The last reflections on Week 10: what a journey!

Yes, that was a long journey… This is the final blog about our Building Teaching Skills course and as Donna asked I answered her questions for this one. And during the reading, I was amazed to check that I learned so many new things. It was really intense! I’m really grateful to participate of this course and to be guided and supported by Donna. Also, the marvelous and very well experienced teachers that made part of this group that certainly helped me to improve my way to teach and gave me a new perspective of their reality.

Thank you so much!

Now my list…

             Most successful topics

·        ABCD’s objectives

·        Delicious.com

·        Webquest

·        Power point

·        Wallwisher

             Most useful

·        ABCD’s objectives

·        Delicious.com

·        Power point

·        Leaner autonomy

             Tools

·        Power point

·        Tools for educators

·        Easy Test Maker

 

            Other tools

All the tools presented were really interesting and certainly they will be very useful. But thinking about a topic I would suggest the Flipped classroom.

And now, for the last time…

That’s it.

 

Claudia

Week 9 – Happy and sad??

This is the end of week 9 and I’m ready to embrace the world through the web but at the same time feeling sad because it’s getting to the end.

I totally agree with my colleague Dev who posted on his blog as the title of his week 9: “Eyes smile no more”

All our discussions, the material given, the support given by Donna, our blog posts, all these things contributed to change my mind and open it to new directions in my way to teach. I’m not the same as before.

Now, just changing the topic, this week we had some researches based on the Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles. The studies showed us several kinds of learning styles and with them the challenge to us, teachers, to overcome them and help our students to go beyond their limits. And I just can conclude that my job is really complex. On the other hand, it’s challenging and there’s no space for routine.

Also, we had to conclude our project draft this week. And it was a bit hard for me because every time I looked at it I had the feeling that it was missing something. Then I changed something here and something there many times before getting to the final draft.

Well, I’m going to the next week now with opposite feelings in my heart: happiness and sadness.

So, see you there.

Claudia

 

 

 

 

Wow!! The stunning Week 8 has come

 

As I’m doing throughout my previous blogs, I’m going to start my comments about the readings, that were transformed into websites. Our task to research each one of them was really fun. Each one that I opened, delighted me because I was thinking about the interesting things that I could prepare to my classes, the students reactions to that and also the challenge to prepare them. I’m going to tell briefly what I liked on some of them

The Lanternfish ( http://bogglesworldesl.com/)  - there are several interesting tasks that teachers can prepare using pictures (that I love!) and many other options that are not related only with pictures. My colleague Juan Cordova developed with great ability his task using it.

Easy Test Maker (http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx) – if you are worried about preparing test, this is a good solution. There you can choose the type of the test and all the features that a test has. You just have to add your content questions to it. It’s really simple and fast.

Tools for educators (http://www.toolsforeducators.com/) – it’s like lanternfish website but I think a little bit more colorful. You can create many different tasks there. One example is the construction of a board game that my colleague Herman prepared to present as his task. I have to say that I took some time doing my own and it was really good!

Hot Potatoes ( http://hotpot.uvic.ca/) – Gap-filling activity was one of the options that my colleagues Vinay and Livia chose to present their task this week. This website has the same possibilities as the lanternfish and some other.

These were just some websites that we had in our list. While I researched them, I also was preparing my project draft. Like my friend Julhas pointed out on his blog, this week was like to be in a rollercoaster. Certainly it was hard but it’s a relief sensation that I feel after doing all that was asked.

If you think that this is the end, you’re wrong! The high point of the week was the presence of Jeff Magoto in the Nicenet presenting this wonderful, marvelous, incredible tool called ANVILL (https://anvill.uoregon.edu/anvill2/). I’m sure that all my colleagues really loved this tool because we, teachers, and also the students can use it to develop the listening and speaking skills of our students. It’s like a language lab in the internet and the best part that it’s free. Can you imagine that?

Jeff pointed out what this tool could offer us, but also told that we need to have our feet on the ground when talking about tech tool activities. He observed that it took some time to develop them, much more than, a usual one, but it’s an effort that has a great value when you see and prove the improvement in our students learning and behavior.

Now, I’m feeling like a warrior that’s ready for the war with all the weapons on his hand. But of course, if one of them fails, I still have my plan B to carry on.

Warrior Claudia is now going to week 9.

                                                                 See you there!

Week 7 – Focus on the leaner autonomy

            One more week and lots of learning! The readings about learners’ autonomy were really useful. The teaching experience that Samuel P-H Sheu presented in his article called “Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush?”, proved that it’s possible to make a way even when we face hard obstacles like the teaching system that he mentioned. Thanasoulas in his article “What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered”, many ideas to motivate and create an autonomy environment to our students. And as my colleague Basu, I could learn the several ideas that involves the meaning of autonomy and how these different meanings influence the way that we are going to develop it in our students or not.

            The list of suggestions to use only one computer in the classroom presented in the other two readings was really practical and objective. Both were answers to our anguish when we have an important tool in our hands but many students to share. I really like the readings.

            But that’s not all! We also had a very good experience using the Wallwisher. After reading some of my colleagues’ ideas how to use it, now I want to implement it in my classes.

            Well and to finish with the golden key, I just want to say that I already have my project partner, I mean, partners because I have two: Livia and Lila.

We are going to share our idea to develop our students’ skills on listening and speaking using the web resources.

           

 

            I’m really excited to move to the next week. It’s just getting better and I want much more.

                         See you there!
                            Claudia
 
 

The life after a broken computer: Power Point & Company improving the interaction on Week 6

  What a week!! Just like my colleague Pamela I’m whacked out, but because of my computer. It just stopped to work and all my life stuck. After this forced “break” I realized that our lives are really connected to the internet. After we start to make part of this world when you’re not connected,  it’s like you’re missing something. But at the same time, I took a look at my books, my old drafts of interesting seminars that I attended and checked my old notebooks with some ideas on different projects. It was like to review my teaching life and confirm that with the internet, it can be much better. But to reach that it’s necessary to train our eyes to see what’s important or not.

That’s what I answered to my colleague Sitaram. He was wondering if one day we could use all these technologies that we are learning about. Of course they have their importance and can facilitate our teaching life but let’s start from the beginning: what is our objective and which technology can help us to get there?

And this week I discovered (re-discovered) a useful technology that I use a long time: power point. The task to prepare one that has interactive resources challenged me. But it was really a pleasure to work with that. Also, the readings about engaging students helped me to discover that many of the suggested activities I’ve already worked with my students but I just didn’t know the name.

 

Also, after doing the reading “Teaching large classes” (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/LargeClasses.html) and Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students, from Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw I could add some more ideas to improve my teaching. Both readings were really useful for me.

One of the activities that I found interesting was Just in Time Teaching because we can save a lot of time just by developing the students ideas that were already presented before the class. Also, it helps us to guide our teaching exactly in the points that students were not so confident.

As soon as I finished this reading I thought about another education technique called Flipped classroom, that has the same idea of this activity: to save the time of teacher talking and go straight to the “do” part. But there are many pros and cons about it. And if you want to know more about it my suggestion is to read the article The Flipped Classroom: Pro and Con  by Mary Beth Hertz

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/flipped-classroom-pro-and-con-mary-beth-hertz

There, Mary Hertz presents what she understood of this methodology and also its pros and cons.

 Well, let me prepare to the next week.

                                                           Week 7, wait for me!!

See you there!

Claudia

Week 5 – Zuuum, there comes the technology!

Hello y’all!

In this week 5, Donna presented us the topics about PBL, Webquests and Alternative Assessements.

The reading about these topics were very interesting and gave me some hope that my classes can be different, as they can answer many questions about my own teaching procedure and mainly my student’s needs.

One of the readings that I liked and also surprised me and my colleague Daniel, was Susan Gaer ‘s article "Less teaching and More Learning". After reading it, I could see the same needs of my students  that she faced in hers. And her  solution guided my eyes to a different way to see the problems in my class.

Susan Gaer’s solution was based on PBL. Using this, her students could make the link between what they study with their reality, creating enthusiasm and motivation in order to accomplish the suggested tasks. And it was so successful that other projects like hers were launched and making these students’ learnings meaningful.

Alternative assessments are also another possibility to our students be aware of their learning by assessing each others. One succesful example  happens with our colleague Daniel. He shared with us his experience on a  reading activity using alternative assesment and also using rubrics. And he tells us that his studens could reach a good level of quality in their learning. Also through rubrics the learners can clearly see what they are asked to do and it also helped him to assess specific learning outcomes and performances.

And what about Webquest?? The title of my post was inspired on it because with so many resources that technology brings us, the sky is the limit! I really loved it.

The website http://www.zunal.com/  presents a variety of devices to produce a webquest  and I couldn’t decide which one to use. I’m gonna come back there to improve my webquest.

When you are producing a webquest you can use many resources and two of them that I liked were Voki  (http://www.voki.com/ )  and Glogster  (http://edu.glogster.com/) . You can use Voki to improve oral presentations using avatars and Glogster you can use to create an interactive poster.

As my colleague Livia believes, one of the teacher’s role is to help students to create their own image and improve their confidence.

I’m sure that with all these tools the future of education is promising.

But, I don’t want to be like this man observing while the train passes.

 

 

              I want to be inside and enjoy the view...

                   Claudia

Week 4 - Learning and learning!

     

Welcome Week 4!!! One more week to bring new learnings and challenges! The time is passing really fast, but Donna is presenting the new subjects in a soft and balanced way, that I really don’t feel that I’m in a hurry to reach all the week’s objectives that she suggests. I’m learning so many things, and they’re not only about the technology resources but also about education, my way to teach, my way to write and present my ideas and also gently present my divergence about an idea. 

             

It’s really good to study and learn. And the readings of this week were very instructive for me. The first one that I read was Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction by Jarek Krajka. The author gives us a very good summary of previous research about the use of the internet in an ESL class. Also, in this article there are suggestions to work on writing skill using different kinds of genres. One of the suggestions that I liked was the 4^th one: A description of a person, where students describe the “Wanted” person with short and humorous information and the other friends have to try to guess who the person is. This article was excellent.

            The goal to present ideas to work with reading using the internet was the theme of the article Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books by Mei-Ya Liang. Although there are just three suggestions, the ideas are simple and easy to do. For example, the suggestion three on Evaluating Books, leads students to a higher order thinking activity as they have to evaluate some books, rank them and present to the class the reasons for that ranking. And using the suggested sites and guiding questions for evaluating the books we have a productive activity.

            And what about the tasks that are getting harder as the weeks are passing by? But what a relief every time that I finish each of them!! Just like my colleague Ayman, I’m really happy to accomplish all the objectives and see that all we’re learning is not only for us, it’s for our students, too.

            After reaching ( Yeahh!!) all this week’s objectives, I’m ready for the next week...

                                                      

                                                                       See you there,

                                                                           Claudia