Roberta Vedders

No more than 5-7 new words at a time. Define words. Give examples. Help students see the new words in context.

Learning experience:

Care needs taken when assigning weight of projects. One time I weighted the project 10% and a student passed the course that did not pass any unit exams. After that, I weighted it 5%.

Prior to student presentations I had each member of each student submit a rubric I created with a 1-5 scale to rate each student's participation including their own. Most often each person in the group received the same grade. If I saw a pattern of low participation by a certain student, a couple points would be subtracted.

Regarding monitoring the classroom, in a previous job I spoke during break to a student. I said, "Hello______how are you doing?"

She got scared and I asked her why. She responded that teachers do not usually speak to her. I shared that I speak with everyone. She began participating in class. 

I appreciate the instruction on use of hands and facial expressions in teaching. My brother lives with me and is deaf and mute. We have a deaf ministry at our church in which I serve. When communicating with the hearing impaired, the American Sign Language includes the hand signs, facial expressions, and acting. One young girl who used to interpret had absolutely no facial expression changes. I found it very distracting because the sermons and music interpreted was rich with feelings.

I appreciate the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This will help me focus on best ways to help students. Going through this portion of the course, I realize anew how many right things the organization I work within is doing. I am proud to teach hers.

Comment on Dennis Secara's post:  

Dennis, this is an unusual use of portfolios. In grad school, I began a portfolio and continued to add to it as I grew and learned. I am grateful for the process but would hate to see it as an evaluation method.

I really enjoyed this section. I never thought that much about how allowing an ESL student to access his or her mother language could aid in learning English. When I have studied Spanish (very little), I was always connecting the base of Spanish words with the base of English words. Both often had Latin parallels. Even as I communicate with my brother and his friends whose mother language is American Sign Language (ASL), it is obvious how logically ASL aligns with English.

One factor in teaching nursing is that in the United States, the NCLEX is given in English. While… >>>