Advertising is...

A student of mine has presented this video in class to express her opinions on marketing and advertising. It was a great moment of oral assessment, as it was so easy to mark her presentation with a 20 (which corresponds to an A in US schools). Fluent speech, American accent, excellent pronunciation of words, wide range of vocabulary... Moments like this make our assessment tasks so easy and so rewarding!... 

You might also like

The students' corner

Good thoughts

Plastic

Are you making these mistakes in class?

Found pic @The Blaze Blog

Another gripping article by Claudia Pesce for BusyTeacher.org: "No ESL teacher is perfect, no matter if you’ve been teaching for 20 minutes or 20 years... Anyone can make mistakes, most of which are results of our trying too hard or being too impatient. 

You complete their sentences for them. Your student says, 'Playing soccer is…' And you jump in and say, 'fun?' Talk about eager beavers!... Sometimes the teacher is the eager beaver in class and doesn’t give students enough time to come up with the right word or answer. Students need time. If you jump the gun and complete the answer for them, you’re taking away their opportunity to prove to you just how much they’ve learned. Also, consider that it could actually annoy the student. What if, in the situation above, the word the student was actually looking for is 'boring'? Completing students’ sentences is like cutting someone else’s food. You do it when they’re little, but at some point they have to start doing it for themselves. You ask them if they understand. Imagine I am looking straight into your eyes, and I ask you 'Do you understand?' Most students will feel compelled to squeak out a tentative 'yes…' Who would actually face the teacher and say 'no'? Who wants the rest of class to think that they are not the brightest bulb in the box? Don’t put your students in this position. There are ways to check for comprehension without having to put students on the spot. Try asking them questions, instead, to make sure they’ve understood. You echo their answers. A student says, 'I work at Google.' You say, 'You work at Google. Great! You work at Google.' First of all, there is absolutely no learning value in parroting your students. Second, if you do it immediately after they speak, you may be interrupting their train of thought and may even cut them off from whatever else they were going to say. What if your student was about to tell you what he did at Google? After a student speaks, give him or her time to add something else. If you feel compelled to say something, simply reply with a 'How interesting!' And pause to give them time to add a new piece of information. You don’t check to see if they’ve understood your instructions. So, you rattle off a set of instructions in rapid-fire succession and say, 'OK, let’s get started!' This is usually when students start whispering to each other things like, 'What did she say?' or 'What do we do now?' Always check to see if they’ve gotten your instructions straight. Ask the class, 'OK class so what do we do first? And then? Good! You may begin.' If it’s an exercise they must complete, it’s a great idea to do the first question with them as an example.'

In, ESL Teachers, beware: 
Are you making these mistakes in class?' (shortened)

You might also like to read

TTT - Teaching Talking Time

The iPhone Experience

This video was sent to me by a student of mine. He published it on my Facebook page some time ago. Thank you, André Sousa, for sharing!... This video puzzle is truly awesome!...

You might like to take a look at

Facebook your students

To a student of mine who's suffered a major loss

found it @ fotolog.com

Being a teacher @PineTree is not just about teaching, learning, getting involved in the annual planning activities, giving a ride to my students on their way to school or even having lunch with some of them... It is also about being there for them in the saddest moment of their lives... Yesterday, it was one of those moments!... A student of mine lost her father in a tragic and unexpected way!... Together with some other teachers and most of her classmates, I went to the funeral and attended both the religious service and the burial... The principal of our school, as well as her team, were also there, which made it all even more meaningful!... I felt an overwhelming energy was generated in that place. As part of a school community, all of us were there to give our support, trying to lessen her pain...