Word of the year - Sky- crapper!

One of my students was trying to read the word skyscraper and it came out as sky-crapper.  Needless to say, the rest of the class cracked up and now whenever we see that word or even if they just need a laugh, they will say sky-crapper.  Can't wait for the day my principal comes in and my students are saying sky-crapper over and over again.  Secretly it makes me laugh, but I hope we get a new word soon!  I'm just glad my students feel comfortable enough in my classroom to make mistakes, laugh at themselves, and support each other.

As promised here is a picture of the Tagxedo project the students did at the beginning of the year.  They made a tagxedo word cloud in any shape they wanted, then put the shape onto a T-shirt.  Then I took a picture of them and blew up the head.  The students loved the finished project.  You can also see my vocabulary tree beside some of the students.  The tree gets more leaves everytime they learn new vocabulary words so it is constantly growing.

 



To study spelling words and vocabulary I have the students use the website Spelling Vocabulary City.  www.spellingcity.com     It has tests and fun games they can use to practice from any computer.  We are in the process of buying the premium services so I will let you know if that is a necessity or not.  There are a few games free.  They also have a free IPAD app and the students had a ball using the IPADS to study their words.  Below is a couple of pictures of the students using the IPADS.

 

   

Next up is a couple of weeks of adjectives activities.  English language learners come with a limited amount of vocabulary so identifying adjectives is difficult and using interesting adjectives in their writing is also difficult for these students.  I love lists, so I am arming them with a list of adjectives that I found from another blog.  http://mrsrojasteaches.blogspot.com/2011/10/lots-lots-of-lists-11-freebies.html

 

 

 To get into the holiday spirit I am going to adapt a descriptive writing lesson called "Haunted House for Sale" from the clutter free classroom blog.  Students describe their haunted house using tons of spooky adjectives and create their own haunted house.  Should be a fun way to incorporate adjectives into their writing.

 

 

Also, here's a catchy song to use when studying adjectives.

  

 

 

 

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand." Chinese Proverb

 

Happy Teaching!!

 

Amy

It's not as easy as you think!

I am having fun teaching my giggly 6th graders and swaggering 8th graders.  One boy said to me the other day, "I have learned something new every day in your class!"  Wow!  What a compliment!  But the pressure is on and I've got to keep that momentum up for the rest of the year. 

Being an ESL teacher is not as easy as it looks.  We cannot just pull out the textbook and teach a concept as is, there are countless modifications to make and I find myself pulling from many different sources.  I have become an expert in making my own worksheets and figuring out what would work for my students.  This takes lots of  - TIME!   Time is a luxury most teachers do not have and with some teachers having well over 100 students, modifying and figuring out how to help their ESL students can be a daunting task.

My job is not just to help the students in my class but also to help teachers with ESL students and help them find simple and effective ways to help their students.  Here's how I used to give them information - I would copy lots of information about student levels and lists of modifications, staple it all together, and put it in the teacher's mailboxes.  Guess where those papers went - on the pile with all the rest of beginning of the year correspondence, and eventually ending up somewhere on the bottom or lost. Then two weeks later I would get questions about things that were answered in that packet and it became apparent that it was not the best way to get information to the teachers.

So now I send a newsletter every month by e-mail, and I give them all the necessary information they need at different times of the year.  It also serves as a reminder to the teachers that yes, they still have ESL students in their classroom and they shouldn't forget to give them support.  Here are pictures of my first newsletter (names have been taken out for privacy).

 

I also put in names of any new ESL students who enroll in our school, strategies and interesting links for teachers.  So far, I've gotten very positive feedback!


My next venture is using something I saw on Pinterest , ANGRY VERBS!  I think my students will love it, I will keep you posted.


Amy

Finally get to use my Russian Dictionaries!

So the first week is over and I was hoping that everything out of my control, such as scheduling and move ins and move outs would be settled, but alas, that is not the case.  I think after another week my 6th graders will know where they are going and my 7th and 8th graders will start losing their first week politeness. 

First post on my new blog!

What should I blog about?  That is the first question you ask yourself, right?  Now, I am a very humble person by nature, so I will not say that I am an expert in something, but there has to be something I'm good at, right?  Besides my family and pets, my life seems to revolve around teaching ESL and writing. I am starting my twelfth year of teaching ESL in the United States and my mind is full of experiences and ideas, so now you get to hear them, because that is what I am going to blog about!

I chose the title - The ESL Experience - because I feel that my ESL students have impacted me in so many ways over the years, probably just as much as I have impacted them.  The world of teaching ESL in America is so multi-faceted and challenging - it takes alot of flexibility and passion to teach in this field.   I have been an ESL (English as a second Language) middle school teacher for twelve years and prior to that I was an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher in the spectacular country of Spain.  Over these years I have experienced so many different and unique cultures and attitudes.  I have had students from countries that I didn 't really even know how to find on a map! I know, embarrassing for a teacher! 

The one question I get the most from people who ask about my profession is this one - So, do you need to speak all those languages in order to teach those students?  I always smile at this question.  How could I possible learn 10 or 15 different languages?  Because I have taught students with at least that many different languages.  I speak Spanish, but it is very rare that I have a class full of students that speak Spanish.  Where I live, I may get one or two.  Does it help for a newcomer to have a teacher who speaks his or her language? Of course!  Wouldn't you be more at ease if you knew at least one person could understand you in a classroom of a new school in a new country?  Well, the answer to the question is - No, you do not have to know the language of every student, but you do have to smile at them and find at least one thing you can do to communicate with them. The first impression they get from you will stick with them for a long time. Newcomers learn from observing and listening, so give them time to listen and when you least expect it they will come up to you with a full sentence in English and surprise you.

I have a new set of students to prepare for now, so I will have to stop the blogging for now.  Stay tuned for posts about ideas for the ESL classroom that I have found to be successful and my experiences with new ideas I plan to implement this year.  The first step is the hardest, scheduling the students and getting them into classes where they will receive the support they need.  If I could just go in and teach, it would be a dream.  But, no matter how messed up the schedule gets, I will be there with a smile for the students and make them feel welcome because they don't understand all that goes on behind the scenes.  All they know is that they have a paper that says I am their teacher and that they are scared to death.


Amy