SCIENCE PROJECT: VERTICAL GARDEN

We were at C.E.B.G. BILINGUE SANTA LIBRADA working last summer, with some of their students for the collective construction of a vertical gardenr. We built it  from packaging materials such as plastic bottles.

The objective was to build the vertical garden as a prototype, so the students could work and study it during the academic year. The vertical garden was placed in an area of the school to serve as an educational area . This intervention allowed the students to start thinking on production processes and to be aware of the requirements (in a small scale) needed. On the other hand they will also be conscious of their own potential to built, grow and take care of a garden.

How the students did the vertical garden.

Students collected their own soda bottle from home and brought them into class, previously cut.   Discussed with students why they picked that container.

Parents and teachers, painted the upper part of the bottles with black spray paint, which was the part that have the plants.   They painted because the roots couldn't be exposed because they were burning.   Once the paint was dry, each student wrote their names on his/her bottle.  This way each student knew which was his/her plants and that gave them a sense of belonging and responsibility, because from the moment from the moment they put their plant in the bottles, they knew they had to take care of it

Once all the bottles were assembled, the parents put the wood on the wall which they had to screwed.

When all was set.   The younger students had to picked up each group to their classroom and gave them their plant and the amount of soil they need to plant their flower.

Place  the plant, along with its original soil, in the center of its new container.  Grabbed 1-2 handfuls of Potting Mix and placed in the new container alongside the plant.  Mixed both the new and old soil around the roots to ensure a healthy growing environment.  Left about 2 centimeters of space at the top of the new container to prevent any spills when watering. 

Now you can see some pictures  and a video about this project.

  

FUN WARM UP ACTIVITIES AND TIME FILLERS

ESL warm-up activities are essential in the English classroom. Students may be tired or have other things on their minds and diving straight into a textbook or grammar explanation can be quite jarring. With a good warmer you can put your students into English mode; attentive,  interested and ready to participate. A warmer can also serve to review language from a previous lesson or prime the class for a new topic.

No-preparation ESL Warm-up activities
Here you can see some videos of warm-up activities, for all ages.  You can use which don’t require any preparation. Most of them can, of course, also be used as filler activities if you find yourself a few minutes short at the end .

Once upon a time: a brief history of children’s literature

Since the beginning of time, adults have entertained children with stories and fables. From these folktales developed an elaborate tapestry of children's literature. Today children's literature encompasses multiple genres and appeals to readers of every age. Let's take a look at a brief history of children's literature.

Emerging from Oral Tradition   

Just as other forms of literature, children's literature grew from stories passed down orally from generation to generation. Irish folk tales can be traced back as early as 400 BCE, while the earliest written folk tales are arguably the Pachatantra, from India, which were written around 200 AD. The earliest version of Aesop's Fables appeared on papyrus scrolls around 400 AD.

In Imperial China, storytelling reached its peak during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). Many stories from this epoch are still used to instruct students in China today. No such equivalent exists in Greek and Roman literature. However, the stories of Homer and other storytellers of the era would certainly have appealed to children.

As Europe became a cultural center of the world, instructive texts became increasingly common. These books were mostly written in Latin, with the purpose of instructing children. During the Middle Ages, truly little literature was written for the sole purpose of entertaining children. Hornbooks, textbooks containing basic texts like the Lord's Prayer and the alphabet, would not appear until the 1400s. Alphabet books began popping up around Russia, Italy, Denmark, and other European countries roughly a century later.

The Advent of Illustration 

Chapbooks, pocket-sized books often folded rather than stitched together, were the first books to be illustrated for children. They usually contained simple woodcut pictures to go along with their contents--often popular ballads, folk tales, or religious passages.

Meanwhile, during the 1600s, the concept of childhood was evolving. Rather than being seen as miniature adults, children were seen as separate entities with their own needs and limitations. Thus, publishers throughout Europe began printing books specifically intended for children. The purposes of these texts were still frequently didactic, although several collections of fairy tales were published with varying success.

The trend of illustrating children's books prevailed, and children's literature grew in popularity throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1744, John Newbery published A Little Pretty Pocket-Book. The volume was heralded as the true first book intended for children's pleasure reading. As paper and printing became more economical, the children's book industry veritably boomed during the 1800s.

 

INTRODUCTION TO VOWEL SOUNDS

What are vowel sounds?

English has fifteen vowel sounds represented by the letters a, e, i, o, and u. The letters y, w and gh are also commonly used in vowel sound spellings. Vowel sounds are produced with a relatively open vocal tract. Consonant sounds, in contrast, are created by pushing air through a small opening in the vocal tract or by building up air in the vocal tract, then releasing it.

Categories of vowel sounds   

Vowel sounds are divided into the following three categories:

·         Long vowels (vowels that sound like the letter name)

·         Short vowels (the most common sound for a single vowel spelling)

·         Other vowels (the remaining vowel sounds)

The long vowel sounds are not pronounced for longer time than short vowel sounds!

It is important for ESL/ELL/EFL students to realize that the terms "long" and "short" are not describing the length of time a vowel sound is said. These archaic terms are still in popular use in American classrooms and online. They are used here to give a name to a vowel sound so when the sound is discussed, the name and not the sound (which many beginner students cannot yet hear correctly) is used.

Key words

The vowel chart shows the key word, or quick reference word, for each English vowel sound. Key words are used because vowel sounds are easier to hear within a word than when they are spoken in isolation. Memorizing key words allows easier comparison between different vowel sounds. 

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

What is classroom management?

Simply put, classroom management refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to ensure that their classroom runs smoothly, without disruptive behavior from students. According to teacher Ben Johnson, it boils down to having a structured learning environment with clear rules that promote learning as well as consequences that diminish or eliminate behaviors that get in the way of learning.

This can look different depending on which subject and age group you teach, how many students you have, and most importantly, your core personality. What works for a type-A, highly organized, routine-loving teacher may not work for a more laid back, roll-with-the-punches kind of teacher.

Of course, the ultimate goal for any teacher is an academically productive classroom with focused, attentive, and on-task students. Unfortunately, any teacher can tell you this is way harder than it sounds and usually takes years to accomplish. Even for teachers who consider themselves relatively skilled managers, things often change depending on the new mix of students they teach every year. So really, being skilled at management is an ongoing process, part of the lifelong learning that makes teaching so interesting.

The bottom line is this: Effective classroom management is an absolute must. It impacts your ability to be an effective educator and enjoy your job, and it impacts your students’ success as learners. If your classroom is out of control, it won’t matter how passionate you are about your subject or how much you are truly dedicated to children, learning will be negatively impacted.

Año lectivo 2020 deberá culminar a distancia por COVID-19

         En el dia de hoy quiero compartirles una noticia que apareció en el Periódico Panama America, hace días atrás, en donde el Ministerio anuncia que el ano lectivo escolar para todos las escuelas publicas y privadas de nuestro país, deben culminar a distancia debido al Corona-virus.   Esta es una noticia sumamente alarmante para todos los educadores, especialmente a los que trabajan en escuelas publicas de nuestro país.  

Gracias a el avance de la tecnología, surgió la posibilidad de impartir clases virtuales. Sin embargo, la realidad que vive nuestro país es que la inmensa mayoría de las escuelas y colegios no tienen la capacidad para impartir estas clases por módulos virtuales. Lo más sensato era suspender el inicio del año escolar y esperar.

 Es cierto que esta modalidad se puede aplicar, pero la mayoría del cuerpo docente no está entrenado para la educación virtual. Además, el Ministerio de Educación no dispone de un estudio serio para determinar cuántos educandos y estudiantes poseen computadoras o servicios de internet, sin hablar de la electricidad y de la conexión a internet.   Y tomando en cuenta esto ¿Cómo van a compensar las lecciones los niños sin acceso a tecnología? Ese es otro problema, por eso es que la brecha debe ser en positivo; ninguna medida debe profundizar más la exclusión ni desigualdad.   Esto en cuanto a las escuelas públicas, pero la privadas igual están sufriendo los estragos de esta pandemia.

Hay 122 planteles escolares particulares que tienen riesgo de cerrar sus puertas, ya que muchos padres de familia, solo trabajan medio tiempo y es lo que cobran, o están suspendidos los contratos de trabajo, o los liquidaron.  

Lo que ha hecho la pandemia es proporcionarnos una radiografía de las grandes desigualdades que hay en nuestro país a todo nivel, fundamentalmente en la educación.  Hoy en día la educación particular ocupa el 12% de la población estudiantil; hay un 88% que pertenece al sector oficial. Por eso quisiera profundizar en esa radiografía que nos da la pandemia: ausencias, carencias que a nivel educativo traen un problema fundamental, no solo por el derecho a la educación que tiene todo menor, sino en cuanto al eje transversal de todos los demás derechos.  Es decir, educar supone y requiere de tener vida de calidad, salud de calidad, seguridad alimentaria y una serie de derechos sin los cuales sería inviable educar.

A continuacion les dejo el link de la noticia:  https://www.panamaamerica.com.pa/sociedad/ano-lectivo-2020-debera-culminar-distancia-por-covid-19-1165643

ómo 

HOW TO TEACH PHRASAL VERBS

Don’t think that phrasal verbs are difficult to learn, they are phrases that we say every day in conversations without even knowing that they are phrasal verbs.   There is a huge list of phrasal verbs, but I’ll teach you the most common ones in an easy and funny way to learn them.

What are Phrasal verbs? 

These are compound forms in which a verb is followed by an adverb or a preposition.  These are widely used expressions, sometimes we can deduce their meaning from the meaning of the verb and that of the preposition or adverb which accompanies them, for example:

 Run away -> "Run" = "to run". "Away" = "far away".

But at other times it is not possible to deduce the meaning and the only option will be to memorize them.  For example:

 put me up for tonight? 

The phrasal verb 'put up' here does not mean to build (as in putting a fence up). It has, however, an idiomatic/figurative meaning. It means to let someone stay in your house.

For more information, look at the following video