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.