content-views-query-and-display-post-page domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home2/englita2/public_html/blogebg/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6170js_composer domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home2/englita2/public_html/blogebg/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6170gravity-forms-pdf-extended domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home2/englita2/public_html/blogebg/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6170In conjunction with Macmillan Education, English Book in Georgia is pleased to offer a teacher training opportunity on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of February with Steve Taylore Knowles, author of Open Mind: The American English Mind series.
To register for this event, please email Lali Jokhadze: l.jokhadze@englishbook.ge OR call: 032 200 1244.
Please enjoy our “thank you” video, below, for all of our English teachers in Georgia and throughout the world.
Mesquite Elementary School, in Tucson, Arizona, attributes much of its turnaround in student performance — and their ongoing success — to their Reteach and Enrich program. Within the first year of implementation, even before teachers had worked out all the kinks, Mesquite went from a “performing” school (as labeled by the state of Arizona) in 2002 to an “excelling” school, the highest ranking, in 2003. The school has maintained an “excelling” status ever since.
The goal of the program is to give students the opportunity to master essential skills and knowledge before they move on to the next level. Here’s the approach:
Reteach and Enrich (R&E) is highly replicable; every school in the Vail School District has implemented the program, and it continues to lead to improved student performance. However, there are some essential elements that are key to making it work.
1. A Common Curriculum Calendar
R&E depends on a shared set of clearly defined curricular objectives that are scheduled out for the entire year. This means that for any given week within each grade, all the teachers are teaching the same objectives. However, they are not necessarily teaching the same way; the instructional approach is left up to each individual teacher. The calendar keeps them on track by setting the pace so that teachers know that by year’s end they will have taught — and students will have learned — all the essential standards. Says Vail superintendent Calvin Baker, “When we hold students accountable for very specific standards, and we expect all of them to know that standard, then we hold ourselves accountable for getting that job done.”
2. Dedicated Time
Everyday at Mesquite, from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m., the whole school is involved in R&E. In addition to this daily half hour, R&E requires time for teachers to review and assess student data as well as plan instruction to meet each child’s needs, both generally and within the program. At Mesquite, each grade has dedicated common planning time for teachers while their students are in “specials” (e.g., P.E., computer lab, library time, and so on).
To fit all that in, time management is also of the essence, right down to classroom transition time. For R&E, all the students transfer from their regular classroom to their assigned reteach or enrich room in under a minute, thanks in part to the convenient setup of their classrooms around a common area (see video below).
3. Collaboration
Collaboration is a key part of Mesquite’s culture and is essential to R&E. Students rotate to different teachers during R&E, so every teacher must know every student in his or her grade level. Teachers share information about their students’ progress so that all the teachers in a grade level share ownership of every child’s education. They plan together and share resources and lesson plans that have been successful, and they seek insight from one another on lesson plans that were less effective.
4. Formative Assessments and Data Analysis
Early on, the teachers at Mesquite created their own weekly assessments; now there is a team of teachers at the district level that writes them. The assessments are short — usually just five questions on one objective — but they provide consistent insight into students’ progress so that teachers can address any needs promptly. Diane Samorano, Mesquite’s student achievement teacher, tracks the assessment data and the data from schoolwide screenings and quarterly benchmarks. She meets with the teachers every two weeks to review the latest results, to identify students who are struggling, and to help teachers plan instruction accordingly.
5. Involved and Informed Leadership
In order to address a variety of student needs, teachers must have access to resources, and principals must know what’s going on in the classroom. Katie Dabney, principal at Mesquite, routinely visits classes, converses with students, and attends every data meeting for all grades. “As instructional leader, I have to stay on top of the data and be actively involved in searching for students who are at risk or need an extra challenge.”
When it comes to managing a classroom, most of what new teachers learn is trial by fire. It’s also smart to heed the advice of those who have walked — and stumbled — before you. If you are struggling with discipline, here are five tips that you can start using right away:
1. Use a normal, natural voice
Are you teaching in your normal voice? Every teacher can remember this from the first year in the classroom: spending those first months talking at an above-normal range until one day, you lose your voice.
Raising our voice to get students’ attention is not the best approach, and the stress it causes and the vibe it puts in the room just isn’t worth it. The students will mirror your voice level, so avoid using that semi-shouting voice. If we want kids to talk at a normal, pleasant volume, we must do the same.
You want to also differentiate your tone. If you are asking students to put away their notebooks and get into their groups, be sure to use a declarative, matter-of-fact tone. If you are asking a question about a character in a short story, or about contributions made by the Roman Empire, use an inviting, conversational tone.
2. Speak only when students are quiet and ready
A 20-year teaching veteran advises that you should just wait and then wait some more until all students were quiet.
So try it! Fight the temptation to talk. Sometimes you may have wait much longer than you think could hold out for. Slowly but surely, the students would cue each other: “Sshh, she’s trying to tell us something,” “Come on, stop talking,” and “Hey guys, be quiet.” (They’ll do all the work for you!)
Your patience will pay off. And you’ll get to keep your voice.
3. Use hand signals and other non-verbal communication
Holding one hand in the air and making eye contact with students is a great way to quiet the class and get their attention on you. It takes awhile for students to get used to this as a routine, but it works wonderfully. Have them raise their hand along with you until all are up. Then lower yours and talk.
Flicking the lights off and on once to get the attention is an oldie but goodie. It could also be something you do routinely to let them know they have three minutes to finish an assignment or clean up, etc.
With younger students, try clapping your hands three times and teaching the children to quickly clap back twice. This is a fun and active way to get their attention and all eyes on you.
4. Address behavior issues quickly and wisely
Be sure to address an issue between you and a student or between two students as quickly as possible. Bad feelings — on your part or the students — can so quickly grow from molehills into mountains.
Now, for handling those conflicts wisely, you and the student should step away from the other students, just in the doorway of the classroom perhaps. Wait until after instruction if possible, avoiding interruption of the lesson. Ask naive questions such as, “How might I help you?” Don’t accuse the child of anything. Act as if you do care, even if you have the opposite feeling at that moment. The student will usually become disarmed because she might be expecting you to be angry and confrontational.
And, if you must address bad behavior during your instruction, always take a positive approach. Say, “It looks like you have a question” rather than, “Why are you off task and talking?”
When students have conflicts with each other, arrange for the students to meet with you at lunch, after or before school. Use neutral language as you act as a mediator, helping them resolve the problem peacefully or at least reach an agreeable truce.
5. Always have a well-designed, engaging lesson
This tip is most important of all. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, if you don’t have a plan for them, they’ll have one for you. Always over plan. It’s better to run out of time than to run short on a lesson.
Bored students equal trouble! If the lesson is poorly planned, there is often way too much talking and telling from the teacher and not enough hands-on learning and discovery by the students. We all know engaging lessons take both serious mind and time to plan. And they are certainly worth it — for many reasons.
Share with us your classroom management experiences: What specific challenges are you having? What strategies have worked well for you and your students? Please share in the comment section.
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We’d like to introduce you to a 3 part series we call Educator’s Methodology. It serves to inform and educate people working in the education field. We hope you enjoy this series and look forward to hearing your comments. Stay tuned and check out part 2 next week!
Educator’s Methodology
Part 1: Developing Students’ Trust: The Key to a Learning Partnership
By Ben Johnson (Administrator, author and educator)
I am a pragmatist, and I believe in simple, systemic solutions. I firmly believe that the true art/skill/magic/science of teaching is to perfectly match your style with the individual student’s needs. Conceptually, many teachers know this is the right way to teach. However, it flies in the face of what most teaching professionals practice. In many classrooms still, students must either adapt to the teacher’s way of teaching or fail.
I often reflect on what we call “teaching” and have come to the brilliant conclusion that it is less about what the teacher does and all about what students learn. How you approach teaching all comes down to what you believe about students and what methods you believe are the best ways to get them to learn. Here is one example of what I believe:
A shaggy but beautiful stray dog came to our house in the country one day. Our hearts went out to it, and we decided to help it. My wife and I put out some food, which it ate, but it refused to let us approach. Every time we tried, it would shy away and stay out of reach. The bottom line is that, for one reason or another, it did not trust us. Who knows what its history was? It trusted us enough to eat our food, but that was as far as it went.
I am sure that, given a few weeks, we could have built a relationship of trust with that dog — but, unfortunately, it moved on and we haven’t seen it since.
Students who come to our classrooms are much like that dog: Unless they trust us, they are unapproachable.
We earn our students’ trust by showing them respect in the form of meaningful, challenging, and rewarding learning activities that are worthy of their time and best efforts.
Students in their early years of school are naturally trusting, and — please don’t take this the wrong way — we abuse that trust in the name of socialization and classroom management. In essence, we teach them to obey rather than to build confidence to explore. As students get older, they often trust less and start behaving much like our shaggy and suspicious visitor. Most students will take what we offer but will not allow a learning partnership because they do not trust us.
Trust works the other way, too. As teachers, we have learned to distrust our students. All it takes is one disruptive young person to ruin it for the rest of the students that follow. We don’t want to get burned again, so we tighten the rules and narrow the focus. We develop an attitude that we can’t trust our students to learn independently. Especially in the early grades, we feel it is our responsibility to control every aspect of their learning activities so things don’t get out of hand, or so they don’t make a mess.
We could call this way of thinking the color-between-the-lines syndrome: We like everything neat and orderly. So, by the time the students get to high school, some know how to color between the lines, while others drop out because they don’t want to.
There is a solution to this: student-directed learning. As the name suggests, student independence and choice is a central part of it. Teaching is just as much about taking risks as learning is. A teacher has to take a chance on students and trust them enough to be independent learners. That can’t happen if the teacher is uncomfortable about tailoring the curriculum to multiple levels of student performance. (Does this sound familiar?) This lofty goal of differentiated instruction is achievable on many levels, but it is much easier to reach when teachers work together to help individual students.
Unfortunately, many teachers have tried cooperative groups, inquiry, project (process/product/performance)-based learning and had a terrible experience. Perhaps the students did not behave appropriately, or they did not learn, or it was a waste of time. Too often teachers with this first experience are hesitant to try again. Instead, they fall back on what they know works — students in straight rows, individual worksheets, slide show lectures, and direct instruction. If this applies to you, I would urge you to try again (trust again). I guarantee that each time you try again, it will get better. Students will learn what to do, they will behave better, and they will appreciate your trust.
As I said earlier, teaching flows from what an educator believes is the best way to teach a student. That belief is not demonstrated in mission statements and platitudes, but it is clearly visible in the way teachers set up and run their classrooms and in how they treat their students. Once a teacher understands the mechanics of the teaching (learning) cycle, discipline and classroom management take a secondary role and the teacher can begin to focus on what he or she can do to help each individual student to learn best — whatever it takes. We have to get beyond socialization and control, and teach students how to trust themselves to learn in the early grades. Otherwise, we will continue to be frustrated as we end up trying to teach a bunch of skittish stray dogs for students.
How do you feel about this approach? Please share your thoughts.
Transformational teachers don’t react, instead, they anticipate and prepare. Expert teachers should be able to have cognitive understanding of how students learn, emotional preparation to relate to many students whose needs aren’t always noticeable, content knowledge so that you can have different ways to introduce an idea; and, lastly, the ability to act on your teaching decisions quickly.
So how can you do that? Check out how below.
1. Transformational Teachers Create Constructivist Experiences
Instructors tend to use one of two instructional orientations:
It is difficult to accomplish transformational teaching without understanding and implementing constructivist pedagogy — facilitating hands-on experiences — where students construct meaning through active learning. However, the checklist below suggests some tactics:
What Does Transformational Teaching Look Like?
1. Have students ask questions and solve real-world problems.
2. Questions should require students to:
3. Organize students into learning groups.
4. Make learning segments manageable through modeling and mastery.
5. Guide, facilitate, challenge, and support.
6. Let learning transform you.
2. Transformational Instructors Teach Like Scientists, Artists, and Essayists
Transformational teachers know that artful teaching without science lacks efficacy, and scientific teaching without aesthetics lacks vision. Says child psychologist Dr. David Elkind, “The art comes from the teacher’s personality, experience, and talents. The science comes from knowledge of child development and the structure of the curriculum.” The art and science of teaching work in harmony. Writes Richard Bankert, an eighth grade science teacher, “The best teachers are artists who know the science of teaching.”
In contrast to immature teachers who fill a 90-minute class with activities (and ignore targeted objectives), a transformational teacher treats those 90 minutes like a carefully crafted persuasive essay — with a clear purpose and unique sense of style, a memorable beginning and end, a logical sequence, important content, nimble transitions, and contagious passion. These characteristics persuade students to believe that learning the content and skills really matters.
3. Transformational Teachers Model Symphonic Thinking
To be effective in advancing human potential, teachers need to manifest what Daniel Pink calls “symphonic thinking” — critically appraising and synthesizing new ideas. Someone with symphony thinking skills is able to do the following:
Such thinking is necessary in order for students to thrive in the new economy, according to Pink. It’s also necessary for teachers to model.
4. Transformational Teachers Facilitate Productive Struggle
It’s hard not to rescue kids when they beg for help. But that altruistic instinct can get in the way of learning. In a Wired Magazine piece, “Telling You the Answer Isn’t the Answer,” Rhett Allain explains why letting students engage in productive struggle is the unpopular and necessary approach to instruction:
What if a person was having trouble doing a pull up for exercise? Instead of giving them some other exercise, I could help them by doing the pull up for that person. Right? No, that wouldn’t actually be useful. However, if I push on the person’s feet a little bit, they can still struggle and still exercise.
Warning: allowing productive struggle to occur will consume more class time. However, when the learning process is frictionless, retention is less likely. Struggle actually saves re-teaching time in the long run and is the best way for new dendrites to grow.
Allowing productive struggle to occur, using artistic and scientific instruction, modeling symphonic thinking, and encouraging students to lean into constructivist problem solving can lead to the holy grail of transformational teaching: epiphany. We hope you’ll tell us about your transformational teaching in the comment area below.
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Asking questions are important tools in our lives. It helps us learn, adapt and explore. Questions are the most valuable aspects of our lives in a world that’s ever-changing. But many of us don’t seem to utilize or value asking questions as much as we should. We live in a world where the answers are the greatest reward but the question-the key to getting us to the answer-is almost intolerable.
Working in a system that only wants the answer and not the query is difficult especially when our culture might see questions as weakness. So teachers, you must strive to create a productive environment towards queries. Here are some suggestions from teachers, schools and organizations that work and promote a question based environment.
[tabs type=”vertical”][tabs_head][tab_title]Make It Safe[/tab_title][tab_title]Make It “Cool”[/tab_title][tab_title]Make It Fun[/tab_title][tab_title]Make It Rewarding[/tab_title][tab_title]Make It Stick[/tab_title][/tabs_head][tab]Asking a question can be a scary step into the void. It’s also an admission to the world (and more terrifyingly, to classmates) that one doesn’t know the answer. So teachers must somehow “flip the script” by creating an environment where questioning becomes a strength; where it is welcomed and desired. The Right Question Institute, a nonprofit group that teaches inquiry skills in low-income schools, encourages teachers to run group exercises dedicated entirely to formulating questions (no answers allowed!) — with clear rules and guidelines to ensure that students’ questions aren’t judged or edited, and that all questions are written down and respected. There are many variations on this type of exercise. The second-grade teacher Julie Grimm uses a “10 by 10” exercise, in which kids are encouraged to come up with 10 great questions about a topic during a 10-minute span. But the bottom line is, designate some kind of safe haven in the classroom where all students can freely exercise the “questioning muscle.”[/tab][tab]This is a tough one. Among many kids, it’s cool to already know — or to not care. But what if we could help students understand that the people who ask questions happen to be some of the coolest people on the planet? As I discovered in the research for my book on inquiry, questioners thought of many of those whiz-bang gadgets we now love. They’re the ones breaking new ground in music, movies, the arts. They’re the explorers, the mavericks, the rebels, making the world a more interesting place — and having a heck of a time themselves. How cool is that? [/tab][tab]Part of the appeal of “questions-only” exercises is that there’s an element of play involved, as in: Can you turn that answer/statement into a question? Can you open your closed questions, and close your open ones? There are countless ways to inject a “game” element into questioning, but here’s an example borrowed from the business world: Some companies use a practice called “the 5 whys,” which involves formulating a series of “why” questions to try to get to the root of a problem. Kids were practically born asking “why” questions, so why not allow them to use that innate talent within a structured challenge? Or, show them how to use the “Why/What if/How” sequence of questioning as a fun way to tackle just about any problem. Whatever the approach, let kids tap into their imaginations and innate question-asking skills in ways that make inquiry an engaging part of a larger challenge.[/tab][tab]Obviously, we must praise and celebrate the questions that are asked — and not only the on-target, penetrating ones, but also the more expansive, sometimes-offbeat ones (I found that seemingly “crazy questions” sometimes result in the biggest breakthroughs). Help create a path for students to get from a question to a meaningful result. A great question can be the basis of an ongoing project, a report, an original creation of some kind. The point is to show that if one is willing to spend time on a question — to not just Google it but grapple with it, share it with others, and build on it — that question can ultimately lead to something rewarding and worthwhile.[/tab][tab]If the long-term goal is to create lifelong questioners, then the challenge is to make questioning a habit — a part of the way one thinks. RQI’s Dan Rothstein says it’s important to include a metacognitive stage in question-training exercises wherein kids can reflect on how they’ve used questioning and articulate what they’ve learned about it, so they can “pave a new neural pathway” for lifelong inquiry. As for the behavioral habits associated with good questioning, here are a few: Questioners train themselves to observe everyday surroundings with “vuja de” eyes that see the familiar in fresh ways; they’re always on the lookout for assumptions (including their own) that should be questioned; and they’re willing to ask questions that might be considered “naïve” by others.[/tab][/tabs]
[button color=”blue” size=”small” link=”http://www.edutopia.org/blog/help-students-become-better-questioners-warren-berger” target=”blank” ]Source[/button]
Why to use songs with young children:
Next question is how songs should be used. Here are some general principles for making a song ‘work’. First of all, what does ‘work’ mean? What are we aiming for when we use a song in class? Here are some of the things we might want to achieve by using a song:
To make sure we achieve those things we will need to make sure that:
Below you can download the materials used during Macmillan Summer Trainings in Georgia (14-25 July, 2014). Please feel free to contact English Book Team (englishbookteam@englishbook.ge) if you have any questions or concerns.
Classroom Management:
Classroom Management – Power Point Presentation
Classroom Management – How would you rate yourself at
Classroom Management – Jigsaw Dictation for differentiated learning
Classroom Management – Case study cards
Grammar:
Grammar 1-8
Grammar worksheets – teachers’ copies for Lesson Planning and Grammar
Lesson Planning:
Lesson plan 1- 6
Session description – Lesson Planning and Grammar – 60 mins
Pronunciation:
Pronunciation
Help! This is what you should do!
Aim: To practise the language of giving advice: should, ought to
Level: Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate
Lesson Time: 30 minutes
Skill: Speaking
GRAMMAR:
Positive: I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they should/ought to do more exercise.
Negative: I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they shouldn’t/oughtn’t to/ought not to eat fatty food.
Question: Should I apply for this job?
Use should/ought to to say that something is a good idea or the right thing to do. Use shouldn’t to say something is not a good idea or the wrong thing to do.
He should apply for the job. They shouldn’t take the bus.
Should/ought to is not as strong as have to.
You have to go to the doctor. (= it is necessary to go)
You should go to the doctor. (= it is a good idea)
The phrases below can also be used to give advice:
Why don’t you try the fish?
Try reading more books.
Lesson submitted by Robin Cheverton, PearsonELT.com
