My Teaching Journey_English

Just a few hours away from celebrating The World Book Day, I can’t help publishing a post in honour to my favourite English Playwright, who accompanied me from my teenage years, without being aware of it.  Thanks to whom I discovered how passionate theatre is,  that there still exists some families similar to The Montague and The Capulet ones, that we are such stuff as dreams are made on, and that life could be a comedy or a tragedy, it just depends on us, the players on a stage.  Does it ring a bell, who my favourite writer is?

Back into 1998, without knowing what was going to happen almost twenty years later, William Shakespeare turned up into my life and the life of my 39 classmates at school. Our Spanish Language and Literature teacher got our class into the topic of XVI Century theatre, and among some readings, we had to work on one of the well-known plays which, in fact,  one that could get the attention of a group of forty teenagers, i.e. ROMEO AND JULIET.

Back in those years, although Internet wasn't trendy and not many people had computers at home to hand in school projects, there were innovative teachers who applied the collaborative and inclusive methods in lesson planning. Learning by doing and project-based lessons are not just a modern methodology; it dates back to those great influencers from the 90s.
The proof is in the pudding. I remembered having the same teacher two years later, a new project on Shakespeare was approaching and at that moment the chosen one was HAMLET. It was just there when we had a first-hand meeting on how arduous it was to be an actor in a theatre performance.
We had to perform the ACT II-SCENE I- Yes!  That famous Shakespearean soliloquy that says ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’
When I say that in those years we also had inclusive methodologies and learning by doing strategies is because, within this project, we had to organise, in groups, everything that involved the theatrical production. i.e. choosing the characters, a team for sound and special effects, set design including the stage props – cared in detailed by our families, any collaboration from friends, aunties, uncles, cousins, neighbours was welcomed. Looking for the theatre to perform our play wasn't a difficult issue, from the first day we've chosen our school hall.
Thanks Goodness, I was HORATIO and not HAMLET.

FAMILY EASTER EGG HUNT. 

You can do the same at home! If you want to enjoy seeing your kids searching and finding the eggs with great joy, I would definitely recommend you exactly the same as in the classroom activity but in this case without vocabulary worksheets

- Hide the Chocolate Easter eggs or plastic ones all through the house, yard, or garden.
- Every child participating in the activity must hold a basket or a bag to put in the eggs he/she finds. (Be aware of having the same number of eggs for each kid and warned them on the exact number of chocolate eggs they must get at the end of the game. Otherwise, you will get some kids troubles. )
 -Finally, share and taste all sweets, chocolates and Easter treats in family and sprinkle them with laughs, kisses and hugs.


I´ve never gone on holidays without giving my kids a magical farewell. I always leave them a small present, to pamper themselves because all of them have done a great effort to get to that point in the course and, it is known that praising is important in the learning process.
They will go home with a sweet smile and they will come back with great energy to start again. So, apart from thinking about our last week before the spring break, we must put our brains into creative mode and think would we give them and how.

Of course, everything will depend on the amount of students we have in our lessons and the estimated budget we may have. However, a simple bookmark made by their teacher will be just fab! That says that you´ve thought of them. If you do not know where you can start to get soaked of ideas have a look on my  Pinterest. ;)

This year I´ve decided to give them Bunny Bags.

MATERIALS YOU´LL NEED:
-Kraft bags.
-Paper cupcakes capsules to give the colour to the bunnies ears and the tail. (Open the paper cupcake capsule and cut an oval use the rest of the paper to make the tail, rolling the paper)
-Chocolates or chick toys to put inside the bag.
-1 One elastic band to close the bag.
-A strip of coloured paper to make the bow.

Do you remember when you were at school and felt thrilled by having the chance to write on the board, even more, when the teacher wasn't there? …Leaving messages, drawing with coloured chalks during break hours or just raising up your hand to check the exercises on board just to feel the touch of chalks on your hands? – Yes! Chalks! There was a time in past years were school boards were green or even black and there were no digital whiteboards.- We were so lucky that in my school we had two huge green boards, they weren't decorative objects, they were placed there to help us with psychomotricity and to boost calligraphy copying more every day.

Have you ever met a kid who is willing to have a whiteboard for his or her own to doodle, write, re-write, erase and start up again?

In this post, I reveal you a really cheap secret that I have discovered some months ago to make the little ones have their own Whiteboards and take them wherever they want. 

Some years ago, back in 2008, when I was taking my first steps at teaching, I did my own flashcards and games to use in my lessons. I visited the stationery with a great frequency to get them laminated, up to one day, having a look in a supermarket I discovered my loyal friend: THE LAMINATOR. From that day onward I became a ‘Laminator Lover’. Everything that turned into my way was automatically laminated. Sundays were days for cutting, pasting, colouring, laminating and cutting one more time- How my hand hurt! and How messy the floor was too!- There were small and thin plastic pieces everywhere!

Recently while I was attending a webinar for teachers by Pearson, which are perfect for recycling and putting the creative engine that everybody gets inside into function, I discovered a great bunch of activities to use with small whiteboards. ‘I must have them!’ - I thought-  The problem is that depending on the ratio of students you have, purchasing small portable whiteboard could be a little bit costly and to make things worse, you may find other drawbacks such as the size and shape.  So, Houston, we've got a problem, here!

• A white sheet of paper or A1 or A3 size to laminate either at home, if you've got a laminator, or in a stationery (1€/2€ maximum)
• Whiteboard markers with eraser included. Better if you get different coloured ones. 
• A small piece of felt rag/cloth in to erase the ink in case you haven't got one included in the markers. 
• A little bit of alcohol to clean them up with some frequency. 

REVIEWING A TOPIC. 


If kids are little they would probably assume to do a role play game. They will turn into teachers and they would repeat that lesson(s) that caught their attention. Doing so they are not only creating and recreating, but also studying and fixing knowledge.

If the target students are younger learners or adolescents, they can use the portable whiteboards to prepare some diagrams or outlines from specific topics while studying and use them as mind-maps. In that way, they are reviewing spelling, and if they tend to study aloud they would rehearse public speaking techniques and also rephrasing. It is also important for them to not just learn things by heart by understanding what they are saying and writing.

PRACTISING AND LEARNING NEW VOCABULARY. 

If users are kids starting with handwriting and spelling, portable whiteboards can be used to write new words, phonemes or letters all the time they want. They can erase them whenever they want and start up again without using sheets of papers. Be eco-friendly!
You can practice dictations, which are fantastic to review spelling rules. You can ask them to write down words that you tell them and then you can check them just showing the mistake or asking them to find it and solve the problem.

Change roles! Let them take the teacher's role! They will really enjoy it! Write down the words your kid tells you and write some of them in a wrong way so you let him or her check it. It would be a good idea to ask them why it is not right, so they can explain the rules. Depending on the users' level you can practise with sentences. Just for brave ones!

Grown-up students can play with their friends. They can prepare each other exams and swap boards. As a rule of thumb they must check each other's mistakes  and justify them, so it is a must to have the topic updated and reviewed in advance. They can prepare questions as a Trivial style, with and without options. True or False sentences from the topic they are studying or just spot the mistake in some sentences.


GAMES. 

The typical hanged man or TIC TAC TOE to practise new vocabulary or topic explanations.

See you Soon!