3 ways to say farewell to classes.

Many of us are coming to the end of another academic year and in a few weeks the summer holidays will begin. Many students will finish another year and reach another milestone, some will graduate from school/college/university and take a bold step into the unknown. This is usually a bittersweet time for students and staff. Many students will be excited about the holidays, some students will be celebrating achieving their desired grades or better, and some will be commiserating on just missing out. Some will be excited about their life beyond school, some will be sad to say goodbye to friends and mentors, and some will be anxious about what the future may bring. Below are 5 ideas to give your current students a memorable send off.

1 Certificates and a small gift: Write an individual certificate for each student. They can be funny or they can celebrate a personal achievement and you can get students to help create these for their peers. You can accompany this with a small gift like a pen, lollipop, or flower.

2 Advice for the future: This is more of a lesson (for intermediate teens upwards), but it captures the reflective nature of the moment and turns student experience into something positive which will stay with you and your students for a long long time.

• Tell students to anonymously write down a question they would like to ask their future self.
• Put the questions in a hat.
• Show students pictures of the following words and get students to repeat the words: fabulous, blindside, jealous, meandering, congratulate, berate, guilty, inalieable.
• Get students to match the following synonyms to the words: beautiful, surprise, insecure, explore, celebrate, be annoyed, to blame, natural.
• Tell students to watch Baz Luhrmann's 'Everybodies free to wear sunscreen' and write down as many pieces of advice for life as they can.
• Tell students to check with their partner and share the different pieces they heard.
• Ask students follow up questions about the advice: It it good advice? do you agree/disagree? Why?
• Put the questions students asked at the beginning on the wall.
•  Give students pieces of paper and ask students to work in pairs and look at the question. Students should write one piece of advice for each and place it under the question.
• Take a photo and share it digitally with the students.

3 Class appreciation poem: This is another lesson but it can be used with lower level students from the end of elementary upwards.

• Ask students what makes them happy? what they are good at? what subject they found hard? Ask students how they felt they did on the exam?
•  Tell students they are going to read a poem and they should write down what exams don't do and see.

Exams don't measure sports,

Exams don't measure art,

Exams don't measure music,

or the goodness of your heart.

Exams don't see your beauty,

Exams don't see your worth,

Exams don't know the reasons

You were put on this earth.

Exams don't see your magic,

How you make others smile,

Exams don't time how quickly

You can run a mile.

Exams don't hear your laughter,

Or see you've come this far,

Exams are just a tiny glimpse

Of who you really are.

Remember you're the best!

• Give students the name of a fellow student in the class and ask them to write one line about what that person is good at, or write a one line positive memory of that person. Try to think who knows who. :)
• Collect the lines, mix them up and rearrange them into a poem. Play some dramatic instrumental music and read them out as a poem. 
• Type up the poem, print it out, and give each student a copy.

An interesting critique of ELTs obsession with fun!

Fun is great, and no one wants to be in a boring class, no one would argue with that.That being said is it the be all and end all? And Is it really what students want? Comapnies may think so, but this article makes some very interesting points.

Read this article

What autism can feel like

In recent years the study of autism has evolved. In the early 20th century it was classed as childhood schizophrenia, but later it developed into a condition, and finally into a spectrum of conditions (although this isn't as certain as it used to be). I rememeber taking a course called understanding autism with The University of Kent. The researchers, professors, and those with autism talked about how soon the conditions we may call autism may soon be separate diagnoses, but this is not certain.

In my previous post I gave you a task to understand how Dyslexia and related conditions often feel. This is another post hoping to help those who teach neuro-diverse students to better understand and empathize with their students. Below is a video by the National Autistic Society about how autism feels from a child's perspective.

While you watch I would like you to try and answer the following questions.
What did you notice about the noise?
What do you think the child felt when he touched other things?
What emotions did he feel?
What do you think made him feel this way?

* Please note that because of the vast variation this will certainly not cover the varied experience of all autistic people but will give you an overview of how many may feel!

For further information I recommend this fantastic free online course that runs from time to time.

Understanding Autism - University of Kent
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/autism

What do dyslexia and related conditions feel like?

At certain points in your career you will come across neurodiverse students. It can often be hard to know how to help, or what to do for many reasons including unfamiliarity. Below, I will give you a task that will allow you to walk in the shoes of students who struggle because they are dyslexic and have other related issues.

Task

Instructions
Set a timer to 3 minutes.
Pick up some paper and a pen or pencil.
If the paper is lined turn it horizontal.
If the paper is not lined turn it portrait.
Pick up the pen or pencil with the hand you don't normally write with.

You are going to see a short text and you have 3 minutes to copy it down.
Whenever you see an 'e' write a cross '+'.
Whenever you see an 'a' write a question mark '?'.
Whenever you see an 'i' write an '=' sign.

Ready? Start the timer and begin.

PLEASE COPY THIS:

Some people are light or colour sensitive. Bright sunlight or florescent lights may bother them. Black print on shiny white paper may be uncomfortable and whiteboards may be too shiny. Pattern glare may also be a problem. It may be helpful to have:

coloured paper for writing,
coloured overlays for reading,
tinted lenses in glasses for both reading and writing.

The colours and brightness on computer screens can also be adjusted to suit individual needs.

Task finished.


How did you do? How did you feel? Was it easy or difficult? What specifically did you find challenging? The problems and frustration are common for students with dyslexia. Reading is the most common problem, but writing, memory, and coordination can all present through dyslexia and related conditions.

Multi-sensory education: and its applications in special needs, beginners, and young learners

Often in classes we can over rely on sight and sound. Of course, these are the principal ways most of us interactive with the world but at the same time we shouldn't underestimate the power of learning as an experience. In recent years a new pedagogical approach, 'The multi-sensory approach' has been gaining traction, it comes from teachers who work with beginners, young learners, and special needs students who are often frustrated with the lack of options to help their students which work in today's contexts.

The idea is that through hands on, authentic, and experience as learning these students can make much bigger advancements than before. This approach and my training in this area has helped me immensely. Over 1 year ago, I embarked on a journey to help special needs students and to better understand how to teach really low level young learners. In the end my practice led-research in both areas took me down the same route. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing what has worked for me and explaining more about this radical new approach.

For now let me leave you with a few resources I have come across that can tell you more and help you develop.

Dyslexia and Foreign Language teaching - Lancaster University
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/dyslexia

Multi-sensory Instruction
https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/partnering-with-childs-school/instructional-strategies/multisensory-instruction-what-you-need-to-know

Multi-sensory reading activities
https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/partnering-with-childs-school/instructional-strategies/8-multisensory-techniques-for-teaching-reading

Multi sensory approaches in the Elementary school: summary of reference papers
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED432388.pdf

Autism: a different perspective!

Too often the Neurodiverse are written off by education systems and autistic people know this more than most. Too often we focus on what they can't do, or struggle to do and accept it without questioning or analyzing it. Rarely do we talk about their strengths, their unique insights, or even their skills. Recently I found this great infographic by the University of Leeds which can be a useful guide on what autistic people do well and how we can use these in class

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