Learning issues...

First of all, I could say that some aspects of the introduction of the article “Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students” by Finnan and Shaw, support most of the discussions we have had so far, since the beginning of our course. The authors say that the aim of teaching is to “transform students from passive recipients of other people’s knowledge into active constructors of their own and other’s knowledge”, and this is the key issue I have been trying to address since I started researching and studying about how to improve our students’ learning. I strongly believe that the students we have in our classrooms nowadays are not motivated by everlasting lectures, or the idea that the teacher is the owner of all knowledge. Therefore, there is an emergent need for new tools to help teachers and students to feel comfortable in this novel way of teaching and learning, each of us in new roles in the process: teachers as helpers, guides, advisors, and students as actors.


The other assigned reading, “Using Learning Styles to Adapt Technology for Higher Education”, by Terry O’Connor, inspired lots of reflections about the topic. First of all, the author says that “for educators, the question is not simply one of trainable skills or attitudes, but recognizing that people who have fundamentally different instincts are in the classroom”. And added, “They are unlikely (or unable) to be successful when limited to activities that are not compatible with the attitudes they bring into the learning situation”. This thought is totally connected to the point that we must know our students so that our lesson planning addresses their expectations, needs, so that learning effectively happens during the class or during the course.

I feel very comfortable to say that these theories can echo all around the world, since all my colleagues in this e-course share the same opinion, that we, teachers, need to think in our students, and change our classes to fit this new generation.

In the next post I will talk a little about the way I see and feel technology in relation to these aspects.



Thanks for the attention, and I am waiting for comments!

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Teacher training experience

I have always been a great fan of technology, computers, internet, games, etc. Today I found out there is a term for that, I don't know if it is used in other countries. This generation that is totally connected to these gadgets is called geek. There it is, I found myself. Of course I am not an expert. I still have so much to learn, but I use to tell my friends that I am not afraid of trying, and normally read the Help files. This is the recipe of my technology knowledge.

Last week, I had a great experience I want to share. About 4 years ago I took a course about Web Tools, but mainly related to iEarn. Since then I have tried to apply some of the things I learned in my classes, and to share this with my colleagues in my school. Not everyone was as interested as I was.

Last year I had the opportuniy of taking part in the ILEP program, also sponsored by the US State Department, and during the 5 months I stayed in Kentucky, one of our mandatory subjects was Technology applied to Teaching. Lots more of resources were made available, and again, my desire of sharing it with others became stronger. I simply can't avoid. It is a kind of mission I have to accomplish, teacher formation, or training, is something I would really like to develop.

Back to Brazil, I intented to develop a workshop or training sessions, basically about web tools and resources, but again, don't ask me why, it was not possible. I took an online course here, offered by a teacher formation center in Brasilia, where I live, but it was very short, and dealt only with blogs and their use in teaching. To be sincere, this course was very superficial, I can see now. Time was very restricted.

Finally, I got to this group. And things have started very well this year. In the planning week that preceeded the beginning of classes, we had a lot of meetings, and one of them was mine! I was invited to present a small session about webskills, or internet resources, to my coleagues. As our group is very varied in terms of computer/internet skills, I had to choose some points. I taught them something about templates in Office programs (Word, Power Point and Excel), gave a small lesson about iGoogle (page agregator) and finally introduced blogs to them. At the end of the session, most of the teachers had created their own blogs, and we had the opportunity of sharing ideas on how to use blogs in classes.

It was the first step. There are more to come. We have already decided that we are going to set other sessions to continue this "training". I am sure all the ideas and suggestions that I have seen throught this course will enrich even more my sharing with my teachers here. And at the end, there is only one objetive: enhancing our students' learning.

That is all, for now!!!!!!

Marcia

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Week 6 - part I

One more week is over. This was a hard week, since I started in school and we had a smaller week due to Carnival holiday. The course has been providing so many interesting things for us to read, reflect, and try to implement, I will need twice the time of the course to be able to get at least 70% of all the resources we have.


I started this week a little frustrated, since I tried to create my WebQuest in GardenQuest, but did not succeed. It seemed my browser version was not supported, but I upgraded my IE to version 8.0. It did not work. Anyway, I will try to do it with the other suggested site: Zunal. I have already had lots of ideas to create WebQuests, I am sure they will become great projects. For example, in a semester I worked with a group of Intermediate 3 students, they read “Oliver Twist” and as the final project for this class I suggested the creation of a Newspaper. All the topics discussed in the book became topics for articles, ads, editorials, etc. Unfortunately, the conclusion of the project got a little loose, and now I see that a WebQuest would tie the information, and a rubric would guide the work.

Talking about rubrics, I had already read a lot about it, specially related to oral presentations, since there are some tasks that, in my opinion, are more difficult to be evaluated, or more, graded. Rubrics have always seemed to me as a clear and objective path to guide not only the grading of the students, but also to give them feedback, and to avoid misunderstandings. I have tried them sometimes with my students, even for self-assessment, and the results were very satisfactory.

I am feeling more confident at the end of this week, although last week I got a little sick and thought that everything would go late this week, but I can see the project getting organized now, and even without the opportunity of testing it with real students, I can see that all the tasks are getting connected and adjusted. Step by step, the picture is being completed, and I can already see that the result will be a success. For all of us.

Marcia

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Project Based Learning

This week was not a typical one. First of all, because activities have just started “for real” in school. Than demanded a bigger amount of time, added the fact that I was selected to be the English group coordinator. It gave me a great motivating sense of accomplishment, as well as an enormous load of responsibilities. Our group has been in need for a real group attitude for some time, and working with another colleague, I am sure we will be able to change some things – for better.


Besides this, I fell sick. Although we were on holiday, I did not have energy to do anything. That made me feel terrible, since I did not complete the week tasks on time. I just hope this does not interfere in my evaluation (not the grades, but I would not like to be seen as irresponsible).

Again, loads of things to see, read, and learn. I am more in track now, it seems the project starts to become real. The only problem, for me, is because I won’t be able to test my project with the students, because of the schedule of the school, and also because I won’t have classes this term. But I am so motivated in sharing everything I have been reading and planning with my colleagues. I have already thought of some ideas for using Web Quests, I just have to go into QuestGarden or Zunal and put them into practice. The site seems to be very friendly-user, after I have organized my idea into words and ABCD objectives, I suppose it will be easier to put it into an interesting layout. I intend to add videos and pictures too, because it helps motivating students.

I had already read about Web Quests, and PBL, but I have to assume that there is still a lot to research. The amount of information that is available is amazing. But there is one point that is already clear: working with projects, in a constructivism approach, keeping in mind the cooperative and collaborative aspects that projects imply, is one of the real possibilities to motivate our students. But to start this, I know I have to teach students how to work in groups, and develop a way to keep their motivation throughout the project. Well organized tasks and good orientation will help them in this process.

Marcia (during Carnival!)

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week 4 - planning

I never thought it would be so strange to go back to a complete detailed lesson plan again. I am going to use a citation from the text at http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/lesson_plan.html that says that "the extent of the detail will vary depending on the number of years of experience that the teacher has and the number of times he/she has taught the lesson." I can use this explanation for the fact that I was not used to write down my plans anymore, at least not with so much details. Also, since we do use a textbook that has a very detailed and teacher-friendly guide, there is not much left to the teacher. Thinking about the outcomes of the class and the learning styles desired, makes the teaching much more active and conscious. Designing the learning objectives in the ABCD model also made me think a lot about the lessons I have given lately. I did know what I wanted, but it becomes more clear when we state it. Moreover, it becomes easier to tell students what you expect from them, and to define assessment from the plan.

But as I use to say, there is nothing we cannot learn or re-learn. I saw myself in the beginning of my carreer, planning my complete lessons. Now, I intend to take a look at my colleagues' lesson plans, so that I enrich my portfolio of lessons and activities.

See you!

Marcia

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