Author: raminhafezi1064

Last minute things.

I forgot that for Halloween I designed this really cool poster for the Halloween Party/Costume contest. I’d never designed a poster before so I was proud of it & I’d like to share it here.

When I was asked to make this I don’t think just how difficult a task the teacher who assigned this to me would be. I’d never designed a poster before so first I had to find a free Halloween template to download. Then I had to select a painting software that was free and would be easy to use. I eventually settled on paint.net & I suggest everyone use it. Its very handy.

https://www.getpaint.net/

Christmas and other Winter Holidays.

Christmas was another fun highlight of my year as a language assistant. I basically introduced these Spaniard kids to Christmas traditions around the world. They’re all pretty familiar with American Xmas traditions, but almost none of them had ever heard of Hanukkah or Kwanzaa so I show them a few videos as well as discussed the historical roots of Christmas. Then I asked each student to tell me about how their family celebrates the holidays. Once again I have several classes with different age groups and not everyone’s English skills are the same so I pick several videos and judge weather or not its too complicated for that particular class. *I do not own any of these materials no copyright infringement is intended.

Philosophy class

Usually for this class I facilitate class discussions and political/philosophical debates. Occasionally when called for by the teacher, I’ll bring in a video about some branch of moral/ethical philosophy. Here’s an example of what I might bring to a class. I studied a great deal of philosophy in university so there are times where i have to restrain myself and let the kids pontificate on their own; otherwise I’ll end up hogging the class and turning the exercise into a lecture.

For my final project I plan on having a lecture/debate on the philosophical foundations of modern nation-states. For example what is liberalism?& how is it the foundation for most modern republics? ect..

More on that to come later.

Art class

Art class is a time for students to relax and stretch their creative muscles. Its so sad that its not emphasized in the education system in my home state of California. I’m glad these kids have the opportunity to learn this skill that may inspire them later in life. What continually impresses me about the art class in my school here in Pozuelo is how technical it is. These kids are learning technical drawing as well as geometry mathematical theorems and how those all relate to drawing. So my job in the class is to help kids practice their English skills & help them finish their projects. Here are some their art projects over the past year.

Resources for LAs’

Being a language assistant is a profoundly rewarding job, buy isn’t that easy. This job requires a high degree of flexibility & creativity, which can be challenging especially when trying to assist student’s in learning English; a task that is both challenging and if done incorrectly can be terribly boring to the students! That’s why when I’m preparing for conversation practice I always have several handy activities to make English fun! These websites have materials that are invaluable to the language assistant. Hopefully fellow language assistants can use them to spice up their classes.

https://en.islcollective.com/

https://www.eslkidstuff.com/

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/exam-preparation/