My students' adventure with Dvolver

Some time ago, inspired by Nicky Hockley's talk at the Istek conference, I decided to introduce my 3rd grade students to Dvolver.

I showed them how to use the movie maker in the classroom and off we went to the computer lab.
Did they enjoy making their own movies? Absolutely!

I could wait for some time and show you polished and corrected versions of what they came up with. But how authentic would that be?

So here we are - below you can watch three movies created by my nine-year-old students without any help. They were allowed to use online dictionaries if necessary but I stayed away and observed.

Enjoy!
(All the movies will probably start at the same time, so you might want to wait a minute and then choose the 'play again' option to watch them separately)

Movie 1:




Movie 2:

Movie 3:

Shall we continue making more movies?

Which one did you like best?

Thank you Nicky!

Guess and win ;)

Two weeks ago my 1st graders were learning about farm animals.

I prepared a little cut and paste activity and they were all busy trying to finish as soon as possible to get a star and a hug from their teacher.

At some point a very cute little boy called Uğur placed a small, folded piece of paper in my hand. I thought it was rubbish and told him to throw it away twice.

He declined and lingered around me mumbling something in Turkish. Finally, he pulled my head down, grabbed my hand again and whispered to my ear: ‘Teacher, is hediye (gift)’.

I looked at the piece of paper and asked what it was. The boy said ‘It’s ................... ‘.

Question 1: can you guess what he created i.e what the gift actually was?

Question 2: whose face can you see in the background of the picture?

The winner of this little contest is free to claim his/ her prize J

(A guided tour around Istanbul, a dinner or a special teacher’s hug, for example ;)

Alphabet, Spelling and Young Learners

Being able to spell in English belongs to the ELT basics category. Kids and adults alike learn the English alphabet with the help of the many alphabet songs, practise spelling their names and that’s usually all. They are expected to remember how to spell as it’s considred to be easy. Besides there are so many other important and interesting things to focus on.

I’ve been teaching 1^st graders for 7 years now and admittedly, I have never paid much attention to spelling. 

My 1^st graders have 8 hours of English every week – 4 with me, 4 with my Turkish colleague. My partner teacher uses a coursebook with the students; my job is to supplement and provide opportunities for extra practice.  That leaves us plenty of time for some fun.

Together with my American colleague, who teaches 1C (I teach 1A and B), we decided to spend 1 class a week focusing on a letter of the alphabet (starting with A). It’s been a few months now and this week, for example, we will be talking about the letter N.

Every time a new letter is introduced, the children learn a few words beginning with it. They also complete tasks to distinguish the new letter and practise using it. These include lettersearches where they have to circle e.g. all Bs, giving students pictures and asking which letter things shown in them start with, tracing, races to the board (each team member has to write / touch or circle a letter the teacher says) and so on.

We had a few reservations before conducting our experiment:

•  our students were learning the Turkish alphabet at the same time (not starting with A though) so we were scared they might somehow confuse both alphabets. It does happen but very rarely.
• they learn how to write in cursive whereas most of the books for kids and the handouts we had were written using the so called ‘the ball and the stick’. Students should be familiar with both styles. They sometimes call writing in cursive writing in Turkish and ‘the ball and the stick’ – writing in English. We observed no problems with students being unable to use both styles. 
• we thought it might be too hard and too boring for the students and we were wrong. Spelling is very challenging and my students can’t wait until we learn new letters.

Our main aim was to teach the English alphabet, giving the children an opportunity to pick up some new words, practice reading and writing.

Yet what has been taking place exceeded my expectations. One day, having reached letter H, I decided to give it a try and asked the students to write down a few words I was spelling. The words were DAD, BED, CAT. To my surprise, the students had no major problems with this activity. The following week I showed the kids some new words and asked them to spell these for me. They raised their hands immediately and spelled everything they were supposed to. That was a WOW.

So here we are – spending 40 min a week with 6-7 year olds exposing them to a new letter and a few words beginning with it. After a few months, most students spell a lot better than the students in High School.

Don’t you think it’s an achievement? I do J

Why I like teaching kids

Many EFL teachers say that they hate teaching children. Some even dread entering the classroom as they are scared the monsters will sooner or later overtake and create chaos impossible to control.

Although there surely are disadvantages of teaching Young Learners, I want to focus on all the good points today. So here we go, teaching children is fun because:

·        They are honest and always tell u the truth, no matter how harsh it can be (Teacher, my grandma has the same scarf as you. Teacher you smell funny. Teacher…)

·        They find it very difficult to keep a secret and as a result you may have the opportunity to learn a lot about their parents (My dad NEVER brushes his teeth in the morning.)

·        They are largely unpredictable and you never know what they are up to

·        They are not afraid of making mistakes and try speaking TL as much as they can

·        You never know how the lesson with YLs will end. Somebody crying, somebody climbing up the walls, somebody looking for something in the garbage…

·        They are extremely observant (Teacher - today you are wearing green eye shadow. Why?)

·        Kids are curious of the world and eager to learn. My students, for example, love to learn where certain animals come from (So koalas come from Australia??? Not Africa???)

·        They are fascinated with facts about the world and love sharing their knowledge with the teacher (Did you know that ‘fire brigade’ begins with ‘f’? No! Really?)

·        Kids would be the best journalists as they are not scared to ask any questions (Are you pregnant? How much do you earn?)

·        They are easy to convince (If you are naughty, you’re gonna get a terrible stomach ache! Ok, I don’t say that but feel tempted very often.)

·        They like sharing their secrets with you so you end up knowing who has a crush on who and that one of your students got a message from Hanna Montana on Facebook. Wow!

·        They easily make you laugh. Most of the time.

·        They give you a daily portion of exercise and help you keep fit – if you teach YLs, count how much of the classroom time you can actually spend sitting down!


I'd love to hear some nice stories from you as well :)            
See, even writing about kids makes me smile :)

Why I hate teaching kids

I really enjoy teaching Young Learners. They are funny, open for new ideas, full of energy and usually more motivated than their older friends. Largely unpredictable, kids can always surprise you which adds this interesting flavour to your teaching.

Yet there is one thing that I hate about teaching children – their parents.

• During parents’ meeting, only the mommies and daddies of well behaved students are willing to meet you. The naughty kids’ parents never pay you a visit even if they are asked to do so.

• Some of them are obsessed with their children’s progress. You have to constantly ensure them that their kids are doing fine, otherwise –

• they demand extra classes, supplementary worksheets, more effort on your part because you – the teacher - are the one to blame.

• They rarely want to take responsibility for their child’s behaviour. If little Xyz curses in class or hits his friends, it is definitely your fault.

• They question your qualifications. If a child fails a test, you didn’t teach him/her right. Where did you learn how to teach then, hmm?

• If a child is one of the best in class, they keep coming and asking how he/she is doing just to hear more praise every time.

• They love visiting you unexpectedly during your 5/10 min or lunch breaks. They always promise they’ll take just a minute of your precious time. Right.

• They call you any time they wish to ask about their child’s homework for the next day or test results (and why they are so low).

I’m done. Feeling better now having let it all out.

Have you had any other pleasant encounters with parents?

How should we deal with them?

I’m not a parent myself and would really appreciate if one wrote something here from a different perspective than mine. Might be interesting :)

Free worksheets for Young Learners

I am sure that most of you reading this post have spent hours looking for free, interesting worksheets for your students.

Many websites advertise themselves as free but when it comes to downloading they request payment or donation. Other ones have complicated menus or provide worksheets only in the PDF format.

To make your lives easier, here is my advice how to find materials in less than a couple of minutes.

If you are looking for a particular worksheet (e.g. fruit worksheet)

1. google it in Google Images
2. seeing what has been searched, click on the image that interests you
3. next click on the ‘see full size image’ button 
4. then right click the image to save it on your computer. Easy.

If this proves to be insufficient, you might find these websites very useful:

http://bogglesworldesl.com/ (almost a legendary site with loads of free material)

http://www.english-4kids.com/ (not many but very stimulating worksheets)

http://www.esl-kids.com/worksheets/worksheets.html (excellent and easy to use free worksheet generator)

http://www.eslprintables.com/ (You need to set up an account and upload some worksheets of yours. Once your worksheet has been downloaded you get one point. Having gained thirty points, you become a premium member and are allowed to download up to thirty new worksheets i.e. ones that were uploaded on a particular day. If you download an ‘old’ worksheet you lose one point of the ones you gained.)

The following sites convert files:

http://www.pdfonline.com/convert-pdf/  - converts Word documents into PDF

http://www.freepdfconvert.com/ - converts PDF documents into Word

The only thing you have to do in order to convert a document is to upload it and type your email address. After a couple of seconds, en email with a converted file will be waiting for you in the inbox.

These sites provide excellent free printables as well:

http://www.beginningreading.com/Free%20Workshe.htm (good for first graders)

http://www.oleyschool.com/worksheets.html (good for first graders)

http://schoolexpress.com/index.php (go to 15.000+ free worksheets)

http://www.abcteach.com/ (you will have to spend some time looking for what you need but it’s worth the time)

http://www.esltower.com/ (go to the English Teachers part)

http://www.teachchildrenesl.com/worksheets.htm (contains worksheets for both Young Learners and teenagers) 

Enjoy!

You know you are a teacher of Young Learners if...

Inspired by the ongoing discussion about English teachers on one of my favourite blogs www.sixthings.net, I have decided to write something for those of you who deal with children on an everyday basis.

Here are my 10 things J

You know you are a teacher of Young Learners if:

1. You constantly grade your language and your speech becomes oversimplified, especially when you talk to non-native speakers
2. You start using teacher language to address members of your family which they immediately notice and start using against you
3. You demonstrate every activity you talk about, point to the objects you mention and feel like if you don’t use gestures, people will not understand
4. You catch yourself humming or singing some ridiculous songs you know from course books and you know which book they actually come from Shipwreck, shipwreck, look at the shipwreck down at the bottom of the sea…
5. You start accumulating things people normally throw away (buttons, empty milk cartons etc) as they might always come in handy in the classroom 
6. You have a pricey collection of puppets, wigs, balls and animated movies
7. You have an uncontrollable urge to tell off anyone who acts in a rude or disrespectful manner
8.  Spiderman, Winx, Sponge Bob and Bob the Builder are like members of your own family.
9. You are scared to wear your best clothes to school as they might become dirty or get damaged in some way
10. You have more stationery than when you were at school yourself

To take part in the original discussion click here http://sixthings.net/2009/11/09/six-times-you-know-youre-an-english-teacher-when/

A bag of tricks for the traveling YL ESL teacher

It’s somewhat of a nuisance to carry around but I don’t go to any of my schools without it. I’ve now settled on a large, colourful plastic bag that zips and that can easily be molded to fit into my bicycle hamper. It raises a few eyebrows wherever I go but what the heck it helps me to do my job. Perhaps, you have one too. My bag is full of useful props, things, objects that help me to teach in a creative, magical way and serve to relax and loosen up the children for learning. It’s something akin to a bag of tricks that a magician uses to awe his audience. I strive to do the same with mine.
Here are the things that make up my bag of tricks. It includes:

• Lots of children’s songs CDs. Music is magic to young learners’ ears. I use music as a warm-up to start the class and also to start a game. The children lap it up. They sway, bounce and move their bodies to the music they hear.
• Puppets. It allows me to teach target language and introduce and act out simple dialogue skits. A puppet, I have discovered, actually introduces another native speaker in the classroom. They’re great and the children warmly respond to them.
• Squishy balls. They’re soft and colourful. They are easy to catch. I use them to promote classroom participation.
• A wig. I wear it to liven up the class. It makes me look ridiculous but it grabs their attention.
• Flashcards. It’s a great way to introduce language. I make my own. It’s cheaper if you do. I use them in games. I also carry with me a set of ABC flashcards to teach the alphabet and phonics.
• Stuff toy animals. They’re cute. I use them to teach prepositions such as on, in, under, behind, in front of, etc.
• Soft, large, cushy dice. I use them to play games like snakes and ladders.
• Coloured hollow plastic balls. I use them for teaching colours and in activities such as the passing activity.
• Paper, pencils, coloured pencils, and erasers. I use them in drawing/colouring/connect the dot activities. They are a great way to end the class and to restore peace and calm to a lively and active group of children.
• Magnets. To hang flashcards on the blackboard.
• Tambourines/rattles. I use them to start a game and for drill activities. They act as a cue.
• Peanuts, two bowls, and two sets of chopsticks. I use them to play the chopstick game.

My bag also includes tissue, throat lozenges, and a bottle of water.
I don’t ever leave home without my bag of tricks. I’d be lost without it. It sure makes a difference to the way I teach. Perhaps, if you haven’t one you might just be tempted to start one and take it with you whenever you go to your schools.

Contributed by Stefan Chiarantano | February 2005
Stefan has been teaching English as a foreign language in Asia for the past several years. He presently teaches English in Japan. He's a Canadian with an interest in filmmaking and photography.

The original posting is here http://edition.tefl.net/articles/yl-articles/bag-of-tricks-traveling-yl-esl-teacher/

What is the chopstick game? Any ideas?

Some Ideas for Newbie Teachers of English to Young Learners

I’ve been teaching children for seven years now. And the beginnings were tough both for me and for the kids, I guess. I can still recall my first class. It was a total disaster.

That is why I have decided to write some tips for those of you who have just started or will begin teaching young learners in the future. Hopefully, the following ideas will help you get the hang of dealing with the little monsters ;)


Young Learners in general:

• cannot concentrate as long as adults

• cannot understand abstract concepts easily

• tend to learn and forget quickly

• have high energy levels

• tend to be good at pronunciation

• do not worry about making mistakes

• pay little or no attention to accuracy

• are usually externally motivated

• are NOT interested in everything

• tend to acquire language as opposed to adults who actively go about learning it

• are very interested in talking about themselves


What has to be taken into account while teaching children?

• routines and rules help to solve behavioural problems in the YL classroom

• we need to consider motor skills when teaching Young Learners

• it is crucial to make the meaning of language clear for children because they do not ask a lot of questions

• it is important to do creative and imaginative activities with kids

• we should not encourage young learners to transfer their reading/ writing skills from L1 to L2


Had I known all of that when I started teaching kids, everything would have been so much easier :)

Good luck to all of you!

Hands and Fingers or Sign Language in the EFL Classroom

There are times when words are not enough. There are times when no matter how hard we try we cannot put our message across. In the EFL classroom such situations take place pretty often, especially if you are teaching young learners.

Most of us know that miming is an extremely useful tool for eliciting, presenting or practising new vocabulary. To become good at that requires time, conscious effort and possibly a pinch of talent.

Sadly, some teachers reject the idea as they are afraid to look and act silly in front of their students. My advice – give it a try!

Some basic ideas on how to use hands and fingers in the ESL classroom involve:

• Pointing to objects, students, yourself meaning this/that/you/me etc

• Pointing back indicating past, pointing forward indicating future, pointing to the floor in front of you meaning now, at the moment

• Thumbs up for ok, thumb down meaning not ok, wrong

• Shaking your hand sideways meaning so-so, not really, give it another try

• Showing time’s up using both hands, making a T

• Clapping meaning bravo, well done, good job

• Holding your head in different ways meaning tired, I’m having a headache (e.g. because students talk too much)

• Putting a hand close to your ear as in Chinese whispers meaning speak louder, I can’t hear you, repeat

• Waving your hand meaning Bye bye, Hello

• Raising a hand to indicate that you expect the same from the students

• Shaking a pointing finger meaning you’re naughty, don’t do that, I don’t like that

• Moving hands to mime certain nouns or actions – a car, rain, playing the piano, smoking

• Presenting adjectives - big small, long short, heavy light

• Using fingers to show a number or while counting, numbering, listing


Alternative ideas for using hands:

• to indicate word stress (e.g. vegetable has 4 syllables and the first one is stressed. Holding your palm as if you were knocking on the door, ‘knock‘ the air four times opening your fist for the stressed syllable as in Oooo. Make sure you do it from right to left as the students have to see it from left to right)

• to show intonation by making waves (rise, fall, rise fall, fall rise, level)


Alternative ideas for using fingers:

• to show a number of words in a sentence, syllables in a word and to correct students’ utterances. If a student forgets to use a word in a phrase, show him/her the number of words using fingers with one finger missing.

• holding fingers together to show contractions (e.g. 1st finger I, 2nd finger AM, two fingers held together I’m)

• making the scissors gesture may indicate that too much has been said and something has to be cut out

Why is it worthwhile to consider using these techniques?

• They make students remember things easily as they give them the opportunity to visualise and mime (perfect for learners with the visual and kinaesthetic learning styles)

• They reduce Teacher Talking Time

• They may be used while eliciting

• They provide alternative ways of error correction, indicating stress, showing contractions, intonation

• They might help you create good rapport with the students

• If students are at a loss for words, miming can put them back on track

• They may help teachers express themselves more effectively

On a final note, make sure the gestures you want to use do not have negative connotations in a country you teach in. Taking learners’ backgrounds or age into consideration also plays an important role. Whatever you do, do not be afraid to experiment. In the end, experimenting is a vital part of the learning process.

* Some of the ideas presented above might sound too ‘Silent Way-ish’ to some of you. My aim though is not to advocate this method but to take the best of what it has to offer.

A webiste review

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/more/management/contents02rewards.htm

There are many ways that help us reward our students.
Some of them are useful and some, though effective, negate the very idea of teaching.

The ones I particularly dislike involve ‘bribery’ i.e. offering students sweets, toys or stationery in order to reward good behaviour. Obviously, if we promise a 7 year old a toy for being good, the chances are he will do everything to get the prize. We must not forget however that methods based on behaviourism can lead to a dead end. Namely:

• The student will learn to get a prize for anything good he does and will expect it all the time.


• In case a prize is not provided, a teacher may encounter tantrums or any other outbursts of negative behaviour (in my view, fully justified)


• The child’s focus will be on getting something material not on appropriate behaviour or educational objectives


• Any attempt to change the system into more humanist oriented type of rewarding will have consequences as the ones mentioned above


• It is an unnecessary expenditure as there are other ways to maintain good behaviour in class


Most of us have heard of the Star and Smiling Faces types of rewarding good behaviour. They are easy to implement and require minimal preparation on the part of the teacher.

Some of the attention-grabbing ideas I have found on the website discussed are:

• Behaviour Ladder
• Behaviour Train (similar to the ideas I have discussed earlier but more elaborate)
• Class Celebrity
• Peacock Targets (with a downloadable sheet)

Have fun using them in your classes!

Some websites to use with YLs

My personal favourite is http://www.thecolor.com/ It's very colourful and has plenty of pictures to colour ranging from Aesop's Fables to Zodiac signs. The number of categories is amazing but the pictures are pretty basic. Perfect choice for kindergarten and grade 1 who don't really know how tu use a mouse yet :)


For online coloring, you can also try http://www.myfreecolouringpages.com/ This website also offers printable coloring pages, dot-to-dot exercises and an oline picture maker. The last one is a LOT of fun!


On the http://www.thekidzpage.com/ we can find games, clipart, learning pages, puzzles and more. I personally reccommend the Fun Learning Games. The Math Flash Card Game was really cool and your students will surely like it too.


http://www.coloring.com/ does not really look appealing but has plenty of coloring pages to bring into play.

Classroom management - In or Out

In or Out works best for kindergarten students i.e. the ones who cannot read or write yet and who respond exceptionally well to visual ways of explantion and instruction.


The basic idea behind the game is that if you are good, you are in the same group with the teacher and other students; if you are naughty, you are out of the group.

Apples in a basket:

During the first week (month) of the school year, the teacher has to prepare a big paper basket and paper apples for every student. They will later colour and write their names on them with the help of the teacher who will have an apple of his/her own as well. Next, all the apples will be placed in the basket hung earlier on the classroom wall/ bulletin board. If one student misbehaves, he is taken out of the basket and put next to it. If his/ her behaviour changes, the apple is placed back into the basket.

The activity has many variations. The teacher may decide to prepare, for example:


• bees and a beehive
• stars and a model of univers
• clouds and a sky
• flowers in a garden
• wagons of a train
• animals in a forest/ jungle
• fish or frogs in a pond
• starfish or other sea creatures in a sea

Classroom Management - Football English

The Football English activity works best with older students who have at least some idea about football. It works particularly well in classrooms where the kids are mainly boys.
To make it work you need to prepare a set of YELLOW and RED cards.

You set up the activity by explaining the rules:

• if a student talks, interrupts, refuses to engage in an activity etc, s/he will be given the first YELLOW card
• s/he will be given one more chance but in case s/he continues to misbehave, another YELLOW card will be given
• if the situation continues,  a student is given a RED card
• a RED card means extra homework, detention, a talk with the principal etc.

The students will realize immediately that the game is similar to football with one exception i.e. the players are given two yellow cards instead of one and the second yellow card does not automatically generate a red card.


A problem that might occur while you try the activity out is the students themselves. They will most probably start writing on the cards or damaging them in some way. In such a case, a good solution might be using colored chalk. Instead of giving the cards to naughty students, mark their desks with red and yellow chalk and you will get a very similar effect. It will also save you time on preparation of the cards.

Classroom management ideas

During my career as an ESL teacher I have come across plenty of teachers who dread teaching children. Because they are naughty. Because they cannot concentrate. Because all they want to do is run around and make a lot of noise. Having taught kids for a few years now I wholeheartedly agree with all the aforementioned complaints. It takes however a few things to bear in mind to make your YL classes work like magic.

Teamwork, games and the sense of competitiveness

Students love competitions and YL are no exception. The only difference is that they love them even more! Hence you should take every opportunity to turn any activity into a contest. Start up by dividing the class into two or more groups.

Give each team a name e.g. oranges and apples or red and blue. You can use the vocabulary you have recently taught to provide some extra practice and give your students an opportunity to encounter the new words again.

Very YLs tend to forget which group they belong to so use colored chalk to mark their desks. Always check that the students know which group they are a memeber of by making them raise their hands and see who else is in their group.

On the blackboard write each group’s name and give them an equal numbers of points for a start. Warn the students they you will erase their points if anyone from the group shouts, walks around, keeps talking, does not raise their hand etc. Tell them that points will be added if group members speak English or complete tasks successfully.

With very young lerners, not being able to use L1 may cause loads of unnecessary stress. My kids, therefore, are allowed to speak their mother tongue only if they whisper to their partners and if they don't do it very often.

Reward the kids for every positive thing they do. Keep in mind that rewards have a much more encouraging and motivating effect than any form of punishment.

My first post

Hmm...
I guess this is the hardest moment in the life of a blogger. My first post.

To begin with, my special thanks to Lindsay Clandfield who convinced all of us attending his workshop in Budapest that starting up a blog is a piece of cake :)

As I'm in the middle od doing my DELTA my posts might be few and far between but I will definitely write something twice a week to keep it alive (not sure if it's going to be Monday and Thursday though :)

My key interest is teaching English to Young Learners (aged 7-9) i.e. the ones who have just learnt to read and write. In my view, not enough is being written or taught to help teachers deal with them and I'm planning to change it. Hence this blog will be my place for sharing ideas and raising questions that I hope will get answered.

So, off we go!