Pre-romanesque Buildings

As the first semester came to a close, and the new one began, I was able to reflect over the last semester of my experiences with teachers and students. As we are so focused on improving the student's speaking levels inside the classroom sometimes we don't get to see all the progress the students are making, but it can be visible in a different environment. Or as you can say, 'The fruits of our labor' can be seen. 

For example, I went on a class field trip with my second year students and a couple of teachers. It was such a wonderful experience, because my students felt more at ease and relaxed. Some students that had never spoken very much in class were now talking my ear off, as we walked to our field trip destination. I couldn't describe how happy it made me to hear them speaking English even if they were being goofy, they were having fun, in English and speaking to me! It also made me realize how some of the students were much more advanced than I had thought, only having experience speaking with them in the classroom. I had students trying to give me an English guided tour of the monuments, and they did a great job of telling me the history of them. Other students were sharing information about communicating with their American 'Pen Pals' and how their Spanish needed some work, which I found very funny. Or just wanting to tell me about their families and lives. Right then and there, I knew all the hard work of the teachers, and myself was more than worth it! 

As I am responsible for engaging the students in conversation (the easy part!), you could see all the years of diligence and patience the teachers had put in to teaching these students English. I had such a great appreciation of the teacher's hard work, and seeing the students use and show what they had learned!

As the new year begins, I hope all the teachers take a moment to pat themselves on the back and know they are doing a good job, and in the end, it is all more than worth it and they have given a priceless gift to their students. 

Stacey McKendry
Language Assistant at IES Fleming

Classroom Management

Classroom Management

As students become more accustomed to the Language Assistant sometimes behavioral problems can arise. For example, students are talking with each other more than listening to the lesson.

In the weekly meeting the teachers were discussing the students behavior in class and how they felt the students were not being respectful to the Language Assistant and not getting all the benefits they could from a native speaker because they were not listening or participating as much.

Lucky for me the teachers I work with are passionate about the success of their students in learning English and running a good classroom. Each teacher spoke with their class about their behavior and that they needed to listen and participate when I would give a lesson.

I noticed immediately the behavior change with the students, and I also felt that because the teachers worked with me to have better classroom management, lessons were easier to present knowing the teachers provided a standard of classroom behavior expectations.   

Stacey McKendry
Language Assistant at IES Fleming

January 2015

Mixed Ability

Dealing With Different Language Levels

After the first weeks getting to know the students, it was evident that there were different language levels among the students. We have weekly meetings in the English department with all the teachers to talk about various topics revolving around the students. 

One of the main concerns of the teachers was bridging the language gap between the most advanced students, and the lowest performing students. Our main goal was to make sure that all the students were speaking in class. 

The teachers and I collaborated on creating a list of students that were considered the lower performing students. During my classes with them, I would make sure to call on them at least once during the class so to make sure they had a chance to speak. 

Sometimes it would be easy to forget to call on them because the more advanced students would be eager to answer the questions first. This method I felt, made sure that we could focus on the quieter students, but also see what areas they need to improve on so we could help their language learning improve. 

I also felt with some students that their confidence began to increase in their speaking, because they were growing more accustomed to answering questions and speaking more. 

Stacey McKendry
Language Assistant at IES Fleming

December 2014

To start with

The teachers and Language Assistant at IES Doctor Fleming have a weekly coordination meeting to disccus best practices and classroom experiences  of the Program specifically:

·       Decide the activities the Language Assistant is going to carry out with the groups the following weeks, keeping in mind that our aim is to promote US culture as well as make our students interact with a native speaker in English.

·       Get feedback from the Language Assistant and share and evaluate previous sessions.

·       Deal with problems that arose and overcome our weaknesses.

·       Organize fieldtrips, where the Language Assistant is always invited to join in.

…and other stuff we’ll be more than willing to share with everyone here in future posts…

Translation into Spanish: 
Todas las semanas los profesores del Programa Bilingüe y la Auxiliar de Conversación llevamos a cabo una reunión de Coordinación para tratar cuando atañe al programa:

• Organizamos las sesiones de la Auxiliar con los distintos grupos en las semanas siguientes. Nuestro objetivo es acercar a los alumnos a la cultura estadounidense en general y la de Texas en particular, además de fomentar la interacción oral de nuestros alumnos con una persona nativa.

• Recibimos feedback de la Auxiliar y ponemos en común y evaluamos el resultado de las sesiones anteriores con los distintos grupos.

• Decidimos qué medidas podemos tomar para mejorar los resultados y abordar los problemas que van surgiendo.

• Organizamos las actividades complementarias o extraescolares, a las que siempre invitamos la Auxiliar a participar.

…Y algunas cosas más que iremos compartiendo aquí….