Word Cloud

After reading  "Developing materials for language teaching" by Tomlinson, B. (2014), and "Teaching materials and the roles of EFL/ESL teachers: theory and practice" by McGrath, I. (2013), I created a word cloud based on the most important concepts or key words the authors deal with.  Below is my explanation and justification for those words or phrases I chose.     

To begin with, I chose the shape of an apple since it is usually used to represent teachers.

I included many concepts in the word cloud, like:

*All kinds of material: authentic (newspapers, magazines), published (the coursebook), co-constructed (teacher and student), teacher-prepared

*4 types of material: instructional (informs learners about language), experiential (provides exposure to the language), elicitative (stimulates language use), exploratory (facilitates discoveries about language use)

*What material development involves: selection, trial, adaptation, modification, evaluation, production, exploitation, supplementation

*Important concepts related to textbooks: conscious-learning (since it is usually standardized and not authentic), choice (the teacher has the choice of choosing if he/she wants to use the textbook, if he/she wants to stick to the book or modify some parts, which book he/she uses, etc.  Sometimes, however, the book is so complete that teachers feel as if they don´t have a choice in anything), mediator (teacher becomes the mediator: from the material to the students), global textbook (which is a disadvantage since material should be culturally adapted; every student or group of students is different), stereotypes (global textbooks portray stereotypes and limited realities), resource (besides from the textbook, there are usually many other resources included, like the teacher´s book, the activity book, etc.), the 3Ps (Presentation-Practice-Production)

About Me

My name is Natalí, I´m 21 years old (turning 22 next week), and this is my 4th year in Lenguas Vivas.  I started working this year, and I´m a 5th grade teacher, as well as a literature teacher for 6th and 7th grade.  I´m also in charge of a new project at the school, "IT Lab", where all the groups, from 1st to 7th grade, come to the computer lab once a week, and explore the many things they can do online to learn, practice, create, read, and much more, in English.  

I know this subject will help me a lot, since I´ve only had one class and I already learned new things you can do online, such as the wordles, or this blog!  Hopefully I can learn to produce more variety of materials for all my students, and go beyond the creation of printed material.

I know this generation of students is more comfortable or more entertained with the digital, and I should really be taking advantage of this.  I am certain there is so much a teacher can do using digital material for his/her lessons, and if the students are entertained or engaged, their motiviation to learn increases in a big way.

I couldn´t be taking this subject at a better time in my life than right now, when I´m starting my job and I´m quite new at all these things.  Hopefully I´ll learn a lot and I can profit from everything and apply it in all my courses this coming year.

Looking forward to a great term!