A teacher shared his class closure of thanking students for learning and their responding with thanking him for teaching them. Many of my Junior High students also say ‘gracias’ at the end of the class as they file past me as I stand outside my door and in the hall.
I hadn’t analyzed it before so this blog started me thinking as to why we are thanking one another. I believed they are thanking me for the extra effort I put into making our time together meaningful and interesting.
I am thanking them for their wise choices during class, for their effort, and for making me a better teacher with their questions and observations.
I hesitate to thank them for learning as I don’t want learning to be something they do for adults, rather a gift they give themselves.
Most of us veteran teachers recognize that the “Millennials” were given awards for showing up and it really didn’t help them to build resilience and genuine self-confidence. Many are depressed because they aren’t constantly being praised for every little effort in their jobs.
We are doing a better job with the “Linksters” or post 2000 generation we call “Gen Z.” Let’s keep it up by helping them to be reflective about their learning each and every day!
To this end, I play the song below and then ask in the target language what they specifically learned today. They use the vocabulary from the song and add to it what they learned, making it their own. Yes, it is level one and we don’t officially teach the past tense, but all of my students can use it in this context and yours can also!
For a better closure to Spanish class, we sing along with the closure video, “Hoy Aprendí”
Hoy, hoy aprendí
Una palabra nueva
La cultura de otra tierra
Hoy, hoy aprendí
De una música que me llena
Y las noticias de Venezuela
Hoy yo aprendí
A hablar español
For a better closure to French class, we sing along with the closure video, “Objectif De La Journée”
Aujourd’hui, Aujourd’hui, j’ai appris
Un nouveau mot, une nouvelle phrase
La culture d’un autre pays
Aujourd’hui, Aujourd’hui, j’ai appris
Peut-être une nouvelle chanson
Et les nouvelles de la France
Aujourd’hui, j’ai appris à parler français
For a better closure to German class, we sing along with the closure video, “Das Ziel der Lektion”
Das Objekt der Lektion
Nun, Schüler
Was habt ihr heute gelernt?
Heute, heute habe ich
ein neues Wort, einen neuen Satz und
etwas über die Kultur eines anderen Landes gelernt.
Heute, heute habe ich
ein neues Lied gelernt, das mich erfüllt.
Die Nachrichten aus Berlin
Heute habe ich Deutsch zu sprechen gelernt
For a better closure to English class, we sing along with the closure video, “Today I Learned.”
Today, Today I learned
A new word, a new phrase
About the culture of another country
Today, today I learned
A new song that fills me
The news from the USA
Today I learned to speak English!
For a better closure to Mandarin Chinese class, we sing along with the closure video,
jīn tiān xué dào le shen me ？
上课了
同学们 今天学到了什么？ 新词，新短语 其它国家的文化 一首新歌 中国的新闻 今天我学会了说普通话
shàng kè le
tóng xué men
jīn tiān xué dào le shen me ？
xīn cí ，xīn duǎn yǔ
qí tā guó jiā de wén huà
yī shǒu xīn gē
zhōng guó de xīn wén
jīn tiān wǒ xué huì le shuō pǔ tōng huà
For a better closure to Italian class, we sing along with the closure video, “Oggi Ho Imparato.”
Oggi ho, imparato
una nuova parola, una nuova espressione
la cultura di un altro Paese
Oggi ho imparato
una nuova canzone che mi riempie
delle notizie da Roma
Oggi ho imparato a parlare l’italiano.
©Ellen Shrager 2017
