29/10/15

Today has been the last day of class and we've listened a presentation about Halloween. This presentation had a lot of activities: one of them has been doing a mask of a skeleton, a witch, a vampire... and other activity that we have done in the gym. The masks were like this:

In today's class I was very excited because the next day we finished our quarter at University and we started the training period in School. Because of that I can't think about the presentation but in spite of that fact I liked it and I enjoyed.

What I have learnt today and during this time has been that this is what I would like to do for the rest of my life: teaching children and now I'm very nervous to begin the training period.

"Every end is a new beginning..."

28/10/2015

Today we've listened two very good presentations. The first presentation has been about the writing skill. The them that this group has chosen has been Halloween. They have made a pumpkin as a pet class. We have done many activities like: reading a book, doing a relay race, singing, dancing... 

The pumpkin

The other presentation has been about resources, they have shown us a lot of materiales to use in class and this presentation has been great. In each corner there is a girl who presented us an activity, each more fun and original.

Today's presentations have been very interesting and we've enjoyed a lot. I like interacting with all my classmates and enjoying together during the lessons.

What I've learnt today is more about the "corners" that we can use in preprimary and primary education. They are very useful to teach because children can learn a lot of things and they aren't bored and in primary education is less used than in preprimary education.

Learning Corners

27/10/2015

Today my group and I have done our presentation about the Topic Based Work. In our presentation we have explained the theory but we've focused on the activities. We've prepared flashcards and a Parcheesi with too many activities like: mime, play a song, flaschards...and too many similar things. Besides we've listened other presentation.

We've focused our presentation on teaching the verb can/can't and the habilities (play the guitar, ride a horse, dance, ride a bike...). We've found this song and we've decided to do an activity about this because we think that it's very appropriate:

These are some pictures about the Parcheesi game:

I've enjoyed a lot in this class because I think that my presentation could be very entertaining for kids and young learners as well as me and my classmates. From my point of view this lessons are the best for us because we've learnt a lot and we've known new ideas.

What I've learnt today is that all that you learn playing is better because you remember all the games about each topic or theme better than all that you based on theory.

21/10/2015

We go on tour!

Today I have gone to Cuenca with the professor of plastic. We have visited The Contemporary Art Museum, the Antonio Pérez Foundation and The Enchanted City (which is near Cuenca).

I've enjoyed this excursion and I've learnt a lot about art in spite of the fact that I had visited the Enchanted City before.

This is a picture I took while we visited the Antonio Pérez Foundation:

20/10/2015

Today have begun the presentations ✓

We've listened two presentations. The first one has been about the young language learners. The second presentation has been about how a pre-primary student learn a language.  Our classmates have elaborated a presentation with a lot of examples and things related to this theme. Both themes are about how learn a language, something that nowadays is very important.

This is a video about the advantages of teaching English to very young learners, how to do this and some activities to practice:

This class has been very entertaining because each group has told us to do many activities and I have enjoyed with them. The second group has done many motivated activites that I like so much and the children will enjoy too much.

What I've learnt today is that it's very important that we teach in a funny way because students can learn easily. For me as a student it's better to listen songs and to watch videos than to listen a dialogue of a person and I think that it's the same for children.

19/10/2015

Today we've talked about what is necessary for a teacher of the XXI century and if we could do it as teachers. One important thing, for example, is to manage new technologies. A teacher of the XXI century must be able to use audiovisual contents, blogs and wikis... to improve the learning of her/his students. Then the teacher has discovered us a web page to share our works or documents called webmix. Later we've created a Form in Google and we've sent it to the teacher. Finally we've talked about how we can create books, comics, videos about storytelling... on Internet. I've done a comic, a book and an activity to find the pairs.

I love this class because I have learnt new resources that I think are very useful and entertaining. I feel very enthusiastic while the teacher tell us what she do in class with her children because all is very creative.

What I've learnt today is that Google Earth is a very helpful resource for teaching children because they enjoy a lot while they are learning. We can visit London, Sweeden, Spain... while we stay in class. Besides I've learnt new web pages on Internet that I am looking forward to use.

We can see images like this on Google Earth:

15/10/2015

In this class we've listened more examples of songs for children from pre-primary to primary education and some links of web pages where we can find too many examples to practice with songs (For example Lyrics training). Afterthat we've talked about chants (like songs) that consists on put rhythm on a sentence. Besides we've created a chant in groups. This is my chant:

Something is green,

what is green?

Peas are green

Something is orange

what is orange?

Parrot is orange

Something is red

what is red?

Apples are red

Something is yellow

what is yellow?

Lemon is yellow

Something is brown

what is brown?

Potatoes are brown

Finally we've seen a video about the digital competence related to education. It's very important that teachers and students know how to use new techonologies in class and outside of class because they improve all their skills.

This class has been productive and funny for me because I've discovered a website to learn English with songs.

What I've learnt today is that it's more interesting to teach something with a song, a chant or something like that because children can lose their attention if the lessons are very boring or if they doesn't understant anything (when we teach only theoretically).

14/10/2015

Today we've talked about the European Language Portfolio. It has three parts and it's focus on languages. For teachers is a didactic tool to teach languages and it's very useful and enjoyable. Besides we've sung a song with the teacher because it is a resource to study languages with the children.

To learn more about European Language Portfolio.

Here we can find how we can work with the European Language Portfolio with kids in Primary School: http://elp.ecml.at/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=DNdgQcAwKVs%3D&tabid=2747&language=en-GB When I've discovered this page I've wanted to use it with my children.

We can create a personal language portfolio to introduce this topic to the children ツ:

This class has been very interesting because the teacher has talked us about an useful resource for children at school. I think that it's very important that we learn how we should act in class.

Something that I've learnt today is that is very important to encourage students to study languages since they are children. Therefore I've learnt that a teacher should use different kind of methods to introduce a topic, a word... because each student likes or needs a different method of learning ✔

13/10/2015

Yesterday we didn't have class because it was a holiday (It was the Hispanic Heritage Day). Today I've been very tired because I've gone in Cádiz this weekend and it is far so I had to spend a lot of hours in the car.

At today's class we have been talked about the importance of the rhythm in a word or in a phrase. Besides the teacher has shown us three tongue twisters because it is very interesting and funny for children and a very useful resource fot teachers. There are a lot of examples of tongue twisters on British Council to use in class. Then we've seen a lot of examples of rhymes. Finally we've listened songs about examples of the verb tenses.

Now i'm going to share an example of tongue twister:

This class has been entertaining because we've seen many useful resources to use with children and the songs and rhymes are the best way to explain something to little students.

This is an example of rhyme that I like too:

What I've learnt today is that we can use rhymes and songs to explain anything to our children: the professions, the fingers, the solar system, the countris of the world... in a funny way. I've learnt that we must take into account the songs that we use with children because they are like "sponges" and they try to repeat the song once and once.

08/10/2015

Today we've done our presentatios about the different teaching approaches. Each group have explained a method with examples, pictures, advantages, disadvantages... While we've explained our work, the teacher has filmed us with a videocamera to watch the presentations later at home.

Our presentation has been about Total Physical Response and we've talked about what is TPR, the roles of teachers and students, the objective of this method, advantages and disadvantages and finally we've invented an activity which pretends to teach the classroom's vocabulary.

In the activity the teacher orders something like:

"Stand up and touch the blackboard!"

"Take your partner's pencil with your right hand" ...

And a video: Here we go round The Mulberry Bush

This class has been productive because we've seen more examples and new things about each approach and we would use it in the future.

What I've learnt today is that each pupil is different and this methods are designed for the whole group. For this reason we've change those that we need so that students obtain a meaningful learning.

06/10/2015

Today we've continued working with phonetics and we've had an exercise. After that we've seen some videos about storytelling on British Council. Therefore, in groups of four, we've invented a story about the Little Red Riding Hood because previously we had seen the video.

Finally we've listened a song and we've done some exercises abuot it: to rewrite the sentences, to write the missing words...

This class has been very interesting and complete because we've done a lot of different activities and I've enjoyed a lot. When I studied at High School I did the same exercises with the songs and I liked it.

What I have learnt today is the same thing that on the previous lessons: when I'm in class I should be an actress because I am the best example for my students and they will try to do what I do.

05/10/2015

Fourth week of class ✔

First of all, in this class, the teacher has shown us how we should upload our activities in Moodle because there are a lot of us that don't upload the activities of each theme. Later we've spoken about "the common European framework of reference" which is about how to introduce foreign languages for very young learners, multilingualism, plurilingualism, the official certificates...

In this picture we can see the different levels and the skills to achieve. 

For more information: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/framework_en.pdf

Today I was very tired but in spite of that fact I've been very attentive because languages are something very important for us as teachers and something very useful for our future job and our own life nowadays.

Something that I've learnt today is that there are five skills to pass the official exam of English: reading, listening, writing, speaking (which is divided in two parts: speaking production and speaking interaction). This skill, speaking interaction (communication) is the most important thing to learn the language. 

01/10/2015

Today, at first, we've done an exercise about phonetics. The teacher has written on the blackboard many words and we have to write them in phonetics symbols. After that we've corrected this exercise and then we've seen videos about storytelling that can help us when we stay in class with our children. These videos are about animals, colors, colors, verbs... Finally we've practiced the roll play. With a partner we should perform a customer and a restaurant manager.

An example of storytelling:

I think that this class has been one of the best because we've seen a lot of things that can help us in the future. The videos are a good resource for students to learn. Besides the roll play can improve our way of behaving in class.

What I've learnt today is that if we want to be good teachers we should do things that can be ashamed like roll play. I'm very shy but this is bad for me and for my future as a teacher. I know that I'll change it!!! ツツ