Week 8: What do I remember from this week?

One door closes, another door opens... this happens all the time, here too: one week ends, another one starts. On Monday... I like Mondays, when it's a new start. Once I read what somebody said: we live our lives by counting the Monday days...

This week has started in a very nice way - I got feeb-back for my activity last week, I got guidance for the new tasks. I started by greeting Jeff, the great teacher who shared so many interesting things with us. As I am quite curious in general, and I like to try out new things (as I get bored very easily), I wanted to explore some more resources and at the same time, include what I have learned during this course. I tried the message board, which I consider helpful for listening and speaking. If possible, I will try something similar with my students when school starts again, next September. In summer, I will have time to experiment new things I learned about during these two months.

Then, I wrote about my students' self-autonomy. It was not diffcult,as I know what it means and I am not  teacher-centered, but all my teaching is student-centered. I involve them in activities, I enable them express themselves, become engaged and involved. I do all this as in life they will not have a teacher to guide them, they will be all by themselves. Moreover, I don't like teachers who want to have everything under control, who try to impose their opinions at any price... and the long rows of silent students who write after dictation. Students are not robots, they are not imperfect little adults, they live their age, they need training, and we are there to guide and help them. I don't want to hear my students reciting lists of names, rules, commentaries on writers and novels. I want to make them think, understand, remember. I want to hear their voices expressing their own opinions, bringing arguments and giving examples. I want to make them search the internet by themselves, look for the information they need. I offer them ideas, help, but I don't impose my opinions, I don't want to be the totalitarian rigid teacher - the supreme master of the class. I don't want to intimidate my students, but make school their friend.

Then, I designed an activity for a one-computer classroom. I wanted to integrate here the knowledge I got last week, and I created an interactive power-point presentation, this time on vocabulary. My students simply enjoyed it and they could learn by playing: that's what they considered, that they were playing while learning.

Then, I shared my opinions with my colleagues in this course, on their blogs or on Nicenet. I learned many new things and I realized there are so many common things in all the schools worldwide.

And, I've been working on my project. I sent my draft to Shujuan and to Kheri and I got Shujuan's draft. I am looking forward to getting their comments on my draft. Based on them, I will write the final version of the project.

Next week I will have a very tough time - on Monday my students start their final examination in English. And there are about 200... I will have to be patient and objective while grading them.

Week 7 & 8: My students reactions

As I have promised in my posts on Nicenet last week, I want to share with you my students' reactions to the blog and to the jeopardy.

Finally, at the beginning of this week, I was able to have my English classes in the IT lab. There were no problems at all, everything worked as planned.

First of all, I will tell you some words about the 9th graders and their blog. I have created a blog just for them, which I expanded and I enriched, adding a special link to the wiki, where they can find all the materials they need. If at the very beginning I was thinking about making it a space where they could find materials (for reading or listening), my initial plans changed and I made it interactive: accessing the wiki they have to work on a task every week. Their reaction was more than I had expected. In class they were very enthusiastic and interested in trying the blog and the wiki, and I saw they continue to access both of them from their computers at home. I was surprised even more to see that some of them brought their laptops in class, to be connected to these tools.

I was very curious to see my 12th graders' reaction to the jeopardy. Actually, last week I created two of them, based on grammar. As I considered the first one to be a little bit difficult for them (as it is based on metalanguage), I created another one, simpler this time: they are given the name of a verbal tense and they have to make up sentences. I tried it in class and I was delighted when their answers were sometimes identical or very similar to what I had imagined. I combined the two presentations and after having their answer on one verbal tense, I went to a slide from the fisrt jeopardy, where they were given the answer and they had to formulate a question. And we discussed in detail every single tense, we clarified some problems and everything was all right. I consider this a great revision exercise before the exam they will take next week.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures as I was quite absent-minded and I left my camera at home... I promise next time I will be more attentive!

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.