Farewell

My fellow classmates,

I would like to thank you all for being the wonderful women you are.  You have challenged and inspired me to do greater things.  Thank you for all the positive and kind words.  Thank you for the assistance you have given me.  I look forward to working with all of you in the near future.

Best of luck,

Katrina

See You~~

Hi team,

This has been a very memorable semester, working with the greatest set of classmates ever :) thank you so much for all that everyone has contributed. I learned so much from you all, especially in the development of my character, as well as my teaching career. I learned to persevere and to think positively that my first day anxiety seemed like a mile away. Thank you so much again everyone. Have a great summer! And hope to see you in the coming semesters!

God bless!!
Xoxo

Fateote Ngaligich!

Fateote Ngaligich means tomorrow we meet again in my language (Woleaian). I used this phrase instead of farewell because we will see each other soon after this summer is over.

I want to share with you ladies some of my favorites quotes:

"It's not the days in life we remember, rather the moments."
- Walt Disney -

"It's by chance we met, by choice we became friends."

-Anonymous 

Time runs very fast. It seems like we're just entering the classroom yesterday introducing ourselves to each and measuring our level of anxieties.....the time for leaving is here. It's hard to accept that after 5 great months of learning, we will be going our separate ways. As we are about to leave, allow me my dear friends to a bid my goodbyes. I had made another countless memories that I will treasure forever. I want to thank each and every one of you ladies for a wonderful and memorable semester. We have shared some good times. Thank you all for sharing your teaching experiences with me. Thank you for making this semester a fun and exciting semester for me. I have learned so much from reading your posts on the class moodle forum as well as the class blog. I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments and posts. Now as we leave this semester I want us to keep reminding ourselves that "Learning is ongoing" no matter where you are. You will always learn something new each day!

Thank you Dr. Rivera for a wonderful semester. Thank you for everything! Thank you for all the great learning tools that we have learn this semester. Learning is ongoing. Thank you for always reminding me of this quote.   Keep on smiling my dear friends. Thank you and Take it easy. 

Have a great and safe summer EVERYONE!!

My fellow classmates,
I thank you for being my classmates. I thank you for being working with me. I thank you for being sharing your knowledge with me. I thank you for being giving me strength in this journey which I stumble on lots of obstacles in my way. Thank you Dr. Rivera for your guidance that you always give each and everyone of us. Every time you see that we are going the wrong direction, you lend out your hand pointing us to the right direction. I thank you all and please lets continue on our journey and not giving up our dreams. 

If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan

Thank you and I wish you all a very great summer

     My fellow friends, I had such a wonderful time working with all of you.  I am very grateful for sharing your knowledge, insights and friendship with me.  I look forward to seeing you in classes that I will be taking on this road of success in TESOL masters program. Here is a quote to remember and  to keep us focused.

Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.- Norman Vincent Peale

Have a great summer!

ESTAKI,
Si Toni M. Salas

Final Reflection - Farewell Dr. Rivera and Colleagues

Post your final farewell/goodbye entries to Dr. Rivera and your fellow classmates.  It has been a pleasure having all of you as students.  We have had a great journey this semester, engaging in a deep understanding of genuinely addressing the unique needs of linguistically diverse students.  I will certainly miss all of you, but I am confident that you will use the knowledge/skills/strategies that you've gained to continue to impact student learning.  Good luck!

Best regards,
Dr. Rivera

CLICK ON THE COMMENTS LINK TO POST YOUR REQUIRED REFLECTION. 

BE SURE TO ALSO REPLY TO YOUR CLASSMATES' ENTRIES.


JPEG source:  Google images

Presentation on Getting to Know Other Cultures (Palau)

http://popplet.com/app/#/1853049

Strategy O-Rama (Language Experience Approach)

 Hello everyone! Everyone did a
great job on the strategy presentations as well as getting to Know Other Cultures. I really had so much fun doing my presentation for both projects. I learned so much from everyone's presentation for the "Getting to Know Other Cultures" and 'the Strategy O-Rama". I am also looking forward to seeing everyone's presentations next week. Thank you ladies and Dr. Rivera for this wonderful semester! I am going to miss everyone. Thank you for sharing with me your teaching experiences but most importantly for sharing with me your friendship. Thank you!

http://joom.ag/Yipb

Strategy-O-Rama

I really enjoyed tonight's presentations.  I really got to know Korea and Palau.  Ruth and Beauty both did a fantastic job. 


TPR, Life Murals, Pattern Poems, the Language Experience Approach, and the Word Wall activities were the Strategy-O-Ramas shared tonight.  I really appreciated the interactive presentations as well as student samples provided.


Great job everyone!  Looking forward to next Friday's presentation!

Class Session

Great job ladies! I enjoyed your presentation on different Cultures and Strategies. I learned a lot from different cultures. I haven't been to Palua or Korea but because of your presentation, I felt I've been there. I will also use all those strategies that was shared in my classroom.

Here's a link to my Strategy O-Rama presentation: http://strategyorama.weebly.com/

Yay to us, one more session and we are done! May has been a busy and hectic month for me, so I'm really excited and looking forward to celebrate with you ladies.

Day 14 Site site site

Hi guys,

This is a link to my Getting to Know Culture project for tomorrow.  It's on Korea :) I will have it here so I can open it in class tomorrow :)

http://rutheeco.wix.com/korea

Good night!

Positive Experience Approach

Day 13 Service Learning Reflection

So, I attended SL2 Conference two Saturdays ago.  I think the most significant part of the conference is learning about the goal of service learning, which is to teach students to be pro-active and serve others in the community.  The presenter kept on emphasizing that service-learning is not only about projects and community service but integrating hands-on community outreach with lesson planning and execution.  All in all, it was all pretty cool and quite interesting.  They even had a panel of speakers with really cool backgrounds such as a former speaker of the House and a rocket scientist!

Positive Experience Approach

Thoughts...

This semester is going by fast.  I thought I still have a lot of time to work on my assignments but to my surprise, I really do not.  I am like Santa Clause in the month of May checking the assignment list and checking  it twice making sure it is done or not.  There is a lot to do, and time is ticking away.  So I must get cracking here, and get it done.  I wish you all a good evening.

Positive Experience Approach

On our online Moodle, there's an assignment (Positive Experience Approach) to write at least 2 positive things about my colleagues. 

So, here's what I think about you ladies...

Beauty – awesome and sweet

Ruth – amazing and passionate

Katrina – well-rounded and team player 

Antonia – sweet and enjoyable 

Jodi – wonderful and nice

Koneta – delightful and polite 

I'm glad I was able to work with awesome ladies this semester! 

Have a great weekend and see you all next week Friday. 

Opportunity for Assignment "Getting to Know Other Cultures"

I am sitting here in the study room next to the RFK Library trying to do my assignment. Today is Friday 25, 2014 and the Micronesia Island Fair is going on at Ypoa in Tumon. I thought it will be a great opportunity for us to go and gather information related to our assignment "Getting to Know Other Cultures." I am going to make sure that I find time to go there sometimes this weekend. I need to finish this project and I need pictures so this is a great opportunity for me to go and take pictures at the Palauan booth. I hope you all have a great weekend and I will see you ladies next week on moodle or face to face. Stay safe everyone!

Strategy O-Rama

For our Strategy O-Rama assignment, I'm thinking on doing either Word Wheel or Wordless Book or TPR. I'm not sure yet. I'll let you guys know by tom.
Enjoy your weekend ladies!

Getting to know Other Cultures

So for this assignment I chose to do my presentation on Palau. Palau is one of the most beautiful island in Micronesia. Of all the islands within Micronesia, I always wanted to go to Palau. Their culture and traditions are different than my culture but little bit similar to the Yapese culture. I found this video on youtube and thought to share with you ladies just to give you all an idea of the Palauan culture and traditions. I hope you all like it.

Day 12: Service-Learning Conference

I will be going to a conference on service learning on Saturday (April 26), hosted by Pacific Island University, in partnership with the Department of Education.  As we may all know, some high schools (particularly JFK) has been requiring students to earn service learning hours, which I think is a great idea of having students involved in giving back to the community.

It will be from 8am to 5pm at the Palm Ridge Hotel in Barrigada.  Registration is 30$ by tomorrow (Wednesday, April 24) and 40$ at the door on the day of.  I've yet to ask Dr. Rivera whether we can add this to our professional development requirement.

If you're in need of this requirement, why not join me? ^_^

IRA Meeting

Hi ladies! I hope everybody is enjoying their Easter break.
I just want to share our picture during the IRA meeting in Ordot Elem. Sch. last Saturday. We ate lunch after and had a great time. We are planning to eat out on the next IRA meeting again. If you ladies wants to join us it would be a blast!

Day 11: Something that may be of help

Hi guys,

  If you're like me who's still trying to figure out another professional development/organization you can be a part in, this information may be helpful to you.  I already attended 4 IRA meetings but according to our class requirements, I need another professional organization.  Many of these organizations, however, have membership fees that are quite expensive: around 50$ to 100$ per annum.  So, it is really something to think about and to try to consider your options.  If you have any professional organization or activity that we can participate in, please post about it so that we can fulfill our assignments together :)

PS
Right-click to zoom.
Also, let's keep this on the DL because this was given by my mentor and I did not ask for permission to publish it but just wanted to share information with you guys.  ;)

Teaching Reading and Comprehension to English Learners

For your viewing pleasure, please check out the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4A85oOjZW0

Harold's Circus

Reading strategy DL-TA, on page 304 of Chapter 8, really caught my interest. Especially the example that contained the story Harold's Circus. 


My Harold and the purple crayon books came in last week and I was able to do the exact activity found on page 304 with my Kindergarteners using Harold's Circus.  They loved it.  It was interesting what predictions they made for the first several parts of the story.  This activity appeared to have reached all my learners.




I really appreciate textbooks that provide useful examples not only types of activities, but explanations of what it looks like in the classroom setting.

Strategies for post-reading and writing

Since last week and this week we covered chapter 9 and chapter 10 on different strategies to help our English learners in reading and writing for pre, during, and post. So I went on Youtube and found a short video on different strategies we can use for post-reading and writing. I found this video interesting and nice so I hope you ladies find it interesting too. The textbook has a list of great strategies in each chapter that we had cover so far. This short video is about some strategies for post reading and writing. 

I found this great website on strategies for pre, during, and post reading and writing while I was researching for my online resources. This is a great website because not only it has the strategies for reading but it also give some strategies on Literacy development as well as English language learners.  To view the website just click on the link below.

BankStreet-Reading Strategies

Online Resources

Click on the link below and it will take you to my livebinder for my online resources. Feel free to take the time to explore the different tabs and sub-tabs.

Online resources on Strategies for Reading & Writing

Teacher Channel

Not sure if you ladies have heard about this website.  It has been used in several of the CCSS trainings.  It has samples of teachers using strategies in their classrooms.  Actual teaching with actual students in actual classrooms.  Might be useful.


FYI.


https://www.teachingchannel.org/

Pre, During, and Post Reading and Writing Strategies

Prereading Strategies:

Brainstorming: Students will examine the title of a selection they are to read, list all information that comes to mind about the title, and use pieces of information to recall and understand material.

Source: http://www.studygs.net/preread.htm

Discuss Background Information: Students will build upon what they already know by giving experiences about a certain topic

Source: http://departments.weber.edu/teachall/reading/prereading.html

Conduct a Picture Walk: Encourage and guide students in a discussion of what could be going on based on the pictures in a book

Source: http://bankstreet.edu/literacy-guide/reading-strategies/pre-reading-strategies/

List-Group-Label: A vocabulary strategy that engages students in a three-step process to actively organize their understanding of content area vocabulary

Source: http://www.adlit.org/strategy_library/

Previewing: Preview the text to get a sense of the structure and content

Source: http://education.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/casei/3-10%20RI%20Pre-Reading-Planning-Guide.pdf

During Reading Strategies

Contextualizing: When you read a text, you read it through the lens of your own experience

Source: https://www.salisbury.edu/counseling/New/7_critical_reading_strategies.html

Paired Reading: Encourages peer teaching and learning

Source: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23354/

Re-reading: Helps you understand hard words, find things you did not find before, help the story make sense, and make the story more interesting

Source: http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/profbooks/strategies.htm

Paragraph Shrinking:  allows each student to take turns reading, pausing, and summarizing the main points of each paragraph. Students provide each other with feedback as a way to monitor comprehension.

Source: http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/paragraph_shrinking

Think Notes: Students place a post-it on any page that confuses or interests them

Source: http://www.tips-for-teachers.com/reading_strategies.htm

Post Reading Strategies

Discuss and Respond: Ask follow-up questions

Source: http://departments.weber.edu/teachall/reading/post.html#DiscussRespond

One Sentence Summary: Students must summarize a reading passage or story in one sentence.  This helps them focus on key concepts.

Source: http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/curriculum/AcademicCore/LanguageArtsandReading/SecondaryReading/AfterReading.aspx

Response Journals: A response journal is a form of writing in which students make thoughtful connections to texts, activities, and experiences. A response journal provides sustained opportunity to explore, analyze, question, interpret, or reflect in order to gain new insights and enriched appreciation or understanding.

Source: http://eworkshop.on.ca/edu/pdf/Mod21_after_read_strgs.pdf

Retelling: Students retell what they have read.  If a child struggles with this task, they may not understand the reading material comprehensively

Source: http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/purpose-postreading-phase-12363.html

Role-play: Students may act out what they have read

Source: http://www.rit.edu/ntid/rate/sea/processes/comprehension/process/after

Prewriting Strategies

Clustering: Start with a circle in the middle that contains your idea and then you draw lines to other, smaller circles that contain sub-ideas or issues related to the main idea.

Source: http://faculty.ncwc.edu/lakirby/English%20090/prewriting_strategies.htm

Focused Free Writing: Set a time limit of 5-15 minutes and continuously write about a specific topic

Source: http://www.studygs.net/writing/prewriting.htm

Looping: A free writing technique that allows you to increasingly focus your ideas in trying to discover a writing topic

Source: http://www.writing.ku.edu/prewriting-strategies

Outline: Create an outline of the different parts of your writing

Source: http://www.gallaudet.edu/tip/english_works/writing/pre-writing_writing_and_revising/prewriting_strategies.html

Jolt List: List topics that come to mind

http://www.gallaudet.edu/tip/english_works/writing/pre-writing_writing_and_revising/prewriting_strategies.html

During Writing Strategies

Share and Respond: Students state opinions or improvement suggestions for a classmate’s shared writing assignment

Source: http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/guided-writing-30685.html

Persuasion Map: A map that will help writers organize and expand their ideas

Source: http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/developing-persuasive-writing-strategies-30965.html

Writing Templates: Provide students with templates that structure the organization of the text to be written

Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/writingstrats.html

       Proofreading without a Partner:  Students correct and revise papers by themselves

Source:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/files/writing.pdf

Add Sensory Details: Students close their eyes and picture a movie in their minds based on their writings.  They may add details after picturing these images in their minds

Source: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/writing-strategies.cfm

Post Writing Strategies

  Group Critiques: Students in small groups give constructive criticisms to a group member

Source: http://www.ehow.com/list_6321640_post_writing-activities.html

Read the Paper Aloud: Students will share their completed writing with the class by reading it aloud.
Source: http://www.ehow.com/list_6321640_post_writing-activities.html

Reflection Essay: Students write a short journal about what they could have done better in their writing or what they would like to repeat in their next writing experience

Source: http://www.ehow.com/list_6321640_post_writing-activities.html

Revising: Revise the essay; add more content and detail if necessary

Source: http://mavdisk.mnsu.edu/sweena1/strategies.html

Editing and Proofreading: Check for spelling and grammar errors

Source: http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/firstandsecondyearadvising/pdfs/writing_process.pdf

Story Hour at Hagatna Library

On March 22, 2104 at the Hagatna public library, I was joined with Toni Salas and Jenny Castro to read some books to the children from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Dr. Rivera joined us later that morning along with other two members of their organization. Jenny and I read two books to the children and Toni read them a story in Chamorro  and also translated it in English. The children really enjoyed the story books as well as learning some Chamorro words since last month was Chamorro month. As I sat back and watched as Jenny and Toni enthusiastically read their story books to the children I realized how much I have missed doing this everyday.  When it was my turn to read to the children I felt so excited instead of being nervous. I watched as each kid smiles and interacts with Toni and Jenny through out the story read-a-loud. On this day, I have come to realized that teaching is truly something that I enjoy doing. I guess I had forgot about it for the past two years because I am not in the classroom but I am so thankful that I had this opportunity to open my eyes again and see that teaching is my passion. Like I said not only seeing the children made me realized what I am missing out on but also watching Jenny and Toni interact with each kid. Seeing them and how they were so passionate with each kid made me realized that I need to get back in to the classroom. This was a fun and exciting day for me. 

Story Reading

I just to share our pictures on the Story Hour event in Hagatna Public Library on March 22, 2014. Beauty, Toni, and I had a great time reading stories to the little children.

Day 10: Spring Break

How was everyone's spring break?  I certainly welcomed the pause from HW for the University.  Although I was bummed that DOE and UOG spring breaks did not coincide with each other (that would have been too convenient- haha!), I am now glad that they were separated!  Why?  As I try to catch up with my grading and in preparation for SAT 10 last week, I'm able to do my homework for this week and on DOE spring break.  I am indeed a woman with a plan!

Anyway, once SAT-10 is done, it's all denouement from there for work.  On the other hand, it means due dates for the University.  And then that means SUMMER!!

Yes, friends, I really am counting down, and I know that you all are as excited as I am!

Now, here are spring flowers for your viewing pleasure:

PS. IRA meeting next week Saturday :)

Image:

Spring

 

Day 9: Snowballing

Do you want to build a snowman?

Snowballing is an idiomatic expression that there is an amount of something that is increasing in size.  I am now admitting that many of the assignments will be snowballing soon, even for my work.  I am quite overwhelmed right now, I admit that too, especially because I am becoming even more forgetful.  Anyway, I can't wait for the break for my work which is after the SAT-10.  The nice thing to look forward to: summer break will be upon us soon!  That is worth melting for!

About work: I am currently focusing on WWII Guam for Mes Chamoru.  It saddens me that many of our students are starting to forget this event.  However, as I am teaching them now, they seem to have become more and more interested with the topic.  And that is quite comforting.

ESL Struggles and Strategies

I found this youtube video and I thought it will be nice to share with you ladies. I was searching around to find video samples of using the different strategies and approaches the chapter discussed when I found this video. I hope you all find it interesting just like I did. This is really true in many of our schools and classrooms. This is not only happening in the United States but also out here on our small island. This is basically what the English language learners are facing in our schools. Have a great and safe weekend ladies. I will see you all tomorrow at the Story Hour at Hagatna Public Library. Good night

Compassion

If there is one thing that I've learned by taking all these classes under the TESOL graduate program, it's to have more compassion toward second language learners.  This year, I have had the highest number of ESL students in my different classes than ever before.  I get frustrated when they score low on tests because I feel like I failed as a teacher.

This week, the reaction paper was on Chapter 7 which focused on the writing process.  My school is a Success for All school.  I love the Writing Wings program because it breaks the writing process down into each step and requires a lot of student interaction among their peers.  What surprised me as I read the chapter was that research has found that focusing on correcting written papers may actually detract from the writing experience.  The most important part of writing is gathering and organizing ideas.  Mechanics and grammar can come later.  Subconsciously, I think that if I correct my ELL's, their papers would improve with time and extra attention.  I think I should start focusing on gathering ideas and planning a little more.

I wrote a couple of lesson plans about Idioms, Figurative vs. Literal Language, and a Social Studies lesson regarding the newspaper and current events.  I added in standards from the TESOL website.  If you would like a sample of either lesson plan, I would be more than happy to share them with you.

Have a wonderful weekend.

"My poems are hymns of praise to the glory of life" by -Dame Edith Sitwell

When I read this quote, my interpretation is that when someone writes a poem, they are writing about their deepest thoughts and  life experiences that resemble hymns in songs because a song have a certain beat and the heart beats.  Therefore when you read a poem it makes you think, feel, and react to what the writer is writing about.  You can not help but engross yourself in deep interpretation of what is written by the author.  The reader uses graphic, syntactic, and semantic cues to interpret the poem using their background knowledge like what I just did to interpret the quote. 

Reminder

Just a reminder ladies tomorrow is the Story Hour event in Hagatna Public Library at 10:00-12:00. I spoke to Toni earlier. She said bring your own book to read to the children.

See you guys tom! 

Day 8: Striving and Thriving

           Amazing how it is already halfway through this semester!  I remember when I first sat in this class, I felt so overwhelmed- to the point of being terrified!  “My schedule, my energy, my time, my sanity!  I have work, two other classes, a social life, and a personal life!” were the concerns that bombarded my mind when I first listened to the workload that we were about to have.   The uncertainty of trying to balance all my responsibilities put fear in my thoughts and for a moment, I was thinking whether I should quit while it was still early.

            Two months have passed already.  Although the amount of work has been “snowballing,” I am glad that I have reached a level of equilibrium emotionally and mentally with all that’s been happening in this class.  Thank God that I have long gone away from feeling the panic, although, yes, I still feel overwhelmed sometimes because I have other responsibilities to attend to and I can honestly admit that I do feel exhausted many times.  But I am ok and I am confident that I will continue being so in the days to come. 

            What really helped me with keeping afloat this semester is the camaraderie we share in the class.  I have all the ladies to thank, for being so encouraging and unselfish- their willingness to share and to be kind.  Honestly, if we didn’t have such a strong network of support in this class, this would have been greatly, greatly more difficult for me.  I tend to emotionally connect and the emotional support from my classmates and professor has truly been a gift.  I thank God deeply for everyone. 

            Putting emotions aside, I know that this class has helped me to become a better teacher.  I learned theories that help explain the phenomenon of language learning, strategies for a more effective instruction, and most especially, to become the kind of teacher who sees the value of my students, including their cultures and languages.  The textbook has also become one of my most favorite books in all my years in college. 

            It would be fascinating to see what the rest half of this semester will bring.  I am excited.  Let’s keep striving and thriving!

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

Helen Keller

Image:

Goal setting

Challenges and Change

           

            Bernice Johnson Reagon said, “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.”  This course has been a bit challenging for me, but in a good way.  When I opened and read the syllabus on the first day of class, I was a bit apprehensive about all the requirements.  I like being challenged.  I feel such a sense of achievement and satisfaction after completing a challenging course, and I am sure that the same will hold true at the end of this class.

One of our weekly assignments is to read a chapter.  The chapters in this book are approximately thirty or so pages long, which is fairly reasonable given that we have a week to complete the reading and write a reflection on the chapter.  I have learned so much from the chapter readings.  What stands out in my mind are all the strategies I’ve learned thus far.  I was elated to find that I already do some of these things in my classroom which makes me feel like I am doing my job as a teacher.

The “Getting to Know You” project was interesting to do. I enjoyed interacting with my classmate, Beauty.  She is such a positive, uplifting person and I am glad that I was able to get to know her better.  Beauty is from Woleai and, before I met her, I never even heard of the name of that island before.  She is so unique and her culture is quite different from mine, so I found it enriching when we traded information.  I enjoyed putting together the website for the class.  One of my hobbies is playing around with the layouts of online tools and it was a pleasure for me to do one for this course.

Another course requirement is to join the International Reading Association (IRA) and attend two of their monthly meetings.  So far, I have only attended one IRA meeting.  I used to attend the IRA meetings on a regular basis, but my schedule became hectic and I stopped for a while.  I took a friend with me to the last meeting, and she had never been to an IRA meeting before.  We were both so entranced by the presenters and I look forward to attending the next meeting.

I feel compelled to complete the SOLOM checklist and the culture project.  I feel like I would learn so much from these two assignments.  The SOLOM checklist will give me a good insight as to how to place my ESL students into their appropriate levels and I feel that doing the culture project will add to the trivial amount of knowledge about foreign cultures that I already have.

One thing I would like to improve upon before the completion of this course is my time management.  I would like to complete the assignments at least a day before the due date.  I find myself feeling quite stressed on Fridays and I would like to decrease that stress.  I plan to accomplish this by doing a little of each assignment at a time and look ahead to upcoming deadlines.

I feel that this course has, and will continue to, challenge me both as a student and as an individual.  Reading the chapters of the book takes a while for me to do and the book is full of useful information to use in the classroom that at times it seems overwhelming.  I believe it challenges me as an individual because it forces me to become more organized and time-conscious in order to complete the assignments by the due dates.  I feel it also challenges my personal literacy skills, particularly my writing skills, because there is a lot of writing done for this course. Fred Devito made a lot of sense when he said, “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”  I feel this course will change me for the better, and I look forward to that change.

Image: https://31.media.tumblr.com/af1ca919cb9835d80c6f2bdbb28c37b2/tumblr_mpsr309e491r62pq6o1_500.gif  

Getting to Know Other Cultures

I was looking at the syllabus and I was reading the Getting to Know Other Culture. Just making sure, that is going to be our LiveText artifact submission right?


I know it's too early, but I would like to showcase the "Filipino" culture for that project.


Have a great weekend ladies!

Half way there ....

So I just completed my Mid-term reflection, and realized .... the semester is half way done! Is it just me, or is time going by quickly?


Keep up the great work ladies!  We got this!

Multilingual

I found this video on youtube and I thought it will be cool and appropriate to share it with you ladies. I have been trying to go and watch the movie "Frozen" when it came out but I didn't have the time. When I found this video I was so fascinated. The song is sang in 25 different languages. How cool is that?

During the time of my emerging elementary years, I recall having to look up vocabulary words as one of my daily assignments.  There will always be new vocabulary words on the board to research.  I had to learn how to spell it, explain the meaning of the word, and use it in a sentence.  I studied every single word because my teacher will randomly pick any word from the list and ask me questions. I had to prepare myself all the time for this impromptu moments.  This activity built -up my vocabulary skills, learned the meaning, learned how to spell it, and learned how to use it in a sentence.  We also reviewed previously learned vocabulary words as well as learned new ones daily.  I also recall my teacher always reading us a story daily, but I hated it when she does not finish reading the entire book and continues on the next day.  

IRA General Meeting (Membership)

Today was a very busy and long day for me. There is so much that is going on in my family right now but I was so glad to see some great and beautiful ladies (friends) this morning at the IRA General meeting at St. Paul Christian school in Harmon. I saw some great friends that I haven't seen for so many years. I also saw great friends (teachers) from when I was a student teacher. I was so glad that I was able to go to the meeting this morning. Yay!! I am a member of IRA.

Words and Meanings

I was so glad and happy to see everyone during our class session. I am always looking forward to see each and everyone of you ladies. I had so much fun with the class discussion and the activity jigsaw. I always enjoy the jigsaw  activity because most of the time when I come to class I didn't finish reading the chapter. By doing the jigsaw activity I am able to understand the rest of the chapter especially the ones that I didn't get to read on my own. Thank you ladies for always sharing your great experiences in the classroom during class discussion. 

I found an video on youtube and I thought it will nice and appropriate to share with you ladies. I hope you all like it. You have all a great weekend. See you next on moodle next week.

Vocabulary Builder

Thank you all for being so cooperative and helpful for the "Getting to Know You" assignment.  I will post the link on the blog as soon as everyone sends me their information.

During class, we learned about more strategies we could use with our English Language Learners to build upon their vocabulary.  Below is a video to assist in building vocabulary.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKNEWrW9ASE

Have a good weekend!

 

Class Meeting

I really enjoy our class discussion on Chapter 6 and our jigsaw activity. I like the different teaching strategies that was discuss in the chapter to help promote vocabulary growth for our English learners. But most of all, I enjoy seeing everyone today. It was a great learning experience and a great laugh.

Have a great weekend everyone!

March 7

Tonight's class session was refreshing.  Discussions are also getting more animated and colorful.  Great job ladies!

Really looking forward to the March 22nd event at the Agana library.  Hope to see you all there!

Day 7: SOLOM and IRA Meeting Mar. 8

Since I felt really jumpy because many of my assignments from my classes are coming in huge waves, I thought I should at least be thinking about the SOLOM assignment.

When I finally looked at the checklist online (there is one in the textbook, p. 139), I thought it looked similarly to the ESL progress report card that we already fill up for the ESL department.  These domains are observed: listening comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, grammar, and pronunciation.  If you'd like to just take a "peeksy" on how it looks like and you haven't your textbook, here is the site that I looked at: http://www.cal.org/twi/evaltoolkit/appendix/solom.pdf.

Lastly, there is an IRA Meeting this coming Saturday, Mar. 8.  I will update this post with the location and time as soon as I get the information.

See you all on Friday! ^_^  

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Talking

UPDATE:

IRA MTG. @ ST. PAUL'S, 8:00 AM!

Emergent Literacy

Emergent literacy highlighted children's natural tendencies to develop literacy concepts through immersion. Children begin to develop written language knowledge from the moment they are first exposed to reading and writing at home during their preschool years, possibly from the time of birth.

The Teacher and the English Learner

I found this video and I thought it will be appropriate to share with everyone. I know we are on chapter 5 in our textbook but it is important that as educators we must understand our English learners oral language. Oral language provides the building blocks for literacy. According to a report by the National Reading Panel "Oral vocabulary is a key to learning to make the transition from oral to written forms, whereas reading vocabulary is crucial to the comprehension processes of a skilled reader." Children who do not develop these core language skills lack some of the most fundamental skills.

Day 6 Sometimes

I feel like it's been quite a while since we've met face-to-face, and although that I am very grateful that it allots us time to do our assignments on our own, I honestly miss you gals.  Also, it gives me a reason to get away from the house.  Hahaha!

So, this blog entry is entitled "Sometimes".  I sometimes feel that as I watch my students, I would like to reward them more for their progress.  As an ESL teacher, I get the benefit of watching many of my students blossom from not only a year, but for three.  I've had several students who were struggling academically, linguistically, and behavior-wise, and have now become better students, more proficient learners, and kinder and better individuals.  I know these are the true benefits of teaching and these are what keep many of us going :)  Hence, whatever raise we receive (my Hay Study increase is 30$- I'm not ashamed) and however grateful I am for mine, I know that I've done a good job when I witness this with my students.  I know that they are not the only ones who have progressed.  I can honestly say that I am a better teacher today than I was a year ago.  And that's a very comforting thought.  :)

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World unity

A Reading Experience

When my youngest daughter was about four, she really loved this certain book.  Everyday I would read to her and sometimes twice a day.  There were also times I would hide the book because I got  tired of reading it to her.  I would end up giving in and reading it to her again.  So one day, I asked her to read to me.  To my surprise she read or memorised the book from the beginning to the end. I was very pleased and so I wanted to show her off to one of my aunts.  So she read a loud to her and my aunt was very surprised she couldn't believe it.  I guess my daughter had memorised the book from being read to so many times.  She did not recognised the words when I pointed it out but she remembered the pictures that went with the words from the pages.  It was indeed an interesting observation at the time.

Talkative ESL students

I began the school year with two kindergarten boys who had just moved to Guam with their families and spoke little to no English.  The boys are of different ethnicities.  Early in the school year, I placed extremely talkative girls next to them in hopes they could all help each other.  My intention was (1) to provide opportunities for the boys learn to talk through socialization, and (2) to control the noise level by placing noisy students with extremely quite ones.


Today I found myself telling those same ESL boys, several times, to be quiet and to stop talking.  They are still not as fluent as my native English speakers, but they definitely have a whole lot to say.


Additionally, their test scores are fantastic.  Both are functioning at or above grade level and have no problems communicating with me or their peers.  Their whole language & academic development fascinates me!

English Language Learners and Equivalent Fractions

Good Afternoon!

For those of you who don't know, my school has recently instituted the departmentalization of math students.  This year, I am working with students who achieved the lowest stanine scores of last year's SAT-10 tests in mathematics.  All my students are English Language Learners, with some being a little more proficient in others.  Needless to say, my math class would be the perfect environment for me to complete the Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM) checklist.  I have a couple of students who are very quiet, but achieve the highest scores in class.  I have only had these students for a month, so once they become more comfortable around me and their classmates, I can observe them a little better using the SOLOM.

I have also decided to change the website for the "Getting to Know You" introductions.  I forgot I was using a free trial for MoonFruit and I need to pay to use it now, so I decided to try out Wix.  Kindly send your writings and photos to my email: katrina.baza@gmail.com

My anxiety levels are still low.  I hope yours are too!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all next week!  Have a great three day weekend!

Oral Language Development in Second Language Acquisition

From reading Chapter 4, it gave me a better understanding on this particular topic.  Especially teaching children the language function of addressing people in social settings with respect.  Sometimes I have students who are rude when they speak to me and I have witnessed them being rude to others.  I can not help but think that they lack understanding in how to speak to an elder person, teacher, or someone in authority.  They may have not been taught to speak with respect to an elder, a teacher or an authority.  We as educators need to educate our students in how to orally address people in social settings in a polite and respectful ways.  We, ourselves should model correct behaviours in social settings, so our young can follow. Just a thought.