- 7/11 & 11/11 -

Monday:

We started this lesson with a video filmed in a real class. It was about an activity focused on a monster project. 

In the first video a student appeared counting the parts of the body of her monster and in the second video appeared another student counting the parts of the body of another monster, but this time next to the drawing, that he was pointing, there were a lot of other monster drawings. 

We were thinking and explaining that an speaking activity makes more sense when the students are using their own models (their monster drawings as in the example).Because we foster their creativity and we motivate them to talk about their creations. 

Furthermore, we said that we have to take care of the activities order to give cohesion and meaning to the full lesson and project.

We also seen different book activities and talked about how useful or useless they were. We discovered that:

"The children have to write for a purpose not only for writing"

At the end of the class we learnt a poem about seeds and plants growing. We thought about different useful and meaningful activities that we can use to teach the poem. I discovered that there are plenty of ways to teach a topic or to make an activity. 

Friday:

"1,2,3,4,5

once I caught a fish alive

6,7,8,9,10

then I let it go again.

Why did you let it go?

Because he bits my finger so.

Which finger did he bite?

The little finger on the right."

_____________________________________

We started the class with this song, that can be useful when the children are restless, it's a funny way to keep their attention, but also a way to learn the numbers in English. 

Then, we started talking about maths in English. Our teacher showed us new materials that in my case I didn't know, this material is called 10 frame. It's very useful to teach mathematics, but more specific to learn the numbers form 1 to 10, to know the possibilities that we have with the number 10, and also to teach about addition and subtraction. 

We reminded that it's very important to make questions to the students to ensure that they are understanding and to make an engaging lesson. 

We also saw mental arithmetic and different exercises we can do. It surprised me how useful is to teach maths in English, because the students are the same time are using different English skills, but practicing mathematics too. 

We talked about different types of exercises: Counting backwards and forwards, telling the smallest or highest number in a set, saying the number that comes after or before, use patterns (what relation have all the numbers?), say a number between 2 numbers, etc. 

We also said that we have to be careful with the level, because is not the same teaching maths in our first language than in the second. Our teacher said that when we teach maths in English we have to teach the content of the past course or level. 

Finally we were doing some practical learning by doing sums of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We thought the power of questions to correct, to observe and to encourage them to improve. 

We also saw the mathematic vocabulary that we need as teachers in this field: plus/ x times or X by X/ take away or minus, etc.    

- 4/ 10 -

Friday:

Which skills do you know?

This was the first question in this lesson. As we can se, we were talking about skills, and we were learning about new things, different that all the aspects that we were accustomed to hear and learn about English skills. 

It was interesting to learn the different types of skills: When we talk about the receptive and productive skills we talk about the direction of the communication, and when we talk about the written and oral skills we talk about the way of communication.

I've learnt that, as teachers, we have to use, if it is possible, all the skills togethers, transversally, think activities that keep all the skills in work. It's relevant that when we use the skills with our pupils we take care of the level and age of the students, because there is a fixed and natural way to use them. 

We also talked about one aspect that I've never heard about, the SILENT WAY. It's when a children never talks an writes, he's only receptive, but then one day they start talking and producing.

If a children it's in this silent process, we have to be respectful with it, because is another way of learning and even if it seems he or she is not learning, he/she is doing it.

This process is called, as well, passive knowledge and is the opposite of active knowledge.

This lesson has been very useful for our future job as teachers!

- 24/10 & 28/10 -

Monday: 

In this day we were talking about the importance of grids to make our work and job easier, and also to organize all the content and objectives of our project or lesson clearly. 

We also saw a powerful video about the power that brings comparison to the class. This one is a powerful tool, because the children can improve together and use the language skills. 

Doing this, they are giving advices in a constructive way and they are practicing about being critique and give feedback. 

In other hand, by watching the final result, they realize that work collaboratively allow them to improve and do things better. They also can realize that giving advice correctly ( with respect, being honest, etc.) helps the others to succeed. 

Here you can watch the video:

Friday: 

We were focused in one project about PETS. 

While organizing and planning the activities and objectives, we saw that it's essential that the teacher observe what the children are doing and their questions, in this way we can watch in which field they find difficulties, and later we can make an emphasize in this fields. We can also use questions t help the children think of vocabulary and previous knowledge, and also to guide them to an answer without breaking their effort and process to get the answer.

In this project we found that one activity can be exploded for many point of view. 

In this class I learnt that it's very important not giving answers to the children, just guide them, because, it don't matter how it slowly it will be, but they can find the answer and questions by themselves.