week 13: Benefits of include students

The article of this week named “10 Benefits of Getting Students to Take part in Classroom Discussions” is short, but very helpful too. Sometimes the teachers, and even we as teachers just go to classroom to talk, explain topics, grammar, etc., and finish the class and that is it. This way used to become the class in a really bored time for students and teachers, but this article talks about this, about how change this bored way and the benefits that bring include the students more in the classes.

Something I want to remember from this article are the 10 benefits of getting students to take part. I think we have to keep in mind the points mentioned here because they are very helpful if we want to be different teachers. Participation provides the teacher feedback, Participation adds interest, and participation can be used to develop important speaking skills are benefits of include students and make them participate in class. Also, there are many others benefits mentioned in the article that bring make participate students in the classes.

In addition, I think every teacher should know about these 10 benefits of getting students to take part. Some teachers know about these benefits, others not, but all teachers should know about this and principally teachers of ESL. All teachers of ESL should know and put in practice these points mentioned getting these benefits and become the classes in something more than classes.

Week 12: Essentials points for a innovate project

When I started to read the article named “Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning” I had a curious reaction about the seven points showed in the article because I realize these are very important points that teachers should take in the count. I think we as teachers should start using these seven essentials points because many times the projects or homework’s assignment are given to students just because is in the schedule. It is important to generate brainstorms, questions such as “how can we fix the problem? Why is it this problem? What generated this problem? etc. as well as researches, and field investigations in students so they can see the world in a different way.

Something that I want to remember from this articles is the seven essentials points. I think this points can be useful for us in the future to teach in a different, useful and better way, but not just to teach, if not to generate thinking in students too; make students to ask themselves about situations and problems. Thanks to this article, we can realize that making a project or presentation it is not just that, a project or presentation. It is necessary to try to make a change, find a solution and show the situation or problem to different people through a project.

Week 11: Creating critical thinking in students

The article “Critical Thinking and Technology” consist and explain how as teachers, we can create a critical thinking on students through different ways such as presentations, computer, pictures, make questions in classes, etc. I think this article is very interested, informative, and helpful for teachers and future teacher because it can help us to start creating critical thinking in the students. Many times the teachers are focus just in make students to acquire information, topics, words to repeat and memorize leaving critical thinking aside. So it is important the students start to create a critical thinking; they must start to generate questions and ask themselves about everything to avoid be guides blindly by anyone, and we as teachers have to foment this in our students.

I think every teacher should know about this article as well as the different ways to general critical thinking through technology. Using visual learning and sources, internet, motivation, and question are some of the ways that we can use to achieve this, and now thanks to the technology, there are different sources that can become easier to achieve this in the students. 

A question that I still have is How can be this fomented in teachers? Because teachers have the task of creating critical thinking in students, but who has the task to make teachers do this? The government or the ministry of education? I think is important to start from teachers if it wanted to achieve critical thinking in students.

Week 10: Learning through mobile phones

The article “Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom” surprised me a lot, principally because I had never heard about these activities. The ideas for using mobile phones and how as teachers, we can apply them to teach English it can results really useful for teachers and students to develop in a better way the learning process.

Something that I want to remember from this articles is the ideas for using mobile phones. I think these ideas are very complete, very creative and helpful for ESL learners. Ideas as use social networks, text messages, voice recorders, and even play video games, etc. through a cell phone can be important tools that one day we can use to teach, so I think is necessary to keep them in mind.

I think every teacher should know about these ideas. Teachers that have a while teaching English using traditional ways (books, audios, exercises, etc.) should start to use these ideas to innovate the English learning process and help students to acquire better the language. Something I would like to share with a colleague is the use of mobile phones. Everyone has a mobile phone, if you ask your students who has a cellphone everyone will say “I have one”, so I think as teachers, we have to take advantage of cell phones to be close of our students and help them to teach English faster and in an easy way, and the ideas from this article can help us to achieve that.