Friday, August 26, 2005

Using journals to teach writing

One of my award-winning idea was to incorporate journalling into my classroom. Most Tesl teachers know about journals and may have also kept one before they got too busy. My students keep a lot of journals throughout the year. I shall share with you one by one.

The Class journal
The class monitor buys a thick notebook and paste the name list of the class on the first page. Each students gets a chance to take the notebook home and write whatever they want. The weaker ones end up copying a poem or a song. Some students can draw very well while others are good at decorating the page. The important thing is each student participates. All the classes take part in this programme. At the end of the year, I would collect and choose the best for a prize. I have collected quite a lot of good journals and they are placed in the Self Access Centre as they are good reading materials, very creative and colourful.
Of course, some of my teachers would forget to keep a tab and some classes lose their journals. Whatever, I consider it a success as long as I can collect at least 10 journals. For the young ones, each student is required to do two pages at home and these pages are collected and bound. Really great to see their work.

Try this in the coming year. More journals on the way.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

More ideas

2. Tiger and Lion
This is a good ice-breaker for younger kids but my big fellas enjoyed it too. Divide the class into two groups. Play this game in a hall or on the field cos there's some running involved. Name one group as lion and the other as tiger. Ask each group to face each other in the centre of the hall. Use the netball field if you have one and start at the centre line. When you shout lion, the lion group has to run while the tiger group chases the lion group and catches anyone who is left behind. The lion group has to run till the end of the netball field. The fun part is they do not know which one you are going to shout. If you shout tiger, the tiger group has to run instead of chase. Fun to watch.

Another alternative is to use Odd and Even. Give a sum and they have to figure out if the answer is odd or even. If it is odd, the odd group members have to run while the even group will chase.

Happy ice-breaking.

Ideas for ice-breaking

Here I would like to share some ice-breaking ideas for your classroom use. I like to start off a session with a short ice-breaker.

1. Doodling exercise - this is good for secondary school students
Ask the class to draw a mountain, a sun, a house, a coconut tree, a river, some rocks and a snake. Do not entertain any questions about their drawings. Just allow them to draw before moving on to a new item.
You are going to interpret their doodling. For example, if the mountains are of the same peak, they know where they are heading. If the sun is bright and shiny, they are very outgoing. If the sun hides behind the mountain, they are very shy. If the house has many windows and details, then they are kind of complicated. If the coconut tree is near the house, then they are quite contented. If the rocks are in the river, they have many problems. If the snake is near the house, then they are not afraid to have close relationships with the opposite sex. The list goes on depending on how you want to interpret it.

Try this and let me know the response of your students.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

7 habits of organised people

Read this and found it useful for teachers who are struggling like me.
Cut this and paste it somewhere.

The 7 Habits of Very Organized People

Have you ever wondered how some people could be so very
organized, when you're struggling on a daily basis just to
get your home looking halfway presentable and to get at
least a few items checked off of your To Do list?

Most organized people follow a few simple rules. Here are
the 7 habits of very organized people.

1. They have a place for everything. Every item they have
has a consistent, assigned home. The home for books is on
the book shelf. The home for toys is in the toy room on
the toy shelves. The home for blank greeting cards is in
the greeting card organizer in the office.

2. They put things back. Whenever an item has been removed
from its assigned home, it is used for whatever reason and
then immediately returned to its home when no longer in
use. There are no temporary holding places. It's just put
back where it belongs, right away.

3. They write things down. Organized people make lists and
notes, and keep these in one consistent place such as a
planner, notebook or calendar. They don't try to remember
things in their heads. They let the pen and paper (or the
computer) work for them. They reference their lists and
notes on a daily basis. Many use the Get Organized Now!
Easy Organizer as a tool:
http://www.getorganizednow.com/ezorganizer.html

4. They don't allow papers to pile up. Papers to file are
filed each day, not left to grow into mountains. Mail is
opened over the recycle container so papers not needed
don't even have a chance to multiply. Kids permission slips
are signed right away and sent back to school with the
kids. Bills are tucked into a bill paying system until bill
paying day, and then paid bill statements are filed away
that day. Magazines are read within a week or two and then
recycled or donated.

5. They don't procrastinate. When something has to be done,
organized people schedule time to do it and then they keep
that scheduled appointment. They know that the more they
delay, the more likely deadlines will be missed or
opportunities will pass.

6. They set goals and assign deadlines. They know if they
want to get things done, they need to know exactly what
they want the end result to be, and by what date. They
review these goals often, and set aside time each day to
work on achieving them. They review what they've
accomplished and never forget to reap the rewards.

7. They only keep what they use and/or they enjoy. They
can't stand anything taking up space that doesn't have a
useful or pleasurable purpose in their lives. They're big
believers in simplicity. They breathe easier knowing
they've lightened their loads and can move easily without
having to climb over boxes and piles of clutter.

P.S. If you enjoyed these tips, get over 1,300 more quick
and simple ways to get organized! Visit:

http://www.getorganizednow.com/newbook.html

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

getting organised

Before we get down to the actual teaching, a lot of organising needs to be done. Teachers deal with a lot of documents. Sometimes, when i am so busy, i misplace documents and i miss datelines and this is very embarrassing and frustrating.

To continue my quest to get organised, i bought a three-tier drawer of A4 size (costs about RM19.90 from a supermarket) and i name each drawer - to file, to do and to read respectively. It sits on a corner of my desk. Each time i receive a document, it goes into one of these drawers. I sought out all the papers on my desks, in my diaries into these categories and whatever that do not fall into these three categories goes into the recycling bin. It took me a whole afternoon but there's more to go. I promise to get rid of at least 5 pieces of papers on the desk.
The goal is at least once a week or a fortnight, I will clear the 'to file' category by filing whatever documents in that drawer. Then, I should refer to the 'to do' drawer daily to ensure that i do not miss any datelines. I find that this has helped me clear a lot papers from my desk. At least, i have space to do my work or hear myself think.
Next, we shall tackle the filing part.

So, i hope this is of help to some of you who are struggling to keep your desk paper-free.