Ken and Karen

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:52:26 +0000

Fashion for your classroom wall

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:23:18 +0000

In my current teaching situation, I go from class to class teaching English…a roving purveyor of language if you will. In Spanish public schools, the pupils remain in their classrooms and the teachers alternate, even in secondary schools. This means that I don’t have a classroom of my own to put up the pupils’ work and no handy go-to vocabulary displays for quick review.

This had been bothering me for quite some time until I came up with perhaps an even better solution: the hallway!

I am now putting things up so that the whole school can see them as they pass by…maybe an even better situation as older learners unconsciously refresh vocabulary learned in the past and younger learners see new words and become curious about what they are going to learn. I’ve decided that it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Here are some of the displays that I have been putting up this year

Happy holidays

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:18:11 +0000

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I just want to share some nice places where you can find wonderful Xmas stuff:

The snowman (British Council)

Happy holidays Color, Cut and Glue (making learning fun)

Santa bookmark (making learning fun)

Xmas games and puzzles

ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS!

When Did I Become a Teacher?

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:07:16 +0000

I was asked to contribute to the award winning blog, Teaching Village, by the author Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto. She was interested in my experience as a teacher teaching around the world and my idea was to add something about the process of how, and more importantly why I decided to leave my full-time position in a bank and become a teacher.

For those of you reading this in the English speaking world, you might not be aware of the cultural leap into the abyss that I was taking by doing so. In Spanish society a permanent job with a bank is considered one of the best things you can do, whereas teaching… let’s just say that it doesn’t rate high on the envy scale except, of course, the infamous holidays.

Click over to Teaching Village to see my process. Thanks Barbara for giving me the chance to share the story.

A Spooky Halloween Classroom

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:01:43 +0000

A look at the little ghosts and goblins at work… and, of course, play!

To see how this pictures were put into practice, click on this link for Halloween lesson plans.

Actividades en torno al cuento Brown Bear para hacer en casa

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:36:32 +0000

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? es un libro muy usado en los colegios de países de habla inglesa. Presenta de forma sencilla y repetitiva los distintos colores y animales y, en este sentido, se convierte en un maravilloso recurso para las clases de inglés. A los niños, especialmente a los más pequeños, les encantan que les cuenten historias y cuentos. No se cansan de oir una y otra vez el mismo cuento, es más se sienten seguros al poder predecir que es lo que va a acontecer a continuación. El uso de este maravilloso libro en la clase de inglés permite:

- Enseñar los colores.

- Enseñar los nombres de varios animales.

- Conseguir que los niños de forma intuitiva sepan que en inglés la colocación adecuada es adjetivo-sustantivo (tras oír numerosas veces brown bear, red bird… cualquier otra combinación les sonaría mal, como les ocurre a los niños nativos)

- Familiarización de la pregunta-respuesta What do you see? I see…

En casa, los padres pueden colaborar con la tarea de enseñanza a través de distintas actividades, pero antes de comentarlas me gustaría compartir este maravilloso vídeo donde el autor del cuento Bill Martin Jr. lee la historia:

En mis clases de inglés realizamos muchas actividades en torno a este libro, pero hay muchas otras que pueden hacerse en casa para reforzar el conocimiento. Lo maravilloso de estas actividades es que sea cual sea el nivel de inglés de los padres pueden llevarse a cabo con los hijos y compartir con ellos el aprendizaje de otras lenguas. Aquí voy a presentar alguna de ellas:

El juego de las sombras

Imprime y plastifica las páginas 1 y 2. Imprime las páginas 3 y 4 y recorta las distintas piezas y plastifícalas. Tu hijo juega con el puzle juntando cada animal con su correspondiente sombra, mientras puede decir los nombres de los animales que recuerda.

Nota: Es importante tener en cuenta que aunque los niños sepan reconocer los animales cuando escuchan los nombres en inglés es muy posible que no sepan nombrarlos inmediatamente. La fase de producción de las distintas palabras es mucho posterior y al hablar del aprendizaje de idiomas en niños se denomina “Silent period“, haciendo referencia a aquella etapa en la que los niños entienden pero no producen. De hecho, gran parte de la metodología moderna centrada en niños se basa en TPR (Total Physical Response), es decir, el profesor habla y los alumnos entienden y actúan (un ejemplo es el juego Simon Says). En mis clases me emociono cada vez que escucho a un niño “Estoy coloreando el brown bear“, porque eso significa que lo que saben decir en inglés lo utilizan y además en el lugar adecuado.

El cuento y varios juegos interactivos

Pinchando en la imagen podéis encontrar:

- El cuento

- Actividades: puzles, juegos de memoria, unir la palabra y la imagen, crucigramas.

Colores

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:36:30 +0000

Los colores aparecen en casi cada unidad que vemos con nuestras alumnos. Empiezan a enseñarse en infantil pero años después encontramos ejercicios donde aparecen ej: In picture A, Tom is wearing blue jeans. En muchas ocasiones, los colores se ven una y otra vez pero no se aprenden realmente más de dos o tres durante muchos años.

Con estos sencillos ejercicios vamos a repasar los colores para que se conviertan en algo automático al leer una frase, se identifiquen inmediatamente y con ello nos centremos en el ejercicio en sí y no en averiguar que color era ese antes de poder empezar.

Utiliza letras para formar las distintas palabras. Tan fácil como tenerlas en la puerta de la nevera.

6. Sellos

Utiliza sellos para formar las distintas palabras.

Actividades para practicar las partes de la cara y los colores

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:14:21 +0000

Mi cara

1. Un juego donde te indican el color que debes pintar cada parte de la cara: Face game

2. Diseña tu propia cara. Aparecen conceptos como: big, small… (grande, pequeño, largo…)

Make a face

3. Diseña la cara de un payaso. Esta actividad puede complementar al juego anterior coloreándola como nos ha indicado el juego.

Clown face fun

Back to school

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 09:51:04 +0000

Well, I’m back after extending my maternity leave to include my blog but after months of the full-time job of taking care of my little girl, I’m definitely ready to start teaching and go back to school. I don’t know how other teachers feel, but getting back into the classroom after an extended period is always a bit nervewracking for me. I get over this by making up a check-list that automatically gets me back into the routine and hopefully the kids too!

The first class is a perfect chance to:

- Check previous knowledge

- Review basic vocabulary

- Motivate and encourage to participate

- Show how classes are going to be organised in terms of groupings

- Give some language to “take away” (The Primary English Teacher’s Guide, Brewster and Ellis )

- Get to know your students and their preferences.

Here is how I have organised my first Back-to-School class:

Age

Young learners: 6-8 y.o.

Adaptable to other levels by simply changing the difficuly and content of questions.

Aims

- Check their previows knowledge

- Introduce themselves

- Asking /answering questions

- Keep a record of what we are studying/dealing with and individual preferences.

Language

- What’s your name?, How old are you? What’s your favorite…? What’s the weather like?

- Numbers, colors, weather.

Resources

- A photocopy of a flower on both sides of A4 paper, crayons, student’s photo (optional)

Procedure

* Practice/Drill with the whole class the questions above. This can be done by throwing a ball from one student to another asking their names, then move on to the age and so on.

Tip: Test their memories and make sure that they are listening to each other by asking every now and then, ‘What’s her name again? How old is Jorge?’

* Hand out the photocopy. Students cut it out, color the main petals with different colours and record the answers to the questions on one side and the actual questions on the other.

* Demonstrate in front of the class with a pair of students. Two students stand up with their flowers, encourage students to ask and answer the questions (if they need they can refresh their memory by looking at the back of their flowers.)

Tip: This is a crucial moment for shy students. If they don’t feel confident or secure from the start, the rest of the year’s speaking exercises are going to be difficult for them. Don’t force someone into the limelight if they aren’t ready for it.

* To end the class choose some pairs to demonstrate in front of the class, but now after completing the questions the rest have to remember the information and report to the others (as mentioned in the tip above, this gives them a reason to listen to the rest of the class): What’s her favorite colour?

* Post the flowers up on a bulletin board, this way we have our students’ information handy and we still have some petals left for other classes to record their favorite food, clothes or pets, thus recyling the language at a later date.

Flower pattern taken from: Festivals, Paul Johnson

As I mentioned before, getting back into the classroom is always a bit nervy for me, but a tried and true, well-planned class is the best way to get over those butterflies and set the tone for the rest of the year.

Best of luck to everyone this year!

Using Kamishibai with the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Conchi Martínez de Tejada — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:41:03 +0000

Here is a video I recently took in one of my classes after working with this book for 5 weeks with two thirty minute classes a week. It is a class of twenty-five 4-5 year old children learning English in a public (state) school in Spain using Kamishibai theatre with Bill Martin Jr’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? Anything you think could be improved? Anything you particularly like? Comment section is open!

Enjoy