Category: Teaching & Learning

Education

Stimulation and Recognition: Expanding Children’s Sensorial Experience in the Classroom

Gwangju News

Montessori has developed a very specific and deliberate methodology to take advantage of the formations of development that exist in children from three to six years old. Until this point, children tirelessly absorb the sights, sounds, and messages of their environment and those around them. At the age of three, a child’s heightened sensitivity to order can be used to guide the fascinating task of learning to organize and decipher existing knowledge. In addition, by adding deliberate movement, you can improve the use of your senses while enhancing your awareness of mathematical principles and patterns that exist in the world around you. 

Language Teaching

Traits That Very Good English Teachers Exhibit

Gwangju News

Have you ever sat back in your most comfortable chair and reflected on yourself as a teacher? Have you thought about what the most important traits are for an English teacher to possess and then considered how strong you were in each of those characteristics? This is something that we all should do, and do regularly, to improve ourselves as teachers. I think it is safe to say that no teacher is equally strong in all good teacher traits – if such a person were to exist, they would probably have moved into the business field, where they could rake in an income that would place them in a much higher tax bracket than that of teachers.

Let’s consider the following (short and by no means exhaustive) list of teacher characteristics and, as we do, reflect on how strong (or how weak) we may personally be in each of the characteristics, and consider what we can or should do to strengthen ourselves in that teacher trait. As you are reflecting, you need not stop with the items listed below; add your own items and reflect on them also.

Education

Lifelong Learning and Experience: Practical Life

Gwangju News

The main purpose of Practical Life Education in the Montessori classroom environment is to assist the children to control their body movement, teach them how to focus on their work, and help them to be more independent. Through all of these processes, students can build their own life skills and positive habits for their long journey. 

Language Teaching

Chatting About and Chatting With ChatGPT: Evaluating a Chatbot as a Language Learning Tool

Gwangju News

Here we will discuss what ChatGPT can do, what it does well and not so well, and the impacts that it might have in the fields of education and second language learning for both teachers and students.

Education

How Can We Serve Better in the Classroom? The Prepared Environment of Maria Montessori

Gwangju News

The reason that children work or study right after they get into the classroom is that they have curiosity. Curiosity and wonder, so evident in the enthusiasm of young children and so much a part of their life, are expressions of the basic human emotion of interest.

Language Teaching

Looking for a Coursebook

Gwangju News

A new session is beginning at your school, and you need to select a coursebook for the EFL course that you will be teaching. What to do? Go to the ELT bookstore in your area to check out the coursebooks available.

Education

Two Stories from KONA Volunteers

Gwangju News

KONA volunteering switched from being local to global. People from different countries (Canada, USA, India, etc.) were able to join in the live online storybook readings and discussions. It was a great experience to see people of all ages and backgrounds come together in one screen. We are still doing story maps presentations and story sharing in this way. We can now do volunteering from our home and office through Zoom.

Education

Montessori Education II: The Unimaginable Importance of Young Hands

Gwangju News

The most common thing observable in a Montessori classroom is every child working with materials. They are using their hands to move objects, fold clothes and towels, tie shoelaces, and even wash desks. In this way, through work activities related to daily life, they stimulate their various senses, form life habits, and have opportunities to learn through trial and error.