Resources according to your needs

Hi there, I am here again and I am bringing this new post where I would like to share the best free webpages to download resources for you.  I will leave you the links and also a brief description of each page so you will decide which one is the best for you.  Do not forget to leave a comment about this post and also share with us if you know any other webpage that provides free material for teachers.  Thanks...




It a site for kids who are learning English as a foreign or second language. Young ESL students will find here lots of online activities and hundreds of printable worksheets that can help them with their English. This is also a resource site for parents and teachers of young ESL learners. We offer tons of free, ready-to-print teaching materials including flashcards, quizzes, games, and songs.










 WORD CENTRAL

Merriam-Webster's Word Central offers kids a student dictionary, Daily Buzzword, and interactive word games. Includes homework help and lesson plans for teachers. Find helpful resources for parents there, too. (http://www.wordcentral.com/)

VISUAL DICTIONARY

Merriam-Webster's interactive dictionary with an innovative approach. From the image to the word and its definition, the Visual Dictionary Online is an all-in-one reference, and helps you learn English in a visual and accessible way. Perfect for home, school or work. http://visual.merriam-webster.com/)

FACT MONSTER


An online dictionary with definitions of more than 125000 words and links to other related student tools. (http://dictionary.factmonster.com/)

GIRAFFIAN

Kid's Online Picture Dictionary and Encyclopedia. A collection of illustrated words and concepts, aimed at children in preschool or early primary years. (http://giraffian.com/dictionary)

CAMBRIDGE ONLINE DICTIONARY

Free Online English Dictionary, Thesaurus, Word of the Day and other language resources from Cambridge University Press. Online Dictionary. (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/)

Storynory is an online treasure-trove of free audio stories.  There you will find a mixture of original stories, fairytales, and specially adapted myths and histories. We also provide a sprinkling of verse. (www.storynory.com)

The ABC Toon Center is an Internet Theme Park for kids of all ages, with safe, interactive, fun activities, original comics, cartoons and music.(www.abctooncenter.com)

Fun site for kids, parents and teachers featuring free educational games, colouring pages, interactive e-books, holiday activities, musical postcards, and more. (www.primarygame.com)

Songs for kids - british council

Find easy songs, and songs that are more difficult - and find songs for your little brother or sister too! You can also download mp3 and print song lyrics and sheet music to some of the songs. (http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs)

Bus songs
BusSongs.com has the largest collection of children's music on the Internet - with lyrics, videos, and music for 2,069 kid's songs and nursery rhymes. (http://bussongs.com/)

kididdles. the best in children's music
Listen to the melodies of your favourite kids' songs, download printable SongSheets and MusicSheets for the most popular songs for children. (http://www.kididdles.com/)

Songs for teachers
You can download for free songs and poems for almost any occasion like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, among many others. (http://www.songs4teachers.com/)

Free kids music
Discover great new music for children at FreeKidsMusic.com. You can listen or download an incredible children's songs from this website. (http://freekidsmusic.com/)

kids' music town
Welcome to Kids' Music Town, where you'll find a huge selection of children's songs, along with their lyrics. We present kids' songs, downloads and lyrics from selected composers and artists, and cover a wide variety of genres within the field of children's music. (http://kidsmusictown.com/)

Messy Classes

Messy classes are so common nowadays, many teachers do not care about discipline in their classrooms.  Do you think it is important to know how to manage a class??? I am sure your answer is YES!!!... I am convinced that classroom management is the key to success in teaching.  However, when we talk about discipline, we are not just talking about the way our students behave but also the habits they have; for instance, discipline in doing their homework, keeping their desks  and classrooms without gargabe, having an acceptable personal appearence, I mean, their clothes should be clean and their shoes, too.  It is important to mention that teachers also need to be well organized.  It is not posible that a teacher has a messy desk.  So here I have left some videos about discipline and managment in the classroom.  Please do not forget to send me your comments about what do you think of this post? or Any experience that you have had? or just maybe more useful tips you know.

There are several tips to keep discipline in the classroom on the net but here I have chosen the best for you! It is important to remark that these tips were written by Mellisa Kelly.

1. It's Easier to Get Easier

Many teachers make the mistake of starting the school year with a poor discipline plan. Students quickly assess the situation in each class and realize what they will be allowed to get away with. Once you set a precedent of allowing a lot of disruptions, it can be very hard to start better classroom management and discipline techniques. However, it is never tough to get easier as the year goes on. While you don't have to follow the adage, "Never smile until Christmas," it does have its merits.

2. Fairness is Key

Students have a distinct sense of what is and what is not fair. You must act fairly for all students if you expect to be respected. If you do not treat all students equitably, you will be labelled as unfair students will not be keen to follow your rules. Make sure that if your best student does something wrong, they too get punished for it.

3. Deal with Disruptions with as Little Interruption as Possible

When you have classroom disruptions, it is imperative that you deal with them immediately and with as little interruption of your class momentum as possible. If students are talking amongst themselves and you are having a classroom discussion, ask one of them a question to try to get them back on track. If you have to stop the flow of your lesson to deal with disruptions, then you are robbing students who want to learn of their precious in-class time.

4. Avoid Confrontations in Front of Students

Whenever there is a confrontation in class there is a winner and a loser. Obviously as the teacher, you need to keep order and discipline in your class. However, it is much better to deal with discipline issues privately than cause a student to 'lose face' in front of their friends. It is not a good idea to make an example out of a disciplinary issue. Even though other students might get the point, you might have lost any chance of actually teaching that student anything in your class.

5. Stop Disruptions with a Little Humor

Sometimes all it takes is for everyone to have a good laugh to get things back on track in a classroom. Many times, however, teachers confuse good humor with sarcasm. While humor can quickly diffuse a situation, sarcasm may harm your relationship with the students involved. Use your best judgment but realize that what some people think as funny others find to be offensive.

6. Keep High Expectations in Your Class

Expect that your students will behave, not that they will disrupt. Reinforce this with the way you speak to your students. When you begin the day, tell your students your expectations. For example, you might say, "During this whole group session, I expect you to raise your hands and be recognized before you start speaking. I also expect you to respect each other's opinions and listen to what each person has to say."

7. Overplan

Free time is something teachers should avoid. By allowing students time just to talk each day, you are setting a precedent about how you view academics and your subject. To avoid this, overplan. Write additional activities into your lesson plans just in case your main lesson run short. When you have too much to cover, you'll never run out of lessons and you will avoid free time. You can also fill up any left over time with mini-lessons.

8. Be Consistent

One of the worst things you can do as a teacher is to not enforce your rules consistently. If one day you ignore misbehaviors and the next day you jump on someone for the smallest infraction, your students will quickly lose respect for you. Your students have the right to expect you to basically be the same everyday. Moodiness is not allowed. Once your lose your student's respect, you also lose their attention and their desire to please you.

9. Make Rules Understandable

You need to be selective in your class rules (no one can follow 180 rules consistently). You also need to make them clear. Students should understand what is and what is not acceptable. Further, you should make sure that the consequences for breaking your rules are also clear and known beforehand.

10. Start Fresh Everyday

This tip does not mean that you discount all previous infractions, i.e. if they have three tardies then today means four. However, it does mean that you should start teaching your class each day with the expectation that students will behave. Don't assume that because Julie has disrupted your class everyday for a week, she will disrupt it today. By doing this, you will not be treating Julie any differently and thereby setting her up to disrupt again (like a self-fulfilling prophecy). Read a personal example of this with my best teaching experience.

Nicenet " Free Virtual Classroom"

Hi again! Here I have brought something maybe new for you which is called NICENET.  According to the official page www.nicenet.org, it is an Internet Classroom Assistant which is  a sophisticated communication tool that brings powerful World-Wide-Web based conferencing, personal messaging, document sharing, scheduling and link/resource sharing to a variety of learning environments.


The features include:

• Conferencing: Create your own private, threaded conferencing on topics you make for the class or to allow students to create their own topics.
• Scheduling: Put the class schedule on-line. With a seven day advance view on your class homepage, students will have a heads-up display of upcoming assignments and class events.
• Document sharing: Students and professors have the ability to publish their documents on the site using simple web-based forms. No knowledge of HTML is needed. Automatically integrated with scheduling, students are one click away from turning in their assignments online, giving their peers feedback on published papers and receiving professors comments.
• Personal Messaging: Similar to traditional email but fully integrated with document sharing and conferencing, personal messaging is a great way communicate with and between individuals in your class, comment privately on conferencing postings or give private feedback on published papers.
• Link Sharing: Share links to pertinent Internet resources sorted by topics that you create.

This steps will help you to explain your students what to do to enter to your nicenet class.

If you have any doubt or question, write me please.  It would be also great if you leave your comments about this post. Thanks.

How to help students get relax and learn better before starting a new lesson?

If you are a teacher that needs to help students get concentration and equilibrium, the best option for you is called BRAIN GYM. According to  www.braingym.com, Brain Gym are  activities that  recall the movements naturally done during the first years of life when learning to coordinate the eyes, ears, hands, and whole body. It brings improvements in some areas such as:

Concentration and Focus

Memory

Academics: reading, writing, etc.

Physical coordination

Relationships

Self-responsibility

Organization skills

Attitude

Here I left you a nice video that will show you how to do each exercise.  I also left you the link of the official webpage (http://www.braingym.org/index)  in  case you want to know a little bit more about this useful therapy.

Do not forget to leave your comment in order to know if it was helpful or not for you.  Remember this is a blog where we can share our experiences or opinions.  If you know any other kinds of therapy about this topic, please feel free to share it  with us.

Description of the blog

 

Everything 4 teachers is a blog designed specially for helping teachers of young ESL learners.  This blog offers you lots of useful webpages where you can enter and get free printable materials, songs, and flashcards to have fun in your English lessons. This page also provides interesting videos about teaching techniques that will help you improve as teachers. We have to remember that interaction is important in the classroom so here you will find some webpages you can share with your students to make them learn interactively.