Workshop day!

Workshop day!

“When you study great teachers... you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.” 

― William Glasser

 

It was the first class of the third period, and every of us had to share each other activities in which we could use some useful techniques for teaching.

 

The first to present her technique was Iliana. She presented some memory games in which students can look for pairs either of images or image and pictures, so they can remember some vocabulary. Also, this kind of activity can be presented not only with pictures or simple words but also with concepts according to the students’ level. I consider that these kind of activities are very appealing for students’ learning because students can learn in a more interesting and easier way as these activities make them to be concentrated and get more involved in the activities, and also they can develop their cognitive abilities since they have to use their memory.

 

The second activity was carried out by Gisselt. Her technique was about using boxes. She recommended using it with the topic about animals. However, as she mentioned, it can be used in any other topic. She explained that we can do the activity by making competences. For example, we make two students’ lines and we put many boxes with pictures in the front of them, and the students at the top of the lines can throw a ball in the box which contains the picture of the word that they listen to. Instead of pictures, we can use objects. In my opinion it is a great idea because the children to whom we are teaching are very energetic and they like to perform activities in which they can be active.

 

The third to present was Luis (I guess). I consider that all of us like his technique because it is a very interesting activity in which students can be focused all the time since it is about puppets, and children as older people like them. Also, through this activity, students can learn new things by doing what the puppets ask them. I liked this technique because Luis presented not only one way of how we can get the puppets but also he said that we get them by making them ourselves, so it is in our hands to spend too much or to save some many, and also because there is not only one way in which we can do activities using puppets but many others that are really interesting for children.  

 

Next, Monica presented her technique about using a spinning wheel. This is a very great idea for using in a class because we can use it with more than one topic in order that students can review or internalize vocabulary and even grammar structures. It can be used in any level and it is an activity that calls students’ attention because it is an entertainment way of learning. However, sometimes it can be kind of expensive regarding to the kind of materials we want to use to make it.

 

Then, Raúl presented the technique about telling stories. It was a very interesting activity that we can apply while teaching because with them we can get students’ attention. In my personal opinion –and I think all my partners share my thoughts– I really enjoyed Raúl’s idea because of the way as he did it was amazing. At the beginning he told us some step of how to tell a good story, but then he started putting on practice all those steps by telling us the story and showing us some pictures in a flipchart. For me it is a great idea to teach. However, we need to be aware of so many things when doing this activity since it is not an easy task to perform, so we need to have a lot of preparation before doing it.

 

Another very interesting activity was carried out by Cristela, and it was about modeling clay. We can use this technique in any topic for creating whatever we want and students have to use their fine motor skills by following teacher’s directions. I consider this activity is appealing at the time of teaching because student love working with clay, so if we want them to have children get involved and learn at the same time, it is a very useful technique that we can apply at any stage of the class.

 

The technique “name tags” was carried out by Ingrid. She presented us a useful way in which we can not only use them to identify children but also to make them work in pairs since we can include inside of the name tags either picture/picture or picture/word in order they can match with their pairs. Also, it can be used with any topic and we can use name tags not only for working once, but twice or even more times.   

 

Moreover, Juan presented his technique which was about songs. It is a great idea to be used in any class with any topic since we just need to have some songs regarding to the topic we want to teach, and we just need to be creative in order to students can enjoy the activity. Children really like when they have these kind of activities because we have noticed this in previous classes and all children have got excited when performing an activity in which they have a song.

 

Next, my turn to show my technique came, and it was about using disposable plates in an activity.

I designed this activity for using it with the topic “Clothes” in a practice stage; however, it can be used with any other topic.

Materials and budget:

·       Two plastic disposable plates ($1.92 in Super Selectos)

·       Glue or cold silicone ($1.22 in Super Selectos)

·       Scissors

·       Decorative ribbon ($1.26 in Super Selectos)

·       Pen

·       Ruler or something straight to mark a line

·       Glitter ($0.95 in Super Selectos)

·       Family members’ body shapes (printed in paper. Price depends on the place, type of paper and quantity)

·       Clothes items (made or printed in paper)

First, you have to use the ruler and mark with the pen three centimeters below of the plastic disposable plate’ roundness and mark a straight line from one side to the other. Then cut the line and the space in which you count the three centimeters in order to make a handle to the plates. Put ribbons and any other decorative material that you want to put in every plate (as you wish). Paste both plates to form a kind of bag. Finally, you can use the bag to include in it body shapes of family members and clothes items, so that students can paste those clothes items according to every body shape. Once they finish this, students can describe who every family member is and what they are wearing by saying color and clothes items. At the end, students keep back all the materials in the bag.  

       

Then, JC presented us her technique, and it was about recycling paper. I think it is a great idea of how we can not only recycle materials and save money but also create some attractive material that get students’ attention. JC taught us to create a shaker. For me it is a useful technique because we can use it for many purpose such us when we want to use Juan’s technique. In this way, we can combine both techniques and provide a good environment for students.

 

Finally, Gloria presented the technique about using hats. She showed some ways of how students can create their own hats in order to show every student’ mood because she told us that through the hats they can express some adjective such as: happy, sad, etc. I liked this idea because students can use their fine motor skills, be entertained for a while and review some vocabulary.

In my personal opinion, I liked every single technique that every of my classmates presented because all of them can be useful for students’ learning during any class; we just need to do some adaptations in order to do them in any other topic.