In my Maths lesson last week, my year 7's were learning about Prime Numbers. With it being bi-lingual classes that I am in, obviously English and Spanish are spoken. The Maths teacher is called Antonio, and his English is ok, but he does stutter quite a bit - he is a new teacher at the school and I think it is mostly down to nerves. He knows what he is talking about but can't quite communicate this effectively in English to the students - so this is where I step in.
Since I learned about Prime Numbers back in primary school, I knew what they were, and so I sort of took over the class to explain clearly, in English, what they were. I then got students to write down and memorise the phrase 'A prime number is a number that can only be divided by 1 and itself'. Quite simple, but effective. We then did some exercices on the blackboard, and I got some of the kids to come to the front of the class and write down the workings out and the answer to the questions on the board, and explain why the number was or wasn't a Prime Number, with the phrase I gave them. Eventually, the kids could remember the phrase without looking at the blackboard, so in many ways this was a success. I think I drilled it into them enough anyway, and I hope that they can remember this for their exam at the end of the year.
Antonio commented afterwards that he thought it was a good lesson too, so it might be that I take over more of the lessons we have together, and explain in English what the equations mean, if I can understand them myself.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Bribing students with sweets!
I've not blogged in absolutely AGES. One reason is that I've been proper busy...the other is that I totally forgot, but either way, I'm going to start blogging again more often now.
A lots happened since I last blogged, so there's a few things I need to tell you about, which will happen over the course of probably about 3-4 blogs (yawn).
Last week I had another English lesson with my year 7's. The topic was Halloween, so I did some research and prepared something to talk about with the students. Normally my year 7s are quite shy at speaking English, but I know that most of them are pretty decent. There's two main speakers of the class - Dario and Daniel, and so I used these two people to get the conversation started, asking them what they knew about Halloween and if they go trick or treating. Quite suprisingly, they knew quite a lot, which was encouraging.
We then went through some vocabulary of Halloween...for example Vampires, Werewolves, Sweets, Pumpkin, Ghosts...the list goes on. With the vocabulary now completed, we had a game of Halloween Bingo. The kids basically had a card each, with 9 different pictures on it of the vocabulary we had just covered. I then read out the vocab words one-by-one, and the students had to cover up the correct picture with a piece of paper. Once all 9 pieces were covered, they had to shout 'Bingo'. Beforehand, I had said that there would be a prize for all the winners, so kids being kids, they got fairly excited at what the prize would be.
We played the game a couple of times over, and there were quite a few winners. When I announced the prize were some Haribo sweets, everyone seemed a little bit disappointed. But come on, it was hardly going to be a bike or Xbox was it? Sweets was as far as my budget could stretch for the day (50 cents) and I think it's the thought that counts anyways!
The lesson was then over, and it was the end of the school day. As the kids left the room, each of them were allowed to pick a sweet each our of the packet. The cheeky ones of the class tried to grab two or three and leg it, but they weren't going anywhere fast...
After the last kid left the room, I noticed a load of kids outside, looking through the windows to the classroom. Because the room I was in was on the ground floor next to the entrance, a fairly large group of kids outside had noticed I was giving sweets out and decided to rush to the window and ask me if they could have some. It was my Year 8 class, so obviously I let them, but I did think it was quite funny at the time, as did Charo, the teacher I was assisting. I threw the packet of sweets ouside in the air so as not to get mauled by them, and let them share the sweets between them.
All in all, a good lesson. I'm starting to get used to all the kids at school now, and everyone seems friendly, so the lessons are becomming more fun each time. Perhaps it's because I'm small myself that I can relate to them?! Whatever I'm doing though, it's working.
A lots happened since I last blogged, so there's a few things I need to tell you about, which will happen over the course of probably about 3-4 blogs (yawn).
Last week I had another English lesson with my year 7's. The topic was Halloween, so I did some research and prepared something to talk about with the students. Normally my year 7s are quite shy at speaking English, but I know that most of them are pretty decent. There's two main speakers of the class - Dario and Daniel, and so I used these two people to get the conversation started, asking them what they knew about Halloween and if they go trick or treating. Quite suprisingly, they knew quite a lot, which was encouraging.
We then went through some vocabulary of Halloween...for example Vampires, Werewolves, Sweets, Pumpkin, Ghosts...the list goes on. With the vocabulary now completed, we had a game of Halloween Bingo. The kids basically had a card each, with 9 different pictures on it of the vocabulary we had just covered. I then read out the vocab words one-by-one, and the students had to cover up the correct picture with a piece of paper. Once all 9 pieces were covered, they had to shout 'Bingo'. Beforehand, I had said that there would be a prize for all the winners, so kids being kids, they got fairly excited at what the prize would be.
We played the game a couple of times over, and there were quite a few winners. When I announced the prize were some Haribo sweets, everyone seemed a little bit disappointed. But come on, it was hardly going to be a bike or Xbox was it? Sweets was as far as my budget could stretch for the day (50 cents) and I think it's the thought that counts anyways!
The lesson was then over, and it was the end of the school day. As the kids left the room, each of them were allowed to pick a sweet each our of the packet. The cheeky ones of the class tried to grab two or three and leg it, but they weren't going anywhere fast...
After the last kid left the room, I noticed a load of kids outside, looking through the windows to the classroom. Because the room I was in was on the ground floor next to the entrance, a fairly large group of kids outside had noticed I was giving sweets out and decided to rush to the window and ask me if they could have some. It was my Year 8 class, so obviously I let them, but I did think it was quite funny at the time, as did Charo, the teacher I was assisting. I threw the packet of sweets ouside in the air so as not to get mauled by them, and let them share the sweets between them.
All in all, a good lesson. I'm starting to get used to all the kids at school now, and everyone seems friendly, so the lessons are becomming more fun each time. Perhaps it's because I'm small myself that I can relate to them?! Whatever I'm doing though, it's working.
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