Saturday 14 April 2007
Wednesday 28 March 2007
Now it is their turn ... let them enjoy it ;-)
This title pretty much reflects what I am willing to tell you, girls. Appart from Morgana's 'fears', Elisa's 'implications' , Cris's 'new and/or contradictory experience' , Daiana's 'difficulties', or Maquerli's 'unwillingness concept', ... I would simply recommend that we took it easier. As I have mentioned many times, we have been them, but they have no idea what being us mean ... I mean, we have all been teenagers but they have not experienced so many other things that we have already as adults. It may seem too simple, and it may be indeed. It is just a matter of making things easy for us ~ or at least not trying to make it too complex ... because it is not!
Do you still remember those 'teen' days when you were sitting in this classroom, sunshine out there, friends to chat right next to you, so many interesting subjects to discover and so many questions to ask? I bet you do! Do you recall being stuck in a classroom listening to your Chemestry teacher explain all those chemical elements or your Geography teacher showing those very distant places around the world? Were you there? I mean, were you really there? Or would you rather be somewhere else, preferably outdoors, doing something interesting with your friends?
See ... it has not changed much ... the only difference is that now you are in the same position as your Chemestry teacher or your Geography teacher were back then ... Well, try to think of the best teacher you had ... that one who did not make you feel like being somewhere else ... What was s/he like? What did s/he do to catch your attention to her/his subject? Did he give you loads of homework? Was s/he too strict? Did he keep that smile on his/her face on all the time? Did s/he prepare the classes? Did s/he know what s/he was talking about? Was s/he passionate about whatever topic s/he was talking about? Did you feel s/he had control over the kids because of the knowledge s/he hold?
If you answered at least five of the questions above, try to make contact to this teacher and find out what her/his secrets are. If you no longer can get hold of this person, then try to concentrate on the things s/he did to you ~ and try to do as s/he did. That's right! Try to do as s/he did to help you learn and get interested in the things s/he was and not to imitate those teachers who definitely annoyed you ... why should you do to your students something which you didn't like people doing to you anyway?
These words I bring to you, girls, are intended to sharing some of the feelings I got from reading your writings, as I mentioned above. As I also mentioned on my writing, teens can be very kind and nice, they definitely like being challenged intellectually, and they - more than anything - want to be accepted, ... these are not bad things, you know ~ we all want these things.
According to Cris's words, "motivating teenagers is something very challenging both for parents and educators". It is true indeed, but as Morgana also addresses, she had "never imagined that the brains are the responsible 'thing' for teens' behavior." If we take that into account, Daiana's remarks - "teaching teenagers is not easy, but not impossible, because we can motivate them with different activities ..." - clearly mirror many teacher's nature of such task. Despite the fact that she also considers teens more difficult to teach than kids or adults, it can be easily grasped that, according to what Elisa mentioned, "becoming part of the English speaking community" may be motivating enough for a start.
Keep in mind, though, that things should not be too tough ... and neither too demanding on us teachers ... things should be demanding on the learners, and that's our role, as Elisa sees it: " - ... we have to present challenging situations, when all their thoughts will be busy with the problem to be solved."
D.
Do you still remember those 'teen' days when you were sitting in this classroom, sunshine out there, friends to chat right next to you, so many interesting subjects to discover and so many questions to ask? I bet you do! Do you recall being stuck in a classroom listening to your Chemestry teacher explain all those chemical elements or your Geography teacher showing those very distant places around the world? Were you there? I mean, were you really there? Or would you rather be somewhere else, preferably outdoors, doing something interesting with your friends?
See ... it has not changed much ... the only difference is that now you are in the same position as your Chemestry teacher or your Geography teacher were back then ... Well, try to think of the best teacher you had ... that one who did not make you feel like being somewhere else ... What was s/he like? What did s/he do to catch your attention to her/his subject? Did he give you loads of homework? Was s/he too strict? Did he keep that smile on his/her face on all the time? Did s/he prepare the classes? Did s/he know what s/he was talking about? Was s/he passionate about whatever topic s/he was talking about? Did you feel s/he had control over the kids because of the knowledge s/he hold?
If you answered at least five of the questions above, try to make contact to this teacher and find out what her/his secrets are. If you no longer can get hold of this person, then try to concentrate on the things s/he did to you ~ and try to do as s/he did. That's right! Try to do as s/he did to help you learn and get interested in the things s/he was and not to imitate those teachers who definitely annoyed you ... why should you do to your students something which you didn't like people doing to you anyway?
These words I bring to you, girls, are intended to sharing some of the feelings I got from reading your writings, as I mentioned above. As I also mentioned on my writing, teens can be very kind and nice, they definitely like being challenged intellectually, and they - more than anything - want to be accepted, ... these are not bad things, you know ~ we all want these things.
According to Cris's words, "motivating teenagers is something very challenging both for parents and educators". It is true indeed, but as Morgana also addresses, she had "never imagined that the brains are the responsible 'thing' for teens' behavior." If we take that into account, Daiana's remarks - "teaching teenagers is not easy, but not impossible, because we can motivate them with different activities ..." - clearly mirror many teacher's nature of such task. Despite the fact that she also considers teens more difficult to teach than kids or adults, it can be easily grasped that, according to what Elisa mentioned, "becoming part of the English speaking community" may be motivating enough for a start.
Keep in mind, though, that things should not be too tough ... and neither too demanding on us teachers ... things should be demanding on the learners, and that's our role, as Elisa sees it: " - ... we have to present challenging situations, when all their thoughts will be busy with the problem to be solved."
D.
Tuesday 27 March 2007
Adolescents... Adolescents...
As I wrote before, sometimes I ask myself about what to do in relation to teach adolescents... Reading five different texts about adolescents and about teaching English, I could notice the reason why adolescents behave as they do and I also could get some ideas about what I can do to have a good atmosphere in class.
Artoni (2006, p. 33) says that according to the common sense, adolescents are as they are - they don’t have self-control or prudence, they are anxious and bored all the time – because of the hormones. But she explains that the “guilty” for this kind of behavior, according to the Science, is the brain. It happens because in this stage of life, the brain is having a lot of transformations, it’s a kind of a revolution that is happening with this organ. Before this readings, I’d never had imagined that brains are the “responsible thing” for teens behavior. These studies about adolescents are recent and Strauch (2003, p. ..) says that for the first time, scientists are trying to discover one of the oldest answer about the following question: why do teens act as they do? As an English teacher, I would like to know the exactly answer for this question, since I’m going to teach adolescents very soon. But I know there isn’t an answer for it... So, what I’m worried most is about how I am going to deal with my teen students. According to Sulich (2004, p. 32), “teachers should not only be nice, patient, honest, and friendly but should be able to keep order in class”. Ok, I know that, but I ask myself: how do I do it? She (2004, p. 33) gives some ideas about what teachers can do in class to keep discipline: keeping students’ attention, establishing clear rules and addressing discipline problems are three methods that she has successfully used. She (idem) also says that discipline in classroom is based on mutual repect of rights and duties of the teachers and students so that the aims of the lesson can be attained.
I agree when Brown (2001, p. 92) says that dealing with teens is a challenge for the teacher. He has mentioned some considerations which can help a teacher – especially the ones like me who is just starting a career in this area – having a better environment in class. The topic that called my attention was: “complex problems can be solved with logical thinking”, it means that linguistic metalanguage can, theoretically, have some impact. Another studies that have been done recently are about motivation. According to Oss (2006, p. 241), the student needs to be motivated to be able to give opinions, to question, to investigate , to manage and to modify in knowledge the information brought by the foreign language. I think we (English teachers) have to present challenging activities to our students, motivating them and I also think that before taking some decisions in class, we should consider that the “driver” of their “bad behavior” is their brain and they don’t act as they do because they want.
Artoni (2006, p. 33) says that according to the common sense, adolescents are as they are - they don’t have self-control or prudence, they are anxious and bored all the time – because of the hormones. But she explains that the “guilty” for this kind of behavior, according to the Science, is the brain. It happens because in this stage of life, the brain is having a lot of transformations, it’s a kind of a revolution that is happening with this organ. Before this readings, I’d never had imagined that brains are the “responsible thing” for teens behavior. These studies about adolescents are recent and Strauch (2003, p. ..) says that for the first time, scientists are trying to discover one of the oldest answer about the following question: why do teens act as they do? As an English teacher, I would like to know the exactly answer for this question, since I’m going to teach adolescents very soon. But I know there isn’t an answer for it... So, what I’m worried most is about how I am going to deal with my teen students. According to Sulich (2004, p. 32), “teachers should not only be nice, patient, honest, and friendly but should be able to keep order in class”. Ok, I know that, but I ask myself: how do I do it? She (2004, p. 33) gives some ideas about what teachers can do in class to keep discipline: keeping students’ attention, establishing clear rules and addressing discipline problems are three methods that she has successfully used. She (idem) also says that discipline in classroom is based on mutual repect of rights and duties of the teachers and students so that the aims of the lesson can be attained.
I agree when Brown (2001, p. 92) says that dealing with teens is a challenge for the teacher. He has mentioned some considerations which can help a teacher – especially the ones like me who is just starting a career in this area – having a better environment in class. The topic that called my attention was: “complex problems can be solved with logical thinking”, it means that linguistic metalanguage can, theoretically, have some impact. Another studies that have been done recently are about motivation. According to Oss (2006, p. 241), the student needs to be motivated to be able to give opinions, to question, to investigate , to manage and to modify in knowledge the information brought by the foreign language. I think we (English teachers) have to present challenging activities to our students, motivating them and I also think that before taking some decisions in class, we should consider that the “driver” of their “bad behavior” is their brain and they don’t act as they do because they want.
References
ARTONI, C. Tá tudo na cabeça. Galileu. Janeiro 2006.
BROWN, H. D. Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. Longman. 2001.
OSS, D. I. B. A motivação na aprendizagem de inglês no ensino médio: um estudo descritivo. In Língua Estrangeira e Segunda Língua ~ estudos descritivos. EDUCS. 2006.
STRAUCH, B. Como entender a cabeça dos adolescentes ~ as novas descobertas sobre o comportamento dos jovens. Editora Campus. 2003.
SULICH, M. Keeping discipline in the classroom. English Teaching Forum. July 2004.
ARTONI, C. Tá tudo na cabeça. Galileu. Janeiro 2006.
BROWN, H. D. Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. Longman. 2001.
OSS, D. I. B. A motivação na aprendizagem de inglês no ensino médio: um estudo descritivo. In Língua Estrangeira e Segunda Língua ~ estudos descritivos. EDUCS. 2006.
STRAUCH, B. Como entender a cabeça dos adolescentes ~ as novas descobertas sobre o comportamento dos jovens. Editora Campus. 2003.
SULICH, M. Keeping discipline in the classroom. English Teaching Forum. July 2004.
Wednesday 21 March 2007
Teenagers
TEENAGERS
Teenagers are those people that want to do what their parents or teachers do not want that they do or sometimes, they do not want accept parents’ or teachers’ impositions. But depend of the teenagers because there are those that are polite, friendly and conscious.
According to Brown (1993), there are the “terrible teens” and he says about:
“The ‘terrible teens’ are an age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness, growing, and changing bodies and minds. What a challenge for the teacher!”
I agree with the author because many teens are confusing, they do not know what is right and what is wrong and they behave this way because their brain is changing.
In an article of Galileu (2006), we have an important information about teenagers: “Teenagers have specific characteristics like: stubbornness, boredom, ‘bobeira’…”
Adolescence is a difficult period. Many teens have a strange behavior and they suffer with this: they get sad, angry, …
According to Oss (2006): “In some moments, the adolescent is incoherent, sometimes they are sad and sometimes happy”.
Because of these characteristics, sometimes, teens do not have discipline in the classroom and in my opinion is more difficult to teach to teenagers than kids or adults. I think is more difficult because some of them do not listen what the teacher says, they do not like teacher’s opinions, they complain a lot during the class, so I think that teenagers would like to do only what they think is the best for them.
Sulich (2004) says: “Teachers usually begin to have problems with discipline when they can not motivate students or keep their concentration and attention or when they do not understand students’ reasons for misbehaving.”
I think that is difficult to keep concentration and attention of the students, especially, teenagers because they like to talk to their classmates during the class about “relationships”, other teachers, subjects; they speak, make and laugh loud.
Teach to teenagers is not easy, but not impossible, because we can motivate them with different activities, establishing clear rules that are create by teachers and the school and I think teachers must make students aware of the importance of the second language. Maybe with these positive aspects and others we will conquer our students to participate in our classes, otherwise it will be very complicated to work with them.
Teenagers are those people that want to do what their parents or teachers do not want that they do or sometimes, they do not want accept parents’ or teachers’ impositions. But depend of the teenagers because there are those that are polite, friendly and conscious.
According to Brown (1993), there are the “terrible teens” and he says about:
“The ‘terrible teens’ are an age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness, growing, and changing bodies and minds. What a challenge for the teacher!”
I agree with the author because many teens are confusing, they do not know what is right and what is wrong and they behave this way because their brain is changing.
In an article of Galileu (2006), we have an important information about teenagers: “Teenagers have specific characteristics like: stubbornness, boredom, ‘bobeira’…”
Adolescence is a difficult period. Many teens have a strange behavior and they suffer with this: they get sad, angry, …
According to Oss (2006): “In some moments, the adolescent is incoherent, sometimes they are sad and sometimes happy”.
Because of these characteristics, sometimes, teens do not have discipline in the classroom and in my opinion is more difficult to teach to teenagers than kids or adults. I think is more difficult because some of them do not listen what the teacher says, they do not like teacher’s opinions, they complain a lot during the class, so I think that teenagers would like to do only what they think is the best for them.
Sulich (2004) says: “Teachers usually begin to have problems with discipline when they can not motivate students or keep their concentration and attention or when they do not understand students’ reasons for misbehaving.”
I think that is difficult to keep concentration and attention of the students, especially, teenagers because they like to talk to their classmates during the class about “relationships”, other teachers, subjects; they speak, make and laugh loud.
Teach to teenagers is not easy, but not impossible, because we can motivate them with different activities, establishing clear rules that are create by teachers and the school and I think teachers must make students aware of the importance of the second language. Maybe with these positive aspects and others we will conquer our students to participate in our classes, otherwise it will be very complicated to work with them.
Thursday 8 March 2007
tEeNs :-)
Well, it can be easy and difficult ... straight to the point and very messy ... altruist and egocentric ... actually, it can be many lovely possibilities or just one single point of view ... Does that sound (read) familiar to you? Well, that's probably because we all know that we are talking about teenagers: these wonderful people who have just come out to crack the shell that used to keep them inside a safe and predictable world ~ and that goes both for parents and the teenagers themselves ...
According to what we have read and talked about regarding adolescents, they can be considered 'a challenge for the teacher!' (BROWN 2001:92). Nevertheless, it is worth giving a few brief thoughts to these people who are much more confused and searching for answers than any teacher. Of course we should also consider that we have already been teenagers (as Morgana - if I'm not mistaken! - reminded us over our reports), and they haven't.
Some of the brief thoughts that we should try to remind ourselves of, could be ...
... teens can be very kind and nice - as long as they are respected: no one will accept a disrespectful treatment over their points of view, over their ways of behaving or wearing, for instance; why should teens accept it? We can be so tolerant to so many adults, but if it turns to the younger ones, people usually bring a hand full of prejudice when dealing with them. I guess tolerance towards people who are developing in so many different ways should be a good aspect to consider when dealing with anybody, at any age ~ WHY NOT WITH TEENS?
... teens like being challenged intellectually - at this point of one's life, conceptual analysis, formal reasoning, and propositional operations are simply THE aspects that interest teenagers. Although they may be dealing with physical and social maturation, it is at this point that human beings reach cognitive adulthood. That is good to know and to put into practice, especially when situaltions like the one mentioned by Cris come up in the class: once the student has misbehaved, it does not mean that we can make use of our authority to give him/her a hard time .. calling him/her outside and having a quick chat seems to be a good (and respectful!) way to show that there are alternative ways to call someone's attention ~ LET'S SET THE MODEL!
... teens want to be accepted - just like a child has to feel loved to feel safe to go for her/his first steps, just like an adult has to have accomplished certain social requirements, and just like an older person has to feel recognized for his/her background knowledge, for instance, adolescents' needs for appreciation will increase their self-esteem and will motivate them to go forward. That is especially true if we consider that being appreciated can be deceiving - and dangerous! That's probably why it is so easy to have so many kids going out in 'bad companion' ~ LET'S RESPECT THEM!
Well, some of these aspects have been dealt with over our today's class and it will also be part of many of our readings and discussions. Let's keep some of the point above in mind and try to be more understanding with these people who 'just' want us to come up with chances for them to develop. One good way of doing so may be showing the students that we KNOW what we are doing.
Discipline: It´s a form to work in the classroom
In our days, to work with children, teens and teenegers isn´t easy, because this person don´t have will to study or they came back to school to play. In my expierence with teens and adults, I saw many diferences , mainly when I work with adults. I can see the difference between this class, because the adults present will in start learning a new strange language, while the teen don´t have will to learn a new language. They simply to come to school to bother the other classmate or your own english teacher.
According Sulich Magdalen(2004), "discipline is understood today to meaning conforming to rules , to suprevisors orders , and to demands of the community or an institution . Even its derivation is separably connected with education. "
I agree with actor, because in many schools doesn´t have discipline. There are only disorder beside the classroom, teenegers doesn´t have respect with the teachers and with your classmates, and with this nobody learn nothing, the teacher doesn´t arrive to explain the lesson or until to many students this class finished being a"lose the time to learn ".
But what we can to do to resolve this problem?
Firstly, is very important that the teacher must apply the rules to everyone without favouritism.Rules must be concise and clear, and every students must receive a copy or the teacher should ask to your students write some rules in a big paper and put on the wall, before in every class, to think why is important to do this rules.
In English Forum Teaching (pg.11),Magdalena apresents to us three methods to maintain discipline:1) Keeping students attention ( provide a clear structure for the lesson- after greetings the students begin by briefly stating an outline of the lesson);2) Do many short activites instead of a few long ones(short exercicies that change the task and work required of the students can help focus their concentration); 3) Use an un predictable or when calling on student( criate strict rules togheter at the begining of the course , even in the first lesson).
Second Oss, Débora "The motivation is a point essentialy important to process teaching learning.If the teacher doesn´t motivate to teach your student, certantly the students, aren´t motivate to listen the teacher and with this, the desorder finishes take place the class.
According to lectures, indiscipline same beign a problem in our practice diary, many authors put us many solutions that we can resolve this problem, but it´s very important to know how use this.
According Sulich Magdalen(2004), "discipline is understood today to meaning conforming to rules , to suprevisors orders , and to demands of the community or an institution . Even its derivation is separably connected with education. "
I agree with actor, because in many schools doesn´t have discipline. There are only disorder beside the classroom, teenegers doesn´t have respect with the teachers and with your classmates, and with this nobody learn nothing, the teacher doesn´t arrive to explain the lesson or until to many students this class finished being a"lose the time to learn ".
But what we can to do to resolve this problem?
Firstly, is very important that the teacher must apply the rules to everyone without favouritism.Rules must be concise and clear, and every students must receive a copy or the teacher should ask to your students write some rules in a big paper and put on the wall, before in every class, to think why is important to do this rules.
In English Forum Teaching (pg.11),Magdalena apresents to us three methods to maintain discipline:1) Keeping students attention ( provide a clear structure for the lesson- after greetings the students begin by briefly stating an outline of the lesson);2) Do many short activites instead of a few long ones(short exercicies that change the task and work required of the students can help focus their concentration); 3) Use an un predictable or when calling on student( criate strict rules togheter at the begining of the course , even in the first lesson).
Second Oss, Débora "The motivation is a point essentialy important to process teaching learning.If the teacher doesn´t motivate to teach your student, certantly the students, aren´t motivate to listen the teacher and with this, the desorder finishes take place the class.
According to lectures, indiscipline same beign a problem in our practice diary, many authors put us many solutions that we can resolve this problem, but it´s very important to know how use this.
Reflections on the readings: teens, discipline and motivation
This brief essay aims to comment on the topics above, first developing each other separately, then merging them so as to see the implications they have on our teaching practice.
Teens
The article "Tá na cabeça", from the January issue of Revista Galileu dissolves some of the popularly known beliefs about this stage of life. Instead of blaming all the mess on hormones, science (specially the advances of neuroscience) has later discovered that it is rather the brain the guilty one for the continuing changes that occurs between the ages of 10 to 20. Some things that we as adults can count on, such as abstract knowledge and anticipation of consequences are still developing on the young brain, making it harder for teens to deal with some situations. On the other hand, they have a bigger advantage when it comes to expand their knowledge using logic and abstract reasoning - which explains why they are so good at using new gadgets - , having a wider contact with different cultures and artistic productions, which leads them to develop the ability of putting themselves on someone else's shoes: in this age they value friends and social acquaintances.
Discipline
Magdalena Sulich, in an essay at the English Teaching Forum (July 2004), takes into account the several meanings that the word “discipline” had have through ages. Not very long ago, discipline used to be seen as an important aspect of the classroom: the students should be working quietly and shouldn’t disrespect their classmates or teacher. It didn’t matter the means that the teacher would employ to achieve this. Nowadays, though respect is still important (and more difficult to get), discipline has a very close relation to motivation: if the students feel that the class is working and they are making a profit on it, they will contribute to keep the order. However, there are some games and strategies that students use when trying to disturb the classroom, such as asking silly questions, mocking classmates and teachers, and so on. Teachers have to be aware of them and try to anticipate them, so that they can prevent it from happening, or put an end to it before it ruins the lesson. Teachers can (and should) act immediately, making eye contact, calling the student to answer a question and so on. The most important strategy is to have a clear set of rules, which should be created together with the students, so that they know how they should behave and what happens if they don’t.
Motivation
Debora Oss (2006) brings us several concepts of “motivation”, especially when it comes to teaching a foreign language to teens at regular school. There are several reasons underlying motivation, but it can be said that the effort made by a student to learn a foreign language is related to the their feelings regarded the target language, i.e. if they value the language and the culture, and the reward they will get from learning it, such as achieving a higher job position. Debora found out that teens are motivated, specially because they want to be a part of the English speaking community, not necessarily located in English speaking countries, but worldwide through internet.
Putting it together:
To keep teens motivated and disciplined in the classroom, we have to present challenging situations, when all their thoughts will be busy with the problem to be solved. Of course that it is very demanding, but it is out job, as teachers, to get to know our students and bring them new stuff… They can be very challenging and try to disturb us, but they are just trying out limits and we should not give in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)