De-Fossilizing our Teaching

I have said many times that this TTC blog is mainly about switching off our autopilots. Partially, it is about “defossilizing” our teaching, our teaching routines and our stereotypes.

Often we keep doing some things repeatedly in the class even though we know they are wrong.

Possibly, we have done them so many times that they just sound right to us.

It is probable that we simply learnt these things wrong.

We tend to “make our teaching mistakes” again and again despite correction.

We can correct what we do or do it differently when focused or forced (e.g. by an observer).

However, it is high time we changed our teaching for ever!

The same applies to our students´ fossilized mistakes.

  

What do you think makes a mistake become a fossilized mistake? What causes the process of fossilization?

What can an experienced teacher do to avoid them or to help students get rid of them?

Look at this little poem grid and try to complete it. You can adapt it as much as you wish. Looking forward to your ideas :)

Those ugly fossilized mistakes come to their long-lived life

due to __________, ______________  and the lack of ______________.

Those wicked fossilized mistakes reoccur in our class because our poor students

need more ______________, ___________________ and ________________.

Those tiring fossilized mistakes! Why don´t we ______________ or ________________?

Let´s fight them from Monday to Friday to free our class :)

 all-free-download.com 

Well, now you know all the important things about fossilized mistakes. Here are my important rules:

• Prevention is more powerful than defossilization afterwards.
• Teachers must work with fossilized mistakes in a systematic way.
• “An apple a day keeps a doctor away,” says the proverb. Working with fossilized mistakes once a term is not enough!
• Students must be made aware of the mistakes and take an active part in the fight.

What do you do when you decide to rid your student of a fossilized mistake?

It´s Banned

You can draw a “forbidden sign” containing the expression you would like your student not to use any more, e.g. We was. Any time they make the mistake, point to the sign. Lower your TTT!

Nowadays, you can use a personalized word cloud to make the correct version visible to your student. It works great with typical spelling mistakes (e.g. accommodation) or Czenglish expressions (e.g. on the cottage, childrens).

Copy it Thousand Times

Harry Potter had to copy a sentence thousand times using his own blood. Do the same with your students J Ask them to use the key phrase or tense in personalized sentences. E.g. ask them to finish the sentence I have never been to … in at least ten different ways. You will see that you get a nice English poem at the end.

Fossilized Dictionary

I have realized many times that in order to recycle vocabulary, I should make my students note down new words. I should make my ADULT students note down new KEY words. Similarly students must become aware of the mistake they keep making. Make them make a list of mistakes to get rid of. Only then can they really succeed.

Snowball fight

Students write three sentences about themselves using some mistakes from their lists CORRECTLY. Crumple up and have a snowball fight. Pick up the snowballs. Guess who wrote it.

I Want to Make you Make it

Students look at their own lists of mistakes. They try to make their partner make the same mistake by creating sentences using the mistakes. Instead of the mistake, they use the word “banana”. Their partner has to guess the word and say it correctly/avoid the mistake.

E.g. I am (banana) English. (good at).

We (banana) in the mountains  last weekend. (were)

Many (banana) are badly-behaved nowadays. (children)

Use new technologies to help you with the fossilized mistakes. Launch a wallwisher/padlet wall and your students can post sentences using the “mistakes” correctly. Or, use a fotobabble.com to comment on your student´s writing and highlighting fossilized mistakes.

Above all, play games with mistakes.

Make the mistakes visible and the corrections even more!

Try to use the following prompts and think of an activity which would help you work with FOSSILIZED MISTAKES:

• Dice
• Board game
• Fly swatter
• BluTack or Post-It notes
• Kitchen timer
• Mr.Bean´s Teddy Bear
• Ball
• A sheet of paper
• Mobile phone

Here is your final task for the following two weeks. Focus on the fossilized mistakes in your courses. Which mistakes would you like to help your students get rid of? How? Let us know.

See you soon with the topic of creative writing.

Katka 

It´s Time to Talk Your Teacher Talk Time

Let´s talk about one of the key teaching skills that affects many other things in the lesson, i.e. keeping our teacher talk time low.

Low meaning real low? Low as in as low as possible? Not higher than student talk time? 20:80 low?   

Well, it´s not that simple.

When we train new teachers, we tell them to keep their TTT as low as possible. We observe their lessons and focus on how much they talk. Then later it is time to turn off the autopilot and the more experienced we are, the more often we break the rule because we know it is not (only) the amount and ratio which count. What really matters is how well the teachers spend their time. Our aim is quality TTT.

Look at the following statements. Do you agree with (some of) them? Let us know.

1)      Listening to the teacher for a purpose is always a valid excuse for the teacher to talk.

2)      Beginner classes need a fair bit of TTT ‘to get the ball rolling’/keep it going.

3)      TTT often means that the teacher is “telling” the students things that they could be working out for themselves

4)      If the teacher takes the dominant role in classroom discourse in terms of initiating the topic, allocating turns and evaluating comments, the student’s role is only that of respondent. Opportunities for developing the speaking skill are therefore severely limited.

5)      Silence is important …. not only when students are working individually …

6)      It is about having fewer activities in a lesson, but doing them well.

Think about your own classes. What about you and your TTT?

Where would you put your virtual clothes peg on the line between you (the teacher) and the student(s)?

www.flickr.com

TEACHER  ˂ -------------------------------------------------------- ˃ STUDENT(S)

• Who talks, asks questions, debates, takes part in discussions?
• Who answers the questions of the teacher (the teacher, too?)
• Who gives instructions?
• Who checks instructions and understanding?
• Who gives feedback to students?
• Who corrects?
• Who presents new language and gives rules?
• Who explains new words?
• Who works with whom (interaction patterns)?
• Who checks understanding?
• Who demonstrates actvities?
• Who announces the topic of the lesson?
• Who chooses homework?

Are these the stages in which it is the teacher who should do the talking? Definitely not.

Could you share some TTT tricks with us?  What helps you lower your TTT and use it reasonably?

Here are some tricks I use. Ehm, here are some elementary techniques I use to lower my TTT.

Recently I have read a nice quote. “For adult learners, the hunt is more engaging than being fed!” For me, this is the answer to the TTT mystery. The opposite of high teacher talk time is not low teacher talk time. It is a learner-centred/autonomous classroom.

 Enjoy your TTT week with TTC. Record your lessons, get some feedback from your students and pass some roles on them.

P.S: Check the flipped classroom page to flip your TTT :)

Reuse Reduce Recycle - It´s Easy to Do

Dear Agony Aunt,

I really love Spanish. I am crazy about studying Spanish but you know what, my teachers never make me really learn and remember new words. They don´t mind I struggle for the same word again and again (what the hell is the word for Thursday? miércoles, jueves or viernes?). They don´t even care that I keep using the same Spanglish words again and again and that I use gestures for many basic words repeatedly even though I am at least a B1 student! We always cover a topic, practise a list of words in one or two exercises and then we jump to a completely different topic immediately. This is soooo frustrating :( What shall I do with (or to) my teacher?

Cariñosos saludos

Katka

Well, the topic for the next two weeks is obviously how to recycle vocabulary and language. You all know it is not enough to encounter the new word once or twice. It is not even enough to meet the word five times or seven times as we were taught at university :) I have read that students should be exposed to each word s-i-x-t-e-e-n times to activate the word. Wow. How can this be done? The syllabus is tight. Even if the book is good enough to present the words in the context, present topical vocabulary via vocab banks, provide one or two exercises for the more or less controlled practise, ask your students to test each other to help memorization, and encouraging to use the words in real-life production tasks, it is still not enough. The topics change from file to file, from lesson to lesson. We start in the kitchen, jump to the ZOO, talk about the family and heritage and end up talkng about the environment … and recycling.

Source: www.flickr.com

Help me! How can I explain to my former and current teachers what recycling vocabulary or language means? Why don´t you take some notes and then create a nice mind map using the text2mindmap machine. Or, would you like to make a simple list of vocabulary activities to illustrate the point? 

How can one describe the process of recycling vocabulary?
Is it similar to the vocabulary practise and revision and practise?

When do you recycle vocabulary? At the beginning of the lesson? At the very end? Every lesson? Before a test? Once in a blue moon?

Let us know using Padlet/Wallwisher. Read the comments and then add yours by a double clic. You can upload web links, pictures, videos, etc.

I´m sure you can list and use dozens of activities to recycle vocabulary. First, could you tick each activity from my list below that you have used in (one of) your courses since the beginning of the school year? Make sure to google activities which you do not know. 

Bingo

Pictionary

Memory Game/Pelmanism

Taboo/ Hot Seat

Call my bluff

Scattergories

Jeopardy

Charades

By the way, most of these games are based on popular card/board games and TV shows. Could you think of a good game you play with your kids or friends and bring it to your classroom? Let us know :)

Verunka received a board game yesterday from her friend. You just need a dice, a board with all the letters of the alphabet and counters. Players roll their dice and as they move to a certain letter of the alphabet, they have to say as many words beginning with the given letter as the die indicates. Too simple? Give it a try in Czech ...

Here are some vocabulary activities I like using or would like to use next week: 

Lucky eights

Announce a category (e.g. sports or phrases to express your opinion). Prepare your own list of eight words. Students work individually or in groups/pairs and make their own list of words that belong to the category. They get a point for each match.

‘Beep’ sentences
Read a sentence using the word you would like to recycle. Instead of saying the word, say ‘beep’ or ´banana´. Students guess the missing word. When students get the idea, pass them the word bag, so they can create their own sentences. Do not worry to recycle sentences from the book, etc.

Word of the day

Have a 'word of the day' for students/each student to use in class (or even a 'chunk of the day') as many times as possible. It works great for the functional language as well, e.g. phrases to express agreement/disagreement but even random words from your students´ vocab list can do the trick.

Draw and Roll: Split class into 2 teams. T says Draw a ______ and Ss should draw that vocabulary word. If the drawing is correct then the student rolls a dice for points.

Role-play conversations

Two students are given roles of a host and an interviewee on a talk show, for example. Put some vocabulary slips in front of them. They talk but the listening students are asked to call out „new word“ anytime they want a change. Then the person who is speaking has to pick up a slip of paper and use the word or phrase in their next sentence.

Use the same with prompts including speaking strategies, e.g. express hesitation, ask for repetition, disagree politely, be an active listener, etc.

Slap the board - A vocabulary revision activity

Put the vocabulary items on the board in any order. Form groups. Give a mother tongue translation or an English definition for one of the words on the board. The students have to recognise the word. They then run to the board and slap the correct word (with a fly swatter J) or circle the word or erase the word from the board using their sleeves…. The first person in each group to slap the right word gets a point.

What are some activities you like using? Could you share at least one with the rest of the group?

To sum up, I really like activities which involve students and their multiple intelligences. Make your students select and prepare the sentences, draw the pictures, sing the definitions, create their own picture dictionary using the google clipart pictures, etc.

I like flexible and easy-to-vary-and-adapt-and-recycle activities :) Surprise your students. Maybe you and your students are tired of drawing a Hangman. Then draw a crocodile eating a man or simply a smiley/frownie face. Or would a smiling crocodile eating the frowning Miloš Zeman or a poor teacher make your day?

Challenge your students by coming up with some surprising topics/less obvious categories/unusual instructions, e.g. apart from recycling Colours, Food, and Drinks, include a category such as „adjectives describing how an insect can move“.

Instead of drawing/miming/defining words, let students lip read the words you whisper which fit for example the category of sports.

Basically,

• do a little bit every lesson
• put students in charge
• keep it fun
• change the context from the original lesson and “exploit” your textbook

Your final task:  imagine the list of unrelated words your students have in their vocabulary notebooks. What activities based on this list could you do with the students in the class? What could be their task for homework?

Looking forward to your great activities and inspiring tips.

Katka

Meet, Met, Met - Challenge, Challenging, Challenged

I´m happy that you managed to arrive at the meeting last Friday!

We warmed ourselves up in a TPR style (so do not forget to stand up, clap your hands, crumple the paper and sing a song and stand up, clap your hands….  next lesson).

We also broke the ice and learnt 22 incredible things about Marcela, 8 interesting things about Mikuláš and many new facts about other people in the room. I hope we got to know each other better and we even met new neighbours and a student of Czech for foreigners :) By the way, what about you and icebreakers? How successful were you at the beginning of this school year? What were the hits of the year? Let us know. I personally skipped the toilet paper part this year but asked my students to note down their lucky number instead. Then they had to tell us as many sentences about themselves as their lucky number indicated. The record was 31. I also asked my advanced students to write a headline that best describes them. The headline could be a quote, a familiar expression, the name of their favourite film or a title of a song, etc. I will survive :)

Then we learned more about other teachers in the room :) Look at the two poems below:

Smiling, talking, writing
Never strict,always supportive
Walks, can explain,will help
The most patient,the friendliest
Not aggressive,very positive
I like motivated students! I don't like silence
I am a good teacher because I love my job!

Jiřina

Cutting, Drawing, Googling,

Never late Always Doubting

Tries Can explain Will learn

The most important is creativity … The same thing is the hardest.

Not energetic enough, very tired

I like students talking. I don´t like late night printing

I am a good teacher because I have patience.

Marta

Thanks to Jiřina and Marta for sharing their poems with us.  

We realized how good we are at doing things in the classroom by sticking Post-it notes with our names on the board to indicate agreement or disagreement with various teaching ´Can do´ statements. What about you? Are you good at planning lessons? Using course books? Giving feedback to your students? Teaching 7 a.m. classes?

Agree  ←----------------------------→ Disagree

By the way, when was the last time you used a Post-it note in the classroom. Would you like to share the activity with the rest of the group? Here is my personal list and I would like you to try out one activity next week. 

www.flickr.com

• Students read a text in the course book and write down three questions based on the text on a sticky note. Then I distribute the notes and they answer the questions they receive.
• Students read a text in the course book and note down three words they would like to remember. Then we use them to recycle the key language.
• Students read a text in the course book and they write down two words they would like the rest of the group to explain to them in English.
• I write a sentence starter on the board, e.g. Yesterday I …. Students get Post-it notes and they finish the sentence in as many different ways as they can.
• I ask my students to také two notes. They draw a smiley on one of them and a frownie on the other. Then they react to the statements, to the sentences (correct/incorrect), reading comprehension questions (true-false).
• I note down mistakes I hear during their fluency work. Then I distribute the cards randomly for peer correction.

We also discussed things we do and/or would like to do in order to become better teachers or rather to get better at teaching.

Which of these sound/s best to you? Experimenting, observing classes and being observed, studying something new, teaching something new, using the net effectively or reflecting?

Look at the list of possibilities below. Your task is to choose one or two things you would like to do/try out this semester. Simply, put your virtual Post-it note next to the option which you personally like. Share a good web link with us, recommend a blog or a webinar to your colleagues, tell us one activity you learnt at a workshop outside Glossa, let us know about a good soft skill book you´ve read, invite us to observe your class J … This is what TTC is about!

• Independent learning (workshops, web sites, blogs, twitter PLN groups, you tube teaching programmes, webinars)
• Workshops, conferences
• Reflective practice and self-assessment 
• Using recordings (audio, video, photo) for reflective practice
• Recording your thoughts about your teaching (diary, phone, ipad, blog)
• Peer observations and feedback (double observation)
• Trying out new things, activities, techniques, adds, adapting your favourites
• New technologies
• Following a blog, joining in discussion
• Setting up your own blog

TTC is here to help you learn more about your teaching-self. Here are some more tasks. Spare ten minutes and try to note down answers to each. I would be happy if you decided to share some of the inspiring answers with the rest of the group.

1. Think about feedback from students you received this year: What surprised you? What were you proud of? What would you like to change?
2. Forget about the official satisfaction survey. How can you get valuable feedback from your students during the school year? Can you note down three ways?
3. Dear diary, I would like to tell you about the worst class I´ve ever taught …the worst lesson I´ve ever taught …  
4. Send a postcard to your Glossa TTC colleagues. You have just attended the best workshop in your life. What was it about? Why was it so special? What have you learnt?
5. The best activity of the year – share it with us. What is your Top Activity right now?
6. I wish I had known that when I started teaching ….  What have you learnt in the course of your teaching? Is it that it is ok to move away from the text book? Is it that it is a must to prepare your lesson but it is even more important to move away from the plan? Etc. Let us know!
7. What makes you feel demotivated? Be sincere to yourself. Say it out loud. What do you dislike about being a teacher? Write it d-o-w-n.
8. Me and technology. Try out one new technology and test and review it for us. I will do my best to recommend as many tips as possible to you in the course of the TTC project. What about the following tools connected with visuals in the classroom?

• Five Card Flickr
• Wordle/Image Chef/Tagxedo
• Comic creator
• Bubblr
• Mobile phones
• Fotobabble
• Piclit
• Snapguide

9. From teacher to teacher – What else could help you to become the best (and most satisfied) teachers … ?
10. What can teachers learn from managers? Have you ever thought about this topic? Which skills apart from teaching and methodology and langauge do you need to succeed?

Looking forward to your ideas and reflections.

Finally, at the meeting we talked about pictures and learnt more activities which can be used in the classroom.

We took great pictures at Glossa and worked on the tasks we could assign to our students.

Here are two examples:

Look at Marta´s photo and listen to the newspaper headline. 

Look at Katarina´s poem instructions for the students and guess. What/who was in the photo she took during the workshop?

Compose a poem based on the photo using these rhyming words: teacher, preacher, feature, creature, bleacher, speak, meek, seek, weak, week. 

 Here are two more activities based on pictures:  

Look at Five card flickr, select five pictures you like and write a story based on the pictures.

Tricky pictures: Students work in pairs. Their task is not to show the pictures they received to each other, describe it and find some similarities and differences. The trick is you give both students the same picture. 

Enjoy your Halloween lessons and see you on Thursday again. We´ll discuss ways to recycle vocabulary.

Katka 

I Like Pictures, You Like Pictures, We Like Pictures

I really do like using pictures and visuals in the classroom. Do you?

When was the last time you used a picture in the classroom? How did you use the picture? What did you use the picture for? When was the last time you drew a picture in the classroom? What did you draw? Did it work? 

Pictures can be used in all stages of the lesson. Pictures can be used in 1-2-1 classes, in small and big groups, in public and in-company classes, in exam classes, in PMS classses, in conversation classes, in Business English courses, with adults and … even big bosses from the banks, can´t they?

Here´s my word cloud on the topic of pictures. And here´s my first task. I would like you to create your own (first ever?) word cloud using Wordle or Tagxedo to tell us what you think about pictures in the classroom.  

By the way, do you/would you like to use word clouds in your classes? In order to create a word cloud, you can make a list of key words, phrases or paste in full texts from your textbook.

Here´s my top word cloud list:

You can use it to

-         brainstorm and collect topic vocabulary

-         collect words you have taught in the class (for Ss to use in personalized sentences, to recycle, to prepare gapped sentences with, etc.)

-         break the ice and introduce yourself (ask students to introduce themselves)

-         speculate about the text students will read based on the most frequent words / jumbled headline, etc.

-         make a poem/story word cloud and ask students to write their own poem/story

-         introduce a song to the classroom

-         make a wordle of functions and phrases you would like to activate and recycle

-         get rid of fossilized mistakes

and …would you like to add more ideas? You can learn more about word clouds and try out some activities with your students. Let us know what works (and what does not). 

Back to pictures. I have already had three workshops on using pictures so it is difficult ot come up with new ideas. Well, here are some easy-to-prepare learner-centred activities I would like to use in my classes.

Taboo: I´m sure you remember this vocab game. The student is asked to define a word but he can´t use the words in the list.  Here´s the picture version: Ask each student to choose one picture (of an object) from a course book. Then the student writes down 5 words he would use to describe it on a Post-it note. Finally, he passes the note with “banned words” to anoter person who must then describe the picture without using the banned words.

Memory Teaser: Prepare a picture or let students choose a picture from a CB/a specific unit from the CB. They prepare 6 questions asking about the details. E.g. What colour is the shirt of the man? How many alliens are there? Is the man wearing shorts or trousers, etc. Then they work in pairs. Student B has 30 seconds to study the picture. Student A asks the questions from the list. B answers. Finally, they take turns. Variation: A numbers the questions 1-6. B rolls the dice and answers the questions accordingly.

Personalized Picture: Students find a picture in the book. Then they make connections between what they see and themselves. E.g. talking about what they did about the weekend. I also like using the clipart pictures for this topic.

Variation: Unit review: Students use the picture from the book to recycle language they have learnt, vocabulary they would like to remember, functional language to use.

Ministory: Ask each student to choose 2 people/2 objects from the drawing and write a dialogue between them.

Make a tick: Give a pair of students a picture to describe. They take turns describing the picture, adding one sentence each. Give them a time limit. How many sentences have they written?

Your task for the following two weeks is to use one picture in each lesson you teach :) and to share activities you like using in your lessons with the rest of the group. 

Looking forward to your ideas.

Katka 

Here´s your extra challenge: Look at the photo of my white board in one of the public courses and send me the list of the words we practised :) The winner takes it all ... 

See, we all are Picassos :) 

Here´s the TTC Challenge

Have you ever taken part in one of the Photo Challenge projects you can find online? Every day/ week/ month, people are asked to take a photo on a pre-selected topic, e.g. a self-portrait, night, something black, candy, laughter. Then they display their photos and … gradually … improve their photography skills.

Why do I like it? Firstly, it is the ideas, the challenges. There are so many things I have never tried before. So many things I have never taken a photo of. There are new ideas every time I feel I need a new task :) Secondly, it is the sharing with the rest of the online group. Each person takes a different photo even though the topic is the same. All the photos are unique and interesting. We can show off. We can learn a lot from each other. We can try to follow other photographers, try out new things and see what works for us… and what does not.

By the way, isn´t a Photo challenge something we should introduce into each classroom? Shouldn´t we give our students regular challenges? Provide them with surprising activities, extra support, regular opportunities to share studying tips with other students and to show off and “imitate” each other? Let them improve their English.  Can you think of a list of “10 Homework Challenges” or “5 Out-of-Class English Challenges” or a “15 Classroom Task List” you could use with fast finishers or at the beginning/end of the lesson? Share your list with us and I will add my own!

I hope our TTC project is a similar challenge project. Let´s choose interesting topics, “take photos” of our teaching “before and after” and share our experience, ideas, worries and successes. What is our common goal? I believe it is to enjoy teaching and feel as a great teacher … for at least one more year :)

Pictures? Pictures! Pictures … The first topic to discuss is not surprising at all. Most of you know that I like using pictures and visuals in the classroom. Plus, it is October… dark and gloomy days, endless runny noses, long days with kids at home. It is the time when we do all the crafts and drawing. Here is Verunka´s drawing from her own storybook. Can you unjumble the picture? 

In TTC, I will do my best to make you use some new technologies in your teaching. Give it a try! So, here is your third task: Can you come up with some ideas on how to use a similar online jigsaw maker in the classroom? Looking forward to your ideas.

See you Monday, October 14 (at night). 

Let´s blog!

Hello, 
welcome to my new TTC blog. 

• Are you a terrific teacher? 
• Have you been teaching for a few tiring yet exciting years? 
• Are you crazy about teaching but do you tend to run out of fresh ideas every (second) Friday? 
• Would you like to share your ideas about teaching with people who suffer from the same mixture of love and hate feelings? 

Then TTC, the Tired Teacher Challenge Blog, is here for you. 

And here are some basic rules :) 

A new topic will be announced every second Monday. 
Switch off your teaching autopilot. 
Enjoy the topic and challenge yourself.
Answer my questions or focus on a short reflection task. 
Try out new activities in your class(es). 
Comment on our blog posts and share feedback and ideas with me and your Glossa PLN group. 
Refill your teaching tank and learn from other terrific tireless teachers! 

See you next Monday, October 14! 

Katka Klasterska