Author: Sarah Gourevitch

I sing a lot in my classes.  It doesn’t matter if I am teaching English to blind students or 5th grade math in Texas.  I sing and dance…making up songs and actions for the songs to help my students remember and understand what they are learning.

My students this year need to use tactile as much as possible since they are blind.  I have been struggling this year with what exactly to teach my students and how to teach them.  Many of them are very low and are working on learning their ABCs and phonics.  However, they also need to learn basic English conversation.  So I made up some songs about some simple early English conversations.

The first song is sung to the tune of “London Bridge”.

Hello, hello, how are you? – wave hello and then hand out gesturing “how are you”
How are you? How are you?
Hello, hello, how are you?
I’m fine thank you. – put hand on your chest

My name is Angela (they of course say their own name and not my name), – put hand on your chest
Angela, Angela, Angela,
My name is Angela,
Nice to meet you. – shake hands with your friend or partner

The next song I made up is sung to the tune of “Are You Sleeping”.

How are you? How are you?
I am hungry. – rub stomach as if you’re hungry
I am hungry.
I am hungry.

Repeat with:
I am cold. – shiver
I am hot. – fan yourself
I am tired. – sleepy hands next to face
I am happy. – happy face
I am sad. – sad face
I am good. – thumbs up
I am great. – hands up in the air
I am OK. – give the OK signal

I am hungry

I am cold.

I am tired.

I am happy.

I am great.

I am good.

I am OK.

He loved the songs….much more than I thought he would.  Now I get to think of more songs to create!

Do you use songs in your classroom?  Do you even make up songs to use in your classroom?  I’d love for you to share them!

I have added several products to my TPT Store!  Check them out and let me know what you think!

My first product to share with you is my Math Choice Boards.  I used these last year when I taught 5th grade math.  It was so difficult to work with small groups when the rest of the class wasn’t on task.  So I created some fun projects for them to work on, projects where they were able to show what they know in activities that they got to choose.  They LOVED being able to choose which project they would work on.  Some of them loved to create games, so they got to choose “create a game”.  Some of them were really great at computer projects, so they were excited about being able to be creative using the computer.  My students stayed on task, they were into what they were doing, and they really were able to show what they learned about each objective.  It was a win-win.  Click HERE to download Math Choice Boards.

I also added the project, Costa’s House of Questions.  I went to a workshop last year and learned about Costa’s House of Questions.  It’s another way to look at the Bloom’s Taxonomy, and I absolutely loved it.  Bloom’s has 6 levels and is sometimes hard to distinguish between the 6 levels.  If it’s hard for me, then I know it must be hard for my students.  Costa’s House of Questions only has 3 levels, with the 3rd level being the highest level.  It was SO much easier for my students to understand.  I created a huge bulletin board in my classroom for us to use in our lessons.  Click HERE to download.

The last product I added was my Collection of Checklists.  I’m one of those teachers who strives to be super organized.  Now it doesn’t always turn out that way, but I do strive for it.  One of the things I use to stay organized is checklists.  I use a checklist for anything I can think of.  I included several checklists in the collection and even several blank ones for you to use however you want. Click HERE to download.

I walk to school every morning.  It’s only about a 10 minute walk, and I love it.  I never knew that I would like walking to places in my neighborhood so much.  Where I live in Texas, there aren’t many places where I could walk to around my neighborhood.  I’m going to miss that when I move back to the states.  Someday, I might want to move to an area where I could walk places.  Oh the possibilities…

These adorable crossing guards greet me every morning on my way to work.  Several weeks ago, I started saying Annyeonghaseyo” and bowing my head to the lady, and she just smiled really big and giggled and then did the same.  So now, that’s our little ritual.  And now she even starts talking Korean to me, and I just smile and nod my head.

This is the crossing guard from the opposite side of the street.  Is he adorable or what?

Many of our teachers at the blind school are blind and live in the apartments nearby.  Here is one of the teachers walking to school with the school security guard helping him.  The school security guard is very sweet.

I think she brings breakfast to the school, but I’m not sure.  I see her every morning dropping off goodies.

The other morning one of the teachers at my school brought me a hot sweet potato.  They are the most generous people I have ever met.  I absolutely love the generosity in this country.

I am one of those teachers who is constantly looking for new things to try in the classroom.  Teaching blind students in Korea has been no different.

I have been looking for new ways for my students to practice their ABC’s, and I found this awesome ABC puzzle at Daiso for only 5,000 won (about $5.00).

The students love to put it together in ABC order, say the letters, and then take it apart again.

We made an ABC train in one class.

I asked them, “Which letter comes next?” and we would sing the ABC song until we got to the next letter.  I have sung the ABC song so many times now that it’s permanently stuck inside my head.

In my High School 1 class, we were focusing on building vocabulary and English conversation.  Somehow we got to talking about emotions and practiced making faces showing our different emotions.  We have happy, mad, surprised, and scared.

While I am working with the girls, Gayong is working with the other half of the class in the other half of the room.  We always split the class into two groups because every class has high students and low students.  I usually work with the low students, except on Thursdays and Fridays when I get to work with the girls in High School 1.

Oh, and I keep forgetting to take my camera to lunch with me.  This was a good lunch.  Although the ham had quite a bit of fat, it was really good.  I’m all for some good protein.  The little snacks to the right of the ham were yummy.  I even went back for seconds…which was the first time I have ever gone back for seconds.