CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: LARGE CLASSES

PEDAGOGICAL PLANNING

To manage a large group is difficult but not impossible. The video suggests starting the level, course or year by having a diagnostic test in which you as teacher will know the students´ need and strengths and then you can prepare your lesson plan easily. Something really important is that we as teacher must not label students as intelligent, fool, etc because that leads to other problems.
When having a big group, something that I have experience is that you can not remember all the students´ name very well, but you must find the way you can do it because if not students may not feel important in the classroom in you do not call them by their names. With a big group, it is recommendable to have groups work and in that way you will rotate your attention to them, I mean you will not be paying attention just to the same students and believe me that will help you to remember their names.

CLASSROOM LEARNING SYSTEM

Here is really important that a teacher uses all his/her creativity to create a nice environment, but how? Well what I could see in the video is that when you change from one activity to another one it has to be smoothly, it means that the change must not feel like “hard” let say. The explanation must be given clearly. Something else that I liked is that we should somehow find the way how students may help us to check their work or their partners´ work and I think it would be nice to do this.

STUDENTS BEHAVIOR

This is really important cuz from this depend how successful your class will be. In this part students can help us to establish the classroom rules everybody will follow. The treatment is really important too because you must be fair (treat all students equally), we can not humiliated students, and of course we must respect all our students as we are going to ask them that.

I think that in our country some of these ideas are already applied, but we can take into consideration the other ones in order to do a better job.

USING INTERNET TOOLS

It would be nice that somehow you as English teacher can have your students interact with internet tools, but you have to be careful as not all the students will feel comfortable using or working on them.

To be honest the last time we were working with internet tools, I felt disappointed. First because the computer did not work well, so when the teacher was explaining something, I was lost and I could not do anything. Second I think is because the tools the teacher gave us are not well-known well at least for me, so I did not feel like motivated to work on those tasks let’s say, but I could realize that some of my classmates were eager to work on them which is nice.

I think it can be important to use internet tools with the EFL students as they can help us to carry out any task but as I have said before we have to be careful on what we want students to learn and what the purpose on those tools is, I mean we can not bring any web sites we want. We need to have a clear objective on why we want our students to know about a web site.

Maybe the use of these tools can be related with the logical intelligence as these people have a clear idea of the information they are acquiring, and because they like to solve any difficulty they may have and for me using internet tools have some difficulties.

CONTEXTUALIZED LANGUAGE

Well this is a nice strategy to teach a foreign language as all the activities are related with real situation, so the language can become more meaningful.

The teacher attitudes in this strategy as somebody said has to be patient, esthusiactic, etc, as he/she is the one who will guide most of the activities at the very beginning levels, but then there is like more freedom when students prepare their own conversations or projects related to things they are interested on.
This strategy would be nice to be applied in our country, but it would be a little bit difficult at the beginning as there are many facts that would not let it to be well applied. First of all the curriculum in El Salvador sometimes does not give too much freedom to the teacher in creating like a meaningful class, but some teachers do it and that´s awesome. Second it can require a lot of creativity from the teacher as he/she has the responsability to create many activities in which students can be involved with the context. Third one the amount of students in the classroom, especially public schools, is big so it would be really hard for the teacher to get involved all students in the activities.

As culture varies from country to country, I can say that in our country at the beginning students may be confused on what they are learning, but later they can realized that the idea of the contextualized language in that they can learn from real situations; consequently, the learners´ attitude would not be as the one we saw in the video. It would take some time but it would be nice if teachers in our country start using this strategy of teaching a second or foreing language.

THE TEACHER AS THE CREATROR OF A NICE ENVIRONMENT
to create a pleasant environment in a classroom is pretty difficult for a tecaher as there are many factors you have to take into consideration.
first of all, the students´ proficiency vary from one student to another one, so you have to find the best way how you will work with them in order to make all your students to feel comfortable .
All your activities and tasks are more difficult for some students while for some others are easy, so it will depend on your creativity to have the students who finish first with the task to help the other students, it means that since the biginning that you know your students, you have to stablish like a community in which they help each other whenever it is possible.
You as a teacher play many roles and one of them is to be friend, and when that happen you have to be careful because you have to show them that you are also the authority of the classroom because if not you make lose the control of the classroom. to be your students´friend is nice because in that way most of your students trust you and you can help them with the tasks, clarifying doubts, etc. and you can even help them with personal problems.
You have to be always an enthusiactic teacher because it will make students to forget for a while any problem they may have at home, so your students will desire to be in your classes as you always share your energy and enthusiasm with them. by the way something really important is that you have to treat all your students in the same way. it means not to label intelligent and dumb students, cuz they have to feel that all of them play an important role in the classroom.

PROFICIENCY LEVELS

TEACHING BEGINNING LEVELS

It is considered the most challenging level because many students have little or no prior knowledge about the target language, so that is why to teach this level seems to be difficult, but at the end there is a feeling that can not be explained when you see how your students grew up in getting knowledge about the target language. There is a lot of work for the teacher because he/ she has to find the best way to get involved all the students in the target language but it does not matter when you see the results at the end.

TEACHER´S ROLE, AUTHENCITY OF LANGUAGE AND STUDENTS´CREATIVITY

At the beginning the teacher can be seen as the center of attention because he/ she has to model everything, but when you see that your students feel comfortable and start taking part of the environment (the learning of the target language) it is the right moment in which you can get students to participate in groups or pair activities in order to make them feel that you are not the center of attention; I mean to make them feel that you are just the guide.

Step by step you have to get your students to use the target language as much as they can.
The teacher in this stage controls the class, it means lead students in the right way to learn the basics of the target language, so the authenticity of language falls especifically in simple grettings and the introduction of simple phrases and you as the teacher has the responsability to provide activities in which students use the new language, so the students´creativity will be basically in a controlled repertoire of language, it means that students will create something in the target language but just things they already know becuase it has been practiced most of the time.

As you can see teaching in this level is not easy but it is really rewarding.

wow the questions teacher Aida asked in Lupita´s blog are interesring becuase I can not imagine myself being videotape becuase it is something that I do not like as it is something we are not accustomed to . even though I do not like it but if my supervisor asks me to record or videotape a class, I will do my best to deal this. I think before I start convincing my students to participate on it, I will start practicing by my own. I mean recording myself and then I think I will be ready to do it with my students. It will be hard but not imposible.

Quique looked different and believe me I enjoyed your presentation because all the drawing you used in the "warm-up" activity let´s say were nice. you deal the activity well.

Jonathan was telling me something related with the job application Luis told us. It was interesting to hear those funny things that people do just to bother.
Sorry Jonathan but I do not like being recorded that´s why I think I would not apply your method, but you did your best, so congrats.

Xavier´s activities were nice too the only problem is that it started to rain and we could hear clearly some things he asked us to do, but I think we could do what he wanted.

As I have said, this subject is helping us to identify which is the method we would apply in a classroom in order to teach a language, so right now we have some really nice ideas and we hope to learn more about this.

EVERYBODY CONGRAST. YOU DID YOUR BEST AND I THINK WE ARE GOING TO DO IT BETTER NEXT TIME.

hello, I liked the presentations that were developed in the last class; they were nice because after having a week of partials, they made us feel relaxed for a few minutes. I think that everybody did his/her best to develop those activities, and now that we already know that didactis is about teaching, we have to get ready for doing many activities like the ones we have perfomed in the last classes; It means that next time we can develop them better than the first time. So thanks guys for doing your best. bye see you soon.

HI AGAIN. WOW I WAS SURPRISED IN THE SECOND TIME OF DEVELOPING ACTIVITIES. WE COULD SEE THAT OUR CLASSMATES PREPARED A LOT ACTIVITIES AND THEY WERE AWESOME. THE CREATIVITY THAT EACH ONE HAS MAKE THE ACTIVITIES FUNNIER, AND THAT IS SOMETHING REALLY NICE THAT WE HAVE TO DEVELOP STEP BY STEP. I AM LEARNING NEW ACTIVITIES THAT FOR SURE I WILL APPLY IN MY CLASSES. THIS SUBJECT IS REALLY USEFULL BECAUSE AS I CAN SEE IT IS FOCUS ON TEACHING US THE BEST WAY TO "DEAL" LET SAY WITH TEACHING A NEW LANGUAGE. EVEN THOUGH THE ACTIVITIES WERE NOT DEVELOP JUST IN THE METHOD ITSELF THAT EACH ONE EXPLAINED, THEY WERE REALLY NICE AND IN HERE WE CAN PROVE THAT ONE METHOD NEEDS ANOTHER ONE TO BE DEVELOPED. I WILL BE WAITING FOR THE OTHER ACTIVITIES

hello everyboby I enjoyed the activities that we developed in the first day. they were really nice because we are started to get envolved in an environment that techers live everyday. Even though the ones who presented the activities, including myself, did not ask to behave as children, we did it and I think it was because it is like if we already know that we have to help our classmates in a certain way. I enjoyed all the activities and it is something new we are experiencing in our classes. I hope to see the other activities and I am sure we are going to enjoy them too.

CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION

well what i undestood about this method is that everything that is going to be learn in the target language will be based on what is happening around the students context. so it means that what will be taken into consideration is students lives, interest and goals. I think it can be nice because the method is based on what students know, so it can be easy for them to give opinions in the class right? so I considered that the four macro-skills can be developed in some way.

TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION

In my point of view this method deals with teach students how to be responsible with their duties right? because as I remenber every task that is assignrd to do eather in and out the class has a priority, so it this way students are learning that they have to be responsible as there is time to do each task. I think this method is linked with the silent way method because in this the teacher work with the students while their work on the assigment which is almost the same as my method because the students are the ones who work in learning the target language. so as we can see students have to work in group in order to learn the target language. So this method is more usefull with advaced students as it requires a lot of responsability.

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

well this method seems to be very nice and useful but the problem is that not all the teachers (maybe) will be able to be recording some classes as this is one of the activities in this method because it can not be for them to bet a recorder. I think even though Jonathan said the oppositive. as I have mentioned before all the methods are linked in some way for example this one is linked with the task-based instruction and the silent way because in both of them the only responsibles to learn the target language are the students so the teacher´s role is to guide the students on it and we can see they are going to learn the grammatical rules for example inductively; it means that students will learn it through exercises. the most important advantage is that through the recording students and teacher can hear themselves and notice the mistakes they made in the speaking activity, so when they transcribe it in their notebooks they will avoid the mistakes. This method requires a lot of time I think as you have to first prepare what you will record, then goes recoding one by one the students and then made trasncribe it. and imagine if the group is big, how will you do it?. so it would be nice to use it.

THE NATUTAL APPROACH.

well i think this is a nice method because it based its theory let say in the direct method, so it means that there are many activities that a teacher can develop on the classroom on order to learn the target language. I can see a problem in here which is related with another method and it is that students are not forced to use the new language till they are ready, so when it is going to be the appropiate time for thatamd the pronlem is that students will not be able to create sentences and read them. Another thing is that this method is focus on meanind of words so it is linked with the method teacher Aida explained at the beginning which is the translation method I think. so as we can see this method is linked with other methods.

ORAL APPROACH

some important thing is that this method as the first one i was talking about is linked with the direct method too but this oral approach is more systematic. i like this method and i think that teacher use it in some way as the topics are presented orally first and then written. what i like the most is that the target language is used in classes so it means that students will learn the target language easily. so based on that we can say that at the beginning it is really important for teachers to provide the basis of grammar in order to avoide mistakeds which is one of the principles of this method I think, and that is really important. another important thing is that in each class students are learning new vocabulary and it help students a lot because they will have more vocabulary to use in their speaking activities.

THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

This method I think is really nice and it is linked with the direct method in a certain way because as it works with the listening and speaking skills there are activities such as conversation, role plays, and many others that can be usufull in order to achieve the goals, and of course the activities I have mentioned need students to read them and the teacher to teach students the pronuntiation of the words so the other skills which are reading and writing skill are developed in a certain way. The only problem I can see with this method is that students will use the target language just when they are supposed to be ready, and that is the problem because students can say that they are not ready when they may be, so the question is when are they going to start using the target language. Another problem I can see in this method is that in the activities I mentioned before students have to memorize every single conversation for example so they are going to work in that way always and they will never be able to use the target language by themselves. Now what about grammar? as I understood there are no to much explanation about it so it means that with the conversations that students have to memorize they are going to identify some rules, but the problem is that not all the students have that ability.

WHOLE LANGUAGE METHOD

Well this method I think is kind of boring because as Henry said; it works whith tranlation, so it means that students are going to be focus on the meaning of word not on speaking or use the target language in any situation. I think it is really workfull because if the teacher is going to prepare any class he/she has to prepare a lot of materials acording with the student´s likes, and in our country it can not be usefull because the method demands a lot of work and the payment is not good. As Henry said this method works with reading I think, and the problem with this is that sometimes students do not understand the meaning of words, especially beggining learners and they will face the problem and may be will never try to learn a foreign language.

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

I like this method because in here you have to use mimics or gestures if you as a teacher wants to teach any especific topic and that makes the class funny so students will learn in a nice environment. I have applied some activities for this method in my classes and they have been usefull for me and let me tell you that my students have learned and I fell pleased with it. I think that with this method you will never use the translation in order to say the meaning of a word because ypu will use movements of your body to achieve that goal. Of course students will laugh about it but it does not matter because the idea is that you making students be able to understand the meaning of a word through gestures or movements. so when yopu say something students will understand you easily if you model them first eveng though you do not use their native language. I enjoy this and I think this method and the direct method are like complement.

THE DIRECT METHOD
In my point of view this is a nice method we can use to teach the English language, because there are many nice activities we can develop in the classroom, and students can work or can participate in each one. the most important think for me is that the four macro skill are develop in the same rate or level, and the relationship among the teacher and students is really nice. As a teacher, even though I did not know about this method, I have been developed many of the activities Lupita mentioned in her presentation and let me tell you that they have been really usefull for me. I hope to learn more about this method.

SUGGESTOPEDIA METHOD
This method can be usefull I think in the kindergarten because in that grade students are accostumed to sing a lot of songs, but in other levels I think it can not work for as I understood in Claudia´s presentation the problem is that not all the teachers have the ability to sing in higher levels and the kind of music that has to be used with this method is classical music, something that can be difficult to look for nowadays. Another problem with this method is that the teacher does not correct the students and that is the problem bacause students will not be able to notice the mistakes they are making.

THE SILENT WAY METHOD
Ohhh I hate this method because I explained it but I did not understand it at all especially the part in which it talks about the sound color chart. The only thing I liked is that with this method students can learn how to be responsible with their studies, but the problem is that students how to learn first to understand the teacher´s gestures as this is one of the resources that the teacher is going to use the most.

hello. I expect to learn a lot of things in this new subject. I think we are going to learn methodologies in order to teach the English language