I thank to you ALL for being part of my learning experiences this semester. I learn a lot from you as my colleagues as well as our wonderful professor Dr. Rivera. It has been a joy getting to know and working with each other. Thank you for all the important information and experiences that we share with each other. I wish you a very very merry merrily Christmas and advance happy new year!

The End is just the Beginning

Since Day one, I have appreciated my colleagues Kat and Koneta and my professor Dr. Matilda Rivera in their constructiveness in their opinion and evoking their most meaningful intellect in our class discussion. I have learned a great deal from Chamot, even if I did not agree with some of her pedagogies or philosophies. Chamot's book is great for foundational education in ESL. I have had the pleasure of reading her work and finding out which strategies best apply to me and my ESL students in the classroom.

Great Semester

Si Yu'os Ma'ase'
Sulang
Kinisou
Kammagar
Kalangen en
Nga Kuna

As we come to an end of our learning with ED668, I would like to take this time to say "Thank you" to all who were involved.  From Kone to Jerome and finally to Dr. Rivera.  It has been a joy getting to know each other in an environment which enhances one's knowledge about our ELL students.  

Wishing all a safe, blessed HAPPY HOLIDAYS!  

December 3

One more school day then it becomes official...semester is done!  Being surrounded by two fellow colleagues and Dr. Rivera has made this semester a meaningful journey.  THANK YOU - KERESO - SI YU'OS MA'ASE.  Did I get that correct, Kone?  ;)

November 26

Lesson plans…the basic foundation of an educator’s duties!  Implemented an ELA and Math lesson with the students.  Students were greatly involved and enjoyed the activities as “planned.” 

Chapter 10 – Teaching Science in CALLA

Science…one of my favorite subject to teach in elementary!  There are times in which students will bring forth a question, which leads to their belief of God.  Questions such as, “How was the universe created? Why is the planet Earth the only planet where people exist?”  How does one answer without contracting one’s faith? 

Quote: 

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -- Benjamin Franklin

There are times in which teacher’s become the student…one learns from each other!    

November 19

Reflection – 19 November 2014

As an elementary teacher, I can fully relate to teaching “other content subject” matters to our students.  Teaching each subject can be challenging; however, it allows the educator to integrate subjects which makes learning fun.  

QUOTE:  “Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary.  What we need is to love without getting tired.”  -- Mother Theresa

The joy of the “four walls” brings a colorful array of learning from those of whom we serve…students! 

Reflection - 11/12

Chapter 11 - Teaching History/Social Studies in CALLA

Could not help but think of Jerome as I read and absorbed all the information about this chapter. Great chapter that enhances ones learning of teaching History/Social Studies in a CALLA setting. As our grade level departmentalizes each respective subject, I will incorporate the various strategies that has been mentioned in this chapter.  Great resource!

QUOTE:

"Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation." --- John F. Kennedy

Great president who impacted our history of learning.  

10/29 Chapter 9 Teaching Mathematics in CALLA

Very interesting chapter, not really applicable to me as a Social Studies teacher, but it has definitely helped me to appreciate the elementary school teachers who have to teach all content areas to ELL and the general population as a whole. The chapter however, does have a section on reading and writing about Math where you can see the literacy working, great for CCSS.



"Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself." - John Dewey

* this is the quote I live by everyday, I learn.

Reflection - 10/29

Chapter 9:  Teaching Mathematics in CALLA

Awesome chapter!  Great strategies are stated which can assist the educator in the classroom.


QUOTE:
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.  ～ John Cotton Dana

Reflection - 10/13

CHAPTER 8 - Teaching English Language Arts in CALLA

Whew...what an interesting chapter!  As English is the hardest language to learn grammatically, I found Chapter 8 with many wonderful insights with assisting the CALLA teacher effectively teach Language Arts in the classroom.  With the disappearance of DI, literally, I found myself digging into my old teacher resources that I missed so dearly.  Now the fun begins aligning it to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  Let the learning begin!


QUOTE:

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness" - William A. Ward

Smile and let the sunshine in!

Reflection 10/8

Chapter 7 - Literacy Development in CALLA

Imagine the challenges that ELL students feel trying to learn a second language such as English.  First and foremost in my opinion, learning English is the most complicated language to learn, not socially speaking but academically.  So how does one teach literacy in a CALLA classroom?  Educator's must explore various ways to do the following:  identifying students' literacy needs, be mindful of selecting materials, read aloud to students, use student's background knowledge, and continue to develop vocabulary (Chamot, 2009).  These are just various ways as there are many mentioned in The CALLA Handbook.  This chapter has provided an in-depth knowledge of providing educators various strategies in teaching literacy in a CALLA classroom.

Building the joy of literacy allows students to various literature genre's.  What a joy to witness students, most especially ELL students pick up a book, smile and then go off in a world of one's imagination.

QUOTE:

"It is not what is poured into a student that counts but what is planted. - Linda Conway

Learning is like a rainbow of colors.  Not one color fits one learner. - Kathleen Palomo

Assessment

During our October 1st class, we were discussing assessment. The activities we did were quite difficult. It made me think about how sometimes as teacher we overlook the difficulty of the tasks we present or expect of our students. Sometimes we see "assignments" as a "piece of cake" we tell our students "it's not hard, it's easy" JUST DO IT! (at least at the secondary level). But Dr. Rivera said "if we think its difficult as adults, imagine how the students feel?" That comment was on point. During our discussion, I enjoyed most covering rubric as an an effective assessment tool. It is easier for the students to understand why they received a certain grade. At the secondary level, students tend to question every grade they get, "Sir Why did I get a 70?" By using a rubric, the students are able to see what was expected of them. I usually use rubric in my classroom as an assessment tool, it is also a way for the students to be able to see what is expected of them, to get the best grade possible. This is very useful for student feedback.

Here comes the typhoon! My neighbors are busy securing their homes and belongings and here I am busy working on my assignments and securing my posting.

After a storm comes a calm 
~Mathew, Henry~ 

Be Safe Everyone !

Assessing Students’ Learning

Different kinds of assessments that we had learn during October 1^st class discussions. Those are good strategies to assess our students’ learning that I would like to implement in my teaching. Our activities that night added another marked to my learning experiences at UOG. I feel so funny when my brain had to pause for minutes to like searching in many old storage places that hadn’t been open for so long when we did the activities. I am really laughing inside because I am thinking that if we did the activities with some middle school students, they’ll get it faster than us.

"They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel." - Carol Buchner

Reflection - 10/1

CHAPTER 6:  Assessing Student Progress in CALLA

Loved today’s session.  Discussion of the many types of assessments that could be utilized in one’s lesson(s).  From legislation to rubric samples for various content subjects.

Enjoyed the hands-on activities.  Must say that my brain was on “pause” for some of those activities, as I had to “think” before responding.  Imagine the students!

QUOTE:

"Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny." -- Frank Outlaw

Character...integrity, reputation, eccentric, and a person.  One word with many interpretations of an individual.  What does one hold for their destiny?  

Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluating CALLA instruction

CALLA teachers need to include and or integrate key curriculum concepts, development of language functions and vocabulary, and explicit instruction in the learning strategies that facilitate both language and content development in their lesson planning. CALLA teachers should engage in interactive teaching that includes the five phases as well as ongoing assessment of students’ understanding and performance.

There are steps require in planning CALLA instructions

1.      Selecting the content topic for a unit or lesson

2.      Setting objectives for student achievement in content, academic language, and learning strategies and deciding how each objective will be assessed

3.      Assembling materials that will assist the teacher in making the unit or lesson meaningful to student.

4.      Teacher outlines the sequence of instruction that will enable students to understand, remember, recall, and apply the concepts and processes taught.

To carry out the four steps in planning CALLA instruction, teachers need to assess students’ prior knowledge. Sometimes teacher has to plans how to activate the students’ prior knowledge. To do this, teachers need to have some information about and understanding of the cultural and experiential background of their students.

In my experience of teaching, it is very important and resourceful to know our students’ background. The more we understand them, the easiest it gets on both sides as teacher and student. Once the students know that the teacher and other students appreciate them for who they are the more they have the sense of belonging. They have the sense that they fit in and their learning and motivation increase.

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming." -- Goethe

The Cognitive Approach

The Cognitive Approach emphasizes to teach high-order thinking skills to students.  In the cognitive approach, teachers clearly teach learning strategies to CLD students to enable cognitive development. The four main learning strategies that apply to CLD students in cognitive approach are as follow: cognitive, metacognition, social affective strategies, and cross linguistic. These strategies may include students to do some classification, linking new information to prior knowledge, and ability to perceive the difficulty level of an assignment. The cognitive approach focuses on learning strategies that can help enable high-order thinking skills to students.

"The greatest sign of a success for a teacher...is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist." -- Maria Montessori

Cognitive approach as well as teachers are well looking for ways that can help the students learn the content in their own way of learning in using high-order thinking skills. 

The 5 phases:

All the five phases of CALLA are very important as a teacher’s view. The most important and interesting thing about the five phases is, it focus on the students’ learning or students’ center. A classroom is filled with learning if its students’ center instead of teacher’s center.

The five phases of CALLA: PPPEE (Preparation, Presentation, Practice, Evaluation, and Expansion)

First of all, every teachers need to prepare before presenting the lesson. We all need to prepare before we do something if we want it to go well. Preparation is the important part in CALLA. In preparation phase as phase one, it tells us that we need to know our students’ background. Teachers need to find out the students’ prior knowledge.

Presentation: Finding out the students’ prior knowledge will help the teacher well planned the lesson and do the presentation well. Teacher needs to know what to present to the students or else they repeat the same lesson that would make the students bored because they already know it. This may leads to misbehavior to start appear.

ESL teacher needs to present the lesson in different modes to make the students understand it well. Students need to practice what has been presented to them in order for them to experience and making sense of it. In doing so, they can do self-evaluation, the fourth phase. Questions may arise such as, what do I learn? How do I learn it? And the expansion phase may come straight in when they do the self-evaluation phase because they may also think about how is it relevant and important to their lives.

"Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own." -- Nikos Kazantzakis

Reflection 9/17

Cognitive Approach and The CALLA Approach

It seems like the cognitive approach emphasizes the need to teach students with a level of higher-order thinking skills, which involves more crucial ways teachers apply their lessons to the students.  In comparison to the CALLA approach, the cognitive approach has for main components of learning...cognitive, metacognitive, social affective strategies, and cross linguistic strategies.  




With the department's implementation of the Common Core State Standards and its expectations of ensuring that all students are taught with these standards, it may be challenging for many of our ELL learners grasp each standard.  Effective planning and execution of the lessons are crucial for the ELL learners to fully ensure that they are afforded the opportunity to academically and socially succeed.

QUOTE:


"They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel." - Carol Buchner

There are times in which I feel like a broken recorder at school, most especially when instructing the students to be "quiet" during instructional time.  Some students will react immediately, while others will continue their merrily way.  It is those moments whereas I will quietly approach the student and whisper about proper behavior in class.  Teary eyes would occur and it is at this point, I will question myself, "Is it really necessary to hear a pin drop in class or a little buzzing in the air could be interpreted as learning?"

Reflection 9/10

Five Phases of Instruction

Listened attentatively to the young woman's voice which mesmerized my mind.  I found myself wandering into deep thoughts about my classroom that I needed to continually pause the audio recording and start all over.

First phase was the preparation phase, which consisted of getting the students ready to learn.  One's lesson must focus on the learner.  How can one make the learner's focus on the lesson at hand?  As noted, teachers will utilize prior knowledge and introduce vocabulary that is needed, but do not teach all vocabulary words.  Leave a few so the students can seek it out themselves.  The usage of an advance organizer is highly recommended, as well.  This will assist students with knowing where the lesson will be leading too.

        -  Must say that I find myself giving away too much information on vocabulary.  Since being trained with effectively utilizing graphic organizers, I have implemented this strategy daily.

Second phase presents new information...using a variety of modes.  For example, it was stated that ESL teachers engage students by using pictures, images, video clips, maps, quotes, and artifacts.  ESL teachers also engage all levels of intelligence.  From audio to visual.

        -  Oh, how I love the multi-media projector that was made possible by Superintendent Fernandez ($500 per teacher).  Utilizing YouTube has made learning more meaningful then ever.

The third and fourth phase is the presentation phase which in-disperses with the practice phase.  Opportunities for the students to practice the many learning strategies.  As learning is ongoing, students must also reflect on their learning (self evaluation).  Questions may arise, such as, "What did I learn?"

          -  As students self evaluate themselves with their learning, educator's must self evaluate their teaching.  

The final phase is the expansion phase.  Students display what they have learned and how a teacher can  integrate one's cultural background into their daily lessons.

          -  Integrating one's cultural background brings ownership and a commitment to continued student learning.


Must say that this was a very interesting eye opening concept of learning about CALLA.


QUOTE:
"Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers."--Josef Albers

Not a day goes by whereas I will let the students know that errors are all part of learning.  We take the errors, make it right and if it still seems wrong, then we move forward to finding the right answer.  

Language Learning – CALLA

One of the main objective and goal of CALLA for the student is to be more effective in the learning process, is choosing an appropriate strategy of learning that also can enhance both their study skills and academic knowledge.

Again, I am going for the “Poem for Two Voices”. I am thinking that this strategy will help both the student's study skill and academic knowledge. As we first started out with the activity, we kind of slow and made mistakes. However, in the process of repetition, we become to like and feel comfortable doing it. We started to put more efforts and expressions in doing it until we reached the point where we don’t want to stop and feel happy doing it. And that's what learning should be. Learning should be fun and not frustrating. 

 "I consider a day's teaching wasted if we do not all have one hearty laugh."

Gilbert Highet

September 3, 2014

Thank you all for a warm welcome. I am looking forward to working with all of you.

When Dr. Rivera opened tonight's class by asking us to list the different ways we say hello in the languages of our fellow Micronesians, my mind went completely blank, and I was shocked. It was not until then that I learned that I have not connected with my students on such a level. I thought to myself, "Am I not a culturally sensitive teacher?" I think it is time for me to break down the barriers for these students who are Second Language Learners and help them to learn to trust me and to build a stronger relationship with them. I learned that by integrating the primary language into the classroom, even if it's just one word, or saying please and thank you, will build a deeper meaning of respect from student to teacher. Needless to say that students who are ELL act out of frustration, we, as teachers, need to make this transition as smooth as possible.

The CALLA handbook has multiple strategies that not only can be used with ELL students but with all students in general.

One strategy that I would like to point out that we did in class was the "Poem for two voices" it was an interesting strategy and it was a lot more fun to actually do. As we discussed the ways in which this particular strategy could be used, I was amazed at how many different ways we can meet the objective of the lesson and make learning fun all at the same time. We can integrate vocabulary and the students' first language in this type of poem and allow them to be expressive, there is nothing wrong with expression. And the good thing about it is, we are also meeting the newly and fully implemented Common Core State Standards.

This evening's class was full of insight and I am glad that we are able to share our experiences in this profession.

Si Jerome

Reflection - September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014

First and foremost, welcome to ED668, Mr. Manibusan.

Today's session began with an activity to which Dr. Rivera invited the class to write "hello" in another language. The first word I wrote was Si Yu'os Ma'ase (Chamorro) followed by Kinisou (Chuuk).  Realizing that the directions were to write the word "hello" in another language, I immediately wrote Hafa Adai/Buenas (Chamorro). Despite being encouraged to think of other words, it was a bit difficult to list any.  After a few minutes, words were shared between group members and also few words were introduced by Dr. Rivera. To my amazement, after hearing the words she stated, it sounded familiar.  What I learned from this activity is how we as educators could integrate one's cultural language to a lesson while not taking away the concept of our educational system.

Discussion of implementing various strategies to enhance the ELL academic were shared with the group. Such strategies include, but not limited to, meta cognitive strategies, which include ways to plan/organize, monitor/identify problems, evaluate and manage your own learning. Another strategy involved task-based strategies, which is the use of background knowledge, making inferences and predictions, and personalization.

With the various strategies available, one must adjust to the needs of the ELL student. What might work one school year, might not work for the next. Educator's must allow themselves to flexible to the needs of the ELL student.


QUOTE:

Discover wildlife: be a teacher!  - Author Unknown

August...the first month of the school year. It is a time in which I began to wonder who will be placed in my classroom. Will it be a child who I saw facing the wall, sitting out during recess or simply waiting in the office to see the principal for some sort of behavior? Oh my, who shall I be of service to come August 18. As the day neared, I got my list and smiled. A bit curious to know who's who, I anxiously awaited to meet the little learners. School days continued and to one's amazement, the discovery of the wildlife lived in our little learners who bring such moments of color and joy. Each day is a new discovery which only a "teacher" will understand.

Reflection - Sept. 3

Discuss your thoughts regarding today's activities. Post your inspirational teaching reflection. Review CALLA Resource #2 - Language Learning - http://blog.innovativelanguage.com/tag/cognitive-academic-language-learning-approach-calla/

CALLA Resources Revisited

CALLA

Language Learning - CALLA

The Five Phases of CALLA, Teaching with CALLA Specific Examples

The Cognitive Approach & the CALLA Method