Thursday, January 30, 2014

Bad Teacher: Classroom Management - Methodology Teaching, Discipline in the Classroom




This movie is wonderful for methodology classes. I used this scene to address classroom management.

Problem behavior rarely occurs in successful language classrooms. When students are engaged, have a reasonable level of self-esteem and are experiencing success, there is no incentive for them to behave badly or disrupt lesson. There are, though, moments when we need to modify behavior in order to create successful learning environments. There are many things to bear in mind if we wish to achieve these goals (Harmer, Jeremy - The Practice of English Language Teaching).


Watch the movie segment and spot whether these procedures were followed by the teacher. Here is a list of the steps Harmer suggests. Check the procedures the teacher actually followed or did it partially.






Norms were explicitly discussed


They were jointly negotiated


Rules were reviewed and revisited


T wrote norms on the wall


T provided  reinforcement systems


T established  some  behavioral actions


They had agreed norms and procedures


T postponed discipline measures for after class to save class time for learning


T  set consequences


T investigated the reason for misbehavior


T recognized students as individuals



Discuss the questions:


1.    How would you describe the learners? What were their behavior disruptions?

2.    What should she have done on the first day of class?

3.    How would you assess her planning?

4.    How did she individualize students’ attention?

5.    What was the teacher’s role on the first day and after three weeks of class?

6.    How has she changed from the very first day to third week of class?

7.    What should she do now in order to improvement her classroom management skills?


MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - BAD TEACHER

Monday, January 20, 2014

The Bling Ring: Celebrities

This was one of my favorite 2013 movies. The soundtrack is amazing, and  the  director  analyzes the values and beliefs of teenagers nowadays perfectly.



I. Take turns interviewing a partner. Ask your partner the odd questions whereas your partner asks you the even questions.

1. Have you ever seen a celebrity face-to-face? What did you do?

2. Is there a celebrity you admire so much that you would do anything to meet him/her? What would you do if you could spend a day with this person?

3. Do you think famous people have the right to have a private life? 

4. Do you think it's moral to sell your private life to the media? 

5. Why do you think there is such a high demand for gossip magazines and gossip TV programs? 

6. What's your opinion about paparazzi?

7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a celebrity? Would you like to be one?

8. What do you think of fans and fan-clubs?

9. Do you consider a person who is very beautiful and famous for this reason a celebrity?

10. Are famous people truly happy?

11.  If you were a celebrity, would you take advantage of it to date some fans?Why (not)?

12. Do you think that some celebrities earn much more money than they deserve, taking into consideration what they produce? Explain.


II. Make a list of five important celebrities you totally dislike and name five other celebrities that deserve the space they have in the media.


III. Watch the segment and answer the questions that follow.





1. What are the teens' opinions about Angelina Jolie?

2. What are their opinions about Paris Hilton?

3. What do you think of Paris Hilton clothes? Does she need all that? Should she be blamed for that?

4. If you were very rich, would you like to have your living standards just like Hilton's? Explain it.

5. What did you like most and least about Paris Hilton's house?


MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - THE BLING RING