Professor de Inglês!

1st and 2nd grades I wanted to explore the numbers topic in a context. The only idea I had was by counting with students the classroom objects, example: "How many lamps/curtains/posters are there in the class?". Of course I was pointing to the objects, and we started the counting from 1. In some classes I did a really quick review by counting from 0 to 12 or 13 in choral with students.  That was an introduction to the main part of the class, when students had to draw their classmates, according to the number of students present that day. "How many boys/girls are here?", I asked. As they did not know this vocabulary, I pointed to each student, saying the words "boy" or "girl", according to their gender. When I got to half of the class I just pointed, so they could say if the person was a boy or a girl. Then invited them to count with me how many boys/girls were there. Then I asked them to draw and that was when problems started, because it was rea...

5th grade I really want this group to become more responsible and involved with the English classes. I do not like to get their attention by threatening them or saying that an activity is worth 5 or 10 points. On March 29th I gave them a paper about digital and analog clocks. In the next class, on April 5th, I started doing a big circle on the board, to explain again the differences between the big arrow and small arrow of the analog clock. First I let the big arrow on 12 and was moving the small clock to each number and asking them "What is the time?" - "It's one o'clock, It's two o'clock" they answered. I did not have everybody's attention because their desks were already organized in groups of four or five when I entered the room, so I left like that, because I wanted them to help each other during the activity. But some of them were distracted with something else or talking. I was a little fed up that day, so I just ignored. I started explain...

 5th grade - total of 4 classes on this topic  I did not think it would be necessary so much time on the same subject. The point was not only related to the language, but also some life experience and world knowledge as for many kids was not clear how analog watches work and I wanted them to understand that. I wanted to transcend the linguistic part of the language and teach them something that they would learn for life and could apply on their daily life. Also, I would be proud of myself if I could make them understand it, as my class in 100% English.  Thinking about that was what I planned, unfortunately on that day they were really excited. It was very difficult to get attention. I thought that maybe the topic was not interesting enough or my approach was boring. This lack of organization troubled me to organize myself better while explaining that every number corresponds to five minutes. And I become really fed up when I explain something and a student who were not pa...

5th grade I am feeling disappointed with my students' reading skills. I know it is the pandemic fault, but I can't help feeling surprised in a negative way when I give them a reading activity. The goal of this class to my only 5th grade group was to teach the time, so I started the class doing an oral review of the numbers from 11 to 60, to think about the minutes, too, even though I did not plan to use minutes in that class, on the 15th. Then I asked if they had watches, but no one had, nor telephones, as they are not allowed to bring it to the classroom. So I wrote some times on the board and asked them "What is the time?" or "What time is it?". Before distributing the written activity, I explained that we had to read and complete the header first and asked two students to help on paper distribution (they love to do that and to erase the board). Before starting the exercise, I always ask someone to read the explanation and everybody to pay attention. I alw...

1st and 2nd grades I like to expand a topic as long as I can, as long as I feel the students are enjoying and there are activities ideas to explore, even if I get a little late in the schedule. 50 minutes is not enough to create a memory for them, as they easily forget many things we have done in the previous week. When I used to attend tango classes once a week, I noticed that I was like that as well, that I needed the teacher to do a review of the last steps, otherwise it was hard to remember by myself. So, even though I taught only four sentences (Good morning, afternoon, evening and night), I considered it important to have one more class about Greetings, for 1st and 2nd grades only. For the 3rd grade, I considered my class as a review, not an introduction, so I did not repeat this topic. I repeated the three drawings on the board (sun rising, sun, moon with stars) and pointed to each one while saying "Good morning, afternoon and evening". After that I asked them "Ho...