Monday, October 20, 2014

Several causes For Bad Behavior





These two weeks, I am in charge of my thread titled as "class management".
From the posts, I have learned a lot. such as online class management, cellphone in class, skills in dealing with students answering questions, etc.

I like the following link, which introduce several causes for bad behaviors of children. We can find the right solution only when we find the just causes.

In my opinion, most of my students are spoiled in their family, and they have some bad habits that are difficult to correct in a couple of days, such as speak freely, laugh loudly, play smartphone, etc.
What's more, when they were in China, they have lots of assignments and the teachers were very strict, therefore, when they came to Canada, they felt free suddenly.

Here is the link: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=2206534

Friday, October 17, 2014

Experiencing Teaching from Cindy

After reading Stephen Brookfield, I have a clear mind of the three stages of experiencing teaching--scanning, appraisal  and action.

I have been teaching ESL for more than 12 years. Because I am not majoring in education, so during the beginning years of teaching, I have to learn Educational Psychology, Educational Law,etc.
I used to teach both undergraduate students and graduate students, even some middle school students.

Looking back to those years, I have learned a lot. First, I think that scanning is important. "Scanning is the initial sweep or experiential trawl we undertake to diagnose the big picture". I do need to know what the students want, what the English level they are, or why they would like to study English,etc.

During the appraisal phase, I need to know their specific need. For example, some students are bad in grammar, others are not good at speaking, etc.
During the action phase, I have to choose the proper teaching materials for them. For teenagers, I will have to find some interesting stories, or articles with more pictures, or journals related with their daily life,etc.

During all these years teaching experience, I find I must choose the proper teaching material to the right student and apply different teaching style to students with various characters. When I taught those undergraduate students, I may explain the material in a detailed way and asked them to do some assignments; while I taught those graduate students, I may ask them to prepare the course in advance, and asked them to explain the key points to me instead. also, I asked them to write some journals and do some projects.

When I came to Canada I have to do these three phases again,because the requirements ,assessment and teaching materials are quite different with those of China. I have to study those carefully before I decide I choose which way and what materials to deliver.

I love teaching. Staying with students, I can find many fun , stay young and also learn from my students.

My journal for Instructional Strategy


PIDP 3250 Instructional Strategies ---Course Journal Assignment 1

OBJECTIVE:
Teaching in class is an art. Effective teaching and learning needs joint effort from both teachers and students. Recently, students’ engagement has been regarded as an indicator of successful classroom instruction. What is students’ engagement? According to the Wikipedia, student engagement occurs when “students make a psychology investment learning.” Then how to stimulate students to devote themselves to the class is a key problem worth studying. If teachers are good at applying those positive instructional strategies in class, the teaching process can be smoother and consequently the performance of students can be improved greatly. Based on the textbook, good strategy can promote students’ motivation and active learning, which are two key factors for students’ engagement. To enrich the class, teachers may use various approaches to make teaching interesting and meaningful.

REFLECTIVE
After reading the first four chapters, I realized that there is much work to be done to improve my teaching. I have been teaching ESL for more than ten years. When I looked back to those years, I found that the most difficult part in my class is how to attract students’ attention to my class. Examining it closer, I think there are several factors for my problem. First, I haven’t changed much of my teaching style during the past few years. When I was in China, my main role in class is “Lecturer”, which means I just delivered the materials in front of the class and students were busy taking notes. Sometimes, the whole class was very quiet; while sometimes, the class was really noisy. One of the disadvantages of teaching in traditional way is that the teachers are really tired by teaching and lecturing continuously; meanwhile, the students feel so boring all the time that they are easily distracted or fall asleep. When I taught those undergraduates, the attendance rate was good; however, they couldn’t concentrate long enough for the whole class; When I taught graduates several years later, most students who attended to my class can focus their attention on my teaching; unfortunately, the attendance rate was not satisfactory. To be frank, I tried to change my way of teaching to some extent. One is to ask my students to explain the part of the textbook by themselves. I found when one of the students taught on the platform, his/her classmates may pay more attention to what he/she was talking about. Generally speaking, it was a good practice for both my students and me. The negative side is that it is a little time-consuming, because I have to highlight the key parts once more.

INTERPRETIVE:
To be qualified instructors, we should try our best to strengthen students’ engagement by using various ways. First, create a positive environment—class community in class. Only when students feel emotionally safe can they actively take part in class activity. Good atmosphere and classroom community are good to maintain enthusiastic and productive students. Once the students have a sense of belonging, they would like to share, to assist, to discuss, even to debate with classmates freely, which could successfully attract students to their work. Second, set optimal level of challenge for students. Only when students feel intellectually safe can they learn willingly. Too difficult tasks can only frustrate them and those too easy one may make them bored. Therefore, the initial easy tasks can be followed by some tough ones. On one hand, students may feel fun by overcoming obstacles step by step; on the other hand, students may help each other in their own community. Third, timely assessment and feedback are necessary. Students need feedback from their teacher for further improvement. From my own experience, a student may study harder when he/she gets more attention from teachers. As a result, talking with students and giving some positive suggestions and feedback on study now and then may encourage them to focus on study more. Of course, there are many other helpful ways to stimulate students’ motivation and make learning less boring, which need teachers to practice and study further.
DECISIVE
I have learned much more by reading the first four chapters. After reflecting, I will do more research on instructional strategies. First, I value the thought of creating classroom community. Apart from the academic teaching, I will devote myself to setting up a positive class atmosphere for students feeling safe. Once they feel comfortable and believe their teacher, I think that these students may invest more energy and attention into class. I can also establish class-community outside class by using modern technologies. I may use social media (such as blog, Facebook, twitter, wechat, etc) to let students share, discuss, and learn after class. Second, I may use multiple ways to deliver my teaching. For example, I may propose more open questions for students to do critical thinking instead of telling them the answer directly. In addition, “the memory parts” in text book impresses me a lot. I know I can help students enlarge the amount of vocabularies in my ESL class by using comparison and contrast. For example, I may ask my student to contrast the following words as “contract, contact compact, and connect”; or compare “ferry and fair”; “burrow and burro”, etc. Third, feedback and assessment are essential parts of teaching and learning. From the book, I learned various forms of assessment, such as summative, formative and educative assessment. I also realized how important the timely feedback is. Objective & efficient feedback can let student know how well they are doing and how they can do better. For example, if a student comes to class early, I can talk with him/her on class performance and the space for improvement.
In short, to be a qualified teacher and to make students focus on learning for a comparatively long time, I have to explore more colorful strategies constantly to meet the needs of students with different ages. 

Reference
TaylorL &Parsons, J.(2011) Improving Student Engagement Current Issues in Education, Volume 14, Number 1   Retrieved Sep 13th, from http://eddev.niagaracollege.ca/content/Portals/35/NiagaraCollege/pdf/teachinginternationalstudents/Improving%20Stuent%20Engagement.pdf
Elizabeth F.Barkely (2009) Student Engagement Techniques: A handbook for College Faculty
Adam Fletcher  Defining Student Engagement: A literature review  Retrieved Sep 13th ,from http://www.soundout.org/student-engagement-AF.pdf
Tristan de Frondeville (April, 13, 2014)  Ten steps to Better Student Engagement  Retrieved Sep 15th from: http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-teaching-strategies


Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Are there any questions?






This topic in PIDP forum 3250 impressed me most, apart from Power Teaching. 
Nearly all the teachers have said that in our class and almost all the students have heard this one. 

Asking a question is not a difficult one, but how to ask a question which can introduce more questions is a skill that teachers should learn. 

By reading this thread, I learned that the proper time for answering the question and some techniques for answering the questions. 

Only when can propose new questions can we tell them understand what we have taught clearly. Just saying " yes, I am clear" is not enough.
I think that both the students and the teachers should grasp the skill of asking questions.
For one thing, good questions from teacher can improve teaching. As a teacher, I tried to ask some open question instead of asking those questions with just "yes, or no". I need them to say more about the questions.

To be frank, I used to asked "are there any questions? are you clear? " Generally ,they say:"yes" . We do need them to push our student to explore further, and this is the responsibility of teachers.
For another thing, students should learn how to do critical thinking and how to ask effective questions to pursue their further study. Not only are answers  important to students but also questions are equally meaningful to students.

I gradually understand the difference between "any comments" and" are there any questions"? "any comment" can stimulate students to find more or ask more.
I may use "any comment" in my following class.


Here are some tips for asking question in class
http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/strategies/Pages/asking-questions.aspx
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/oct/24/teaching-questions-improve-pupil-learning
http://cet.usc.edu/resources/teaching_learning/docs/Asking_Better_Questions.pdf
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/three-ways-to-ask-better-questions-in-the-classroom/

I also like to quote some posts from my classmates Brenda, who offered some tips for asking questions.

I think that it would be a great idea to keep a list of essential questions (as discussed in the previous forum) that can be glanced at for guidance, especially for a newer instructor.  I think that I will write up 5-10 questions and then keep them with my lesson plan so that I have a cross reference to refer to when I get stuck. 
I know that there was  a list of EQs posted but I thought I'd write up a few that meet my needs...
Essential Question Suggestions
  1. Does anyone have any comments on what we have just been learning/discussing?                      
  2. What is the ‘muddiest point’ for you?
  3. Is there something that we have just covered that isn’t clear to you?
  4. Is there something that you would like more information or clarity on?
  5. If you were teaching this subject to someone else, what do you think would be the 1-3 most important points to emphasize?
  6. How do you think you can incorporate this information into your practice?
  7. What was the most practical piece of information you learned today & why?
  8. What was the least practical piece of information you learned today & why?    (From Brenda, PDIP3250 discussion forum)

ESL teaching materials

I have searched for ESL teaching materials and handouts constantly for the past years.
Recently, I have found some good links with many useful worksheets for my student to practice.

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

http://englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Writing-Practice.htm

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl-future-perfect-tense1.html

I keep it on my blog for record.

Monday, October 13, 2014


PIDP 3250 Instructional Strategies ---Course Journal Assignment 2

OBJECTIVE:
Everyone has unique character. Some are introvert, while others are extrovert. Nowadays, we have an invisible bias against those introvert people who have few words, and have a preference for those easygoing ones to work with. In factno one is pure introvert or pure extrovert. According to the search, extrovert doesn’t equal to energetic and enthusiastic all the time and introvert doesn’t equal to shyness. Everyone may react differently on formal or casual occasion, showing our introversion or extroversion accordingly.
Therefore, it is wrong to arbitrarily judge one’s character. As a teacher, we should have clear mind on the advantages and the disadvantages of different characters, and them make good use of them to improve the performance of student.

REFLECTIVE:
After listening to the TED speech named The Power of Introverts, I contemplate my own and my experience at work. For one thing, looking back to those days when I was in China worked as a lecturer, I suddenly realized that I did pay more attention to those extrovert students. According to my experience, those extrovert students would like to sit in front of class, participating in class activities more. Besides, they were prone to share interesting, boringhappy or frustrating experience with me during the break. Consequently, I would like to talk more with those easygoing ones. In my opinion, I constantly believed that it is those extrovert students who helped me to set up positive atmosphere of class. Generally, those introvert students prefer to sit at the back of class, keeping silent all the time. For another thing, to be frank, I do regard myself as an extrovert and considerable person. I can easily find topics to communicate with strangers, and I try my best to avoid embarrassing others in any circumstances. I can adapt myself to the new environment quickly and to make new friends. However, occasionally I do prefer to be alone and stay in my bedroom, reading a fascinating novel, listening to classic music or just silently reading my own mind with the sound of rain outside in Vancouver. That feeling is really terrific and fabulous. I even doubt that I actually an introvert person in my inner heart.  

INTERPRETIVE:
After reflecting all my experience and examining my own behavior both in public and at home, I find the TED speech is really reasonable. First of all, I try to find the differences between shyness and introversion —shyness has an element of apprehension, nervousness and anxiety, and while an introvert may also be shy, introversion itself is not shyness. Basically, an introvert is a person who is energized by being alone and whose energy is drained by being around other people.
Therefore, we can clearly understand that introvert person are not the shy one. They just prefer to be alone or they put all their energy into the activities they favor. That they are not talkative regularly does not mean lacking thought. Second, I have learned many advantages of introvert by searching online. Actually, they have rich and colorful inner world, and they try to choose their words carefully and accurately before expressing their attitudes or viewpoints. Meanwhile, they may spend much time thinking before acting, which is obviously a great advantage in working. Besides, we cannot deny that introvert people can observe an issue profoundly and differently, usually from other perspectives. Whats more, introvert people tend to become passionate experts in areas they favor. Generally speaking, extrovert people cannot concentrate for a long time; therefore they prefer to learn things extensively. On the contrary, introvert people can focus on the subject they are interested in for a comparative long time, so they are going to invest more emotional and mental energy into the fields they like. Third, it is not good to label anyone with extroversion or introversion. In other words, there is no pure introvert or pure extrovert exists. introvert and extrovert are just descriptive words for you to understand others or yourself, which may facilitate you to find friends with something in common. In my opinion, introvert and extrovert are changeable when he/she faces different circumstances and topics/fields.
  
DECISIONAL:
After viewing this TED speech and searching online, I have deeper understanding of different characters. First, in my future job, I decide to pay more attention on those so-called introvert students. It is necessary for me to know that those who sit in the back of the classroom may be interested introverts and not unmotivated students. Various kinds of class activities may be designed to let introverts participate in, such as rotations. Small group discussion can be another good option for introvert students, who may feel comfortable and perform well. Besides, I may give them more time to think before answering my question. Once the introverts raise their hands to answer the questions, I do should listen to their answers-- which is quite important for encouraging them to participate in further activities. Additionally, constant praises are necessary for those introverts, who also need to be recognized. Second, I will no longer regard anyone as definite introvert or extrovert. No one is pure introvert or pure extrovert. Those extroverts need quiet space to think, to reflect, and even to recognize themselves, while introverts may warmly discuss the issues they are interested in. Both characters are good if we can coordinate them properly based on different situations.

Reference:
Carol Bainbridge (May 29,2014)  Introvert    Retrieved Sep.25th, from http://giftedkids.about.com/od/glossary/g/introvert.htm
David Mein (March 22,2013)   There is no such a thing as an introvert  Retrieved Sep. 26th, from
Tami Isaacs  (July 27,2009) Introverted Students in the Classroom: How to Bring Out Their Best  Retrieved Sep.28th, from
Lisa Petrilli  (March 25, 2013)  Ten things Educators Should Know About Introverted Students  Retrieved Sep. 28th, from  http://www.lisapetrilli.com/2013/03/25/ten-things-educators-should-know-about-introverted-students/


Thanksgiving Day is a Day to give thanks!

Thanksgiving Day in Canada is coming. I like to express my deeply thanks for all the people I met in Canada in the past year.

Because of your kindly help, I can overcome so many difficulties and finally settled down in Vancouver. I have much confusion and worries when I first landed in Vancouver. I wondered whether I have made a good decision for my own and my whole family.

Because of your encourage and kind word, I felt warm in my heart and believe that Canada is the right place that I want to thrive.

Thanks again from my heart !



Thursday, October 9, 2014

Other links for Asking Question effectively and creatively in Class

 Other links for Asking Question effectively and creatively in Class

http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/strategies/Pages/asking-questions.aspx

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/oct/24/teaching-questions-improve-pupil-learning

http://cet.usc.edu/resources/teaching_learning/docs/Asking_Better_Questions.pdf

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/three-ways-to-ask-better-questions-in-the-classroom/

For myself to record~~~

Do I really know How to ask Questions in Class?

After discussion in PIDP 3250 forum, I think that I should reflect my performance in class. I should ask myself some questions on teaching.

Do I really know how to ask questions in class?
Do I really prepare all my questions well?
Do I really pay much attention on the questions my students ask?

I think that both the students and the teachers should grasp the skill of asking questions.
For one thing, good questions from teacher can improve teaching. As a teacher, I tried to ask some open question instead of asking those questions with just "yes, or no". I need them to say more about the questions.

To be frank, I used to asked "are there any questions? are you clear? " Generally ,they say:"yes" . We do need them to push our student to explore further, and this is the responsibility of teachers.
For another thing, students should learn how to do critical thinking and how to ask effective questions to pursue their further study. Not only are answers  important to students but also questions are equally meaningful to students.

I gradually understand the difference between "any comments" and" are there any questions"? "any comment" can stimulate students to find more or ask more.
I may use "any comment" in my following class.

Here are some tips for asking questions in Class from 

General Strategies for Asking Questions

  • When planning questions, keep in mind your course goals. For example, do you want students to master core concepts? To develop their critical thinking skills? The questions you ask should help them practice these skills, as well as communicate to them the facts, ideas, and ways of thinking that are important to their learning in your course. (For more information about course goals, see Planning a Course).
  • Avoid asking “leading questions.” A leading question is phrased in such a way that it suggests its own answer and therefore discourages students from thinking on their own.
  • Follow a “yes-or- no” question with an additional question. For example, follow up by asking students to explain why they answered the way they did, to provide evidence or an example, or to respond to a yes-or-no answer given by another student.
  • Aim for direct, clear, specific questions. During class discussions, rather than beginning with a single question that is multilayered and complex, use a sequence of questions to build depth and complexity. Essay questions on exams or paper assignments, on other hand, often provide an appropriate opportunity to ask multi-layered questions. If your exam will include multi-layered questions, use questions during class time to walk students through the process of answering multi-layered questions.

  • In class discussions, do not ask more than one question at once. When you ask more than one question, students often do not respond because they are unsure which question you want them to answer.
  • When you plan each class session, include notes of when you will pause to ask and answer questions. Asking questions throughout the class will not only make the class more interactive, but also help you measure and improve student learning. Do not save the last two minutes of class for questions. Students are unlikely to ask questions when they know that only a few minutes remain. (See Increasing Student Participation and Teaching with Lectures.)

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Tonight, I spent several hours sitting in front of computer searching and studying what the "megacognition "is.

Wikepedia  defines it like this: " Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing". It comes from the root word "meta", meaning beyond.[1] It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving.[1] There are generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition".


After learning  it deeply, I find that it is necessary  to let my students learn this, to have a clear mind on how their brain working, reciting new information, processing the knowledge,or acquiring some new skills,etc. Once they can deliver the new knowledge to others,we can tell that they have learned the new knowledge thoroughly.


Saturday, October 4, 2014

Second Language Acquisition and Culture

Learning a foreign language is difficult but rewarding. I find this topic from my PIDO 3250 discussion forum.

To me , I have learned English for so many years, and I find there are several ways to learn a foreign language,.

First, you must be brave enough. Most of my ESL students are quite shy, and they don't dare to express themselves well. Sometimes they would like to show their own opinion after preparing a long time. Therefore, in my class, I will give them several minutes to prepare and then encourage them to speak their attitudes on topic.

Second, the environment is quite important. Many of my ESL students from China have large amount of vocabulary, and their writing and reading are well while listening and speaking are very poor. To learn the cause, I find that environment is really important for second language acquisition. Once they have immersed into an English-speaking community, it is natural for them to understand well and speak fluently.

Third, different people may use different approaches in language acquisition. Some students may use step-by-step approach, while others may improve their language by big leap. When I was about fifteen years old, I began to study oral English in evening school. At that time, I was in the low-level class with Chinese teacher.  However, when I noticed that there was a foreigner teacher in the medium-level class, I went to that class. For the next two month, I experienced a hard time and I felt headache each time after class since that foreigner teacher cannot speak any Chinese.
To my surprise, about three months later, I suddenly found that I could understand most of his class and even I could express myself. Maybe I am an example for some students that it is not necessary for him/her to study second language step by step.

Fourth, I think the most important one is to understand the culture of targeted language.
I have found that it is difficult for one to learn a foreign language without knowing anything about the culture. In order to study English, I have to learn American drama, Bible, etc. Of course, if someone wants to learn Chinese, he/she must learn some cultural background to understand the meaning of the words. Culture and language cannot be separated.

"'If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.'"  -  Nelson Mandela 

Here is a good paper that illustrate how important is the culture to second language acquisition. 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Science World




Science world is a miracle place for kids. They can learn a lot from those fun activities, such as electricity, air, etc.

Cell Phone in Classroom

Modern technologies have brought us great convenience. We can use smart phones anywhere anytime.

On one hand, we enjoy those advantages. First, we can communicate with people all over the world. Second, smart phones are quite light, and it is easy to carry them anywhere. Third, in case of danger, we can use it to make emergent call.

On the other side, smart  phones do bring some disadvantage for us. Apart from its harm to our health, it also make our class uncontrollable. Most students like to bring smart phone to the class. and then, they cannot resist the temptation of communicating with friends, which distract them from focusing on class. 

As a teacher, we must find some effective way to deal with smartphone. It can help ESL students to look up the meaning of the word at handy, on the other hand, most of them may play games during the recess and communicate with friends frequently.

Here are some useful links for smartphone in class.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Flipped Classroom, cons and prons?

Flipped classroom is popular topic right now.
To be frank, I still doubt the feasibility of such methods in class.

First, I believe that both the teachers and the students are self-disciplined. They both should obey the rules of the "games"-- that is to say that teacher will have to do much work to prepare the relevant teaching material, videos or lectures, etc. and they also have to answer the questions from different students;therefore, the working load is becoming more   

On the other side, students have to learn critical thinking. Only when they get familiar with critical thinking can they learn the subject by themselves according to their own pace. Such Flipped Classroom has proposed high requirements for the students. they have the ability to control themselves, and learn something new by themselves. However, most students are reluctant to spend after school time leaning and studying more.  It is not difficult to think that if students don't work after school or before the class, teachers will have to spend more time explaining those materials.

I have found some links which illustrate some points against Flipped Classroom:


http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2012/12/12/the-flipped-classroom-what-are-the-pros-and-cons-

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ca/2011/10/five-reasons-im-not-flipping-over.html

Whole Brain Teaching, have you ever heard of that ?

By discussing in the PIDP 3250 forum, I got to know this unbelievable kind of teaching approach.
Have you ever heard high stress environment.
This one is really beyond my imagination.
I am really curious about whether this kind of method is useful for teaching process.
In this approach, all the people take actions to respond to their instructors. Sometimes the class is really noisy, but the whole class can become quiet instantly according to the teachers order.

In my opinion, I think that maybe this method is useful. But, self-discipline students are the prerequisite for this class. they can express themselves well and at the same time .
I will not use such means in my class before I could use it skillfully.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

YESTERDAY

I do  like this song very much. Although it is an old one, I still like it till now. Whenever I hear it, I can remember those time in the past-- good memory, moving episode, my dear friends, and my dear hometown. ~

 

Flipped Classroom

Recently, the concept of Flipped Classroom have been mentioned for so many times. Besides, in PIDP 3250,  my classmates also discuss it warmly.

After searching online and discussing in PIDP forum, I have learned much about Flipped Classroom although I don't have the chance to practice it .

I think this new way of teaching has changed our traditional concept about teaching. Students have to watch the video or lectures online before the class, learning those materials by themselves. In fact, they have to do much discussion and even the homework in class. Just because they have learned those materials before, students can show their opinions, propose their puzzles, and cooperate with students.

Properly use of Flipped Classroom can help us reach our goals-- acquiring tools for students to pursue their study instead of learning a specific skills.

Following is a video I find useful and meaningful.



Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Learning Style

Before learning  PIDP3250, I have never thought of the phrase as "learning style". I just take it for granted. After participating in the discussion, I gradually realized that different people may have various learning habit.

As for my ESL class,  I try to find my student may have different habits in learning listening comprehension. Someone find that they need to listen to the radio all day and all night,while others believe that they just need to practice listening for just 20-30 minutes each day.

Following are links for seven types of learning, which are positive for understanding different ways of learning.

http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Are_Learning_Styles_Myth/?page=2

http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/research/summaries/rslearningstyles.asp



Monday, September 22, 2014

About Positive Classroom Behavior

No one will deny that positive classroom behavior is quite important for both teachers and students.
Positive classroom rules can regulate mischievous students and help students form good habits. We should clarify our rules and regulations at the very beginning of each semester, and  we ourselves should also obey them carefully, setting good models for our students.

I find a useful article for classroom behavior with some positive tips.

https://www.teachervision.com/classroom-management/teaching-methods/6400.html

Generally, vocabulary is a big headache for most ESL students.
I find some words for ESL study. To classify words is a good way to enlarge their vocabularies. I do hope that they could use different words in their writings, which can enrich their sentences。
I like to post this for record.