Optimizing Inclusion

Dear teacher,
Students with learning disabilities 
Certainly have considerable abilities
Inclusion rakes up potentialities
And develops students’ qualities
You need to carry out some inquiries   
New knowledge and competencies 
Help you address their disabilities 
And cater for their needs and abilities

Dear teacher, 
Any class has mixed abilities
Varied traits and cute sceneries
Different needs and capacities
Multiple intelligences and keys
Learning styles and tendencies
Motivation levels and energies
Differentiate classroom activities
To meet these bittersweet realities

Dear teacher,
Manage your classroom at best
Increase motivation and interest
Season activities with joy and zest
Be patient even with the slowest
Use scaffolds first and foremost
Differentiate every activity and test
Incorporate cooperative learning,
Project works, and WebQuest

                                                                                             

© Chaouki M’kaddem

 November 24th, 2014

 

 

A Teacher Can Be a Peacemaker

Dear teacher,
Peace is the key to vitality in any school community
Where there is the potential for conflicts and hostility
Detecting dormant volcanoes is an urgent necessity
Alas, schools can't afford experts. What a bitter reality!
Thank God you are there! You are a precious commodity

Dear teacher,
A person in your position is gifted with true intuition
You are adept at dealing with colleague sand children
You have a talent for social interactions and persuasion
And classroom management is your forte and inclination
Never doubt your flair for conflict resolution and prevention

Dear teacher,
Be an example of duty and common goal devotion
Be a model of self-control and emotional regulation
Manage your clashing interests through negotiation
Assess options to reach mutually suitable solutions
Build co-operative and supportive working relations

Dear teacher,
Another positive problem solving strategy is mediation
Have disputing parties talk and exchange information
Let them reflect on what they feel about the situation
Forget about blame; invite them to think of a solution
Remember, parents make kids; you make generations

© Chaouki M’kaddem
June 10th, 2014

Chess As Content

Dear teacher,
Focusing solely on structure and form
Brings no good but a storm
That drowns learners' motivation
Suffocates any source of inspiration
Increases inhibition and frustration
Impedes language learning progress
Causes failure to perform and express
Oneself in target language with success

Dear teacher,
Think of first language acquisition
Its environment and conditions
Create similar situations and context
To enable learners acquire at best
Integrate language and content instruction
Prompt interaction and meaning construction
Develop interpersonal language competency
Along with cognitive academic proficiency

Dear teacher,
Apart from academic subjects as content
Recreation is an area of interest
Among learners' hobbies I made my quest
As leisure activities incite them to do best
Hey! The most optimal I can suggest
Promote target language through chess
As it is fun and free from stress
So rich that vouches for learning progress

Dear teacher,
Chess is an optimal tool
For the effective learning goal
Gives learners mastery and control
To learn the language as a whole
Through integration and experience
Total physical response and graphics
Cooperative and task-based learning
A journey from low to high order thinking

Dear teacher,
Nothing to fear, just give it a go
Here are some tips you may follow
Through L1 teach them how
Get your ducks in a row
Then switch to L2 and start the show
Enhance what they already saw
Introduce what they didn't know
And use inference when doing so

Be An Interactive Teacher!

Dear teacher,

It's the early twenty-first century
Time to check your teaching inventory
So as to adapt a rich variety
Of classroom roles to share the territory
With learners and afford them mastery
Of their own learning and discovery

Dear teacher,
Say adieu to autocracy and welcome democracy
Overwhelm learners with much interest and courtesy
Create classroom dynamics with great efficiency
And perform an array of roles with high proficiency
To empower learners to achieve the intended competency
And use the target language with accuracy and fluency

Dear teacher,
Get rid of the way you were taught
To get off to a flying start
Facilitate learning and avoid learning by heart
No more prevailing instructions, use directions instead
Make your guidance and assistance a work of art
And make the learning on students' part

Dear teacher,
We live in the information technology age
Time to be a tech-savvy to update your page
And time for learners to take the stage
Forget about being the only source of knowledge
And create productive learning environments to engage
Learners to develop skills needed in the workplace

© Chaouki Mkaddem
June 13th, 2013

Know Your Learners!

Dear teacher,

Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner
Refuted any speculative rumor
Presuming the teacher is the knowledge owner
And the child is a passive acquirer
They sought deep inside the learner,
Assembled an empirical picture
To help motivate the language teacher
To be an excellent classroom practitioner
And assume the role of a facilitator
The former proved the learner
To be an active individual and thinker
A discoverer and meaning constructor
The second had inspired the latter
They both emphasized the child’s social nature
That is tied to a society and a rich culture
And within the ZPD can be an effective grasper
Through interactions with a more knowledgeable partner
Like a caregiver scaffolding a toddler

© Chaouki Mkaddem
June 1st, 2013

World Cultures Within Kids’ Reach

Dear language teacher,
Young learners are known for malleability
And zeal to quench their curiosity
So as to grasp life aspects and any novelty
Why not seize such a golden opportunity
And make their future free from hostility?

Dear language teacher,
It is mainly your responsibility
To offer young learners the immunity
To stereotypes, prejudice and bigotry
By exposing them to a selected variety
Of other people’s culture and society

Dear language teacher,
Enrich every class with an extra activity
About cultural aspects of a different community
Be careful! Select your items with sincerity
And mind those concealing duplicity
To avoid any backfire or tendency to animosity

Dear language teacher,
When it comes to techniques and methodology
Do some readings to broaden your creativity
Then adjust them to match learner specificity
Make use of twenty-first century technology
To manage motivating hands-on activity

© Chaouki M’kaddem
October 4th, 2012

Crucial Years

Dear teacher,

When it comes to teaching teenagers

Never deem them absurd or strangers

They are wandering at crossroads

And undergoing changing behaviors

To find themselves in their own sculptures



Dear teacher,

Adolescence is a developmental phase

Teens are vulnerable these crucial days

Busying themselves clearing up the haze

Relying on their own to elbow their ways

Be patient! it is but a temporarily craze



Dear Teacher,

Dealing with teens is ne’er humdrum

They are curious and adventuresome

They seek autonomy and freedom

In their kingdom you are welcome

If you understand their own anthem



Dear teacher,

Tailor your activities to engage them

Let them feel important and awesome

Evince interest in their lives and realm

Carefully, allow them to be at the helm

Together, you can indite a lovely poem

© Chaouki M’kaddem

January 12th, 2013