PUPIL MULTITASKING

Human multitasking is the best performance by an individual of appearing to handle more than one task at the same time. An example of multitasking is taking phone calls while typing an email. Some believe that multitasking can result in time wasted due to human context switching and apparently causing more errors due to insufficient attention.
Some researchers say that is difficult or impossible to learn new information while engaging in multitasking.

NEW INFORMATION
New technologies can be used to introduce new information but it is difficult to print it in pupil's mind if they are not focused. My idea is to support the new information with sounds and gestures, giving students the possibility to print it in their easiest brain way.Sometimes, I show on the digital board a power point presentation of new contents while they are working on a small group activity. They are able to take info from the board...

REVIEWING
This is the moment when I consider I can take advantage of their capacity to do different things at the same time, multitasking. Try to show them on a TV or a digitalframe situated beside them, a series of images of the taught contents at the same time you are reviewing the module contents on the board.
Try to do it 5 minutes before an exam.

www.onlineschools.org offers us this info in which the graphic below breaks down the costs multitasking takes on the quality of the "study hours" we wile away doing just about everything but studying:

ABOUT LANGUAGES

A LANGUAGE REFERENCE
When a bilingual teacher gets into the school or is at the main door surrounded by pupils he has to speak in English. This is because the most important thing we have to be, is a language reference for them. That is to say, our piece of the cake is English, so throughout all our schedule or time at school pupils can only hear English from us. We have to find the moment to speak to our Spanish co-workers... It is vital because pupils create a strategy to understand the language, They know they have to speak in English to be understood and they are learning in context using a vehicle, English: CLIL.

SEVERAL LANGUAGES GROWING TOGETHER

Our world is getting smaller because nowadays it is not too far-fetched to think that if we wanted to, in just a small amount of time, we could live on the opposite side of the globe. Means of transport are getting better year by year and our house economies have created a situation in which the majority of the people could fly and move from country to country. And because of these changes in our society, the demand and need of learning a second language has grown faster than ever. It´s almost becoming a necessity that each of learn a different language than our native one. And as teachers we must remember that: Our pupils are growing with several languages around them.

HOW TO WORK PHONICS

My suggestion is to work mastering triangles.
Triangle 1
 Children listen to a sound, look at a gesture and identify the previous input to an image: grapheme.
/sssssssss/, waving hands imitating the movement of a snake , S grapheme card.
Once they are able to tell us 2 of the corners when we show them 1, it is time to work on the next triangle.

Triangle 2
Children go on listening to the same sound but now they have to link the sound to a word card and the image of the main word of the sound.
/ssssssssss/, SNAKE, the picture of a snake

Triangle 3
Children still listen to the sound but they have to find the sound in words pronounced and in word cards.
/ssssssss/, /sneik/ /spot/ /s^n/ /sneil/ /spaida/; SNAKE, SPOT, SUN, SNAIL, SPIDER.
Once they master these triangles it is time to start blending.

If we teach and practice phonics, children will have richer reading skills

The order of sounds was selected to make many simple words at the beginning.
set 1: s, a, t, i, p, n
set 2: c k, e, h, r, m, d
set 3: g, o, u, l, f, b
set 4: ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or
set 5: z, w, ng, v, litlle oo, long oo
set 6: y, x, ch, sh, voiced th, unvoiced th
set 7: qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar

All sounds can be supported by songs that repeat the sounds through the chant. There are teachers who use the same chant for all the sounds and change the lyrics depending on the main word of the sound and the gesture.

Recently, a new organization was proposed. Better results can be taken if sounds that are the same as the children mother tongue are worked firstly and then similar and different sounds to children mother tongue are introduced.

Resources
http://www.starfall.com/
http://www.more.starfall.com/
http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/
http://www.genkienglish.com/
www.jollylearning.co.uk
Teacher Suzy