The Multilingual Classroom

Alexia and Yasmin

How to deal with multilingualism?

Currently multilingualism is the order of the day in today's classrooms.
To promote multilingualism we can carry out some activities, for example, we can mingle our Spanish students with children whose L1 is English. Along with this, we improve the L2 (English) in children with an L1 in Spanish.

Another activity could be making groups of 2, 3 or 4 children, after that we give them a script so they can adjust to their role and finally perform it. The language they need to use is the L2 this probably reduced their anxiety when they speak in public.

Finally, a good way to acquire an L2 is to mingle the groups, so they can meet new people and learn from each other. In conclusion, you help them with "getting out of the box" or in other words, to get out of their comfort zone. In addition, to learn a foreign language in a proper way, the atmosphere has to be comfortable, relaxed and always with a touch of fun. 🌏

Computer and videogames

Alexia and Yasmin.

Today we'll show you how to motivate our students to learn with online games.

Is it possible? 

Sure... 

One of them is called Dragon box it is an educational game that introduces children to algebra.

It starts being simple but as you pass the first levels it becomes more difficult every time. 

With this app the children learn in a playful way.

In the other hand, we want to share with you this creative video game it's called Minecraft.
When they created it, it was not intended to educate, but with the time programmers and educators saw the opportunity to create a new version...in which you can find many educational activities.

So...if you want to improve your marks in math go and play some rounds.

The Futuristic Classroom.

Can you imagine a world without books or colours in a classroom?

ALEXIA AND YASMIN

I think that the clases of the future Will be more focused on ITC'S...

Maybe one day the children Will make the tests with tablets or the arts and crafts subject using Microsoft Paint?

Children will have tablets, whiteboards or interactive panels also augmented reality will be in the classroom, the educational content can come out of books or through computers.

RAZVAN

I thing that in the future, and even nowadays, teachers will be more focused on TIC's. 

The classes of the future will be very beneficial for students at all levels of education but don't forget to use the tradictional and manipulative educational tools too.

SONIA

Technological advances are a fact. In all areas of life, especially in education. But, I think that technology in class is a good resource, because you can develop different activities, but we have to combine it with other traditional methods, because can you imagine a school without books and only tablets? Should robots replace human teachers? I don't think so.

Apps or Webs to learn English for students with Special Need.

ALEXIA AND YASMIN

Students with educational needs can also learn one or more languages if we give them useful information and are appropriate for them. To help them with it, there are many apps that are specific to acquire a foreign language. We are going to show you two of them.

The first one is...
My first AAC by Injini:
(click here)

The second one we recommend is Special Words:
(Click here)

We also love SUPER WHY it is focused on literacy, the app helps children to improve their literacy skills such as spelling, reading...etc.

 

RAZVAN

IXL Worldwide is a dynamic, immersive website offering adaptive learning for students with disabilities. It provides fun exercises for mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies.

FunBrain is an educational website with exciting arcade games. Children with learning disabilities can watch lesson videos and practice their skills in attention-grabbing games like Penguin Drop.

SONIA

Everyone has the right to education, in any field. Recently, a large number of apps have been created to learn maths and languages. But I want to emphasize the apps to learn English for students with special needs.

“Lingokids, English for children” offers a safe learning environment for all types of students (belongs to the kidSAFE Seal Program)with adapted content. In addition, it has been created by experts in early language teaching.

It includes children's songs in English, funny videos, audio books, files to print for each topic, interactive exercises… and numerous activities to learn a vocabulary of more than 3,000 words in English.

And... It's free!!! 

The article “The big lesson from the world's best school system? Trust your teachers”.

“The big lesson from the world's best school system? Trust your teachers” By John Hart,, The Guardian- August 2017

ALEXIA

The author of the article compares the Finnish system with the English system. Giving the Finnish system fairness and less stress for students and teachers. 

The article also talks about the gender and wage gap that differs from England. The real success of the Finnish education system is to take care of values and start to trust each other.

RAZVAN

In this article, we can find 11 "opinions" which talks and show us the difference between the Finnish educational system and the English one. It says clairly that Finnish education is on the top of the world, and it is being an example for the rest of the countries. 

SONIA

Which is the best world's best school system?

The article compares the Finnish school system with the English school system. After reading the article, I think that in Finnish system the real success is the level of responsibility and autonomy given to teachers to do their jobs. And this is reflected in the student's results. In this way is how the Finns stand on top in the ranking in terms of schools.

YASMIN

Can a School System affect the whole world?
As we can read in the article, Mr. Hart just makes a comparison between the Finnish system and the UK system.
Since many years ago the Finnish system is seen as the best system in the EU for its efficacy, but what others don't take account is that they are not affected by the same factors, such as the economy or the population. In fact, the UK has to look for more equity and give teachers more responsibility.

You want to know more about it?

click here