Special thanks to teacher Darlene Mata for sharing with us many things during this term. Also,  for helping us to become better Student Teachers. ❤❤❤ ⚡⭐

From: Erika, Vanessa, & Cristian. 

- November 24th, 2015th.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 * INTRODUCTION TO THIS E-FOLIO

* THE CHANGING WORLD OF ENGLISH

* LESSON PLAN AS A SUCESS TOOL FOR TEACHERS

*TRADITIONAL TEACHING AND 21ST CENTURY TEACHING

* THE YOUNG LEARNER

*LISTENING, ORAL WORK, READING, AND WRITING

* WHEN THINGS GO WRONG IN CLASS

* THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

* ASSESSMENT

INTRODUCTION TO THIS E-FOLIO

        We are 3 young adults in the process of becoming teachers. We are from The University of El Salvador, and we study "Licenciatura en Idioma Inglés Opción Enseñanza." Our names are Erika Argueta, Vanessa Martínez, and Cristian Castro. We believe that there is a lot of things we can share with kids thanks to everything we have  learned during this term at the University. One of the reasons we chose this name for our blog is that we consider ourselves TEACHERS, and this is our world. SO feel more than welcome in here.

This semester an Uni, we had the chance to go and heve our very first experience dealing with kids. We had no preparation before, and we did not know how to deal with kids under the age of 7.  It was a nervrocking experience but at the end IT WAS WOTH IT. ❤

THE CHANGING WORLD OF ENGLISH

HOW HAS ENGLISH CHANGED THROUGH THE DECADES? HOW WILL ENGLISH BE IN THE FUTURE? 

         Since the 1900’s English has experienced many changes. Language is always changing, evolving, and adapting to the needs of its users. This isn't a bad thing; if English hadn't changed since1950, we wouldn't have words to refer to modems, fax machines, or cable TV.

" As long as the needs of language users continue to change, so will the language. The change is so slow that from year to year we hardly notice it (except to grumble every so often about the 'poor English' being used by the younger generation!). But reading Shakespeare's writings from the sixteenth century can be difficult. If you go back a couple more centuries, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are very tough sledding, and if you went back another 500 years to try to read Beowulf, it would be like reading a different language.”----Linguistic Society of America

        Our prediction about English is that in the future it will become one of the languages that you MUST Speak, English is now a tool for communication and education, but it will become something that you won’t be able to avoid. Kids will be taught English since the moment they learn how to produce sounds in their firsts months alive. Teachers will be present in every aspect of the learning process, and kids will become the teachers so that they can teach younger generations how to produce this amazing language.

LESSON PLAN AS A SUCCESS TOOL FOR TEACHERS

HOW USEFUL IS LESSON PLAN FOR TEACHERS?

Having a lesson plan makes a teacher’s life easier. In a lesson plan a teacher can have all of his classes planned in order to know the topics that he will develop with his Ss. The use of a lesson plan makes everything more organized and easier to understand.

IS LESSON PLANNIN A NEED ONLY FOR NQT OF FOR TEACHERS WITH PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE AS WELL?

       Lesson planning is for both of them. New Qualified teachers can have better lesson plans than the others. The fact that this teacher is “NQT” doesn’t mean that he won’t have good material to give to his kids. Obviously, teachers with plenty of experiences know how to create better lesson plans. That can be made thanks to the experience they have had throughout the years they’ve been teaching.

WHAT WAS YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE WITH LESSON PLANNING? 

       Our experience with lesson planning was not what we expected. It was ahrd for the 3 of us to create a lesson plan that we would ACTUALLY USE TO TEACH CHILDREN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE! It was hard at first, but then we got used to it. And from the first time we created our own lesson plan. we felt like actual teachers.

TRADITIONAL TEACHING AND 21ST CENTURY TEACHING

TRADITIONAL TEACHING

21ST CENTURY TEACHING

It is concerned with the teacher being the only one in charge of the learning environment/Process. The power and responsibility are held only by the teacher and they play the role of instructor and decision maker –in regards of the curriculum content and specific outcomes. They tell students they have 'knowledge holes' that need to be filled with information.     “The traditional teacher views that it is the teacher that causes learning to occur.” (Novak, 1998)

In this aspect, students are able to ask questions to teachers without feeling worried about the teacher’s response.  This one is also an education that integrates all kind of Ss to participate in spite of the race, sex, or religion they belong to. There are also more opportunities for all of those kids with disabilities to integrate into this marvelous learning process.

TRAILS OF THE 21^ST CENTURY TEACHER --- TOP 10

1- Personalized Instructions & Learner-Centered Classroom

This kind of teacher gives personalized instructions to his Ss. He follows a lesson plan, but he also tries to give instructions that can be understandable by everyone. His classroom is also centered in the learners.  Because they are the basis of the educational process.

2- He sees his students as producers

Today's students have the latest and greatest tools for learning foreign languages, yet, the usage in many cases barely goes beyond communicating with family and friends via chat, text, or even phone calls. Even though students are now viewed as digital natives, many are far from producing any digital content. That is why this teacher thinks that his Ss are able to produce more things that thought.

3- He learns new technologies

In order to be able to offer students different choices, having one's own hands-on experience and expertise will be useful. Since technology keeps developing, learning a tool once and for all is not an option. He has to be capable of using different tools that can help him develop a better job during his classes.

4- Goes Global

Today tools make possible for teachers to learn about other countries and people. Of course, textbooks are still sufficient and used by many schools around the world. There is nothing like learning languages, cultures, and communication skills from talking to people from other parts of the world.

5. He is Smart and Uses Smart Phones

Once students are encouraged to view their devices as valuable tools that can help support knowledge (but not as distractions), they start using them as such. Different students have different needs when it comes to help with new vocabulary or questions; therefore, there is no need to waste time and explain something that perhaps only one or two students would understand.

6.  He uses Blogs

They have written the importance of student’s and teacher’s blogging. Using a blog can help students to understand more about a certain topic.

7. He goes Digital

Another important attribute this kind of teacher has is that he goes paperless. Organizing teaching resources and activities on one's own website and integrating technology bring students learning experience to a different level. Also, sharing links and offering digital discussions as opposed to a constant paper flow allows students to access and share class resources in a more organized fashion.

8- Collaborative

Technology allows collaboration between teachers & students. Creating digital resources, presentations, and projects together with other educators and students will make classroom activities resemble the real world.

9- He uses Twitter Chat/ Facebook Chat

Participating in Twitter chat/Facebook chat is the cheapest and most efficient way to be organized, to share research and ideas, and to stay current with issues and updates in the field. A teacher can grow professionally and expand our knowledge as there is a great conversation happening every day.

10- Project-Based Learning

As today's students have an access to authentic resources on the web, experts anywhere in the world, and peers learning the same subject somewhere else, teaching with textbooks is very "20th-century.” Today's students should develop their own driving questions, conduct their research, contact experts, and create final projects to share all using devices already in their hands.

NEST & no-NEST

A NEST has some facilities when it comes to developing a class. The fact that is a Native English Speaker helps to understand easily the kids he works with. But a no-NEST sometimes has several problems thanks to the gap between him and his students. The language barrier seems to be big once they begin to develop the classes, but it disappears throughout the learning process.

THE YOUNG LEARNER

The kids we taught were the most amazing kids we had. Despite of their age, they are very smart and talented. In my case (Cristian speaks) the kids l taught English to didn’t know a lot of thigs, so that was a challenge for me. After some classes, l realized that kids were understanding most of the things l taught them and l felt good about myself.

My kids on the other hand (Erika speaks) were the most charming kids l have ever met! I had in charge 75 kids in total. (30 in K-5, 25 in K-6 and 20 in K-4) They were very hyperactive in every single class, but they also loved to participate in everything l used to do at the moment of teaching.

The kids used to react well to all of the activities we did with them. (Vanessa speaks) The chapters of the book “Teaching English to Young learners” gave us a lot of ideas to use in our classes, and what also helped us was the use of the different tools that were mentioned. In chapter 4, there were lots of ideas of tools we could use in order to teach English to Young kids. One of those tools was puppets; I remember Erika telling me she used them when teaching toys and colors. And l thought that there was no difference between the kids we had to teach and the ones mentioned in the book.