, the probabilities that students can understand are more.

We know that students can learn practicing, so it is good when the teacher does activities, if we want to conduct meaningful learning in the students we have to investigate about strategies and activities which would help us and help students in the process learning.

WHY IS COMMUNICATION OF CONTENT AND SKILLS KNOWLEDGE A CHARACTERISTIC OF GOOD TEACHERS?

Communication of content and knowledge of good teachers is a characteristic of good teachers because communication is base not only for teachers, but also for students, I mean that a good relationship with students helps us to create a way that help to the teacher to teach.

When we have a good communication with students, we know the needs of students that help us to do a better lesson plan.

A teacher in his or her first class has problems because she or he does not know very well his or her students. After that experience a teacher does a better lesson plan because he or she knows better his or her students.

We have to know that communication is a good characteristic of teachers.

HOW ARE YOU DEALING WITH STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN YOUR OWN TEACHING PRACTICUM, AS THE AGE OF YOUR STUDENTS IS A CRITICAL ONE?

In my teaching practicum I do different activities to help students; in fact, most of them are to review a previous topic, these are activities, but it is one of my strategies to teach.

I did not know very well my students in my first class, so I had problems with my warm- ups, but I investigated to improve it.

My students are excellent students. I respect them and they respect me.

HOW THIS MANAGEMENT PARAMENTER WILL EMPOWER MY OWN TEACHING AND LEARNING STYLE?

WELL, I THINK THIS MANAGEMENT WILL EMPOWER MY TEACHING AND LEARNING STYLE BECAUSE STUDYING THIS TOPIC, I COULD LEARNED MANY IMPORTANT ASPECTS I WILL TRY TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT IN MY OWN TEACHING PRACTICUM.


FIRST, I LEARNED THAT ROUTINES ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO FALLOW AN ORDER AND TO CONDUCT OUR STUDENTS IN A GOOD AND AN EFFICIENT TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS.


ALSO, I LEARNED THAT ROUTINES ARE THE BACKBONE OF DAILY CLASSROOM LIFE. THEY FACILITATE TEACHING AND LEARNING, THEY SAVE VALUABLE CLASSROOM TIME. AND WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT, EFFICIENT ROUTINES MAKE IT EASIER FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN AND ACHIEVE MORE.


I CAN SAY THAT WHEN YOUR ROUTINES AND PROCEDURES ARE CAREFULLY TAUGHT AND VERY STABLISHED IN THE CLASSROOM, STUDENTS KNOW WHAT IS EXPECTED OF THEM AND THEY WILL KNOW HOW TO DO CERTAIN THINGS ON THEIR OWN:


FOR EXAMPLE, EACH TEACHER AND EACH CLASSROOM IS DIFFERENT; CLASSROOMS ARE SUCCESSFUL WHEN TEACHERS HAVE EFFECTIVE ROUTINES FOR:
• ENTERING THE CLASSROOM
• WHERE STUDENTS SIT
• CHECKING WHICH STUDENTS ARE PRESENT IN CLASS
• LATENESS TO CLASS
• GIVING OUT EQUIPMENT AND BOOKS
• HOW STUDENTS CAN MOVE AROUND THE CLASSROOM
• WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES

ORGANIZING FOR INSTRUCTION

How do you focus on instruction?

I focus on instruction as apart of my life. I mean that if I want to be an effective teacher I have to know how to focus on instruction in different ways.

To teach is a part of my life because I feel comfortable when I prepare my lesson plans which are developed in 8^th grade. When I previously prepare my classes. I enjoy teaching; in other hand, I don’t enjoy to teach and I don’t see sense to be an English teacher.

So I like to prepare my classes  because if I don’t prepare my classes, after teaching I feel bad and I feel frustrated during the rest of the day.

Also, I focus on instruction helping my students who have problems with English.

How do you maximize instructional time?

I maximize instructional time controlling the time of different steps of the lesson.

Maybe I don’t have a lot of years teaching as my tutor, but if you observed her classes and my classes you could see that students sometimes pay more attention with me than with my tutor.

That experience is because I try to use until the last second of the hour that I have to teach.

Moreover, one day my tutor told me (please, give me ten minutes to explain something to students), then I didn’t realize my warm-up activity because I had to develop a new topic and the class was amazing, students enjoyed it.

From the better beginning I established some rules for my English class to take advantage of the time. Some of them are the followings:

¨      When the teacher is explaining the class students don’t have to copy the information of the board.

¨      Students have 2 minutes to organize the desks in a semicircle before my English class.

¨      The teacher will check the homework during the free times.

¨      Etc.

How do you expect students to succeed in your classes?

 

Well, I expect students to succeed in my classes, talking to them, explaining during the free times something that students didn’t understand in the last class.

I have created a good relationship with students and they like to talk to me.

I told them that I am not only an English teacher, but also a friend. You know I told them a lot of things with the purpose that they felt  and feel comfortable in my classes.

 I could see that these students learn and most of the time enjoy the class, but I know that not all of the students like English, but they are interested to learn a little English.

 How do you plan and prepare for instruction?

I plan and prepare for instruction in the following way:

First, asking my tutor what is the topic if the topic of the next class, after that I organize the time to develop my lesson plan.

I create the general objective that I want to accomplish to the end of the class, and I prepare my warm-up and investigate about the topic, etc.

When my lesson plan is completed I check and check it.

 Then, I created the materials which will be used in my English class.

The activities that I always do are group activities because students like.

When I teach, I am confident because I am satisfied of my previous preparation.

In my first day of teaching, I didn’t know students, but nowadays I have ideas to accomplish a good class. And of course I teach the things that I know perfectly.

I haven’t made changes in the last minutes of my class because they haven’t been necessary.

I need to manage the time for improving my instruction and rapport  with more students.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION

My second week in the school was amazing because I had to teach my first English class as a teacher in the school.

I taugth in the eighth grade of the morning. I felt confortable because I rapport with atudents of that grade during the first week I know is a little complicated to tell it, but I created a good relationship with most of the students of that grade.

I liked and I andjoyed teaching beacause I felt very well there. I think the organization in the classroom was bad beacause the desks are so much and the classroom is small, the organization was like the picture below.

You could see that in the clssroom there are so alot of desks and the techer can`t walk around the classroom, so I organized the desks like a semi circle like the picture below.

In that way the teacher can walk around the classroom and to acomplish the students`attention better because there are some students who sit in the end of the classroom.

the students attitude was not bad beacuse they respect me and I respect them, too.

In regard to the classroom management, I read the chapter number 3 and this information about the classroom managment empowers me to look for other ways to manage and create a good climate in the classroom. 

In regard to the classroom organization this chapter helped me to improve the manner to organize the classroom, the reason why I explain in the first paragraph  that I organided the desks in another way  is because I  had read the chapter previously.

I mean that this chapter helped me to put or or ganize the classroom in a way that students feel well.

In reagard to the expectations for student behavior it helped me to create a good relationship with students and help them when they don`t understand anything or need help.

The things that I woul change to create a good climate and improve my teaching are the followings:

 

Nº	MY RULES
1-------- 2-------- 3-------- 4-------- 5-------- 6-------- 7-------- 8--------	I have to create my lesson plan for every class. I have to be on time in the class, at least 10 minutes before the class. I have to organize the desks in a good way that students can feel well and I can walk around classroom. To incluede all the time a warm up activitie. Raise my voice with the porpuse of students pay attention or can listent to me. Create peer and group works. To give students a homework. I have to create and to have a good communication with my students.

CLASS OBSERVATION

Well, in my first week I could see  the English teacher of the school. Everybody is happy to study there and teachers are  happy of working in that school. My Englis teacher is a person who likes to teach  everyday. I liked to see her because she was my English teacher  when I studied there. She is really intelligent and all of the students know it, so they always pay attention when she teaches. I am surprised because she knows a lot about the  materials that I have to use when someone wants to teach. She talked to me  about lesson and she said that she was happy because I chose that  school to do my practice.In fact I feel confortable to be in the school.

I could see that she knows alot of English and she knows how to teach; moreover, she knows how to create a good relationship with students.