Cover Letter

This blog is meant to share my experience as a TDC writing student. It contains samples of writing essays I wrote throughout the semester. It was a hard time for me. Since I decided to take the TDC course, I knew I would have to work hard, but I also knew I would learn a lot. I had my ups and downs with all those writing essays, I confess. Sometimes it was motivating, some others it was just overwhelming. But, afterwards I could see how many benefits I got from it. My reading has improved, my vocabulary was extended and my writing skills went further than expected. I am also having the opportunity to apply the experience the course gave to me. Of course teachers always have something to learn, and I still need tons of study and knowledge to achieve a high standard level of teaching, but I´m on my way and the course is helping me to get there. 

Process Essay: How to make your English students memorize and learn verbs

Have you ever had to teach verbs to your students? Have you ever questioned yourself about how boring it can be for the students to memorize all those verbs? I have been through the same situation,but about one year ago, I experienced a game that changed the bore into fun. Having students learn and memorize verbs may seem to be complicated, but it is actually an easy task if the teacher plays a game, which I call “boys x girls” with the students.

When you are teaching verbs, you can first introduce the verb. I usually do this with miming or drawings. Once the students are familiarized with the verbs, two or three classes after the introduction, I start to play the game. First, I explain how the game works. The teacher writes a verb on the board and the group has to say a verb that starts with the letter that the word on the board finishes with. For example, if the teacher writes “walk”, the next verb has to start with K, and so on. The teacher has to write all the verbs on the board.

The second step is to divide the class in two groups, a group of boys and a group of girls. The game works really well with teenagers. After dividing the class, I write a verb on the board. I ask students to call odds or evens. The winner starts. So, if the girls start, they have to say a word that finishes with the last letter from the word on the board. Then, if the verb was ‘walk’, they can say ‘kill’. Meanwhile, the next players start thinking of a verb that starts with ‘L’, they might say ´love´, and so on.

The game ends when the team doesn´t know a verb that starts with the last letter from the last word. I usually give them one minute to come up with a verb. If they don´t know, the point goes to the other group. When this step is finished, I play another round, if there´s time. It´s important to leave the results marked on the board, so that every class they can continue the battle. 

As a result of the game I could see students studying new verbs, searching for verbs that start or end with “y”, for example. Therefore, as time goes by, students enrich their vocabulary and get excited about learning new and interesting verbs to beat their opponent in the game. It´s really fun and amazing to see your students so engaged in learning and memorizing new verbs.  

                                                 

       

Argumentative Essay: The richness of blended courses

Times are changing for education. Many schools, colleges and universities are now working with technology. Computers have become more and more frequent in our daily life, so it is natural that the process of education follows the same tread.  We are witnessing a transformation of education. The birth of blended courses raises the possibility of thinking less about delivering instruction and more about producing, that´s why technology should be used in education.

According to Barr and Tagg (1995), education centers are moving away from a faculty-centered and lecture-based paradigm to a model where learners are the focus, where faculty members become learning environment designers, and where students are taught critical thinking skills. But still the need for classroom is required in blended courses, thus students can exchange their experiences and discuss the online process with teacher guidance, which enriches the learning process.

With blended approach learners benefit from multiple learning channels and media formats getting in touch with all learning styles. A great number of resources such as videos, pictures, websites, voice recorders, might help students learn better and not to get bored with just one technique.  Furthermore, apprentices don´t get dependent on one source of information, if face-to-face sessions are missed they can find that information elsewhere. This process encourages self-paced learning and increases knowledge retention. 

Though blended courses offer a great deal of advantages, some may argue that the time pressure students have to deal with is something to be worried about. One may not be able to organize him/herself about the time required to execute the online activities and exercises and not to accomplish the course goals. It is easy to think that if you don’t have to be in the classes you have nothing to worry about. But in fact, this is an illusion. Clearly, online classes require as much as presential ones do. To solve this kind of inconvenient it is essential students be strict about organizing themselves and reserving a substantial amount of time to accomplish the online activities.

Given the numerous reasons for taking a blended course, one should consider trying it. It broadens the students production and it makes the person have contact with all types of technologies of modern world. The teacher is less needed and the student becomes the knowledge center.

Advantages of being bilingual

    Being a bilingual in today's society can have some advantages: access other countries; communicate with people from different cultures; and have better job opportunities.  We live in a globalized world and it's becoming more and more common to access other countries, through internet or travelling. Knowing a second language, especially English, gives you the opportunity to better communicate.

    By knowing English, one can access other countries easily. People are trying to learn and study more languages. They enroll themselves in language courses, especially English courses, because English is spoken almost all over the world. If you go to Thailand, in Asia, you can manage almost everything using English. Touristic places tend to have English speakers, and this fact helps to learn more cultural aspects about each country you visit. 

      English is everywhere and more jobs opportunities are given when you master the language. Nowadays it's really common to have children being introduced to a foreign language. The main reason for that is that it's known that kids are fast language learners and the earlier they learn, the easier for them. The parents want their children to be bilingual so that they will have more opportunities in their lives, as a communication issue or in order to get better jobs.

    We can conclude that being a bilingual gives people more opportunities to follow the globalization tendency and communicate more and more. One can learn about cultural aspects around the world and can also have better job opportunities if he/she speaks a second language as English. 

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