SOME IDEAS ON PHONETICS

Víctor shares with all of us something about the use of "phonetic material" in the Primary English Language Classroom...   Enjoy!!!!!!!

1) Jolly phonics: In the first file (jolly books) you have a great variety of little stories which are focus in the spelling, relating the different themes with particular items, such as animals, swimming, monster party...

In the second file you can find different worksheet related both with writing and spelling.

As I told you this morning I think the third file is not very important; it has two powerpoints I think they are useless (maybe I am wrong) and the explanation in Spanish of the diffferent resources.

Finally you have the pronunciation of the different sounds in audio files and in 6 PPT, which you only have to open it and see that in each slide is represented one sound (it can be just one letter or two- diphthong.

2) Letter factory: It only has 3 videos which are about a factory which can produce different words and sound mixing the different letters of the alphabet.

As Bugs Bunny would say........ THIS IS ALL FOLKS!!!! :) I hope you enjoy these resources and you could use with your future pupils :). If you have any doubt please let me know.

Víctor Pérez Alfageme

PS: I will leave this resources in the screen from our class (the one we spend most of the time in).

THE MEMORINA, A TEACHING TOOL

Last Monday, I was looking for some books in my room and I found a small notebook from school. It is called “Memorina” and contents one hundred and eight useful sentences in English. The notebook had to be so small to put it in the pocket or in the pencil case!!

I remember that I began writing these sentences in 3^rd year of Primary and I wrote the last one in 6^th of Primary. In the lower levels, my English teacher wrote some sentences in the blackboard every day and we had to copy them in our notebook. Each sentence has the translation to Spanish.

Let’s take some examples:

1        Saludo normal: Hello

2        Saludo amistoso: Hi

53.  Decir que tenemos hambre: I’m hungry

54.  Decir que tenemos sueño: I’m sleepy

107. Preguntar a qué hora…: What time do you…?

Every month, we did a (oral or written) “Memorina exam” so we learnt all these sentences. We had all the sentences that we had to knew in our notebooks. It was extremely useful!

We didn´t know the real meaning of all the sentences but we could say a lot of them without thinking. When I was in Secondary Education I started to understand how these phrases were formed. Then, I could distinguish the subjects, the verbs, and the rules to write correctly but I already knew some structures!

I remember that “Memorina” was an “event” at school. All the pupils at school had their own notebooks and there was a “competition” to have more and more sentences. In the upper levels, the teacher taught new sentences when all the pupils knew the old ones. We had so sentences to study!!

The first class that got one hundred sentences was mine!! We celebrated it with a party at school.

I think that is a useful method to teach some complicated grammar structures. Children can’t understand how to form an English sentence but they know some important grammar structures related to their daily life. Besides, they have almost all the sentences in their small “Memorina”.

(Gonzalo García)

ABOUT FEAR, MAKING MISTAKES AND THE ANXIETY OF TEACHING...

Are you afraid of being in the SPOTLIGHT and, ooopppps, making A HUGE MISTAKE when ALL your students' eyes are on YOU.  Well, don't be afraid, to be SINCERE, it IS BOUND TO HAPPEN, and not once, believe me, it is pretty frequent we, teachers, make mistakes when teaching...

And then, anxiety comes in the dead of night, creeping into your soul and you are left breathless feeling your whole world is about to collapse...

Again, YOU WANNA BE A GOOD TEACHER, well, then, ACCEPT THAT MAKING MISTAKES IS JUST HUMAN and you are human, YOU ARE NEITHER A FAIRY OR A CYBORG (maybe you will be those beautiful things in another life or maybe you are being so in a different dimension, who knows).  For the the time being, your human shape will show human traits, isn't it lovely?

You are alive..., which is WONDERFUL, and if you are alive you are here to MAKE MISTAKES AND LEARN FROM THEM WHITHOU A SENSE OF REMORSE, we do things, we create things... and of all of a sudden we fall on our knees and see how everything crumbles to the ground..., then we GET UP, KEEP ON WALKING AND CREATING, which is so GREAT!!!!  Do you get this, SUPERB WOULD-BE TEACHERS?  I think this is one of the features of "GREAT TEACHERS", they overcome difficulties with a smile on their faces and that is devoted to inspire their students...  Do you agree?  As always, I may be so wrong...to actually be kind of right.

But well, tell me something, are you really worried about making mistakes when teaching?  How do you think this may affect our teaching lives?  Do you see a way to get out of this full circle?

Waiting for you comments my good students about to become excellent teachers!!!!!!!

And of course... I am sure I have made some kind of mistake in my writing here, or in my theories there... And that is so great..., because IT MEANS TWO THINGS 1) I AM ALIVE (YEAH!!!!!!) 2) I MAY IMPROVE  MY TEACHING.

Thanks for your wonderful cooperation, my good pals!!!!!!!!!!!

(Fran)

WONDERFUL TEACHERS IN A WONDERFUL WORLD

Great, my friends, here you have a new text to reflect upon, written by one of your classmates.  ENJOY:

Last Thursday, when children were leaving the school at 2pm and I was remembering when I was one of them, I met my first English teacher. I'm always so glad when I meet her. She asked me about 'my life' so I told her that I was studying 'English Teaching', in a way, because of her.

I have a good memory of her funny English Lessons. But the great thing is that we learnt having fun!!

She told me that nobody tells her that they appreciate her job (however, if she does something wrong, she can be punished); she can not be promoted or earn more money (in fact, her salary is cut down because of the government measures);... But, when she meet her ex-students and they say hello to her, she feels her job rewarded.

It's a little example just to show how the teachers labour is so bad valued in our society. That's a shame. Could it be changed?

Anyway, THANKS TO THE WONDERFUL TEACHERS WE ALL HAD/HAVE!

(Elena Regaño)

In Silence we dwell...

Such a wonderful energy we have shared today!!!!!  At least I was totally flooded by your energetic fields, your magnetic TEACHING essence, if you know what I mean.

See, my dear friends, my whole point (my only point this course) is "never take for granted what we are told as far as Education is concerned..., not even this!!!!!  Check and double-check, and try to discover what it is that lies behind the wonderful mask of the world of Education, or just the world. 

Methods are tools we have to study, learn, know, you name it, but remember that they are theoretical tools to "play" with (to have fun with, I would even say).  Instead of saying "I am using this methodological choice/device/option/approach" (which, by the way, sounds pretty proffesional) I like saying "I am playing with this method to see what happens and to get further in my understanding of the whole thing".

But well, to cut a long story short (sorry, pals, about my neverending ramblings, do bear with me and thanks for you patience), this is THE POINT:

Focus on Silence for a while, just for a while, try to get to know it better, just that.  And do it your own way and only if you feel comfortable, if that's not the case, the right time will come (or not, who cares).  This is just our first Unit, the introduction, so to speak, of the course.  But remember that what you see is what you get, that's how I teach, that's how I share with my students, NOT SO MUCH GIVING YOU STRAIGHT ANSWERS, BUT TRYING TO BRING UP QUESTIONS THAT WILL GUIDE US ALL TO MORE QUESTIONS IN A SPIRAL MOVEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING.  I like getting to the bare esssence, to the root of it all, after all this is one of the wonders of being here with you.
I may be wrong, or I may be right, or, more surely, somewhere in between (wringht) (Goodness, I'VE JUST FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THIS WORD we have just created!!!!!!!!!).

Thank you for helping me with the missing pieces of this wonderful tapestry, this manifold puzzle of learning, teaching, just living!!!!!!!

One more day in Paradise, pals, one more day with you all!!!!!

Enjoy!!!!
(Fran)

WELCOME TO OUR CLASS!!!!!!!!

Well, you know is "our" class, but "my" apple, lol.

"What are you doing here?", you may wonder...
Well, of course, I don't have a proper answer.  You are here because you are here.  Is that good enough?
What I can tell you for sure is why I have decided to create this space...
This space is for all of us to THRIVE
to SHARE
to ENJOY
to THINK TOGETHER
to, al teast, TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL ESSENCE OF TEACHING
to use ENGLISH as our NATIVE TONGUE...

I'll write some thoughts about our sessions together, you do what you feel you have to do, comment, create new posts (have them sent to me and I'll make them public).  This is for you to feel free, learn and teach...

Today's session has been pretty useful, at least from my point of view.  Using Spanish every now and them won't "kill our English", although we'd better keep up English as our "communicative tool".  The students are incredibly receptive and open to some of the ideas which fly over our classroom.  I love that feeling of freedon, we are CREATING something new, and it seems so EFFORTLESS.  Nice!!!!!

And so, we were left with the thought of TRYING TO SEE CLEARLY WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND MIND (COGNITIVE PROCESS).  I really am puzzled about this since I was a young College student and to this day I am still fascinated about the magical connection that seems to exist between mind and speech.

Dunno, my pals, do you have anything to add just now???????
(Fran)