Sunday, Oct. 5th is World Teacher´s Day!
An Attitude of Gratitude!
This is a special day dedicated to remembering and honoring teachers around the world who have made a difference and are making a difference in our lives and the lives of students of all ages around the world!
Two years ago, with my 4th year English Specialist students in the primary and preschool teaching degree at the University of Barcelona, we did a scrapbooking activity to say thank you to those very special teachers in our lives who touched us in ways that have helped us become the persons we are today.
I think it was a very positive activity which the student loved. I am always looking for ways and means to create a space for gratitude in our classroom and to model how language activities could do just that, so it occurred to me that discussing World Teacher´s Day would be a perfect opportunity to bring gratitude to our class. We focused on building language skills through the structure: thank you for + noun/gerund, and shared our individual and collective memories of outstanding teachers who made a difference in our lives.
I began the class by writing on the board the expression "An Attitude of Gratitude" and asked the students to think about what this expression means to them. We had a 5 minute round- the- room oral discussion where we shared our ideas and explored our personal meanings of this phrase.
Then I told them that UNESCO had designated Oct. 5th as the day of the year to remember and say thank you to the teachers we were so blessed to have, and to think about how they touched us in very special ways. I asked them to take a minute and try to remember those teachers and what they brought to their lives. In groups of 4 they shared these personal stories with each other for about 10 minutes. I moved around the class and listened-in on the groups.
Following this, I presented the language structure, "thank you for + " and asked the students how we could finish this expression. Together we reminded ourselves that this structure is always followed by a noun or a gerund.
Finally I asked them to design a page in their scrapbooks, calling it "An Attitude of Gratitude" where they would remember these teachers and write and/or draw what they were thankful for. For homework, I asked the students to find out more information about World Teacher´s Day on the Internet and to add a link/tile they found interesting to their symbaloo.edu PLE (personal learning environment). At the beginning of the next class, we shared our scrapbook pages and our links with each other (me included) and read out loud what we wanted to say thank you for!
Here are a few pictures of some of the student scrapbook pages:
I thought this was a very successful class because it allowed me to meet the 10 objectives which I have set for my myself and students:
1. to bring a value to the class (gratitude) and explore its importance in the language classroom
2. to build language awareness (the grammatical structure: thank you for+ noun/gerund)
3. to create opportunities for individual reflection through narrative texts (oral, written and visual)
4. to create opportunities to model and build speaking, writing, reading and listening skills
5. to differentiate instruction in a way that is both personalized and communicative at the same time
6. to provide an opportunity for students and myself to be creative
7. to model and allow students to participate in new ways of teaching and learning (the use of scrapbooks and the development of visual literacy skills)
8. to engage my students in a fun and enjoyable language learning/teaching session
9. to document and make visible what my students are studying and learning
10. to incorporate the internet and new technologies in the lesson through the use of the personal learning environment
I plan to do a similar activity this year. But this time I would like to also include a craft activity, more student interaction with technology and the internet and dedicate some time to the analysis and correction of "Our favorite errors"! More on that at a later date!
An Attitude of Gratitude!
This is a special day dedicated to remembering and honoring teachers around the world who have made a difference and are making a difference in our lives and the lives of students of all ages around the world!
Two years ago, with my 4th year English Specialist students in the primary and preschool teaching degree at the University of Barcelona, we did a scrapbooking activity to say thank you to those very special teachers in our lives who touched us in ways that have helped us become the persons we are today.
I think it was a very positive activity which the student loved. I am always looking for ways and means to create a space for gratitude in our classroom and to model how language activities could do just that, so it occurred to me that discussing World Teacher´s Day would be a perfect opportunity to bring gratitude to our class. We focused on building language skills through the structure: thank you for + noun/gerund, and shared our individual and collective memories of outstanding teachers who made a difference in our lives.
I began the class by writing on the board the expression "An Attitude of Gratitude" and asked the students to think about what this expression means to them. We had a 5 minute round- the- room oral discussion where we shared our ideas and explored our personal meanings of this phrase.
Then I told them that UNESCO had designated Oct. 5th as the day of the year to remember and say thank you to the teachers we were so blessed to have, and to think about how they touched us in very special ways. I asked them to take a minute and try to remember those teachers and what they brought to their lives. In groups of 4 they shared these personal stories with each other for about 10 minutes. I moved around the class and listened-in on the groups.
Following this, I presented the language structure, "thank you for + " and asked the students how we could finish this expression. Together we reminded ourselves that this structure is always followed by a noun or a gerund.
Finally I asked them to design a page in their scrapbooks, calling it "An Attitude of Gratitude" where they would remember these teachers and write and/or draw what they were thankful for. For homework, I asked the students to find out more information about World Teacher´s Day on the Internet and to add a link/tile they found interesting to their symbaloo.edu PLE (personal learning environment). At the beginning of the next class, we shared our scrapbook pages and our links with each other (me included) and read out loud what we wanted to say thank you for!
Here are a few pictures of some of the student scrapbook pages:
I thought this was a very successful class because it allowed me to meet the 10 objectives which I have set for my myself and students:
1. to bring a value to the class (gratitude) and explore its importance in the language classroom
2. to build language awareness (the grammatical structure: thank you for+ noun/gerund)
3. to create opportunities for individual reflection through narrative texts (oral, written and visual)
4. to create opportunities to model and build speaking, writing, reading and listening skills
5. to differentiate instruction in a way that is both personalized and communicative at the same time
6. to provide an opportunity for students and myself to be creative
7. to model and allow students to participate in new ways of teaching and learning (the use of scrapbooks and the development of visual literacy skills)
8. to engage my students in a fun and enjoyable language learning/teaching session
9. to document and make visible what my students are studying and learning
10. to incorporate the internet and new technologies in the lesson through the use of the personal learning environment
I plan to do a similar activity this year. But this time I would like to also include a craft activity, more student interaction with technology and the internet and dedicate some time to the analysis and correction of "Our favorite errors"! More on that at a later date!
