Week 7: Technology, Interactivity. Large classes

It's a bright warm May morning in my city now, when I am writing. I am listening to some music... and I am daydreaming.  Few minutes ago, while I was reading your posts and I decided it's time to share my thoughts about this week.

For me, from the very beginning, this week had a name: challenge. Why? Because so far I have considered Power-point is a great tool (even if I prefer the Mac Keynote) for presentations. I said presentations. And if they are presentations, I don't didn't know they can become interactive too. Now, I know, and I even created one. And ideas came and expanded for another one, and so on. I learned how to make them interactive. I created a jeopardy on grammar for my 12th graders, and I am very curious to see their reaction. I have to wait till next week. It was not at all difficult, as I watched the tutorial on Youtube and I learned how to make mine. But, there are so many things to say about interactive presentations and they can become so interesting...

Then, I read about interactive presentations and on a post on Nicenet I shared my opinions and experience in creating power-point presentations. There are many pitfalls which can be avoided - not to transform the presentation in a boring note-lecture.

And then, the great challenge: interactivity in large classes. I started by stating the advantages and disadvantages of large classes. I'd like to try to teach a large class, but I can't for the time being.

I am quite disappointed as I managed to do nothing from my plan this week. I wanted to have my class with the 9th graders in the IT lab. Well, I couldn't. The teacher who offered to accompany me fell ill and I simply could not work with my students as I had wanted. Moreover, this week our school celebrated its 40th anniversary and the whole school / program was upside-down. But I hope next week will be better, even if on Monday we are free - a religious holiday and ... no school, that is no class with my 9th grade. However, I keep my hope alive.

Thank you all for the nice comments you posted on my blog last week. They really meant something to me...

Here is my school: 1970 - 2010

Week 6: A short review

The end of the 6th week is very close. I am so used to this course, that I don't consider the tasks I have to do tasks, but pleasure.  I have become more courageous, I have learned to read and to explore new things.  And thank you all for the great words you wrote in your comments.

I have started this week by reading about the multiple intellingences. It was nothing new for me, as in 2002, I attended my first course provided by the American Embassy, and it dealt with this topic. Then, while doing the CELTA course, we had a special section dedicated to the multiple intelligences. But, I read once again about this. I consider this idea extremely interesting, as in general my students (and not only) aren't aware of it, and sometimes they simply label people (if somebody is not good at math, then, it is labeled: stupid). All the time I try to make students get rid of labels: see what people do, not what they imagine. For this, I have a questionnaire regarding the multiple intelligences, and at at least once a  year, I do it with my students. Then, I explain to them what their main intelligence is and how they can exploit it at the maximum. I think this is great help for their future career. My students are very excited about the multiple intelligences, as they have no idea they exist. By giving them examples, they become aware of them.

Then,  I read an interesting article about the learning styles. Once again, it was not new for me, as every year, at the beginning of the school year, I give students a questionnaire in order to find their learning style. I posted a comment on Nicenet, and Joanna wanted to know how I do this. Now, I can answer: I distribute printed papers to all the students, and they have to answer the questions (about 10). I found this questionaire on the internet years ago (4 or 5 years) and I adapted it to my students. I have the same questions, I don;t change them from one year to the other. But now, I found something else: I can use the internet: my students can find out their learning style in just two minutes, here - http://www.ldpride.net/learning-style-test.html. I think it's great I found this site, as I save paper and time, and printing problems, etc.

Then, I read the article "Enhance Learning by Enganging Students" about  alternative tools to assess our students. In a post on Nicenet, I wrote about some things I can use in class. Technology is priceless in this regard, and one helpful thing is Hot Potatoes, which you can download for free here: www.hotpot.uvic.ca. Simply download, install, create and let your students solve their tasks. It offers a large number of things: matching, re-ordering, etc. (you'd better find all by yourselves).

The most important things for me this week consist in the rubric I created and the Wiki I designed for my students. I found out about http://rubistar.4teachers.org, a great site where I created my own rubric for one of the projects I created the previous week - Traditional books vs. e-books. I liked very much the idea of creating a rubric: it was not at all difficult and when creating it I was in my students' shoes, to make everything as clear as possible. All the time I imagined myself as a student, reading the rubric for the first time. I created it, and it can be found here: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?&screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1906431&.

Then, the big challenge came: to integrate all I know / learned  in my classes, otherwise I consider everything is nothing but a waste of time. If my students are not involved in my work, I can stay at home and create everything just for myself. But, that's nothing. I loved working on the Wiki: I had to imagine things, to find out things, etc. Just have a look here: http://my-english-portfolio.wikispaces.com. It is based on my 9th grade textbook, simply because the book is interesting and I felt my students want to know something more. Just a short example: one lesson deals with Anne Frank, and her diary. They fell in love with her story and they wanted to know more. I am not sure when they go home they start searching the internet for this, and I am not sure they find what they should see and read. This Wiki gives them all they need. I use the Wiki just for resources and extra-materials. One section of it, named "Essential documents" contains everything I considered to be important for them, and I uploaded there links to the sites I found out about during this course.

Then, I created the class' blog. Not very difficult (as level of language), not too overloaded. You can see it here: http://online-modern-education.blogspot.com/. It contains their first task and a link to the Wiki. I hope my students will like it.

I am lucky as in our school there are 3 computer labs, and only 2 of them are used by the IT teachers. I talked to them and every time I want to have my class in a computer lab, I am free to do it. I will start this next Monday (I am so excited). On Monday morning, my students will see their blog. And, those of them who haven't accessed the Wiki already, will do it on Monday too. I am eager to see their reaction on Monday.

Later edit: 

The link I provided for finding out everybody's learning stlye is not the best option, as you are asked money at the end of the survey. It can be used only for a general idea of the questions. If you are used to the different learning styles, you don't need their answers, you can give the answers yourselves.

Week 5: The best things I learned

One more week has almost gone by... and half of the course. Maybe it's time to have a middle evaluation of the course. I will start by reminding and remembering the Nicenet - a good tool to be used in my classes, maybe next year, as this one is almost over. Then, the blog - it's the first blog I created and I managed to keep up to date, at least so far. Then, Noodle Tools - I felt I needed something more than Google, but I didn't know what I needed. And, so many other things... what's very important for me is that I found out about them (every week, another new thing to learn), but I don't keep all the information in a folder in my computer or in my mind: I put all into practice. Last week I designed my first technology lesson plan - this week I had a lesson based on it (and I even filmed it: to share everything with you and to have a look at myself - with a critical eye: oh, there are so many things I must improve...)

And, here we are, close to the end of the 5th week. The best thing I learned this week is by far WebQuest. I must admit: I read about WebQuests before, I knew what they mean, but I was never curious to try to make one. This week, I managed to do the first one. And I was pleased with the final result. You can see it here: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=60205. I thought about environment as main theme, as it is very actual and my students are interested in this topic. I spoke about the advantages of using WebQuest in a post on Nicenet - they involve and engage students, they make use of technolgy, and in this way students understand that teaching is not out-dated and teachers are not "dusty": they can learn what internet means (not only chat, Facebook or Youtube).

I was very glad this week when I discovered I have to speak (actually write) about the project-based learning. I am a project-addicted (if such a thing exists) and I consider this is the best way my students learn, as they learn by doing. There are thousands and thousands of projects, of different types, with different themes... both in the virtual world (where we can have a partner) and in our textbooks (helping our students to create their portfolios). As I speak about projects here... this week, more exactly on 5 / 5, the e-Twininning program had its 5th anniversary. As my students have already created many e-Twinning projects, we celebrated this day: we presented our latest e-Twininng project, "Where did the Romans get?", and we launched blue and yellow balloons. Have a look here:

I have to come back to my 9th graders: what could I do for them to involve technology? What can I change? And the idea coming up was: blog. Maybe beacuse I like blogs so much, I don;t know. But I identified many advantages of using them - they are so good for communication, and in my opinion, no communication, to human race.

Then, I created another lesson dealing with traditional and electronic books which I will use with my 12th graders. Last, but not least, as far as I could I helped my mates, I shared my ideas, I found out new things reading their posts.

Now, I am ready for the 6th week...

Week 5: My lesson based on the technology plan

Last week I found out about the technology based lesson plan, and I agree with Hamid that there is a difference between lesson plan and lesson planning: one is the result, the other is the process.

As the unit in my textbook (Upstream Upper Intermediate) deals with environment, I chose and adapted a lesson plan called "Plant Appreciation Day" from http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/04/plant_appreciation_day.html.

I designed my lesson for 50 minutes, I prepared everything in detail, I asked one of my school-mates (thank you, Valentin) to get the camera and film my class, then I spent a couple of hours in front of my computer to process the movie and shorten it: only 12 minutes out of 50.

Unfortunately, as our camera is a HD one, the format was too large, I couldn't upload it here (more than 1 GB) and by converting the movie I lost from its quality. However, you can get a general idea about my lesson. If you are patient enough, you will see my students, my teaching methods, my lesson...

Week 4: Conclusions close to the end

Our week number 4 in this course is soon over. I can't imagine a month has gone by and I have learned so many things... The problem is I want to learn more and more and try not to forget. I wouldn't like to say "confirmed" to the saying "The more I learn, the less I know". One of my mottoes in life goes "I give all I know for half I ignore" - and it proves true every single day. For me, this course is a really great chance to improve myself. I am wondering (already) what shall I do when this course is over? I got used to all this hard work, to reading, and writing, and everything... But, till the end it's a long time, so I'd better concentrate on the conclusions of this week.

I have learned many new things - mainly related to resources I can use to make my lessons more interesting for my students, to motivate them more and more. I have designed my first technology lesson plan: it's not only for the task, but tomorrow I will make a lesson based on this. I will share everything with you, be patient and you will see what I mean. :) As they are environmentally aware and most of them love plants, I will have a lesson about Plants Appreciation Day, based on the lesson plan found on the internet.

I thought it's useful to make a comparison between this lesson plan and the ones I have used so far. Like this, things became clear in my mind and I could see the advantages and disadvantages for each of them. Even if I considered one plan the best, and at first I thought the technology lesson plan lacks some important rubrics, I could make a mixture between them and everything was all right.

Then, I expressed my own opinions about reading and writing, I shared my ideas with my mates and then I identified two issues my students in 9 B have. The main idea is that teenagers read less and less and they are not able to understand what they read. This is the case in Romania, I don't know what exactly happens all around the world, but here things are like that, unfortunately. I haven't thought about the solutions yet, but I have an idea about what I can do to solve this. Later, I still have time.

I am very glad I can share all with my mates all around the world, I like reading their posts on their blogs, I like reading their comments on my blog and at the same time, I got used to commenting. This course enabled me to overcome the "express your thoughts" barrier. For a long time (about 5 yeas or more) I have been reading blogs. But I had never expressed my own ideas in a comment. Now I do it, thanks to this course.

And, of course, I have enriched my bookmarks using Delicious. It's a great resource, it's extremely helpful and I am happy now I know it's there...

Last, but not least, I shared all with my mates at school (teachers of different subjects) and my students.

Week 4: Technology lesson plan?

Well, here we are in the middle of the 4th week of our course. So far, everything is all right. I feel more relaxed, I fell calmer, I have already got used to the course, to your blogs, to your comments on my blog...

Now, I'd like to tell you some words about technology lesson plan. When I first heard about it, I thought it's something related to mechanics, or electricity, or technology in general. What a mistake!

Since I graduated the CELTA course last autumn I have been using their lesson plan template. I thought it's the best as it makes me take into account my students' presumed knowledge, my self-aims, it has a rubric where I can insert my meaning and instruction check questions... shortly, I thought there can't be anything better than it! I was so wrong... The technology lesson plan is far better. Even if at the beginning I was a bit disappointed and I even talked about this in a post on Nicenet, when I actually started designing my own lesson plan using this template, I could find all the rubrics I thought were lost.

There are many things I like about this lesson plan, but two of them are my favorite: the first one is that I have to write clearly where I downloaded my information from - in this way, I am protected, and here I mean the copyright. There are many many teachers who simply copy a page from a book, without mentioning the book, the author, etc. My second favorite thing is that I have to think about a plan B in case things don't work as I planned.

Now, I will use this lesson plan for my future lessons which involve technology. By the way, on Monday I will teach the lesson I described on Nicenet. I will make pictures and share everything with you.

Week 3: The end and a new beginning

This week has been a very busy one: I have read almost all the blogs and comments and many of us complain about the hard work and the lack of time. That's true, this course is quite time consuming but it's worth it. And, even if all of us complain about something at a given moment, there are many of us who keep up with the tasks and discussions.

It was a very interesting week - once again I have learned many new and useful things. What I like most is the fact that I have to discover by myself and I am involved in the learning process - I can't imagine myself reading and learning by heart new things in order to speak about them later. The readings are recommended, not compulsory and this allows me time to read them when I can, and freedom to choose what I read and how much I read.

I said I have read your blogs and comments. This is a very useful activity as I find out lots of things - interesting, shocking, similar, different. In this post (the last one of this week) I would like to tell you what I discovered. Quite new, interesting and not so good. We are all teachers, educators, we are involved in the teaching process. We are up to date regarding the latest technology and we use it for us, for our students... but, unfortunately, many of the teachers in this world do their job in the traditional way, not taking into account what technology means, not being able to use it (not even for personal purposes). I was sad to find out that Juliet was shocked that in her country teachers don't have a CD player to use in class. It's sad, but it's true. Then, Ruslana from Ukraine was sincere to confess that only 20% of the teachers she knows use tape-recorders or CDs in their lessons, while 55% have never used one! Or to mention Garunyawun's statement about teaching English in her country: in Thailand teachers of  English don't use English during their classes, being afraid of making mistakes... Once again, sad but true. All of us mention the traditional methods teachers use: I agree that they are old-fashioned, out-of-date (the methods, not the teachers!). In my country I can find all the examples you mentioned, so Romania is not an exception. When I wrote about  my findings concerning my students' ways of spending their free time, you agreed with me and said that your students too use the internet only for socializing and entertainment.

My question is logical now: what MUST we do? I think we are among the best teachers in our country - that's why we were elected to attend this course. We are interested in improving ourselves, in learning, in sharing experience... but that's not enough. I'd like to become an ambassador. And I started being one - in my field, of course. There is not a single thing I learn here not to be shared with my mates at school and not only. Last week I had the chance of meeting teachers from all over the country when attending a course: teachers of different subjects, teachers of different ages, from different schools. I talked to them about Noodle Tools and having my laptop close to me, I let them see why it's different from Google and why it's better to know it is there... This week I told my mates and my students about Delicious. I let them use it and see its advantages.


If we keep the information we have just for ourselves, things will not improve. Let's share everything we know. Let's make our teachers understand that it's better to take advantage of technology, let's try to motivate them. We can do it! We have the necessary knowledge, so we have power. I'd like to talk to you in 5 years' time and I'd like to find out that things have changed: more teachers use this tool called technology. I never want a teacher to be replaced by a computer. The computer is artificial: it has intelligence, but it doesn't have a soul...