ANALYTICAL ESSAY

Paulina Clavero
Languague IX
Crystal Hickerson
30 May 2009

Teachers tormented by pupils in every lesson

In the article called “The teachers tormented by pupils in every lesson”, Sarah Harris presents the study’s results carried out by the National Association of Schoolmasters, where it states that the indiscipline and the poor behavior of students is an “endemic” problem. The article shows scientific data; however, the way that Harris expresses the information is superficial. The arguments are well known for the citizens and they do not need a deep study to come up with such ideas related to education.
Sarah Harris’ article revealed the behavior problems that teachers have to deal with, everyday. The situation is always the same, students talking almost the whole class, shouting four letter words, playing out of the class, etc. According to the study team, the half of the class is dedicated to control these “Behavior Problems”, what is also bad because it leaves the good students without being educated.
The study is centered in new teachers who work at states schools because they are the ones who are more prone to leave. They come with a different mentality, however, when they are inside the class, they realize that things are more difficult that they have thought. By the time, they cannot see any difference; they decide to immigrate to the private field, where the behavior problems are less. The study also suggests that parents should also be involved trying to diminish the behavior problems of their kids at schools because this job is not only teacher’s responsibility, as many parents think. That is why, the study put on stage the fact that the behavior problem is endemic. Even though we know that, there should be a strong factor, which produces this problem.
The information contained in the article is supported by a deep study carried out by the National Association of Schoolmaster; however, there are times when it is not necessary to have such reliable source, if the information given it is not new for the citizens. It would be better and more useful if Harris would focus her article in the roots of this endemic problem. The answer to it would be more enriching for everyone.
Considering everything, we can say that it is not obligatory to have a study as a support for the paper but the arguments, which ones are the paper based on, are essential. The article could be better if the main idea of the article would be the actions or the decisions taken from the study’s results or the roots of the problem. I feel that the article could not fulfill the expectations of the reader. Harris’ article strikes me the need for evidence that demonstrates the roots of this endemic issue.



Reference:

Harris, Sarah. “The teachers tormented by pupils in every lesson.” The Daily Mail (London, England). Solo Syndication limited. 2005. HighBeam Research. 18 May. 2009

BOOK REVIEW

Davis, Paul., Eric Pearse. Success in English Teaching: handbooks for Language Teachers. London: Oxford University Press.

Along time, we have seen many changes in the structure of the educational system, in relation to the teaching of English as a foreign language. Thus, trying to accomplish the main objective of the education “to communicate” However, many of these changes have not given a real result inside the classrooms. Children are still in need of real knowledge that let student to achieve this goal. What is more, learners reflect a major problem that starts in teachers, and their lack of methodology in their classes. This means, teachers do not know, how to focus on the teaching in order to get results in SLA.
In “Success in English Teaching” the teacher’s trainers, Paul Davis and Eric Pearse introduce us to the teaching of English for foreigners. Through a format easy to follow, they present activities that despite to engage and entertaining students, they learn. In a world where teaching a foreign language is relegated to old methodology, even more, there is not allowing new ideas or tendencies. The need for activities that demonstrate the achievement of meaningful knowledge is an urgent teacher’s priority.
Moreover, the book gives guidance on activities that have they already tried in classes, where the amount of students is not a significant difficulty. It is quite good because it gives teachers enough confidence to be in front of a class, and obtain good results. The book is very helpful for initial teachers of English. Nevertheless, it also can be a help for those who want to make a change in his/her teaching, thus contribution towards a better education.
The book is structured in twelve chapters; each of them covers the main weaknesses in the teaching of English. Moreover, it gives guidance on management of designing material for activities in classes or tests. The book has been developed to enchant students with English but to open them the doors for their future. However, the activities contained in the book have been try in a context different to ours. It is probably that many of the situations written in the book will be a failure in our classrooms.

Annotated Bibliography

Burns, David. “Will I do as well on the final exam as I expected? An examination of students’ expectations.” Journal of the scholarship of teaching and learning 8.3 (2008): 1-19. In the educational system, there is an important factor to motivate learners. Students’ expectations can change the students’ performance, if they truly believe in themselves. In this research, the author states that, even thought, students have expectation in their test performance based on what they have done before. The result is also going to depend on how much effort and dedication they have put in the study before hand because having the expectations alone is not enough. In fact, the researchers did not show any result on what they have thought and investigated, what leaves in the reader a sense of dissatisfaction and without fulfilling the expectations. However, the research introduces you to more ideas related with this issue. Indeed, teachers should participate being the support and the facilitator for new experiences that let students to grow up in all areas. It is necessary that teachers understand, that, they are the ones that can truly help students change in their minds.

Reliable sites for investigation

JOURNALS

Oxford Journals: Belonging to one of the most important Universities, in these journals, you can find hundreds of articles specialized in any area of interest. The best part of this site is that you can download the articles free of charge.

http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/searchresults?fulltext=education


AERA SIG Communication of Research: it is not a well-known site but not bad. The site is full of information not just for academics, teachers or investigators. Student also can find an easy and a reliable way to get the data for their tasks.

http://aera-cr.asu.edu/ejournals/


Cambridge Journals: Reliable Journals with many years of investigation in the area of education. Here the study is a priority. Unfortunately, you can download just a part from the whole paper.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/login;jsessionid=9CB3A6165541176D6E0E141FE6AA9E60.tomcat1


ERIC: a prestigious centre of information on Education. ERIC has been used in hundreds of study and books. In addition, it has been a source of information for many students when doing their thesis.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=JournalPage&logoutLink=false


Journal of Technology Education: Education has been always one of the most important fields of investigation. That is why this site has been included in this list because we think, that, it could be a good tool and support for teachers using technology in classes. It is full of useful data that can be applied to increase the performance of teachers’ teaching.

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/


DATABASE

Wiki Pedia: this database it is not reliable enough but it can help you in some basic aspect of an object of nterest. Even thought it has much information, it is not recommended to use it for an academic paper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database


Monografías: the most helpful source of information for students. It contains a gret number of information, however the deep of the data is not quite reliable for academic papers, just for simple tasks. Moreover, to get the information you have to have an account in the web page, so it is not as easy as you can imagine.

http://www.monografias.com/trabajos11/basda/basda.shtml

Academic Search Premiere: a database based on education but where you can find other fields of invesitgation. Free of charge, it gives you the opportunity to access a confident and reliable data.

http://biblioteca.udesa.edu.ar/bases/basedu.htm

Learning to Cite.

Many people who are involved in education know that one of the most important themes to teach and even more, to deal with is religion. Not because teachers do not know anything about it. But the difficuly that it presents in managing the theme into a class of 40 or 45 students is completely daunting. How to deal with religion without transgressing students’ believes? Or which are the acceptable forms to raise this issue in the classroom? These are the questions that many Chilean teachers are afraid of facing.

The importance of raise this theme in the classroom, it s not to get students agitated but show them the different culture that exist within each religion. It is important that they can value the differences because this improves their cultural knowledge and let them to have a point of view more engaged with the society.

The problem with this issue is the lack of teaching in class. Teachers try to ovoid it or even worse, teachers impose their believe against students’ own. The unexperience of teachers make them to do this error, leaving in students a sense of incomprehension and frustration.

At this point, we differ a little bit with the comment made by an important man in front of this issue. Franklin D. Roosevelt, quoted in The Wars of the Godly, by Reuben Maury “[T]he public schools shall be free from sectarian influences, and above all, free from any attitude of hostility to the adherents of any particular creed.”(213) From the Chilean perspective the only way to make people respect the differences, thus, avoid a future being a target of maltreat is teaching those differences at schools. At this time is when you can make a real change in people’s mind. Moreover, in this cite we can see the misconception of Roosevelt when refering to Religion as “Sectas”. All the religions should be respected even if we do not agreeg with their creeds.

cite:
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-r1.htm

correcting myself... (old posts)

A GREAT PAINTING!!

The first time that I saw this Picture I got scared. Actually, it has threatened me until now!! However, every time that I find this picture in anywhere, I can stop and look at it a long time (SM). This is a very good painting that represents the anguish of somebody that is lost or has lost something valued for him/her. When you see this painting you are not strange to it, you can feel exactly the same as the character. (SM)That is the main purpose of all the paintings. (P) And that is what the painter expects of you, through the colours and details.

I HATE MATHS!!

I don’t know why I always have hate maths (WO). Actually, this subject is like my trauma (SM) (WO) (WT). I try to put much effort to accomplish all my tasks in it. However, when I am in front of a test, something happened to my (WT), that I did all the exercises bad. Actually, before take the test I tried to study with some of my classmates (WT). But my performances in it were deplorable. But, this problem was not only at the school. When I entered at the university, I had to take maths (again!!) I was so nervous because I have never been good at maths (P) so I had a prediction on my mind. Thankfully, I could pass the subject without too many problems.

answering hector's letter

Dear hector, I have not answered you because I did not come to classes last wed. However, today I caught myself up with my duties.

First of all, the symbols mean the following:

Ww: wrong word

We: wrong expression

Wt: wrong tense

Sp:Spelling

C: Capital letters

P: punctuation

wo: word order

Wf: wrong form

Nn: not needed

?: not clear

Sm: something missing

Now, I hope you can understand my correction.

Telling you about me, I can say that I like English so much. Want to be an English teacher, because I believe that I can make a little change in the way how it has been teaching. I want to work in the south of Chile. I know the weather is awful but I really like the one that they have. About my hobbies, I like to practice sports. Actually, now I practice: spinning, aero box and aero-step, I practiced tae kwon do but I had to left it because of the time. I love to dance and listen to English music.

Sorry I have classes of literature, so I have to go now!

Take care!!!

Regards

Pauly

PD: I am the one with glasses!!

Ricardo's correction

Oh! I think I have got a lot of favourite piece(SM) of technology, (P) few years ago when I was (SM) adolescent I was always playing with my Nintento (SP), I loved it, one time I was waiting for Christmas and when this night arrived (WE) my parents had a great gift for me, they gave me my first Nintendo, then the supernintendo came to the market. I don’t know why but when I’m thinking about Nintendo a lot of good regards spring (WE) to my mind. In the final(WE) of the nineties was release for sale the Nintendo64, I remembered that one time I was playing (WF) two days on-the-run. The N64 was incredible and it had an amazing graphics level.Years later I realized that to buy video consoles it was a stupid thing because it’s much better to buy a good personal computer, then the PC became my favourite piece of technology, I could do everything I wanted, Internet, to watch movies, to play video games and so on. Now I use my PC for college work, but when I have free time I can share information with friends or I can watch a good film with my girlfriend. That’s all for me. Well, I tried not to make mistakes…. Guud vay!!!

Hector's correction

In my point of view (P) the best field trip was in Alto del Carmen, III region. That field trip was in last(X) years(X) 2007. That field trip was duration of (WE) one week. The subject was Geología de Campo I, in (P) (SM)Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas(P) and that subject (course) is included (WW) with complementary formation. I remember saw to (WW) lot of fosil(SM) (SM) the Jurasic age with waylay (?). The wayla is (SM)kind of mollusc. Also (SM) saw a lot of (SM) kind the (WW) rock with limestone, andesite, wacka and minerals (SM) as quartz, feldespt, and fragment litic. I remember what all night we have had drink the alcohol(?). The ultimate (WW) day (SM -2words-))back to Santiago, We played futbol and I (x) with some (SM) classmate(SM) had (X) swimming (WT) in the pool of camping. That day in(X) the(X) (SM) night the teacher (Brian Townley) had (SM) barbecued for all (SM) people. Also I remember had other course (Geologia Campo II). That field trip I celebrated my birthday (July 30)(?). On the other hand I remember have had (X) worked a lot of(X) in that day. We got up many (X) early (SM), more (SM) less to 7 o’clock. That day was hard, all our walked various hours for a lot of hill looking rock and stratum formation. The back in Santiago we have had make to geology map the Alto del Carmen (?)

"KES"

Billy buried kes but his mind was knitting the worst vendetta that Jud would ever imagine. Three weeks waited Billy patiently, when one night his opportunity came with Jud drunk and his mother in a short trip with one of her lovers. That night Billy, as always, helped Jud taking off the clothes. When he was ready inside the bed, Billy decided took all the money that Jud has gain in one of his latest robbers (his new way to obtain money).

Billy walked five days to south direction. He arrived to a new and interesting city in which he decided to live without his mother and brother. He was so good at this city that he never needed them again in his life. He grew and got mature alone and found the road of his life so far, of what he family used to be.

Let's play with words!!

Task 1:

The first time that I saw this Picture (P) I got scared. Actually, it has (SM) threatened (WT) me until now!! However, every time that I find this picture in anywhere, I can stop and look at it a long time. (SM) This is a very good painting that represents the anguish of somebody that is lost or has lost something valued for him/her. (SM) When you see this painting you are not strange to it, you can feel exactly the same as the character. That is the main purpose of all the paintings. And that is what the painter expects of you, through the colours and details.

Task 2:

I think that work with the students of the Universidad the Chile has been a very good way to learn from others. Moreover, it is useful for us because this is the same way that we will have to deal with students from the schools. I really enjoy this way because I pay much attention and care to check student’s blogs. By the time that I understood that they really depend in some way of my “job” I put much effort in the correction that I do every Wednesday for them. I think that the connection, which we have with the student from Universidad de Chile by blogs, is beneficial for both sides. They have somebody that helps them to improve their writing and English. And we start to practice as teachers.

Hector's blog !!

In the future I think is (X) (SM) working in Universidad de Chile( Facultad de Ciencias Sociales -Escuela de Antropología) in together (WE) with IPHES (Insitituto Catalan de Paleoecologia Humana y Evolucion Social), because I loved archaeology (P) moreover (P) soonly (SP) I will have interview with (SM) archaeology__ (SM) with (X) Donald Jackson for (WW) working (WF) and make the professional practice (SM). The IPHES is a network world (WO) (SM) the evolution and archaeology the first human settlement. They have a post degree about Quaternary Archaeology and Human Evolution. This post degree (SM) make in Spain (?). In this time I will hope to have that post degree (?). I will live in Santiago, but before I lived in Spain while I had post degree. When gradued I will travel for (WW) (SM) Chile making investigation in these item (WW). My idea in the future is studied (WF) archaeology and I will be the best archaeology in Chile. Maybe I (SM) have girlfiend, but I do not married, because I will (X) think (SM) wedding (X) after 30 years old. Maybe my the worst problem is plannig a lot of the future, but I think that is how it should be (?).

Ricardo's death trip !!

deathh tripp
When Simon told us that we had to do homework about a “trip situation” I didn’t know what I could say about it. Well, I don’t want to talk about a trip from home to get (SM) college because it’s boring and when I think about this kind of trip I get bored by (X) it (X).Now, I’m going to tell you a great (NN) story about a “great trip”. Last summer I went across/I (X) crossed (X) The Andes and (X) I (X) went (X) to Mendoza, when I got there I started to prepare my trip to Bolivia and my intention was get to La Paz. I knew there are thousands kilometres between Mendoza and La Paz, but that did not matter to me but that wasn't a big deal for me (NN) because I had fifty days to do it.Now, when I got to La Paz I spent some days there with my girlfriend, she was my “road trip partner”. So, when I wished some action, she was there to give it to me… jajaja. Then, we went to The Sun Island and when we got there we spent wonderful days. We stayed in the southern side of the island and then we went to (SM) northern side.When we were about to leave the northern side of the island, I talked with two or may be three Bolivians peasant and everyone said to me- relax my friend!! It will take you between five to six hours to cross the island!!! I believed them! So (WE), when we were on (WW) our way we saw the most beautiful landscapes we've ever seen, it was amazing!! When we were halfway we saw a Chilean friend, we’d met in the southern side of the island and we met (SM) again in the middle of nowhere!!! So (NN), in that moment he said to me- hey! Do you want something to smoke? – And I asked him… well; (P) show me what you’ve got!! I may not say what we smoked exactly, but you know what I mean.After we smoked “something”, we decided to go on with our trip, when the night was getting closer we realized that “the five to six hours” was a bullshit (Bolivian peasant declaration!!), we've been walking for about ten hours and we didn’t find any place to spend the night. When the dark fell to us, we started to become exasperated… we were lost!! So, my nice girlfriend started to shout me and she said to me that everything was my fault! She said to me "I hate you"... I tried to calm her down but I could not do it.At least, after 12 hours walking and screaming for help, we found the nearest town… I’ve gotta confess, I thought I could die...

Ricardo's blog !!

Looking in the blog of Ricardo, what called my attention the most was the Fact that he has not many mistakes. Actually, one of his most frequent errors is the word choice such as environment instead of air or like instead of life. The misused of articles (a-an) and the lack of some words (the) are minimum details, that he has to be aware of. However, his writing is quite good and understandable.

Let's look at hector's blog !!

Looking in Hector’s blog I could realized that the most frequent errors that he does is to translate word by words from Spanish to English, thus, loosing the coherence and the main idea of what he want to say because the sentences are a little bit choppy. Another frequent mistake is the lack of auxiliaries. Probably it is not the lack of aux. but the misused of them. Finally, the use of the Spanish form in the building of the paragraph, it is an obstacle to understand his post.

"ERROR CORRECTION KEY FOR RICARDO"

Hello Ricardo, as you know we will work with you this semester. I have read your last 2 posts to make an error correction key. Probably you do not know what I am talking about, ok! Let’s explain you a little bit of this

Error correction key: they are some symbols that help you to recognize the kind of error that you have made. For example:

You wrote: Teacher English (w.o.)
The correct sentence should be: English teacher

However, I could realize that you have very good English, your English friend did really help you a lot!! And do not worry for grammar because until now you have done a very good job with it, you can manage it almost correctly. As everybody you have some problems but they are not many.

This is the list that we will use:

M.W: missing word
SPG: Spanglish
S. I: same idea (repeating)
C. I: confusing idea
W.O: word order
W.E: wrong expression

I hope these Symbols can help you!!

"ERROR CORRECTION KEY FOR HECTOR"

Hello Hector!!
As you know we will work with you this semester. Our main task is to help you to write better and for me it is to gain experience correcting different works. I have read your last 2 posts to make an error correction key and make this job fastener. Probably you do not know what I am talking about, ok! Let’s explain you a little bit of this.

Error correction key: they are some symbols that help you to recognize the kind of error that you have made. For example:

You wrote: Teacher English (w.o.)
The correct sentence should be: English teacher

I hope you have understood this! Now, I send to you the complete list of error correction key.

W.O: word order
W.E: wrong expression
S.O: sentences order
I. S: incomplete sentence
SPG: Spanglish
C.I: confusing
L.S: long sentence
W. T: wrong tense
C: capitalization
P: punctuation

OK! These are the symbols that we can use to recognize your mistakes.

"Coming back to blogs"

Going back to blogs, I think that this semester it is going to be more demanding because we have the responsability to help people we do not know. This time we have to put much effort than before because they really need to improve their writing and we have to gain experience. I hope this new way of work can be useful for both sides and by the time they improve their English, we can feel more what teachers do. I hope we will have good performances on this task.

....the last words in this blog....

Working with blogs can be a very good tool that helps you to see the progress that your students are having in your subject. Nowadays, blogs have increased their popularity because teachers and students are using them to accomplish tasks for schools. This is a good way to engage your students to your subject, through something that they are use to, technology. However, its use has to be always guarded by you because internet has a lot of information, that sometimes is not good for your students.

The main advantages of using blogs, is the way how you can share your interests with others with the same ones. You write about whatever you want and your friends get into your blogs and leave a message to you, adding more information or just saying something funny about what you have written, for example: the time, when we should talk about a painting that has called our attention the most, I did it based on the one called “The Scream” and Nathalia left me a message adding more information and agreeing in almost all the info that I gave (her comments seemed very clever). I didn’t understand why she knew too much about my post. But, when I reacted and went to her blog, I realized that she had done the same as me!! That was so fun because I thought she was very interesting in my post.

Another advantage for using blogs in the classroom is that you can increase the writing in your students, and they will not realize of this (they will think that this is just another assignments to get a new grade for the course). You can check all the blogs and see the strengths and weaknesses that they have in the are that you are measuring, as Simon did with us in this course.

On the other hand, what has been threatening me the most, it’s that internet spreads a lot info that sometimes it is not appropriated for students. So, it is necessary, that the teachers teach the students to discriminate the websites (where they have to go and look for information) beferore the task starts, in order to avoid they can find bad influence from it.

Finally, work with blogs in classrooms can be useful, to increase to your students the love for writing, through a way that they are used to. Thus, they will feel more engaged with this task and like this more willing to accomplish all the goals that this activities present along the process. However, the teachers have to be aware of the websites that their students are going to be using, in order they can find erroneous information

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

sorry!!