Find #1:I completely agree with this post. Having students learn new things is important, but if a student is not emotionally stable then any else does not matter. I had an experience in my second semester of teaching Spanish, where a student asked to talk to me before class started. She let me know she was having family issues and she didn’t get any sleep. Also, that if she wasn’t participating during class was because she was out of it. I told her to go home to rest and that I would send her the presentation and handout through email. Not only that, but she could send me any questions she had or meet with me the next day.
Find #2: WOW! I love this so much. This resource focused on “summer melt” which is when students who are entering college in the fall face obstacles during the summer that stops them from going. This can happen to first generation students, students of color, or students with family issues. The solution that they are presenting is that teachers, counselor, or administration reach out to students during the summer through text messages of encouragement,give out stud"cheat sheets" of deadlines due for college that they will need to complete during the summer, or extend counselor hours in the summer.
Find #3: This stood out to me because it defines an inquiry teacher through many aspects. One of my favorite ones is “inquiry teachers teach slow” because teachers are able to take their time slowing down in order for students to really understand the material. They understand that it’s not a race to give students information, it’s about students being able to take the information they are learning and applying to their lives. Additionally, I really liked “Inquiry teachers reflect and revise as they go.” It stood out to me because teachers who do this can reflect on activities that need more time or that need more of something to make it better for the next class. Not only that, but it’s all for students to learn better.
Find #4: I came across this post by @ValentinaESL and I was intrigued by it because she mentioned “Sketchnoting is a learner centered instructional practice.” I started to read the feedback she got and I needed to find out what it was. I ended up on YouTube trying to gain more information about Sketchnoting. Doug Neill actually came up with this concept and he has a whole series on “Sketchnoting a foreign language.” It’s a technique that allows students to turn their regular notes into drawing in order to retain information. I am a very visual learner and this would have made a difference with my learning. For example, in one of his episodes on foreign language he encourages learners to not only draw a picture of the vocabulary being learned, but a whole picture (scenery) of all of the terms included. Then they are able to add the vocabulary words to each item drawn.
Find #5: This was a meme that I came across. It made me laugh because I can see myself or other teachers making activities later on about this. For example, “Imagine living in 2020… write a paragraph.” I just really hope that this pandemic is almost over because I want to be able to teach in person again. It made me really happy being able to do fun activities in the classroom like information gap or exchange activities with my students. I loved working from home, but I want to be able to separate work from home.
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