missteacher - blog

MY NEW WEBSITE

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sat, 19 May 2007 12:00:00 +0200

This blog is now officially closed. It will still be "open" though because you'll still be able to see the pages and surf in the different categories. But it won't be updated any more.

Please update your bookmarks; my new URL is ..... tatatatatatata (drums):

http://missteacher.ovh.org

Enjoy your visit and thanks again for reading this blog !

This blog will close soon...

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 11:26:03 +0100

As my disk space is full, I´ve decided to open a new website - but a real one, not like a blog except that there will still be a blog section. I will devote an entire section to lesson plans and to links. I think I will also do a "teaching tips" section...
If you have any suggestions about new sections / topics you would like to see, just tell me.

I´m currently building the website. It´s already online actually but there´s nothing on it so I don´t want to give out the URL. I will transfer all the lesson plans on it and will continue the blog too.
I will post the URL as soon as it´s ready - meaning in the next few days, hopefully before next week-end. So keep checking!

A teacher's blog has just ended

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 10:22:27 +0100

I know my disk space is full and that I should seriously think about opening my website but I still want to post this note, an important one for me.
I was reading a teacher's blog for some time (it's in my list on the left). He was a maths teacher in a very difficult area. His school was on the verge of anarchy; many things were happening and he was telling how difficult it was. Apparently, his blog and identity were discovered by his hierarchy. The blog has been closed and his future is now uncertain.
I just wanted to give all my support to him. That should make us all think a bit more before posting. How sad!
Have a look here.

My disk space is full !!!!

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:31:10 +0100

That came quicker than I thought. It's because I started to upload my lesson plans and I've now used nearly all my disk space. :-(
What am I supposed to do? Delete the files? the pictures? I don't want to ! I still want to share my documents and my work. I don't want to change the blog, I like it that way!!!!

I've just realized that a blog is maybe not the right "format" to do what I want to do. Or I have to upgrade the blog (to 250MB disk space) and give up the free version. Or maybe I should just open a website.
Or I just create another blog but soon I'll be faced to the same problem and I can't open blogs over and over again.

I'm new with this kind of problem so if you have any suggestions, I would be glad to read them. Are there any good offers on the market for space ? All I need is space basically to upload my lesson plans.

Thanks for your help.

On strike

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Thu, 8 Feb 2007 17:25:53 +0100

Today, I was on strike, for the first time in my (short) career. I know what you're gonna say (especially the non-French readers): typically you!!!! French and teacher: on srike!!! You can't do better!
Well, we strike a lot in France, right. Fine. But I don't think that's a problem.
I don't like striking for bad or vaguely known reasons. But this time I had one good reason. The governement wants to change our working conditions. Teachers, according to our minister, should be able to teach two subjetcs. Substitute teachers (like me) should be able to teach all the time in another subject. This is what the new law is saying.
I'm even not talking about suppressed hours and jobs in all the schools around. Less this and less that, let's save money on everything guys and that'll make our kids learn better!!!!

I believe in the value of education. And I believe in my job. I teach English. I studied for this. I passed an difficult state exam for this. I was trained for this. And for nothing else. I'm not able/willing to teach any other subject !
And I believe education should be a priority, not the kind of thing you can think of saving money on.

That's why I went in the streets today.

Super Hero Test

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 20:10:00 +0100

This is a good idea following my lesson plan about super heroes. If you're lucky enough to have a computer room at school, have your pupils take this test (see the link at the bottom).

Your results:

You are Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman

75%

You are a beautiful princess
with great strength of character.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Having your own classroom

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 17:32:48 +0100

I know what it feels like to have one's own classroom now. I asked... and I got it. I'm so happy! You can't imagine how nice it feels. It's a bit like feeling home. I can decorate, I can put tables and chairs as I want, I can move the desk, etc.
So I reorganized the classroom. I made a big U shape with 19 chairs and tables and a smaller U inside with 6 chairs. In front of the whiteboard are 2 chairs (for very talkative pupils!).
Why a U shape? For some of you (especially American readers I guess), it seems obvious. Well, here it's not, particularly in my school. All the classes, ALL of them are not in U shape, but in rows. A bit like this:

For a foreign language class, I think this is awful beause kids can't see each other and therefore talk to each other in English. They have to turn on their chairs, in uncomfortable positions. So I asked them to move the tables to create a U shape. But as I used to change room every day, tables had to be moved and re-moved again and again. It was a pain.
Now the problem doesn't exist any more.

The U shape makes sense, above all if you use groupwork with your pupils. I started using groupwork quite recently. I only had a vague idea of what it meant when I was a trainee. I never did it back then. Last November, somebody came into my class to see how I was doing. She encouraged me to use groupwork, to "maximise every pupil's speaking time". I was doubtful. Wouldn't they speak French? Would they be serious enough to do it ? Would it work? Well, I had to try. And it worked. And I try to do it more and more.

How does groupwork work?

Well, you need a simple communicative situation. For example, asking questions. Questions with a simple pattern (you can even do the questions beforehand so that they just need to ask them).
Let's take the "back from holidays" lesson plan. There were questions about preterit: what the pupils did during the holidays. We did a couple of questions together: Did you sleep a lot? Did you eat chocolate? Did you visit your family? etc. Then we wrote them in a grid which I had handed out.
I then expain the work in French to make sure everybody gets it. They have to stand up and go and ask questions to other pupils, all at the same time. Sure, there is some noise but come on... languages are made to be spoken. So they get up and they actually love asking each other's questions, more than I thought! The activity lasts about 5 minutes, not more. They have plenty of time to ask their questions several times, therefore practising the structure A LOT.
Then, they come back to their seats and tell the class what they found out.
It works great and I'm now convinced that it's the right way to do it. Surprinsingly enough, they don't speak that much French. Most of them speak English all the time. It's like a game for them.
I'm trying to find any situation to pracise this activity. I'm not doint it every week, but I'm trying to do more and more. With more practise, I guess I'll find more situations.
If your practise this, you'll realise that it makes sense to have a U shape. Pupils (and you!) can move much more freely. You also have more space.

While pupils are doing the groupwork, you just watch and help correct if needed. The beauty of it is that they do it on their own. they don't need you any more.

Teaching resources - updated

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Mon, 8 Jan 2007 18:03:08 +0100

I've just added the following websites on my teaching resources (click here or on the right of the page).

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

http://www.absolutelyandy.com/tvadverts/

http://www.stripcreator.com/make.php#

http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine/classic.asp

http://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=110&title

http://esl-images.com/index.asp

http://www.eslflashcards.com/

http://www.select-language.com/podcards/index.php

http://www.songsforteaching.com/

http://www.eslpages.com/

http://www.havefunteaching.com/

http://www.anglaisfacile.com/cours-videos-anglais.php

http://www.123certificates.com/

A lot of new and nice websites to visit!

100th comment

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 20:36:16 +0100

The 100th comment was posted today. Thanks to Charlottina and the rest of you. :-)

School Books

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sun, 3 Dec 2006 17:04:47 +0100

I don't like school books in general, and particularly the French school books for learners of English. They're nearly all bad and I've got trouble using them. I usually end up making up my own lesson plan out of materials I found here and there (mainly the internet though). It takes time but it is also kind of entertaining!

And the funny thing is that I've been proposed lately to participate in the improvement of an existing school book, published by one of the main school publishers in France.
Well, they contacted ME because I had sent them a piece of my work just to know if they were interested in it. They were not but were interested in my ideas and my conception of teaching.

So I'm in charge of re-reading chapters, making improvements, indicating mistakes, etc.
This is actually very interesting; I really like it. (And sure I'll be paid for all that).

I start to think it might be a second career for me. Let's face it, I'm not going to teach for 40 years. I mean... I don't feel I can; it's too demanding. But working for school books, why not ?
I've accepted this job - although it's not very well paid- just because I think it can be valuable on my CV and that it may be useful one day or that it is PERHAPS a way to enter this unknown but fascinating world of publishing.

We'll see what comes out of it.

But I have to say the authors' job is kind of... bad! I've been correcting some serious mistakes and arguing about the whole conception of chapters!!!