Day In, Day Out

So this year I rename the usual English note book as Rocket Pocket Book. Why? There is no reason behind the renaming. It is just that rocket rhymes well with pocket! My year starts a bit later than usual but I am happy that I manage to catch up. So, this year, instead of having one, each student of mine has two books: a hard-covered book and a small book. This hard-covered is obviously for note-taking whilst the smaller one is for Vocabulary Bank. What is Vocabulary Bank? It is basically a book where you deposit new learnt or gained words or phrases. The vocabulary can come from teachers, books or even their surroundings. Is it important to have Vocabulary Bank? Since I have one my own, I always believe that having one is helpful. However, it is only helpful if used intelligently. And that requires practice. A lot of practice. These are how I usually use my Vocabulary Bank. 1) Replace words with its synonyms. After I have written an essay, I would go to my Vocabulary Ban

I was having my morning drive when I listened to Teaching With Jillian Starr Podcast. I simply clicked on Episode 14. Morning Meeting The Most Important Part of Our Day because it was yeah, morning and because I like to rekindle the memories I had observing classrooms when I was a teacher student in the UK. I remember a period I spent in an elementary school. The class was busy, students were here and there, but it was structured. Perhaps it was a thing they usually did every morning. The teacher would be at the front, welcoming kids, sorting papers, checking attendance. And the teacher assistant would be at the back sitting, waiting to be greeted by the kids who sometimes came in with reply letters, money or even messages such as the father had a change of work schedule hence could join the class trip the next week. Then from the front door, came in the class monitor with a bag of baby carrots. Everyone was given one, including me who had the least interest to finish it.  That