PSTDP in my classroom - Puzzle

Puzzle

Journal Week #2 - February 25th 2012

Hey!!!

After Carnival we came back and I can feel the year it's really starting now! #BrazilYáYá
We started our class thinking in
"What does a teacher have to do
to achieve their aims since the very beginning? "

But it wasn't just thinking and sitting in our chair putting the hand on the chin like The Thinker! It never happens! (Thanks God for it)
We were oriented putting a paper in our classmates back.
For what? He had writing something could answer the question in our friends paper.
However we made it while we were walking and dancing,
listening the music You gotta be by Des'ree

            As a language learner I could say I’m a very good student! (#modest?) I’m like a nerd stile: I’m curious, I’m an observant person. A thing could prove it is that during all class I’m with my notebook opened, listening quietly, watching carefully, and making all note is possible I do. I’ve learnt it during my graduation when there was an excellent teacher – Brazilian Literature Teacher, I really loved his classes – but he didn’t have the habit to make a schematic class like we teacher from high school make, he used to teach us in Socratic way.

What is interesting in to return of being an English language learner - being  an English language teacher yet – is that you know not just how to teach but you know how to learn too, it’s easier for me being a learner now than when I was at language school. For example, I know I’m a visual learner: I need see what it’s being taught and after I need to read and write, so I need to practice for assimilating the content.

In large groups I’m really shy but I force myself to interact with others because more we interact more effectively we learn and help other to learn too, especially if you are like me you can set content when interact with another person.

Question: Reflect on the way the instructor introduced the vocabulary.  What did s/he have you do to use the language?  Was it effective?  How can you use it in your classroom?

            The instructors made an activity with us where we take a piece of paper and in them it was written an adverb, adjective or noun. We had to find another person who could complete our word but this combination should make sense, not just grammatically but semantically too.

            The activity made we remember the concepts of adverbs and adjectives, their use and mainly our knowledge about Semantics in English what induced us to use the English Language background we had because some combinations could make sense in Portuguese sometimes don’t make sense in English.

            It makes me thinking how could I use this activity in my English Language Classes and I had a spotlight. The first content it is being studied by students from 3^rd class of high school is “Nouns and their derivatives nouns” so I make the following exercise from activity was made by instructors with us:

1.      It’s important saying that I’ve explained the content in a class before the activity;   

2.      I built flash cards where I wrote some nouns and their derivatives nouns;

3.      I gave them a flash card for each one of students;

4.      I explained they couldn’t see themselves flash cards or their friends flash cards until they’ve listened and understood all the rules;

5.      The rules are that they have to find the noun that combines with that one it was in their hands till the song will be played finished and after it they have to speak the noun - even if they didn’t know how – and try to explain their meaning.

6.       Result: they loved and learned. See in the videos bellow.

Portfolio Task #1

Philosophies/beliefs about learning/teaching. What are your expectations regarding the program? What goals would you like to reach and how do you plan to achieve these goals.

I remember first time I heard that being a teacher is for people would like to contribute with world’s change. And It was exactly because of this I’ve thought being a teacher. I choose this profession because I believe just Education could promote the personal, cultural and social improvement. “Knowledge sets free” and it’s like a mission for me, making every student passed by me could be changed, improved, transformed.

This change’s process doesn’t happen only during the class but it’s through English Language Teaching I do it. It was the main reason why I signed up in PTSD, for making each day my work a more effective instrument of change.
The PSTDP will be a way to discover new tools that appears every day and - for more updating we are - are important to find out ways to develop your personal and professional skills for not being frozen, thinking that we already know enough. It’ll be a way to develop learning from those who know more than you and share with who knows as much. However I believe that more we gain all this knowledge we will share experiences, meet new opportunities and reinvigorate the spirit.

Week #1 - Ice-breakers

The activities that Allynne and Scott made with us was so interesting and useful that I'm sharing here how to made the same reflections we made in class with us.

• Class Puzzle

In this activity it was given us a puzzle where we should write our name and some characteristics about our personality, our likes and dislikes. We should connect them and discover who is the person.
It was interesting because we also knew each other by names as by personal characteristics.

• Ballon Volleyball

We used it to memorize aour names but I just was thinking bout using in my classes about preposition. You must have a ballon and change for another person completing the sentence:

From.... to....
From... for... to...
From... for... to the person is in .... left/right side

Journal Week #1 - February 11th 2012

I woke up really early and I was really tired ( It was a Saturday!) Besides studying, reading, researching, making projects are activities I like a lot, my weekend usually is devoted entirely to rest productive. #NerdStile

I could stay in my bed but the curiosity of the new, the will to overcome my comfort zone and the possibility to overcome my expectations were so high that I arrived early enough for the cleaners were still opening the room... Just Scott (one of our course facilitators) was there #Mico
I started talking about the traffic with Valerie and Karen [soon after Ramos arrived and joined us] when we were invited to our inaugural class where Francis Gomes, now president of the ABA but also a retired public school teacher, showed how it would be the spirit of our PSTDP: # hardFROMheart. I think those are the words that have sealed the beginning of our course and have also designed our destiny (or at least mine ...) with the confidence to seek knowledge hard but with inspiration that only comes from the heart. #Poetry #ExpectationsLevel1
It was also important to know there are 'survivors' after the course: Diego Barbosa Félix, one of the teachers who participated in the first PSTDP in 2011, shared his experience and told us how the course was important for his practice in classroon and how he has been recognized for their efforts. #ExpectationsLevel2

Allynne Fraeman and Scott Chiverton, Our course facilitators (how they've said), did an enthusiastic reception with an Icebreaker - we could also use in the classroom - making us interact with each other and made me observe that our group is formed by friendly people who showed is available to learn. #ExpectationsLevel3

After a coffee break, we’ve known how our program to be developed and I imagined that it was the moment I was more instigated for wanting to use the tools, content. #ExpectationsLevelTurboActivated

At the end of the first day I realize that 4 hours flowed with so pleasure (I'm writing every tips and every thing they do for making my classes flowed this way too) and I’ll be able to improve my knowledge as a teacher (methods, planning, content) assuming the role of student.