Thomas Innovation Mentors: Aligning views and probing into our teenage students' perceptions

In our second innovation project session today we worked on investigating and aligning our views of our students’ classroom experiences. To that effect, we created our CSD Matrix (Matriz CSD in Portuguese), in which ‘C’ stands for certainties, ‘S’ for suppositions, and ‘D’ for doubts. We probed into our views and beliefs regarding the quality of the experience our students have in our classrooms. Individually, each team member wrote down their perceptions onto post-its (one perception per post-it) within a few minutes for each of the three categories. Once everyone was finished recording their views, it was time for us to process what we came up with. Going over everyone’s contributions generated some interesting conversations on our beliefs, and we concluded that we are pretty much aligned in our views of the kind of experience we think our students have in our classroom.

Team members were now ready to process a set of students’ responses to a brief questionnaire, a google form containing the following questions: 1. Tell us about a memorable English class you had at Thomas. Why was it a memorable experience?; 2. Considering all your trajectory at Thomas, in different levels with different teachers, what is it that you like the most about our classes?; 3. What is it that you like the least about our classes?; and 4. Write a word that represents your experience in your classes at Thomas. We managed to get responses from a mix of teenage students from different levels. We worked in two trios, and each trio looked at the responses to questions 1 and 2. What we did was go over students’ responses, which had been compiled into post-its, and try to identify patterns, tendencies or even categories that would emerge from their responses. The idea was to reach a more synthetic understanding of students’ perceptions and see if any insights would spring up in the process. As we shared our findings, we were able to make connections and identify some ideas which we felt were in the core of students’ responses. We took notes of those core findings so that they can inform actions ahead.

We wrapped up the session with some analysis and discussion around how our findings regarding students’ responses aligned with or somehow validated our own perceptions in our CSD Matrix, and we concluded that perceptions were quite aligned and coherent. As a result of this session, we were able to see a teenage student persona taking shape. A persona who has very specific perceptions of the classroom experience, who has particular needs and desires. The next step is to deepen the insights and prototype solutions to be tested in the classroom. This was quite a productive and inspiring session, and it feels like each one of us is gradually gaining a new sense that we go beyond being teachers, we are learning experience designers.

Would you like to know more about this project? Check out our site: bit.ly/thomasinnovationmentors

Thomas Innovation Mentors: Project Kick-off

Last Friday, March 10th, we launched the Thomas Innovation Mentors Project. We are a team of eight highly motivated and curious teachers eager to reflect on our students’ classroom experience. The idea is to look at everything that takes place within the classroom from the student’s perspective. We want to tap into the perceptions and emotions that our students experience during their time with us in order to gain new insights into possible paths to innovation.

We are adopting a Design Thinking (DT) approach, since its very definition reflects how we want to go about the project: DT is a human-centered design process. Therefore, in our first face-to-face session we facilitated a DT crash course put together by Stanford’s d.school. Throughout the session, team members worked with a partner to redesign a gift-giving experience. In the process, they were able to go through the DT cycle and apply the ‘mindfulnesses’ necessary to successfully engage in the co-creation process.

The 5-stage DT cycle  (Image by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford)

The DT ‘mindfulnesses’  (Image by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford)

Team members worked together to understand their partner’s profile and needs in order to design a new and impactful gift-giving experience for their partners. Massive interaction and dynamic collaboration naturally took place, and the energy level was high up throughout the session. Each team member then prototyped their ideas in order to see how their partners interacted with it. Every stage of the DT cycle was timed, which made the creative process challenging and quite fruitful.

It was a very successful kick-off session! We reached our goal of getting primed for applying the DT process, both in practical terms as well as in mindful terms. We are now engaging in understanding the challenge ahead of us. The next step will be to empathize with our “user” - our students - in order to more clearly define the direction we are headed. We are certain that this is going to be a very rich (and fun!) learning experience for all our project collaborators - teachers and students.

Team members proudly exhibiting their prototypes.

The Learning Cycle

The human brain is designed for learning, but how do we learn? In the book The art of changing the brain: enriching teaching by exploring the biology of learning James E. Zull defines learning as “change, growth, and pruning of our neu­rons, connections–called synapses– and neu­ronal networks, through expe­ri­ence. There are four stages of the Learning Cycle:
1) We have Con­crete expe­ri­ence,
2) We develop Reflec­tive Obser­va­tion and Con­nec­tions,
3) We gen­er­ate Abstract hypoth­e­sis,
4) We then do Active test­ing of those hypothe­ses, and there­fore have a new Con­crete expe­ri­ence, and a new Learn­ing Cycle ensues”.

In an interview with Alvaro Fernandez, James E. Zull summaries the learning cycle  as such: “… we 1) get infor­ma­tion (sen­sory cor­tex), 2) make mean­ing of that infor­ma­tion (back inte­gra­tive cor­tex), 3) cre­ate new ideas from these mean­ings (front inte­gra­tive cor­tex) and 4) act on those ideas (motor cor­tex). From this I propose that there are four pillars of learn­ing: gath­er­ing, ana­lyz­ing, cre­at­ing, and acting” ( http://sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/10/12/an-ape-can-do-this-can-we-not/).

Thus, the cycle is based on the idea that knowledge cannot be acquired from zero; learning originates in concrete experience which Zull calls experiential learning. But experience isn’t everything. Zull informs that “learning also requires reflection, developing abstractions, and active testing of our abstractions” (p. 18). According to Zull, learning also requires effort and get­ting out of our com­fort zones.  Learners must be motivated and self-driven and maintain a sense of ownership.  Zull further states that in order for the Learning Cycle to self-perpetuate,  the learner must feel in control (ownership) of the process and that progress is being made.

Transforming

The process of changing data into knowing is what Kolb calls “transformation of experience.” (See David Kolb, Experiential Learning, Experience as the Source of Learning and Development New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983). Zull divides this process of transforming into three parts: 1^st – transformation from past to future (connect from our memory); 2^nd – transformation of the source of knowledge from outside ourselves to inside ourselves; and 3^rd – transformation of power (from weakness and dependence to strength and independence). “If we bring our entire brain into the process of learning, we will find control passing from others to ourselves.” (Zull, p. 33)  Learning is about power and control.  If you want your students to learn, you must give them control of learning. Students choose to learn. If students are not engaged in the process, literally doing something with their brains (i.e. using their frontal lobes to analyze data, producing, having fun, etc.), and if they don’t have power, they won’t learn. Teachers must try to identify what’s already motiving students to learn, and then guarantee that students believe in their ability to learn.

Set the stage

Teaching is about creating conditions that lead to change in a learner’s brain. Teachers need to find and create con­nec­tions between the new infor­ma­tion and chal­lenges, and that which learners already know and care about. Set the stage for neural pathways to be changed! Teachers need to create a positive, comfortable atmosphere and environment. We must engage our students so that their brains decide to cooperate and take in the information we are teaching through the sensory pathways, and make sense of that information through the integrative processes by the neurons transmitting messages to one another. If we want to create long-term memory, we must create new synaptic connections which are made as a result of experience and learning. According to Piaget, the brain can change as a combination of nature and nurture. They are not separate processes. Therefore, at a cellular level, one realizes that the brain can change because of experience. Long term memory alters the gene expression in nerve cells. Consequentially, a genetic disease, for example, can be changed, perhaps by eating differently or doing different things.

Neurons and  synapse

Learning means making connections from existing neural information to new information. Synapses is a structure that  regulates intercellular communication in the nervous system and provides information flow within neural networks. Neurons are nerve cells which make connections in the brain. There are three basic parts of a neuron: the dendrites, the cell body and the axon. Neurons are specialized to transmit information throughout the body, and they communicate information both in chemical and electrical forms.  According to Kendra Cherry “There are also several different types of neurons responsible for different tasks in the human body. Sensory neurons carry information from the sensory receptor cells throughout the body to the brain. Motor neurons transmit information from the brain to the muscles of the body. Interneurons are responsible for communicating information between different neurons in the body”. (Kendra Cherry in The Structure of a Neuron. (http://psychology.about.com/od/biopsychology/f/neuron01.htm).

Either existing connections between neurons get stronger, or new connections appear between existing neurons.  Neurons have specialized projections called dendrites and  axons. Dendrites are the extensions of the cells with many branches, like a tree. These fibers transmit impulses to the neuron cell body.  So, dendrites bring information to the cell body. There’s only one axon that projects from each cell body. It is usually elongated and carries information away from the cell body. (To see this in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUGuWh2UeMk)

Information from one neuron flows to another neuron across a synapse. “The synapse contains a small gap separating neurons. For communication between neurons to occur, an electrical impulse must travel down an axon to the synaptic terminal. The synapse consists of:

1. a presynaptic ending that contains neurotransmitters, mitochondria and other cell organelles
2. a postsynaptic ending that contains receptor sites for neurotransmitters
3. a synaptic cleft or space between the presynaptic and postsynaptic endings”.  (https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/synapse.html)

https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/synapse.html

Neurons firing ideas and images.

To give you an idea of the grandiosity and intensity of the neuronal network and the brain’s capacity for growth and change, I would like to share information I came across which forms a  comparison of a neuron in the brain to a webpage in the internet. The information below is a summary of this fascinating comparison which can be watched on From Neurons to Networks ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp-edwiGUU).  The video explains that a human at about any age has about 100 billion neurons in the brain. The internet has 10 times that: 1 trillion web pages. So, with this analogy the internet is bigger. But, which is more complex? According to the video, we could say a synapse in the brain, a connection point in the brain between two neurons is like a hyperlink, a connection point between two webpages.  The internet has 1 trillion links, and an adult brain has three hundred trillion links, or 10 times the connections of the internet.  These human connections are the framework for the foundation of the  building blocks of the development of the brain.

Magic Middle

Both Piaget and Vygotsky most likely would teach from the “magic middle”, which is the zone of proximal development , ZPD, where, according to Zull,  students are neither bored nor frustrated; where they need to actually work to learn, but have the support system there to guide them, be it the teacher and/or other peers.   Perhaps Vygotsky’s best known concept, the ZPD describes the learner’s level of independent performance (what he/she can do alone) and the learner’s level of assisted performance (what he/she can do with support). Once the student, with the benefit of scaffolding, masters the task, the scaffolding can then be removed and the student will then be able to complete the task again on their own. Vygotsky believed in the importance of keeping students interested and thinking by themselves; therefore, students are challenged, but  not threatened.

Engaging and creating memory

Similarly, teachers must be careful to engage students without bringing in anxiety or trauma. The brain hones in on two fundamental survival  goals: safety and happiness.  The amygdala is involved in processing emotions such as fear, anger and pleasure and is responsible for storing emotional memories.  The amygdala like the hippocampus helps in transforming our short term memories into long term ones, but the amygdala focuses on the emotional based memories. The amygdala is an almond shaped mass of flesh located deep inside the brain, which, via electrical impulses triggers our fear system of survival to freeze, flee or flight.  Because the brain is an organ of thought and emotions, we as teachers must ensure that students are in control of their learning in the classroom,  and that they don’t  panic and become fearful under our tutelage. Stress interferes with neurotransmitter function. We want to make sure that the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped area of neurons adjacent to the amygdala and that is the part of the brain involved in memory forming, organizing and storing memories, works in together with the amygdala: Human emotion linked and acting with memory.  

On the other hand, to enact the learning process, we need to turn on our students’  pleasure system by making learning fun and engaging. Students must want to learn if they are to learn. People learn what is important to them. So, part of teaching is learning the motivating factor that brought your student into your classroom. What is it that he/she wants to learn?  Ultimately learning must be meaningful in order to engage the diversity of learners. You must connect with what students already know (knowledge cannot be acquired from zero). The more personalized the better for material related to real life activates student’s neural networks and therefore adds to existing knowledge.  Thus, teachers need to find ways of teaching that connect to prior knowledge and build on that data. Therefore, as teachers we must help our students make connections to prior experiences, knowledge, and learning—and associations to other areas of their experiences and life. 

Developing a Lesson Plan based on the Learning Cycle

As a concrete example of the learning cycle in action, I have attached  a 50 minute lesson plan where I have incorporated “blue bullets” to signalize the use of elements of the learning cycle and process in each component of my lesson. The objective of my lesson is that by the end of the class, my students  learn to use go phrases by talking about places they go to and when or what day(s) of the week they do so. I am focusing on three new chunks of information (go, places and days of week), so as not to overwhelm learners cognitive capacity, which recent neuroscientific findings have determined is actually just three to four new  items of information at a time.

My  lesson begins by reviewing information from the last class and ensuring that their brains were rewired and made the necessary connections.  I am also engaging the students and activating their  experiences  and knowledge of the topic of the new vocabulary (activities and days of the week). I’m doing this by incorporating associations of places that my students  already know in my lesson plan. Thus,  I am  helping students make the connection with prior knowledge. What is happening, however, is I am  physically altering my students' brains by creating and strengthening neural pathways. The know the types of places, but not their names in the new language. According to Wendi Pillars in Teachers as Brain-Changers: Neuroscience and Learning, by engaging a range of sensory pathways, I am providing my students with opportunites for implicit and explicit opportunities to recognize and make connections.

Furthermore, we all learn differently because everybody owns a variety of reception models. Therefore, during the 50  minute lesson, I’ve tried to incorporate diverse sensory perceptions (PPTs with pictures, slips of paper, pictures in book, audio for listening, music). And, I am consistently and constantly bridging old and new information in my Lesson so that they can keep making connections and keep their neural pathways clear.  

I make a considerable effort to teach in the magic middle, the “zone of proximal development” so as to interest my students, while at the same time finding a common denominator to build their confidence and knowledge. By doing this, I am activating  their schemata and building the thinking process and putting learning in their own hands; as they are consistently talking about personal things, experiences and life. I know not only what the learners developmental level is at each time of my lesson, but also what skills and concepts will develop next. By working in the  ZPD and scaffolding, I am ensuring and engaging, albeit in a non-threatening environment and format where students feel comfortable, in control and in power. This will help them  get out of their comfort zones and try  new things without the fear of failure. I have set the stage. My students work individually, in pairs and in  small groups, where they’re more comfortable and whereupon I hope they  feel safer, can take risks, speak , share thoughts, ask questions.  Throughout my lesson, I am giving them pieces of a puzzle, but they themselves are putting it together by discovery patterns and putting them into practice via production, oral and written. Within the lesson, I have built up and built upon the four architectural pillars of learn­ing: gath­er­ing, ana­lyz­ing, cre­at­ing, and acting.

Learning involves making connections: teachers must “fire until you wire”. If you don’t use the brain, the tissue dies. The brain needs to be exercised to keep “fit” just as other parts of our physical body. And, learning takes effort.  The old adage: “Use it or lose it” applies to memory. People who  are engaged in mentally stimulating activities make more synaptic connections in the brain. Just as we’re concerned for our physical well-being, and therefore eat properly, get enough exercise and sleep, maintaining a healthy brain is equally fundamental and rewarding. Exercise oxygenates the brain which is important for synaptic formation and growth . “Fire until you wire”. Drill until you’ve built the neuronal networks that made the connection and “learned”. Repeating and reviewing so that you, Dear Reader, create the neuronal network necessary to grasp this concept: Make connections: fire until you wire.

 Betsey W. Neal

Are You Doing Too Much Teaching?

                    

You are the model provider. You have studied every aspect of your lesson; you've anticipated every doubt that might arise, every aspect that might cause curiosity or confusion. Are there points that might need additional information, areas that could require more extensive orientation? You've got it covered. 

In the classroom, you are energy exemplified. You're at the board, making lists; you're at the computer, running a succession of pertinent slides; you’re a windmill of demonstration and personal illustration. You willingly contribute to the interpretation of the listening exercise; you want to guarantee comfortable comprehension every step of the way. 

Your students are raptly attentive, obviously following those steps that have been programmed for them. They enjoy the performance that brings the lesson to life and, a real investment bonus, that lets them in on your personal life and habits. They absolutely love your (endless) English and your vivacious competence in the language which they are there to learn. 

In the process of provision and performance (enthusiastically, even lovingly offered), how much are the students participating? Do you take their single-syllable responses as sufficient indication that they fully understand the concept and content of the lesson you have designed for their benefit? Does minimal verbalization actually constitute “practice”, or “communication” when it is the hesitant result of so-called “pair work”? 

In every class, there must be a realistic measurement of the proportion of “teaching” and the actual amount of “learning” that is, in fact, taking place. If your show consists primarily of production and corresponding audience appreciation, then you need to reassess your objectives and the means you are taking to reach them. Regardless of the skill in question, learning is usually the result of doing, the frequently rehearsed mind-mapping of procedures or strategies ….. and you are the only one who can program that kind of acquisition with any assurance of a productive outcome. 

After all, would you want your heart surgeon to have acquired his knowhow by faithfully watching the medical practitioners on “House”, “E.R.”, and “Grey's Anatomy”?

Katy Cox

Fundamentals of Assessment

Assessing is an integral part of our job. It can be be informal such as when we assess students’ understanding of the subject explained and evaluate/adjust our teaching or formal as in written or oral tests when a specific day and length of time is allotted for students to take it.  Either way, there is no questioning that assessing is of utmost importance for it connects the learning and teaching processes providing feedback on next moves for teachers and students as well.  

Due to the effects tests have on teaching and learning, also known as washback effect, what is taught and what is tested should always be aligned. Moreover, tests should drive learning. Consequently, there is more to designing a test than just picking up an exercise and grading it. Knowing the foundations to design a solid assessment gives us a broader perspective of all that is involved in designing tests, assessments or even graded exercises. The literature lists seven cornerstones:

1    1.    Usefulness and purpose are considered the most important cornerstones. They have to do with the purpose of the assessment and how aligned it is to the course being taught, the students being tested and the language use you want to evaluate. Let`s say you want to test your students` ability to order food in a restaurant, then you would need to have a reading that reflects that specific situation in terms of language and text style. A passage from a newspaper would not meet the purpose of the test or be useful for that group of students.

2    2.  Reliability is related to the consistency of test conditions and score. If a student takes the same test at another time, under the same conditions, results have to be the same. To be reliable a test should be neither too difficult nor too easy, questions should not be tricky or ambitious, directions should be clear, the right amount of time should be allotted for most students to finish and there should be scoring rubrics to guide teacher correct all tests using the same criteria.

3   3. Validity checks if the item really measures what it is supposed to measure. If the test is about listening, for example, students’ ability in spelling and grammar cannot be evaluated. Besides, the vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar usage cannot be beyond the level of the students. Otherwise, you will be testing them on more than just their listening comprehension skills and thus decreasing the validity of the test as a measure for listening.

4    4.  Practicality is how teacher-friendly the test is. If the correction requires a great amount of time, there will be a practicality issue. Ideally, tests should be corrected, graded and returned to the students promptly so they can benefit from the feedback.

5    5. Washback concerns the effect of testing on students, teachers and the program. For a test to have positive washback, “teachers should link teaching and testing with instructional objective and provide feedback in a timely manner so that students learn and benefit from the assessment process.

6    6. Authenticity refers to relevant use of real-life contexts which motivate students to perform well in the test. This way, a course designed to develop students’ ability to answer phones in English asks for an oral exam which mimics a telephone call format.

     7. Transparency has to do with the availability of information to students. Students should know what they will learn, how this will be assessed and graded. When students have the chance to practice question types beforehand, anxiety is reduced and they focus on the completion of the exercise and not on the directions.

In a nutshell, not only do these cornerstones allow us a more comprehensive look, but also help us make more effective choices when designing or analyzing assessments.

Cláudia Furtado

Based on the article written by Dawn Rogier named Assessment Literacy: Building a Base for a Better Teaching and Learning in English (Teaching Forum – number 3, p. 4). 

Selfie Videos as a Tool for Language Learning

photo credit: Körsbärsblommorna i Kungsträdgården 2016 via photopin (license)

Being a teacher for some time, I have seen first hand the impact the adoption of technology has had in teachers' and in students' lives. Having that in mind, one cannot deny that it is important to adopt technology for teaching. In line with this premise, I would like to share something I learned in one of the many interesting presentations at the 2016 TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo in Baltimore, USA. This practice-oriented presentation (by Loni Thorson, Kyla Masciarelli, and Christine Discoe) was entitled "Using Selfies to Promote Language Learning."

What the presenters pointed out was  that technology is what students want. Linking the drive to communicate with the technology available to us, selfies are a trend in the world today.  One point in favor of using selfies, the presenters argued, is that video chat is a growing trend. This is really true and the proof for that is that if we look around, we will see people making either video or picture selfies almost all the time. Besides that, video chat through Face Time, Skype or other channels are quite frequent among learners young and old. Educators have to admit that this is a sign that people in general are comfortable with this technology. This brings us to the first argument they presented in favor of using selfies as a means to learn a language: classroom  comfort.

Classroom comfort informs us that in order to have effective and authentic tasks, students need to be comfortable with the assignment. We observe that students are very comfortable with their cell phones. Actually they are uncomfortable if they don't have them. Social comfort is also important. Students need to be comfortable with the technology (cell phone).  Being digital natives, students are used to seeing themselves in videos. They want that image to be curated. We want students to want their image to look good., they want to sound good, their pronunciation to be good, they want their image to look good. We teachers want students to want their image to look good. So, they have a natural desire to self-correct in terms of how they sound and how they look.  This is exactly what we teachers want.Video chat is a comfortable environment for them.

When people make a selfie video, they generally explain their surroundings and they give an update on what they are doing, they also explain if they are having a problem or if they are sick. All this updating creates a one to one interaction and, as a result, it increases comfort between students and viewers. A comfortable relationship with the teacher is created through this open communication channel. Besides that, it also creates comfort between students as they see themselves and their classmates in the videos. As time goes by, students that might  not have been happy with how they looked or sounded, feel more comfortable seeing and listening to themselves. Some report never have listening to or seeing themselves before. As they report feeling more comfortable doing that.

Why are selfies important?
Some reasons that make us convinced that using selfies in the language is useful relate to comfort and attention. There are two types of attention: inward attention and outward attention. They are mutually exclusive and you cannot have the two going on at the same time. Why is it important to understand this concept when making selfies videos? While making a selfie video, students do not only direct themselves outward, but they also have to direct themselves inward to see what is happening to themselves. They correct themselves during the video and sometimes after the video. This kind of attention works as meter against which they evaluate their performance, and as a result, they record multiple times just to make sure they get it right. They are aware of their own self-presentation and they make more selfies as assessment or a class task, they get more confident of their performance and become more confident and fluent speakers.

How to Help Adult Learners Deal with the Stress of Speaking

Have you ever had a student in your class struggling to survive until the class is over? Or having a blank when speaking even when they volunteered to participate?  How would you deal with it? This situation can be quite uncomfortable for everyone in class and can be a good reason for a student to definitely quit a project of learning a foreign language.

Having difficulties speaking in class or exposing your ideas in another language to others is not uncommon, but suffering almost the whole class period can hamper the learning process and influence the atmosphere of even a light and productive class.  It´s not easy, if not impossible, to measure the degree of stress one is going through, but there are some steps you can take to help students deal with this stress and feel more comfortable in class.

First, the problem has to be spotted.  Many times, what seems to be an ordinary difficulty is, in fact, a freezing sensation that blocks a student´s thoughts and exposes them to their peers. This happened by chance in one of my groups this semester.  A student of mine confessed at the end of a class that she had been suffering the whole class because she was afraid of speaking and that it was always a relief to see that the class was over. I was really surprised. I had noticed she had some difficulties expressing herself, but not that it was so painful. Helping her find the words that escaped from her mind while she was speaking wasn´t always enough to enable her to express her whole message, and adding comments to her broken speech to call the groups` attention to me and ”save” her from her long pauses and embarrassment wasn´t a solution to this problem either.  So, this situation became a challenge to me.

The next step is to approach the student and find out what is causing all the anxiety. This way, the student can not only become aware of the real sources of the problem and face it, but also see the teacher as a support they can count on. Most frequently, the fear of speaking to a group, being on the spot and being negatively evaluated are the causes for anxiety and stress.  The brain´s capacity to process ideas is affected and the situation gets even worse when the required oral production is in another language.  The result is long pauses, stuttering and difficulty in formulating a coherent speech. My student´s case was specifically related to speaking in English, for she had the preconceived idea that she wouldn´t be understood and that her pronunciation and vocabulary were worse than that of her colleagues. 

Finally, show the student concrete techniques to develop their speaking abilities so that they can become more confident and lower their anxiety of speaking.  One way is through improving their listening skills by doing exercises from specific sites, such as Breaking News English, BBC or English Central, watching movies and listening to songs.  Not being able to understand what is being said at normal speed or being afraid of mispronouncing words are barriers to effective communication and also food for failure and nervousness.  Ten to fifteen minutes of listening practice a day will certainly help improve speaking. Also, taking every opportunity in class to practice in pairs and in small groups before speaking to the whole class and changing partners frequently will help the student get used to different accents and speed, and to gain fluency and   confidence as well.  Another helpful tip is to control the speed of speech. 

When someone is on the spot, their breathing gets faster, they start perspiring, becoming nervous and speaking faster.  Speaking more slowly will provide better breathing and a chance to organize thoughts, hence lowering nervousness. The teacher´s role is crucial to set a light, sympathetic and supportive atmosphere in class, showing interest in and respect for each student´s challenges.  In the case involving my class, although my student was a bit of a perfectionist and took her performance very seriously, she ended up learning to laugh at her mistakes, becoming more relaxed and motivated.

These relatively minor attitudes can make a big difference in the learning process and should be addressed to the whole class in the beginning of the course and reinforced through the whole semester.  

ATTENTION DIFFERENT STUDENTS

Patrícia V. C. Ferreira

When I decided to embrace my PhD studies, there was only one topic that interested me, as a teacher: ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It happened that I began to read articles and books mentioning the various positive characteristics of ADHD. Then I focused my studies on the relationship between ADHD and creativity.

It is well known that various specialists and doctors consider ADHD a mental disorder that begins in childhood and can continue through adolescence and adulthood. The use of the word disorder had always bothered me and it sounded too much of a weigh for the various very interesting people I had met with such a syndrome. Of course I realized that these individuals had trouble to focus and pay attention. Some of them were also hyperactive or had trouble being patient. And it is a fact that ADHD can make it hard for a child to do well in school or behave at home or in the community.

But these individuals also:     

• prefer exploring new ways of doing things,
• take more risks than the average person,
• challenge the status quo,
• want to try new things,
• delight in solving problems,
• prefer to research and continuously learn new things over implementing routines."

So I realized there was an undeniable power in that condition, which could be used for the student´s and community´s own good. Finally, there is still a lot of research to be carried out, but meanwhile, I prefer to address ADHD individuals as attention different. They do not have their attention impaired, but actually, they have attention for everything, which makes it harder for them to focus in only one aspect of life or learning. Our challenge as teachers and educators is to help them focus and not lose interest in the learning process.

Bitsboard: a teacher's Swiss Army knife

How many nights have you spent preparing PPT games and vocabulary presentations wishing you were watching Netflix? And you really could not surrender to temptation because you knew you would hear that question. My fellow teacher, I have great news for you that might give you just enough time to catch up with the Walking Dead. There is an amazing app that turns one virtual board into over 20 different games. And it gets even better: it is free and available on CTJ’s IPads.

Bitsboard is very user friendly and does not require internet connection to work, although you will need it just to download or create new boards. This means that, once the gadget has the board, it can go offline. The boards can be downloaded from the huge free catalog it offers or created from scratch.  It has very interesting tools, such as selecting the flashcards you want to use in each game, allowing audio hints or not, adding new cards (called Bits) or deleting others and adjusting the level of difficulty for each game. It also gives students feedback on their results. It seems great, right? And if you are not familiar with this amazing app yet, here is a quick tutorial to help you get started.

How to download or create a board

To download a board, Go to Catalog/Shared/Search box and type key words related to the topic you are teaching. Click on the results to see the flashcards it contains and click on Download. Remember you are free to edit it, deleting unrelated words or adding others.

To create a board, go to Settings/Boards/Add Board. Add new cards by clicking on the add button. It opens a window that shows a slot for pictures and a type box. Type the word first if you want to see options of images that are already on Bitsboard. You can use any of them to make your card. It automatically gives you the recording to that word if available. If the play button does not go green, it means you might have to record it yourself by clicking on the red button. If you want to add images from your picture gallery, click on the picture icon.

Selecting the Bits you want to use

If you do not intend to use all the bits on a board, go to Settings/Board/Board name (e.g. Action Verbs)/Select and mark the pictures you want.

Game Settings

        To start playing, go to Home/Boards and select a board.  A window showing the games available opens automatically. Once you choose it, select the number of players. Click on More/Game Settings and adjust the level of difficulty to that game and if you want audio hints or not.

Sharing your boards and downloading to other devices

      Whenever you create a new board, the app opens a dialogue box asking if you intend to share it on the catalog. If you do, click on Share. I suggest that you name it very specifically so you can find it easily on the catalog. You can also upload it to Dropbox and Quizlet or share it via Airdrop by clicking on Share.

Skills to practice in each game

This app is really good for vocabulary practice at the word level. I divide the games into these categories according to the way they can be used in class and the skills they focus on:

1.     Vocabulary presentation => flashcards (use the projector adaptor to turn it into a whole class presentation), explore, puzzles.
2.     Vocabulary Practice =>

•      Listening:  photo touch, memory cards, bingo, photo hunt, explore.
•      Reading: reader, word search, side by side, pop quiz, match up.
•      Spelling: spelling bee, word builder, unscramble, word chunks, missing letter( pre-writing stage), trace it (pre-writing stage).
•      Critical thinking skills: Odd one out, sort it, sequences.
•       Writing clues/review: story time, review game.

I hope you like Bitsboard as much as I do. Cheers!