Teaching Young Learners Affectively

During the month of April I lived an amazing experience!
I gave my very first online course on Teaching Young Learners Affectively!

Everything started when Chuck Sandy kindly offered me to teach an online session on affective language learning at iTDi's Summer Intensive last August. I rapidly accepted it and got ready for my online debut. I was a little nervous at first, but slowly I got more and more comfortable with this means and I was overjoyed at the end. The marvellous feedback I got showed me that I had an opportunity to pursue!

Last December in talks with Barbara Sakamoto I told her I was interested in giving an advanced course on affective language learning. She agreed and we scheduled it for April of this year.

This was one of the banners used to promote my course:

I had four weeks to share my 20-year journey learning and discovering affective language learning with young learners and I decided on the following program:

Week 1: Introducing Affective Language Learning concepts to get you started. 

Week 2: Empowering resources for you and your learners to learn affectively.

Week 3: Unleashing creativity and fantasy through storytelling and puppeteering.
Week 4: Making grammar and writing enjoyable and meaningful.

We started advertising the course and slowly participants from many different countries started enrolling. In the end there were 31 participants from 13 countries. The countries were Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the USA. Wow, what a privilege to be able to learn and share with such an audience!

Then the first day was getting closer and closer. In the previous week Steven Herder gave me a course on how to use the Adobe platform and also gave precious hints to make the course run smoothly. Here are some of these:

My computer was on boxes for me to be better on screen.

I had a lamp with a sheet of paper to difuse the light.

I had earphones to avoid echo.

I had all my slides printed in a list I had by my side.


Each session lasted an hour and sessions happened on Sunday mornings in Brazil and that worked fine as most participants could watch the session live without having to be awake in the middle of the night. Participants also the opportunity to watch the recording of the sessions or even watch these again to get more details.

This is the screen that I had in front of me while delivering the course. I had to manage time to cover all the planned content in one hour and also to keep an eye on the running chat box to comment on and answer the questions that were coming from the participants.


Affective learning has to do with responding to students' demands, so my challenge was set there!

I was very happy by the end of the first session that I even cheered on screen. Facebook feedback was also great. Then I was ready for the second component of every session: the google community forum. Every session I present three tasks from which students had to choose two to share their views on the forum. One of the first tasks was to take a picture that represented affective language learning for them. Their pictures and the motives were brilliant. Check some of these below:

One area that we had in the Adobe platform that I like very much is the lobby. The lobby is a customizable area where I welcomed participants while they were waiting for each session to start. 

One affective strategy that I used was to display there some of the pictures that participants had shared in the forum the previous week as a way to validate their work and celebrate our learning. 

I could clearly notice how teachers were excited to see their pictures in the lobby. I will certainly do this again in my next courses! 

Another important moment was circle time when we shared about what we had thought since the last session. It was also a great way to acknowledge the great work that was done in the discussion forums. 

Throughout the course we explored how to foster affective language learning through everyday objects, storytelling, and puppeteering. In the last session we focused on how to engage young learners in writing and grammar in meaningful and creative ways.

Participants also recorded lovely videos of how they would present puppets to their students. Here I would like to share here a special video made by Damien Herlihy from Thailand in which he even used chroma key. Check it out! 

Every week I had the most adorable time engaging in dialogue through the participants' discussion forum posts. There I was able to bond individually with each teacher validating their dedication and commenting on their ideas. A highlight were the puppets that teachers made and their sharing of how they introduced them to their students using the techniques learned in the course. 

The ending was a very special moment that I will always remember. We turned on our cameras and we were able to see each other around the world. Many of us got emotional, including me, and we were all very excited to celebrate these four intensive weeks in which we share our experiences, lives, and dreams. I feel that lots of the affective learning seeds are already germinating!!!

I am certainly going to give many more online courses as I simply loved this experience. I met lovely teachers all around the world, discovered online tools, and learned a lot about affective language learning.

I would like to thank iTDi for this amazing possibility and in special to Barbara, Steven, Chuck and Gareth for all the all the support and attention!

There are always great courses, given by passionate teachers, happening at iTDi .
Check here iTDi's advanced skills courses and choose the next one you will join!



Sending you all a big hug,

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Learning English with Flying Hankerchieves

"Aesthetic matters are fundamental for the 

harmonious development of both society and the individual."

Friedrich Schiller

I simply love having hankerchieves in my classes because these flying and maleable colourful pieces of light fabric bring much more than joy, movement, and fantasy. Flying hankerchieves bring a sense of aesthetic and beauty to the process of language learning.

These small pieces of magic allow students to create language while playing, to move their bodies while learning, and to see them beautifully floating in the air.

That's probably why I have have given over 50 sets of these flying hankerchieves made by my mom Stella to fellow English teachers at congresses and school visits around the world.You can make your very own hankerchieves by cutting 15-cm squares of colourful and very light fabric. 

Here I share 12 creative ways through which flying hankerchiefs can promote affective language learning in your class:

Ready or not, here I come!

1. Counting numbers: children can count with hankerchieves in several different ways. One way is to have only one hankerchief being passed around, one variation is to give a hankerchief to a small number of children to be passed around, and finally a pair can share a hankerchief. Another possibility to prctising counting is to throw the hankerchief really high in the air and children count until it touches the floor.

2. Drawing numbers, letters, and words: you can model drawing numbers, letters and even words in the air which students should guess. One student can then be invited to do it to the classroom and finally students do it in pairs of small groups. It can also be done with ribbons that will maintain even longer the shape of the numbers and letters. Great fun!

3. Noticing colours: here I share some ways that you probably already know. The first one is hiding one in your hand and students have to guess which colour you have. Another is hiding them in the room to be found. Next you can play the subtracting game by getting one colour from the pile and getting them to notice which one you got. Last you can display the hankerchieves on the floor in a certain order, ask kids to close their eyes, and change the order, students have to tell you what has changed. All these can be played as a big group, small group, and then in pairs.



4. Touching body parts: here one throws a hankerchief in the air and students have to get them with the part of the body that is chosen. A variation is to say a student's name and a body part as a challenge. If the students completes the challenge, he or she says the name of the next student and a different body part.  Great fun!


5. Exchanging things they like: you get a hankerchief and you tell students you have something of that colour in your hand. One can say for instance that the white hankerchief is a cloud,  the red one a strawberry, and the blue one is the ocean. Have students say what things each colour is. Then each student can get a hankerchief and say what they have in their hands. In the last movement, students ask each other what they have and  if they would like to exchange them.More advanced students can give reasons why they accept or not the exchange.

6. Checking students' emotions: tell students you feel happy when you pick the yellow hankerchief. They can them tell you which colour means happy for them. After that learners can choose a flying hankerchief according to how they feel on a certain day or about a certain topic. They can choose for example the white one if they are really calm or the yellow one because the like the sunny day.

7. Creating things ( or even a scenario!) : call out some things that have one color like the sun or water and let students make them on the floor, after this call out things like trees or a watermelon that have two or more colours. When you notice your students are really good at it invite them to make a scenario with all the hankerchieves. If they choose making a beach for instance, they can use the blue ones as the ocean, the yellow ones as the beach, and the green as palm trees. Their creations are usually incredible!

8. Discovering things with the chosen colors: this is the opposite of the previous activity. Each learner chooses a hankerchief and the teacher calls two students. These students have then to say which thing has the colors of their hankerchieves. For example, black and blue could be a policeman's uniform or even a sunken ship. You can leave their creations on the floor. Call out all the students until they run out of hankerchieves.


9. Telling a story: here you can start a story by giving a specific meaning to one hankerchief. For the story to continue one student comes and ties his/her hankerchief to the first one. Example: Once there a flea (black one) that fell in the water (blue one) and then the day started to get really hot (yellow) and so on. Once all the hankerchieves are used students can retell or even rewrite the whole story.


10. Reading through them: a fun way to use the hankerchieves is to read through them. You can decide together with the class if colors have any special moods or ways to read. Hankerchieves can be changed after some time. Some possibilities are fast, slowly, prolifically, sleepy, angrily, in love, etc.

11. Listening to words: students can be given flashcards with words that will appear in a story or in a song. Whenever they listen to the word they have been assigned they throw their hankerchief to the air. It is a beautiful scene to see all of them flying in the air. Make sure you say every word many times to make children pay close attention. I usually say all the words in my last sentence.

12. Listening to similarities: students are given a hankerchief each. Then in pairs they face each other, one starts saying one sentence at a time about personal facts or opinion. Then if the other person has the same fact or the same opinion, this person throws the hnkerchief to the other and repeats the sentence that was said, and then continues the game by saying sentences until the other person repeats it and throws the hankerchief. Students go switching who is doing the talking until they have swapped hankerchiefs a certain number of times.

Bonus activity: have them dancing! 

 Here you can see me with  two wood crosses and eight hankerchieves. Tie one to each edge and you can have a bunch of birds flying or ghosts dancing.







Thanks to Pravita Indriati from Indonesia for the pictures of her students learning with the flying hankerchieves!

Which was your favourite activity?
Do you have any other idea on how to these beautiful flying hankerchieves?

Hope to meet you at a congress and to be able to give you personally a set of flying hankerchieves!

Sending you a big hug,

Juan

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Hiring English Teachers for Young Learners

"Time spent on hiring is time well spent."

Robert Half

During my Masters in Education at the University of Toronto I researched about a topic that had made me not sleep well for many nights: teacher turnover. I wondered why teachers would leave my school and I had to start all over again. It seemed that the interviewing, hiring, training, and developing process would never end!  Students lost their teachers, parents were not happy, and it seemed that we were just not going forward.

In my research I read countless articles and I discovered many factors that are conducive to teacher retention and I will discuss them in a series of posts as the theme is just too broad for only one piece of writing. The first area that I am tackling here is teacher selection. One of the reasons why teachers leave language schools is because they were not properly selected according to the best profile that marches the audience, expected competences, and the offered working conditions.

Some of the reasons teachers are usually not properly selected might have to do with the following facts:
we needs them urgently,
we do not invest the proper time to select teachers,
we are not aware of the real competences needed to teach young learners,
we don't know how to measure the competences we need to hire the right people.
or most probably some kind of combination of the reasons above.

The time that is spent knowing the people who you are going to work with makes all the difference in the long run as assertive selection can break the vicious cycle of turnover.

The first thing is knowing what kind of professional you want to hire. Would you prefer somebody experienced or somebody you can educate? A younger or an older person? Native or non-native? Or you might say that these features above do not really matter because you are looking for a teacher with a totally different skill set. But make sure you know what you are looking for right from the start, otherwise anybody will seem to be ok and you will be left to luck.

There are however some aspects that I believe every teacher of young learners should have:

they should be fluent and proficient in the language (at least 100 points at TOEFL)
they should enjoy being with children,
they should enjoy education.

Here I share some of the steps I take while selecting teachers for young learners. Choose the ones that you think that are suitable for the reality you are living.

Once knowing what professional you are looking for, I suggest putting out ads and circulating the word around through social media asking people to send you their resumés. Remember that you are not the only one selecting teachers and that teachers will select you as their employers as well. I created this page (in Portuguese)  explaining how the process works, what we offer, and how the work happens at our school. Giving as much information as you can shows that you are organized and will allow people to make the decision if they think your position matches their profile.

Always make the first contact electronically as you can manage when you will answer them and you can give candidates undivided attention. Avoid scheduling interviews with people you have just received their resumé as this is time consuming and might lead you to select the wrong profile for your school. I usually ask candidates to answer 5 questions and already check availability and other essential aspects that are important. These questions can not evaluate who has the profile but can clearly tell you who does not (English quality, experience, goal, availability) You do not want to interview somebody for 40 minutes to discover that they do not have the availability you are looking for! Believe me, I have done it more than a few times.



After we select the candidates who might have the desired profile, we conduct a 3- hour group dynamics with the objective of really noticing how people interact with each other in an educational environment.  We have developed different cooperative scenarios in which candidates have to solve problems that allow us to observe the quality of initiative, listening, flexibility, and rapport that people show. I also have here a controversial pedagogical case involving young learners and their parents that they have to respond in writing as a way of analyzing their thinking process. After they write what they would do, I collect their pieces and ask them to discuss the issue as a group.


Take into account that usually between 30% and 40% of the people invited to the group dynamics do not come, so I would say it is fine for you to invite between 10 and 12 people to have between 6 and 8 during the session.

I know a school that offers extensive development courses for teachers of young learners and they just invite the very best teachers to be part of their team. You don't need the dynamics as you have already lived with these teachers throughout the course! If you choose to do so, make your courses really affordable in order to attract a big number of teachers.

Before the interview, I usually show the person around the school  as a way of observing how interested the person is in the school materials and method and also as a way of checking how much the person already knows about the school. If one person already starts asking about the salary and does not ask about the method that is probably not a good signal. During the interview I like to check if the prospective teacher has a rich life in cultural and social aspects. Does this person read? Does this person go to museums? How active is this person overall?

Once candidates made it after the interview, make sure you always check their references before letting them join your pre-service program. You do not want to learn that a person appeared drunk  at their last job after you have either trained or hired them.

I suggest having your pre-service program as part of your selection process, as both of you are evaluating each other. At school we give pre-service participants money to cover their transportation and food costs during the period they are in training. In this sense, hiring should be like getting married, you slowly get to know each other before making the final commitment.


During the pre-service educational sessions you can notice:
who is punctual,
who is responsible,
who is flexible,
who is energetic,
who has initiative,
who is creative,
and mainly who gets along with students.


Having a teaching practice as a component of your pre-service course allows you to observe teachers in action with the children.   During feedback you can notice how open and comfortable these teachers are to criticism.

Last but not least, make sure you start with a number that is higher than the people you actually need. You do not want to hire somebody (knowing that this person is not adequate) just because you started the process with the number of people you need. In my experience there is always a participant who gives up or another who does not have the desired profile.

Chances are that after you followed these steps you will have somebody who is close to the profile you are looking for. This actions will certainly reduce the initial turnover that happens when people start working and quit because they notice working with young learners wasn't really what they were expecting or your surprise to learn that some teachers weren't really that interested in teaching after all.

Sorry to say, but this is just the beginning! In the next posts I will address other issues that I discovered in my research and that are important in keeping talents at your school!

I wish you a lot of success in creating your dream team!!!


What about you?
Have you also had difficulties selecting the right teachers?
Did you use any other strategies that worked in your setting?


Send you a big hug!

Juan

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Using Young Learners' Pictures while Learning English

“If you put out acceptance and warmth, 

you tend to attract the same.” 

Deborah Day

Do you have pictures of your students in the bulletin boards at school? You should!

Having their lovely faces present in the classroom creates a climate of acceptance, builds group identity, and allows us to teach affectively in many ways. Ready or not, here we go!

We make their picture cards by taking their pictures and plastifying these with their names written under. Make sure you use only capital letters to help even the young ones read all names. one hint is to take the pictures against a solid color background, so that all pictures look the same and their faces stand out. 

At first our pictures cards here at school were too big to fit in our bulletin boards. Now we have them sized as a regular playing card. If it is hard for you to have all of their pictures displayed on the bulletin board, you can have all their pictures inside an envelope with their group's name. 

Here I share some ways we have discovered to use picture cards with young learners: 

1. Welcoming in the beginning of the semester: when students arrive we usually have all the pictures of students in the front lobby showing all the students who have classes at school. It is interesting for them to see themselves as a part of a larger community and also to find their friends from previous groups, as well as peers from their regular school. Children find their pictures, get them and take them to their classroom.

2. Giving themselves a group identity: after a few classes you can ask students to think about a name for their group. You can see in the picture the different group names they have chosen and how they express their similarities and likes.

Students then make together a small banner that is placed above their pictures on the boards. They have a great time seeing what other groups are named.

Here at school in your coordination meetings we use the group names when talking about them!


3. Circle time attendance:  The picture cards are perfect for you to have the ritual of the remembering circle that I have described in a previous post. When checking who is in class, we can use the pictures for students to remember others. Then students can say something they like about the children who are absent making these child present in their absence. This ritual celebrates being part of the group.

4. Quick cheat: we might not remember the names of all students in the beginning of a semester. Instead of asking them to wear labels or plate cards, we can always glance quickly at the bulletin board. Not only us, but students as well. We will probably have just remembered their names during circle time attendance. 

5. Seating students: when you notice that some students always sit next to each other, picture cards can be used to display where they are sitting before they arrive. I usually do this once in a while, as I think it is also important to value their seating preferences.

6. Matching students: picture cards are a great way to match students in pairs or groups. They save time and it is very easy for students to understand who is working with who. Hint: you can divide students in two piles (weak/strong or shy/agitated) and match pairs. In this way you know you will not have a pair weak/weak or agitated/agitated. I'm not saying that these pairs are not productive, but you might prefer to have pairs matched with some kind of opposite charateristic.

7. Task cards: picture cards can be used to choose students who are going to do certain tasks. You can ask a question and pull a card, pull two cards and get one student to ask another a question, or even have an order in which students will do something. The interesting thing is the surprise factor that fosters readiness, even students knowing that it will take some time for them to be called again after their picture was pulled. The good thing of this system is that we can make sure all students get their fair share of teacher attention.

8. Expressing themselves with picture cards: young learners can place their picture according to their opinion in surveys with multiple answers. Instead of writing their names they just display their picture under the heading. You can have boys/girls, like/don't like, prefer cats/prefer dogs, etc. Be careful not to have the pictures replacing their actual speaking! The good thing is that we can see the results in a very concrete way.

9. Making lists: student can put their pictures in order according to certain topics. Let's say height, age, how long they have studied at school, how much they like a cartoon, etc

10. Interacting with other groups: giving a face to a person helps when carrying out projects together with other groups at school. 

11. Identifying student projects: picture cards can also be displayed next to student projects in learning fairs, making it easy for children and parents to find their projects and to recognize projects from their friends.

12. Remembering everybody during teachers' meetings: I have experienced that in meetings with teachers we tend to talk more about the challenging students than the ones who are performing well. Using their picture cards allows us to "see" your young learners better and make sure we don't  forget anybody.

A word of caution: it is better if the idea of having students' pictures is done throughout the school, otherwise if you are the only one doing it, other teachers and groups might become jealous!

I like this idea of having people's pictures around the school so much that we even created a special star wall at school in which we have the faces of everybody who works at school. Each person is a star in our constellation!

We also have the spiral to symbolize that we are always growing and evolving, both personally and professionally. 

What about you? 

How did you like these ideas? 

Do you think you can use them in your setting? 

Make my day by dropping me a line. I'd really like to hear from you!


Send you a big frog-hug,

Juan

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Routine cards foster confidence, dialogue, and awareness

“It’s not about having enough time, 

it’s about making enough time.” 

Rachael Bermingham

My mom prepared this card display! 

You probably have already seen routine cards in kindergarten walls. Well, that's exactly from I got the idea and adapted them to our English classes. Routine cards usually display planned activities and their sequence to let children know how their day will unfold. 

Routine cards are a great resource to teach young learners as they help students to understand time, reduce anxiety, ease transitions, promote dialogue about learning, raise learning awareness, and foster power sharing.

Routine cards can be created in many ways. At school we have the following ones: Relaxing, Warm up, Circle Time, Storytelling, Game, Puppet, Song, Art, Video, Writing, Reading, Grammar, Theater, Project, Cooking, Sports, Surprise, and Wrap up. 



Here below I will explore many of the great advantages I have found while working with routine cards. Come with me! 

Children are better able to understand time: it is hard for young learners to understand how time is lived. Some children enjoy the class so much that they ask every five minutes if we still have time left, some other children are anxious either waiting for a certain favourite activity to happen or for the class to end. In all these situations there is anxiety, which certainly hinders the concentration and learning from the whole group. By showing young learners the sequence of what is planned for the class, they can concretely "see" time passing and can know when and what is happening next. We usually turn every card down after we have done that activity.

Routine cards allow for smoother transitions between activities: I guess most teachers agree that it is hard for children to transition activities. I noticed that when students know what is happening next it is easier to progress in the sequence of activities. It is very important to prime them, by telling them that we still have some minutes to finish, as it allows them some time to accomplish the task and move on. It is important to have a sequence in which there is a growing level of interest after demanding activities, such as having a game after a writing activity. 



Attention: make sure you say that you are doing the writing and then the reading. If you say that you are playing the game if you do the writing, the game is being set as a reward for the writing and this implies indirectly and unconsciously that the writing part is the "bad" one. 


It is a great way to manage energy: there are naturally some activities that are more demanding and some others that are the students' favourites. Routine cards can help teachers and students by organizing "harder" activities first and the most pleasurable ones last. I like also look use routine cards to balance the sitting and standing activities as well as the open and guided ones. Another thing I do to raise students' concentration is to insert fun and relaxing quick activities that students are successful between longer ones. 

Listening to students is essential in affective learning!

Routine cards promote dialogue about learning: this is certainly one of the best benefits in my opinion. Having the class laid out in front of your class promotes listening and talking about either about what is going to happen or what has happened. In this precious moment we can listen to students impressions, likes, and dislikes. 


We can ask why they think in certain ways and try to understand how they value the activities and get their purpose. I usually briefly talk about why I think they are important. During these metalinguistic conversations students might ask you why you haven't done some of the cards and I think this is great to get ourselves out of our comfort zones!


Teachers become more aware of their teaching: If students do not actively tell you that they would like to have in their classes, you can clearly see the cards that you are usually having in class. Have you always been working with songs and haven't had any videos? What stops you from having a more balanced learning diet to your students? This can be a wake up call! As hard as it can be, it's explicitly revealed not only to you, but also to your students. Better work on a diversified menu before students ask you! And also let them ask as this  allows for being of service to the group!

Here we have pictures of the students doing the activities! 

Allows for personalization: one thing I still haven't done is to make the cards together with the students by either drawing or cutting from magazines. I believe this experience can be very fruitful as it not only personalizes their cards and learning, but also creates this moment to talk about all we can do during the course right at its beginning. It also creates a very unique product that can be shown to and even used by other groups. The group can in this process come up with cards that are different such as adventure, fantasy, jumping, or whatever comes through their minds! 





Last words about routine cards: 

Students enjoy the cards and they even ask for them when we do not take them. I get confused when I am not using the cards. 

Cards can be hard to use with some very young children and with older students. What I do with the very young ones is to put only four cards to get them used, even if they are not paying much attention. Regarding the older ones, I usually write on the board the activities and talk to them about what we are doing. I guess they might reject the actual flipping of the cards as they see it as something childish. I tell them why I do it and that in companies meetings have an agenda as well. 

Some very young students have stolen cards. The stolen ones are the activities that they do not like and the wrap up card. Do you know why the wrap up card? Because without it, the class will not finish! What a treat to listen to them saying it! 


What about you? 

Do you use routine cards with your young learners?
How do you manage time with your young learners?
Do you use any strategies to discuss what you are doing with your students?

Send you a big frug,

Juan

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Thank you!


EXTRA! 

Please read the comment Kim Horne has made below about how she uses routine cards with her young learners. Great ideas! 

These are the cards she uses with her students in Japan. Beautiful!


















Thank you SO much for sharing, Kim!

Interviewing Affective Educators: Sandra Rodrigues

After Vicky Loras interviewed me last week, I thought I should also start interviewing enthusiastic educators I admire.  It didn't take me more than a few seconds to know who I was going to invite for my very first interview: Sandra Rodrigues.

Sandra Rodrigues

I met Sandra Rodrigues many years ago in one of the open training courses we offer for teachers of young leaners at Juan Uribe Ensino Afetivo. I can still clearly remember  how Sandra was very involved and took notes of everything we discussed. After this first meeting, we always kept in touch and Sandra became a regular at our courses and events, even bringing her lovely daughter, who was still a child at the time.

Sandra's determination, enthusiasm, and curiosity led her to explore the world of young learners learning like very few people I know. She read educational books, studied methodologies, shared her experiences with other educators, and travelled to educational centres.  But what I really find fascinating is how she has been able to align all her studies, experience, and values in her teaching. 

The result is admirable affective language learning! 

Here we have our first interview: 

Juan: Sandra, we have been together many times at school and I can truly say that I admire your energy and your passion for education. I would like to thank you very much for accepting to give me this interview and for sharing your work with the ELT community.

Sandra: It is a pleasure to share my ideas and my passion for education with you Juan. I’m very grateful for everything I learned and still learn with you. And you know, I love talking about my work so thank you for inviting me.

Juan: It is m great pleasure, Sandra. I will start by asking you how you entered in the world of education. Did you have a special teacher that influenced you? 

Sandra: In fact I started when I was just 14 years old. I worked as a class assistant for four years and once I finished high school I started learning English in a private course at USP - University of São Paulo. (Unfortunately dear readers around the world, here in Brazil students don’t learn English in state schools yet. We do have English classes in our curriculum but if you want to be fluent in a second language, you better pay for a private course).

Sandra, Buddy, and I many years ago.

Anyway, soon after I followed some teacher training courses and started teaching adults. Business English, actually. Most of my students didn’t like to learn English. They used to say they had to learn it because of their career and ever since they were kids, English class had been a synonym of boredom and repetition.How come? Since they were kids? How could we teach a second language to a child? Was it really boring? Could it be different? Could I do it?

It was time for a change. Thereupon I initiated my studies on Child Language Acquisition and attended several courses about Teaching Young Children. By happy chance, in my search for new approaches and techniques I found your school, Juan Uribe Ensino Afetivo, in São Paulo, Brazil. There I discovered that learning a second language as a child can be fun, effective and the most important for me…children can learn in a very affective way.

A special teacher who influenced me? I have now 14 years experience as an English teacher. All through these years I have had many teachers, tutors and coordinators who somehow influenced my current way of teaching. However some of them are special just because after listening to my questions or aspirations, they had the perfect “food for thought comment” or even better, they asked me more questions. I guess I can say that the teachers, tutors and coordinators who influenced my way of teaching were the ones who were able to listen and to understand me: Juan Uribe, Débora Schisler, Clara Garcia, Sosô Uribe, Kátia Valle, Nina Lauder and Fátima Freire Dowbor.

Juan: I am happy to be in your list, Sandra! I consider you to be a very affective person and language educator. How do you have affect present in your life and in your teaching? How do you know it makes a difference in students’ learning?

Sandra: Well I have an eleven year old daughter who thinks she’s already a teenager, so dealing with affect is something I have in my life every single day. Along with that I’m a very passionate person. People usually say they can see in my eyes whether I’m happy or not. Consequently enabling students to experience good emotions is part of my job. As a special Dutch former teacher told me once, children can learn anything when they feel good about themselves. If they are happy, they will learn. So how do I make my students happy? Letting them do just what they want in class? No!

I usually say I’m inspired by my students and I get this inspiration by listening to them. By respecting their opinion, accepting their suggestions and providing a stress free environment. Of course we are not Pollyannas and sometimes we get up on the wrong side of bed. In my classes we make room for this kind of emotion as well. Students are encouraged to say when they are not having a good day, and that also goes for the teacher. We are human beings not super heroes.

 Juan: I couldn't agree more with you, Sandra. Presence and authenticity are key to true affective learning. Changing subjects, we have both taken countless courses and travelled to different places around the world to learn about how young learners learn best. What have been some of your most surprising findings?

Dutch children learning in the museum. 

Sandra: When visiting the Netherlands I found out that Dutch kids are one of the best of the world when it comes to Math. I had the chance to talk to a former primary teacher there and she told me that Math is traditionally valued by parents and teachers. At school teachers stress the construction of knowledge and the understanding, but not the tricks. Moreover, there’s a heavy weight on the fundamentals where theory and practice are linked to daily life.

All over the world is common to find parents who are proud to say: “hey, did you know my five year old son can count to hundred?” – then the other parent would say – “my son can count to hundred in two languages!”. In The Netherlands, young kids can count to ten but they know what they are counting. One to ten is not a chant of words.

Another great experience I had in the Netherlands was visiting the National Museum of Education in Rotterdam.  Besides photos and educational films, you can also find several objects related to education: furniture, textbooks, wall-charts, schoolbags, atlases, ink jars and school uniforms.

More museum learning!

Downstairs there is a world of discovery. The discovery of science by the child itself. With low cost material and high educational value,  children can explore a couple of daily wonders. So they can build a miniature dike and learn about water flows or peel potatoes mechanically and turn them into Dutch fries. They can also risk to work on an old fashioned feet powered singer, experience friction by hitting the nails, or even write with an ancient feather-pen. 

The learning is not structured but is far more effective by the intense interaction between the kids of different ages, all eager to show how it should be done in their way.

Work of children in a Reggio Emilia classroom. 

Another surprising finding took place in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Inspired by Loris Malaguzzi, preschool educators there believe that the school environment, mainly the classroom, can be conceived as a third educator (they have two educators per class). 




Therefore I visited some schools to find out how they organize these environments and if would be possible to apply this approach in my classroom in Brazil. Basically everything they do is FOR and WITH the students. The daily routine poster, the drawings and all the artwork you find around the school is made by the children.

Wooden Reggio Emilia furniture. 

One of the schools I visited had only non manufactured toys. There were kids painting a big box to use it as a stove, parents donating some old pans and spoons and boys building their cars or trucks with pieces of wood and plastic bottles. It was a great experience.

Juan:  This year you showed me lovely pictures of your projects with your students.  What makes a project involving and productive in your opinion? Could you give us some examples?

Sandra: The more you know your students, the more you will learn from and with them. This is a great thing about working with projects, we can learn so many things together. The first thing I do with a new group is to take some time to watch them play during school break. Listen to their talks with friends and when possible ask about their favorite books, toys, games and music.

Different mudras one can make!

You have to be all ears and take notes whenever is possible. I remember a class when students were spelling each other’s names. Once one of them needed help to remember the letter B and I helped using sign language. They started laughing and tried to imitate the letters I was doing with my hands. Soon a student said “this is nice because we can speak with our hands”. 


Then I said “well, you can even tell a story with your hands”. At that instant I explained that in Indian dance they use to tell a story through “mudras” and that each mudra has a meaning. Then I started showing them each mudra with my hands: Pataka, Tripataka, Ardhapataka, Kartarimukha, and so on. 

Students learning about the Indian culture. 

My little kids went crazy and started to ask more questions about Indian dances and about the Indian Culture. I had some of the answers because I have been studying Bharatanatyam, classical Indian dance, for the last eight years, so teaching them about India was not that difficult. 



We listened to a version of “twinkle twinkle little star” with Indian accent, I told them the story of Taj Mahal, they used Indian water coloring  technique to personalize their t-shirts, and I even invited an Indian friend to talk to the students at school. They asked my friend all type of questions, including if in India they were used to sleeping on a bed of nails.

So if you want to have an involving and productive project, besides a very good planning you also need to listen carefully to your students.

Juan: I find impressive how you were able to share our love for the Indian culture, even dancing Indian music to your students in one of the school celebrations!   What are you working on right now with them?

Sandra: Showing the whole different world of India to my students was mixing pleasure with work. More pleasure than work I should say. This is a brand new year for me. New school, new colleagues, new students, and new projects. I am working now in a Franciscan school, so for the first time I had to plan some activities related to Saint Francis of Assisi.

After reading “The Song of Francis” by Tomie DePaola, my students wanted to know more about the author (who also illustrates the book) so we sent him an email. While we were waiting his reply, students made some drawings from the book. Their work was so beautiful that we made a book for the school. Recently we got an email from Tomie dePaola answering all  our questions. That was something brand new for my students, receiving an email from an author and in English!

Besides this book project, I also travelled to Assisi with 49 students in my backpack during school break in July. Don’t you believe me? Yes, I did it! 

Juan: Please leave a final message with advice to our readers around the world.

Sandra:  Once again I would like to thank you Juan for this opportunity. You and your sister Sosô helped me to open many doors in my career and I will be forever thankful for everything.

Readers around the world…find your passion, grab it and never let it go. 
When we love what we do, anything is possible.

Respect, believe and surprise yourself.

Find people around the world with similar aspirations and share your ideas. 
Break routine every now and then, take a pause.

Never forget you are an example for your students. 
If you want them to read more books, leave your own books on the table. 
Be the change. 
Inspire them to do their best.

Respect, believe and surprise yourself.

Respect, believe and surprise your students.

Baci a tutti!

Sandra Rodrigues

I'm happy to have had our very first interview with Sandra Rodrigues. 
It's very clear in her words and actions that Sandra is an effective and affective educator! 

How did you like our first interview? 
Which was your favourite part? 


Send you a frog-hug, 

Juan

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