English Course Books

Do you have trouble finding the right book for your class? let me give you some advice about how to search for an appropriate English book according to the level and age of your class.

In the past, if someone wanted to write a text book for pupils, he could write and publish it without examining whether the book is suitable for the target population. The fact that the books were not examined in terms of content, level of language and cognitive suitability led to confusion about the teaching methods. In contrast to the past, nowadays the books have to be approved by The Ministry of Education. If the book has not been approved, it can't be used in a class.

A complete course book needs to have the whole package that must include three main parts: student book, workbook and teacher's guide, and it may include a dictionary, flash cards, short stories and a CD\CD ROM. If a book package doesn’t have one of the three main parts; it is not a complete course book.

When you are searching for a book, there are a few things you need to check.  First, check the accuracy of the content, in terms of English spelling and grammar; you need to see if the content is suitable for your class level. Then you have to make sure that the cognitive level and the skill level suits your class level by carefully scanning the text and questions in the book. Don’t forget that the content and the language should match. There is an option to use the English Curriculum's division of stages and levels that appears in each of the course books. We also need to check which type of English the book uses, UK or USA. Don’t look only in the teacher's guide; you also have to examine the student book and the workbook.

There is a wide range of course books; each book has a different attitude to learning, and you as a teacher need to choose whether you are teacher or a teacher that believes in developing thinking skills.

In addition to the course books there are supplementary books (they are also called support books), for example: unseen books, fun books, reading books, grammar books and coloring books. These books don’t need to be approved by the Ministry of Education, and we can use them as extra aids for the class.

Now, after you have read this post, and by following all the instructions, you will find the appropriate course book for your class, but remember- Texts may have the same meaning but be presented in different ways. Your job is to find the right textbook.

classroom managment

How do you feel in your classroom?

 

When I started learning in this collage I was sure that I know everything there is to know about classrooms and children.  I was so wrong!!!!!

 

being a teacher is one of the most important jobs there is, you have the ability to affect and shape little children lives, you can become their savior or their worst nightmare it really depends on your personality and how much dedication you have.  when everything is going well it's the most rewording job there is but when things are not good its the most exhausting job there is.

 

As a new teacher you always have to do things make up lesson plans, have meetings with all kind of people- guides, teachers, trainers etc... you always think you invent the wheel and work so hard to create things and show your abilities. more so you need to connect to the students and to teacher still you are a new teacher understand the politics of the teachers lounge and always make sure to be okay and do the best work you can do.  

 

There isn't a lot of things that I can write here that you don't already know or experience yourselves in the classroom. I believe that the most important thing is to love what you do and know when to ask for help, don't be ashamed, after all it is all new to us. 

 

Here is a video with a few tips that might help you- http://youtu.be/9CNeaFhLMXw

Good Luck

Rachel

 

Do you give or take poker chips?

Poker Chips

Have you ever stop and wondered what happens to a student on his way to or from school and how it affects him/her?!

One of our teachers sent me an interesting clip that made me think twice before saying something to a student especially the dyslexic student- and we all have a few of them in our classrooms.

The clip is by Richard Lavoie. He was the  administrator of residential programs for children with special needs for 30 year. In the video he talks about insecure dyslexic students and he compares the self esteem to a bag filled of poker chips and our lives to a game.  

The main idea is that everything in our lives affects that bag, if I'm beautiful and successful and don't have dyslexia or any other disorder than I have more poker chips to play with even if I lost some poker chips because I have a zit on my nose I can still play the game because I have a lot of chips to spare, the dyslexic student start with a lower pack of chips his starting line is not the same as the "normal" child so if something like that happens to him he doesn't have so many poker chips to stay in the "game" and play.

Everything we do or say to a dyslexic student affects his self esteem and his way of "playing" the game, we need to be aware of what and how we say things to these students- things that help them regain their confidence and give them poker chips and not only take from them.

We as teachers need to keep in mind that students after school and after meeting us need to face the rest of the world- on the school bus or playground, with their friends, peers, parents and they can take away all their poker chips so we need to make sure that we give them enough poker chips to keep them un the game and maybe able them to play smarter and handle their chips wiser.

I personally started thinking about everything and now I'm like a Santa Claus I give poker chips to all my students, and making sure they stay and play in the game and I even teach them some tricks. 

I highly recommend you spend a few minutes and watch this video it may make you a Santa as well.

Rachel

poker chips- Rick Lavoie

Niagara Falls

Last summer I traveled to Niagara Falls. It is located about 150 km from Toronto and is on the border between Canada and the United States of America. There are a total of 3 waterfalls that drain from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. The falls area total height of 50 meters. I went in the summer time and the falls were very beautiful. You could hear the water crashing and feel the mist that came off from the falls.


I went on a boat ride called Maid of the Mist where a ferry takes you in the middle of the river and very close to the falls. They gave us ponchos and as we were getting closer to the falls I could feel the mist from the falls which actually felt like we were in the middle of a rainstorm. I could barely see anything because of the rain, but I was able to get a number of good pictures. I also saw a nice rainbow.


The view from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is much nicer than the American side. Looking across the border, there were not that many tourists, and all the nice hotels and tourist attractions are on the Canadian side. In the evening there were lights that were shining onto the falls and made them look very pretty.

An Exemplary Teacher

I have a friend named Ann. Ann's career takes her all around the world and her children usually attend American schools. She told me of one particular teacher who really stood out for her attentiveness and sensibility when dealing with Ann's son, Thomas.

Thomas was a very active young boy who could not sit still for very long. He was easily distracted and although very bright, he found many of the lessons in school quite boring. He would normally listen for ten or fifteen minutes, and then his mind would wander to other places. Because he had many different areas of interest including astronomy, sports, cars, art and geography, his mind would take him on long journeys and he would lose attention. Often, he would draw (beautifully) in class and his mind was so occupied with the drawing that he wouldn't even hear the teacher call him. 

When Thomas was in the third grade, his family lived in Singapore. His main (homeroom) teacher was an elderly Singaporean teacher by the name of Mrs. Wong. Mrs. Wong immediately recognized Thomas's difficulties and her long years of experience told her what to do. Whenever she saw that Thomas was fidgeting in his seat and moving too much, instead of admonishing him or even commenting on it, she found tasks for him to do - tasks that would take him out of the classroom, before his movements would disrupt the rest of the class.

Sometimes, Mrs. Wong would ask Thomas to take a note to the Principal's office. The note, in a closed envelope, would simply ask the Principal's secretary to send Thomas to the storage department and bring some teaching materials back to class. Mrs. Wong would tell Thomas that this task is important - and urgent. She asked him to walk very quickly. By the time Thomas would return to class, after having missed five to ten minutes, he would be tired from his brisk walk and would sit quietly for the rest of the lesson. By receiving these tasks, Mrs. Wong achieved four objectives: she took care of the issue without embarrassing Thomas or admonishing him; she got him to spend a lot of pent-up energy which allowed him to sit calmly through the rest of the lesson; she empowered him and strengthened his confidence by giving him tasks and responsibilities; and she dealt with what might have become a disruptive element for the rest of her class.

There is much that we can learn from Mrs. Wong about how to deal with the challenges posed by over-active students in the class, with wisdom, experience and sensibility.

Unpleasant Experience In The Classroom

 

Hi everybody,

I would like to share with you an unpleasant experience I had during the "teaching practice week".  The beginning of the lesson was stressful because the students didn’t arrive and I was being observed by a teacher from the college.  Earlier, during the break I'd seen their replacement English teacher (their regular teacher was in the U.S) and I'd reminded her to send me the students. But in spite of this the students didn’t turn up. Then, a few arrived. I asked one of them to go downstairs to her class and call the others, but she herself didn’t come back. Finally, I was forced to go down myself 15 minutes after the lesson should have started. I found the students with the teacher, who was giving them back their test, and discussing it with them. She hadn’t even told me what she was going to do it! It all made me feel tense and it was very tiring having to run up and down after the students. In addition, the students didn’t have time to present their work. I saw that teacher after the lesson and I told her that it had been difficult for me running after the students and she just laughed. In general, I feel that experienced teachers sometimes need to be more sensitive to the difficulties faced by "students teachers", especially when they are being observed. After all, they were students themselves, once.

Have a good week,

Natalie

 

 

 

Jerusalem: Three religions - one god

The three religions in Israel share not only a common theistic faith but also a common biblical heritage. Moses, is for example mentioned no less than 79 times in the New Testament and 162 times in the Koran, Jesus have a whole chapter in the Quran. Musa We prefer you on the other, Musa, peace be upon him and prayers (from the Quran). From the above it seems that everything is fine and in perfect condition but, religious fanaticism has a long history but, blessed be the peacemakers, with long periods of reprieve. Its present phase can be traced to its rebirth or, more accurately, to its assisted birth during the period of Cold War as a countervailing ideology against the “godless” creed of communism. The religious forces in the Judeo-Christian and Muslim world were mobilized to face a common enemy together. That collective religious fanaticism. The Alliance of Abrahamic religions, despite many tensions, did work as a powerful tool against the common enemy, Having no common enemy in sight the forces of fanaticism turned against each other. Even so the Abrahamic religions have a long history of clash and conflict that makes them easy prey for manipulation by religious fanatics and political opportunists. In this long history of conflict the past two decades happen to be the worst since the 13th century. Not hard to mark those responsible for this extreme like the TV channels, magazines, newspapers, publishing houses – and authors, preachers and televangelists, whose business it is to sell and spread religious hatred. Once injected it spreads like an insidious disease, and is all the more dangerous for that very reason. For my opinion is that The policy makers in the Judeo-Christian and Muslim societies have yet to fully grasp the truth that the religious extremists in the two camps pose a threat not so much to each other as to their own societies. And not only to the interfaith harmony but also to the rational and humanist worldview within every society. The residents from the three religions stands helplessly by for it has not yet realized that the clash is not so much between good and evil as between two irrational forces, each against the other and both against Reason. My vision is to see Jerusalem as a place that belongs to all nations and religions, a place that is not controlled by any cause not religious, not political, to be conducted by a committee consisting of three sectors, being a place of prayer, belief, pilgrimage, and only for this purpose.