Teacher talk - Students talk

In this entry I want to focus on teacher and students talk during different lessons that I have observed. in the first grade. First two classes were about odd and even numbers. Children revised and practiced them in many ways. They answered teacher's questions and made worksheets connected with the topic. Moreover in the beginning of the first lesson pupils practiced song for Winter Show. These lessons were conducted by the mentor teacher. She gave students a lot of opportunity to talk and share their thoughts. Teacher made questions addressed to the whole class as well as to individual students. In the first case pupils who wanted to say something, raised their hands and waited - they almost always complied to this rule - of course like in every classroom there were a few times when one or another child shouted the answer without the permission. When teacher leads her questions to individual student, he or she always tries to give the answer no matter if it is correct or no. What is more children pay attention to what is going on in class and talk to each other or to teacher in English But like always there are some exceptions - during the second one boy talked Hindi to another students but also two girls who were sitting together used Hindi instead of English - of course in such situations teacher reacts immediately. When it comes to teacher, she addresses the students by name. What I have noticed is that her tone of voice is a bit tense and serious regarding especially  giving pupils reprimands. But on the other hand, she also can be really warm - mostly in situations when she encourages or praises children or if they have any problems - f.ex. during the second lesson one pupil started to cry - teacher walked up to him and talked with him privately.

While the third lesson students had another rehearsal connected with the Winter Show. They practiced lyrics, gestures as well as placing on the stage. During this class children were also singing and talking in English but, as opposed to previous lessons, children had problems with paying attention to what is going on in the class. Taking into account teacher talk, it was quite warm. What is more, teacher praised students when they behaved well and took part in the rehearsal actively. Moreover, he did not ignore them when they had problems - there was a situation when one pupil's foot hurt - teacher chatted with her for two minutes and let her sit down.

During the fourth lesson students practiced vocabulary connected with Christmas and listening skill. They did worksheet and after that played the interactive game - they were watching Peppa's Christmas video and answering the questions that were appearing on the screen. While this lesson children also talked in English between themselves and to the teacher. Teacher was really nice, calm and interested in pupils' needs - he did not ignore them and answered all their questions. Teacher was talking to the whole group - he did not asked individual students.

In my opinion it is important to remember about being calm and use warm tone of voice while talking to students. Praising but not ignoring them is also necessary. Thanks to this, teacher can encourage children to work and participate in different activities. I am sure that in my job as a teacher I am supposed to comply to this rules and care about my students - I can achieve it, among other things, by remember students' names so as to make them feel comfortable with me. Finally, I am going to ascertain if there is enough of students talk, if  they use the appropriate language while talking and if while doing this they focus on the lesson, not on other things.

 'The one doing the talking, is the one doing the learning' - this will be my motto.