Last class before the term test

Hello everyone!!

               Today we had our last class before the second term test. We had two great and entertaining presentations: the first on teaching vocabulary and the second on teaching receptive skills. I want to thank all those who have delivered their presentations so far both on the great job they've done and on the adaptative skills and positive attitude shown under the pressure of time.

             Next Thursday there is the Fairy Tale Festival, so we'll meet there. Good luck to all those who participate!!

            And the following class we'll have the term test. The topics included will be: Second Language Acquisition, Personality Factors, Learning Styles and Mistakes and Feedback.

The show must go on

Hi everyone!

Another class on how to overcome obstacles and how to cope with the unexected.... After all, that's closely related to what teaching is about....

Carolina, Julieta and Cecilia could finally deliver their presentation on how to teach pronunciation. However, they couldn't do everything they had planned because of a power cut. Still, they did a really good job.

So, next class we are going to have two presentations. Let's get ready to enjoy them!!

Another class has come and gone....

Hi there!

On Thursday we had our first presentation. It was about "Teaching Direct and Indirect Strategies".The girls in charge of the presentation were Jimena, Araceli and Soledad. They prepared several entertaining games and some other activities. It was all great except for one thing:timing. They were supposed to take between one hour and one hour and twenty minutes. Instead,they took almost three hours...

As I mentioned on Thursday, let's reflect on this and learn... after all, that's what we are here for...

Whenever you prepare a presentation and you have a time limit, rehearse and time yourselves so there are no surprises. This also means that if you have games or activities prepared you have to know exactly how much time you can allow for each one. And in this aspect, you should stick to the plan. Another point  to take into consideration is that you should have plan A (everything you would like to say and do), but also plan B (a ranking of what is the most and the least important so you know in advance what could be left out if necessary). Moreover, when it is a presentation in groups, try to achieve collaborative work: all the members of the group should have equal participation, and should help one another to find the right balance. For example, if in the group there is a shy person,  the others should help this person to feel more comfortable and to participate. Or if there is someone who talks a lot, the other members should help him/her to focus and move on.

What other suggestions do you have? Please leave your comment!!

And ....

Better late....

Hi there!! Better late than never!! Here's an account of what happened last class:

We worked on a grouping activity which was also a discussion activity on how to cope with different types of difficult people. Remember the main topic of the class was personality factors, so the idea was to add something different to the material you had read.

Some of the categories were: Sherman tanks, the indecisives, the negativists, the super agreeables, the clams, the balloons, etc.

Then we worked on an activity based on the chapter by Cook on the topic of personality factors, which we will round off next class.

Remember next class we have two presentations (one hour long each): the first on Teaching Strategies and the second on Teaching Pronunciation, so remember to read the material on those topics.

Have an amazing though rainy Sunday!!