Presenting in seminars pushes teachers to study, research, and experiment. It surely pushes us towards sharpening our teaching skills, but attending a seminar also gives us the opportunity to watch, learn and observe from the generous presenters who take their time to prepare interesting and inspiring content to reach their audience. Last friday, I attended The One-Day Seminar - Telling Our ELT Stories and left with great insights to help inspire my learners. The opening plenary by Valeria Franca started with her telling us a story. A story that had a clear, concrete starting point. She showed us a pair of ballet shoes and enchanted her listeners as she unveiled the details of her narrative. She had all our attention and that`s when magic happened. She led us through an experiencial path and started asking us to perform some tasks. The activities not only touched us, but also taught us some interesting techniques to use in our classrooms. Why are stories such a meaningful teaching tool? It brings up emotions, and emotions please the learning brain. I heard what she had to say, I learned because I connected, I cared.
In the first activity, we had to think of a concrete object that conjured up personal memories and answer with a single word her questions about it. What the object is, where the memory takes place, who was involved, the sound and the smell of such a memory. Then, we exchanged papers and had our partners guess what the story was. My partners could not guess my story, but there was a lot of interaction among us because they were genuinely interested in knowing about it.
In the second activity, she taught us a technique used by fiction writers to create characters. We had to draw stars on a piece of paper and write next to each one a life changing event. Then, we had to draw other stars to join the events. We had to link the stars to create life stories, and it was magical again. I realized that I had created different people and that each and every one of my characters had his or her life story and background. I can imagine lots of practical ideas to explore this technique with my students.
Valeria started her plenary talking about people, moved to objects that trigger memories and had us thinking about events to create background stories. Then, she took us back to thinking about people.
In activity 3, she explored the idea of adding layers to creating a character. She showed an image of a boy and asked us to create a background story for him. Then, she played a beautiful soundtrack of waves breaking on shore to help our imagination flow, and, in a click, I felt creative and the boy was no longer an image projected before my eyes; He was a character because he had a story. The combination of image first and then sound provided me with the thinking time I needed.
I left the plenary eager to keep using stories in my classes because that`s when magic happens, and thanks to Valeria, I left the plenary with some more techniques in my toolbox. One more tip she gave us - springpad to have students create and publish their stories.
I attended a great seminar today, and I have learned about different tools and different ways to use some tools that I had already worked with.
Wordle
What I learned:
Ronaldo Junior suggested an interesting way to use wordle that I had not heard before; he told the audience about how educators can paste two different articles on the same topic and reflect upon the different key words that will make the word cloud. He told us about how this reflection could lead students to interpret the words and realize the agendas each publication may have. Another interesting way to explore wordle that he mentioned is having students' resumes made into clouds and have them analyse the results and share their findings with the other students in the group. I loved this idea because there would be a lot of genuine communication among students.
What I already knew:
Cameras
Ronaldo Junior also suggested the use of a camera to illustrate vocabulary items.
He showed an edited version of the movie below
My insight
I'll ask my intermediate group to do it for the new lexical point I'll teach to see how it works.
Using Songs
Two dear workmates Cleide Nascimento and Fernanda Barbosa talked about using songs in the classroom.
Before listening
Use wordclouds to predict content of a song.
Showing a clip to activate schemata
Illustrate some lines to help grasp meaning
While listening
Students complete lyrics with rhyming words.
Students correct the lyrics.
Students answer comprehension questions about the lyrics to practice past tenses or reported speech.eg. The man told the woman not to go away because he loved her.
Students could answer a quiz
After reading
Write another version to the lyrics. or students could write a letter as if they were one of the people in the lyrics.
Have students illustrate the song to make a clip.
My insights
I need to use songs more often, and use some tools that I know of to help me develop he activities, or offer students the chance of having a quick musical practice.
Over the past three years, my teaching practice has changed, adapted and upgraded as my fingers press keys after keys. It has been a rollercoaster because I started out as a technophobic and moved to a somehow more comfortable position in terms of implementing the use of webtools and technology into my practice. At first, I was only able to use some devices myself. I was designing my powerpoints, using my class computer and some software with some ease. Soon enough I was asking my students to become producers of digital content. This has also been a roller coaster beause I have faced many challenges, but I made it. I helped many of my learners realize how powerful the internet can be to enhance and maximize learning. I have used the computer lab to have my students produce content, or assigned this phase as homework. But I need to move beyond. I am now part of the tech team at my school, and I need to bring some new concepts into my own classroom in order to feel comfortable enough to help other teachers. My first aim is to work on the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) concept. But I have an extra challenge. I need to learn about APPS that actually work offline and are free or almost free. In other words, I need to come up with good practices in which learning is trully enhanced. The first step is to try out, experiment myself so that I can advocate for something I trully believe in. My progress will be recorded here as a learning journal. Any advice or tips are more than welcome! What APPS do you use or want to learn about? Do they add value to your teaching?
Last week Erika Oya and I were asked to deliver a class about pedagogical uses of technology for a group of teachers - my workmates- who are taking The Teacher Training Course at Casa Thomas Jefferson with us. The layout of the lesson had been previously set up by our supervisor, but we added a little of our personal touch. For me, using ICTs is excellent when It's time to personalize, and have language learners experiment with the target language. It feels like adding a personal digital fingerprint. We began the training discussing reasons to use ICT and reasons to avoid using it. After that we showed a video about the three stages of pedagogical technology. The lesson got positive feedback from the teachers, and the message in the video lingered in me.
I am for the implementation of ICT in sound, well planned lesson plans because that's what I want the teachers who teach my kids to do. I want them to communicate, share, produce and collaborate, bu I also want them to have more traditional classes in order to become well- informed and knowledgeable. I believe I am most of the time in stages 1 and 2, but I'd like to have my students in stage 3 more often. What stops me? Well... tight schedules, slow connection just to name some of the challenges I have to face, but I know that there are great collaborative projects going on right now that are just some clicks away. I wouldn't have to do much, because they are already in progress, happening and gainning momentum as I write about them. I decided to make a list, and hopefully engage, and have my students do the same. I hope this list is useful for you too.
Make a how to video that teaches how to make/do something of value to your local culture. Examples could be how to prepare some food, Make some decoration, How to play a game or greet someone. Other ideas are ore than welcome!
Save it in your computer, and upload it to youtube or any similar site.
I was lucky to teach young learners using shared reading when I was working for The Sequoia Foundation, a wonderful institution that does an amazing job in public schools. Nothing new under the sun for ESL teachers, but seems to me that EFL teachers and trainers really do not know much about it here in Brazil. It strikes me as a big surprise because I only see advantages to this method. That's why I have decided to study the theory behind shared reading and to deliver a worshop in 2012 to brush up since I have the practice( quite forgotten, by the way...), but know very little about the principles behind it. Here is what I have come up so far:
What is Shared Reading?
Shared Reading is an interactive reading experience developed by Holdaway (1979), and it builds from the research that indicates that storybook reading is a critically important factor in young children's reading development (Wells, 1986). The storybook reading done by parents in a home setting is particularly effective (Strickland & Taylor, 1989).With this instructional technique, students have an opportunity to gradually assume more responsibility for the reading as their skill level and confidence increase. Children join in the reading of a big book or other enlarged text as guided by a teacher or other experienced reader until they are able to read independently. During the reading the teacher involves the children in reading together by pointing to or sliding below each word in the text. This provides children the opportunity to participate and behave like a reader.
This description pleases me, for it reminds me of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Learning - Children learn from and with a more experienced peer who pushes him or her a little beyond what they already know and builds on it by experiencing the reading passage.
What does Shared Reading aim at? Help children become familiar with texts so they can use the book independently for writing and reading. Shared Reading can be extended when teachers and children choose to make their own "big book" in response to a story or text. This provides a way for the teacher to model how the author's ideas can be revisited and related to one's own experiences. I remember reading a book called Grandma Brings to a group of underpriviledged children in Salvador, Bahia . They were learning places around the world and what gifts a person can bring to illustrate a little the culture of the places. As a follow up, we made a song about what could a person buy to depict our culture. Students made many interesting contributions.
What is the challenge for EFL teachers who want to use Shared Reading? Shared Reading is generally accomplished using an enlarged text that all children can see. Selected books must be suitable for students to join in the experience. This can be a challenge in itself because we usually use ESL books that follow a totally different rationale. Traditionally, shared reading has used paper-based materials. However, a teacher can take advantage of a number of electronic resources that have been developed or even create the resources that match the syllabus. One such resource is called Mimic Books that has been specifically designed to be used on interactive whiteboards for shared reading lessons. The benefit is that it replicates the look and appearance of a real big book but on the interactive whiteboard making it clearly visible to children. Another site that I really recommend is called Readinz A-Zbecause it offers some free samples and amazing worksheets. I have created some materials with Storybird or bugging a workmate to illustrate some of the vocabulary items or grammar points I was supposed to teach, but there are many webtools that can be used to help an EFL teacher who is eager to use such a rich reading workshop in class. I'll be posting some of my work this year at the end of this post regularly.
What are the characteristics of appropriate Shared Reading materials?
When working with shared reading, it is important to choose or write a book that offers the possibility of multiple readings for enjoyment and also offer a rich picture text match. There are basically 6 types of appropriate books suggested by McCracken and McCracken (1995):
1-Rhythmic books. The rhythm of the text enables children to anticipate some of the words. An example would include Leland B. Jacobs book, Good Night, Mr. Beetle, where each line follows the format, "Good night, ________," with a culminating line for "The moon's in the sky."
2- Repetitive books. Many books contain repetitive text by which children can easily learn and join
in during that part of the reading. The classic story of the Three Little Pigs provides an example
of repetition:
I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in.
3- Cumulative books. This type of text continually builds each page by repeating text from previous pages and adding a new line of text with each new page. The House that Jack Built is a good example of a cumulative book:
This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat, that ate the malt, that lay in the house that Jack built.
4- Basic sentence pattern books. In this type of book, a basic sentence pattern is used to provide support for the reader. For example, the basic pattern could be represented by,
"This is my __________," which is repeated on every page with variations in the blank (e.g., dog, cat).
5- Information books. These books do not follow a storyline, but are instead full of information
about content-related topics. Use of information books is a good way to support students as they learn vocabulary, facts, and concepts. Examples include Antarctica by Helen Cowcher, Sharks by Russel Freedman, and Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington.
6- Two-part books (question & answer). Brown, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr., is a good example of a two-part book. This type of text reads like a conversation in which a question is asked by one animal over two lines in the book, and a response from another animalis given with a subsequent two lines.
Teaching Methods Initial reading (done by teacher) follows this pattern: Gather children in an area close to the book. The book must be easily seen by the children.
Introduce book (share theme, examine title, cover, illustrations, etc. make predictions)
Excite student's imagination and relate prior experience to text
Concentrate on enjoying the text as a whole by taking a book walk
Encourage students to use background knowledge to make predictions
Encourage spontaneous participation in the reading of the story
Discuss personal responses to the book ( tricky for EFL teachers due to students' low proficiency level.
Direct children's attention to various aspects of the text, and reading strategies, and skills. Many of the strategies needed for independent reading can be taught during shared reading, especially when shared reading takes place with a small group versus the whole class.
Experiment with intonation and expression, discuss colorful phrases or words.
Attend to teaching points as they arise.
The children's contributions may range from reading in their heads or mouthing some of the words to more complete renderings which may include a number of approximations. Techniques for children participation could include:
choral reading
oral cloze (where the teacher pauses or drops his/her voice out of a choral reading)
dramatization
recording children reading the text
masking activities
word work such as "Be the Words" or sorting the words
What are the children supposed to do during the reading?
Enjoy reading
Track print left to right and word for word
Predic and infer
Expand their lexis
Learn and use reading strategies
Work on phonics by finding letters and sounds in context
Understand and use concepts of print (spacing, capitalization, punctuation)
Understand story elements such as characters, setting, beginning, middle and end.
Expand on the reading
Personalize content and develop critical thinking.
Why should teachers revisit the text? In the shared reading model there are multiple readings of the books over several days. Throughout, children are actively involved in the reading (Yaden, 1988). The teacher may pause in the reading and ask for predictions as to what will happen next. Groups of children or individual children might volunteer or be invited to read parts of the story. Through repeated readings and the predictable text, children become familiar with word forms and begin to recognize words and phrases (Bridge, Winograd, & Haley, 1983; Pikulski & Kellner, 1992).
What is the purpose of rereading?
Readings of the same story serve various purposes. The first reading is for enjoyment; the second may focus on building and extending comprehension of the selection; a third might focus attention on the interesting language and vocabulary; a fourth might focus on decoding, using the words in the selection as a starting point for teaching word identification skills (Yaden, 1989). However, the main purpose is to entice students to become readers, and to systematically teach children how to be readers and writers themselves. (Parkes, 2000)
What to do after the first reading? After reading, the teacher can take students back to the point of making predictions, whether at the word or story level, and ask how they knew they were right or how they knew if their prediction wasn’t quite correct. Giving students this chance to talk about their thinking is very powerful and ensures their full participation. for EFL teachers, it becomes mandatory to establish a reading routine to guarantee participation and understanding. The teacher asks open-ended questions and helps students build connections to the text by activating students’ prior knowledge to the theme or main idea of the book. The second and subsequent readings allow for the students to chime in with now familiar words and phrases. In some cases, students and teachers can take turns reading (e.g., the teacher reads the left side and students read the right side). Displaying the titles of the shared reading books can be very motivational to emergent readers with the caption: “Books We Have Read Together!” Once read, the shared reading books or the ones written by students may be kept in an area accessible to students for independent and familiar rereading . If using a pocketchart, the teacher might write the story, or a portion of the story, on sentence strips so that students can retell or build the story by putting the strips in order (McCracken &McCracken, 1995). Assign students roles by giving them index cards labeled with each character’s name. The students then wear the role tag and act out the story as a creative drama activity (Fisher & Medvic, 2000). Have students write a big book that extends from the storyline by predicting what would happen next if the story were to continue. Create puppets for role-playing so that students can dramatize and become the characters (Fisher & Medvic, 2000). Have the students draw a picture of a favorite scene or character from. New stories can created or produced by the students using the same theme or sentence/language pattern of the book that has been shared.
What are the steps?
Introduce the Story
Discuss the book cover's title and illustration.
Invite predictions about the story.
Point out and explain the author and illustrator.
Read the Story
Be dramatic, showing obvious delight in both the storyline and the language.
If appropriate and convenient, pause and invite predictions.
Ask brief questions to measure comprehension and spur curiosity.
Conclude the Reading Period
•
Allow time and space for spontaneous reaction and comments.
•
Ask about parts the children enjoyed most or least.
•
Ask questions about the story line, e.g. why certain events took place.
•
Ask questions relating the story to the children, e.g. have they experienced something similar, or how would they have handles things differently than the story's characters.
Conduct Additional After-Reading Activities
Ask the children to retell the story in their own words.
If appropriate, focus on repetitive elements, such as a phrase, chant or chorus, and ask children to chime in as you re-read that element in the story.
Point to the words in the text to demonstrate the conventions of print.
Re-read the Story
If time permits, re-read the book.
Usually, the first reading emphasizes meaning and enjoyment.
Subsequent readings aim to (1) increase participation, (2) teach about book characteristics and print conventions, (3) teach reading strategies, (4) help develop a sight vocabulary of high frequency words, and (5) teach phonics.
Allow Independent Reading
allow children to browse or read book themselves.
Conduct Follow-Up Activities
Expand on the text byasking students to write their own books, illustrate the cover, give the story a different ending.
I have decided to take a break on my vacation plans to connect and learn a bit more about webtools and how to take advantage of them to tell stories. We, language teachers are fortunate because we get to teach while people share their own, personalized, meaningful stories. To empower my students to open up and tell others about who they really are, or what their passions are is the reason for taking an EVO session called digitalstorytelling4kids. I am absolutely amazed by the large number of people connecting and daring. I have never heard of doctors or engineers engaging worldwide to learn for the sake of learning. Why do we teachers engage so much in professional development? I do not know the answer to that question, but it's beautiful to see how open and eager to grow and be dared are all the educators in this session. I came across many tools that I did not know, and of course I felt the fear of missing something and the anxiety of the first daunting week. I had to learn how to behave in order to survive in the platform. I teach online classes, and it was wonderful for me to be on the other side as a student again. I really enjoyed the way the moderators helped out with tutorials and offers for help. It was wonderful to realize that yes, I could cry for help and help the ones that needed an extra boost. I am learning a lot of subject matter, tools for telling stories, but I'm also learning a lot about how to keep online couses meaningful and fun. I have being witnessing learning taking place, and this is a bless to start the year ahead of me. Maybe I won't need a break after all.
In the assignment proposed by Brown in Teaching by Principles teachers are invited to look at a list of potential choices we have when designing a method on the basis of what we know about second language acquisition and the pedagogical process. Whenever a teacher perceives connections between practices and theories and the principles derived from research, he/she will be able to see not only the reason for chosing a technique, but also his/her ability to assess usefulness in a self-appraisal. Nowadays, planning is the easiest part. Dealing with the schedule and my private life is tricky sometimes. But I love teaching, and I devote a lot of time to planning and I always want to make sure I deliver lessons to the best of my abilities. Every semester I need to focus on one aspect and design projects that will keep me focused and better equipped to reach the goals I set to myself. Next year I will face many challenges. I want to keep exploring technology and keep investing on my teaching so that every lesson reflects my beliefs. I decided to focus on peer- observation so that I can not only help myself, but hopefully inspire dear coleagues to join me.
I feel the need of pushing myself to become an enlighted teacher who can orchestrate practice and theories, techniques and principles to favor learners. I'll turn to peers to help make room for innovations and creative adjustments.
I came across an old worksheet used by my coach many years ago. I believe it could be a good start. Suggestions? Eager to hear.
As a mother of three, I have experienced firsthand the development of my children with enthusiasm and wonder. How do they learn? How could my tiny little babies become bilingual, strong human beings? The question of how children acquire language is still a mystery even after so many years of research. One thing is true: Children will not only learn the basic but also push themselves to master the target language or languages which they are exposed to from early years. How much of their understanding of the world around them is innate? How much of their understanding is actually built from scratch? There are many theories to explain what a mother can only observe and relish. What do babies know?
In an article from Time, Michael Bruton writes about an experiment that took place at the university of Manchester that was set up to investigate and challenge current thinking on what young children do know and how they construct knowledge. According to the article, Daniel, a 9 year old was shown video clips of a train on a circular track. The train would disappear into a tunnel and reappear on the other side. There were hidden cameras recording Daniel’s eyes and measuring the diameter of his pupils at very high speed. The process was set up to measure the babie’s level of interest and attention spam. Whenever some novelty was introduced, he would register it and notice by becoming more alert.
In an attempt to understand children’s development, theorists have come with different explanations. “nativist” psychologists theorize that children are born already equipped with internal concepts about how the physical world. This idea can also be observed in the innatist prespective on first language acquisition. Noam Chomsky claimed that all human languages are fudamentally innate; He argued that children are biologically programmed to learn languages and that language develops in the child in just the same way that other biological functions. The study carried out at the baby lab mentioned in the Time article challenges this ‘nativist” view and supports the ideas of the Swiss pioneer Jean Piaget whose work led to the conclusion that development precedes learning. According to Piaget, Children construct knowledge through their interactions with the world.
Babylab director Sylvain Sirios has been challenging “Nativists” Beliefs and experiments.
How does my child learn two languages simultaneously? How does she make sense of the world and is able to make herself understood if only two years ago all she could do was cry? According to Piaget and Babylab director they have to through mental schema allowing them to make sense of the environment. Learning happens when facing situations or mental schemas cannot process. Our brain find disequilibrium. In an attempt to find balance the mind either assimilates the new piece of information or adapts by using new skills. Piaget called the process of assimilating new information to our schemas learning. In othe words,Children construct knowledge through their interactions with the world. Either way, a mother rests assured that her child will learn, and besides sitting and watching the magic take place, we, parents, should propose challenges and interact with our children as much as we can in order to help them develop as much as they can.
Learning Taking Place
In class we could:
Show the video and ask students to discuss what learning is.
Write the words: Motivation. strategies,automaticity, purpose, reward,investment, risk-taking, self-confidence, positive attitude, positive feedback. Ask students to find examples of these ideas in the video and how they can relate to learning a language.
1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both the product and the process approaches to writing. If you were to teach a writing course, which approach would you adopt? Why? Explain briefly how you would develop such a course.
Painless Writing
Writing could be considered the most difficult skill for most language learners. Few people, even in their mother tongue, find writing to be an easy task. Nevertheless, teachers often ask their beginner students to venture in writing despite their anxieties and emotional barriers. After just a few semesters of English one might be asked to write a short paragraph about the most embarrassing day in his/her life, or a short biography. More often than we’d like to admit, we, teachers, become disappointed with students attempts, and students become discouraged and even afraid of writing. If I could design a course, I’d do my best to make writing a challenging, exciting learning experience. I’d try to facilitate learning and offer students all the relevant support I could. The greatest challenge in designing a writing task is to understand what makes writing so difficult and why teachers sometimes fail to give students the scaffolding they need in order to succeed. Another point to consider is the difference between product and process writing, and which one really provides students with the chance of becoming real users and producers of the language. Educators should be clear about the principles behind designing and delivering a writing class, for a well written piece can motivate and inspire changes within oneself and in the way other people perceive reality.
According to Peter Elbow, writing is a thinking process. One should not attempt to just put ideas on paper, for the essence of writing is closely linked to the concept of learning. In other words, your ideas are not what you start with, but where you get to after you finish a writing task. Using his concept, one could see writing as a learning endeavor. Nowadays, it’s important to motivate our children and students to read more so they can better base their opinions, and to be able to write and reflect upon what was read so they can make well-informed decisions. Reading and writing should be related to learning in a broader sense; these aforementioned skills should be related to learning to think differently and to making changes happen when they are necessary. An effective, updated approach to writing takes in consideration why and what for people write, and focus on the message. Our learners are capable of putting on paper ideas worth spreading.
No student will write a line if not asked to. The composing nature of Writing requires skills that are not developed on their own. It demands time and effort and There are two different ways that teachers can approach it. Product writing focuses on the final product. Students are expected to follow a model to reach given requirements in terms of what language to use and the rhetoric expected. There are advantages to this model, as students are exposed to rich texts that usually establish high guideline parameters. In addition, instructors and learners target at a clear, articulate, well- organized piece of writing. On the down side, one could argue that the product approach does not take into consideration the natural flow of writing. Rarely does anyone know exactly what to say in the beginning of the process, for writing well requires guidance and editing. If a person wants be well understood, he/she must devote time to learning the steps to the dance.
Nowadays, many educators are eager to guide students to becoming creators of language. To be able to do that, students need to be trained to follow the steps of good writers and to be given the chance to focus on the message and learn in the process not only language but, most importantly, what his/her own ideas really are. One advantage of the process approach is that it fosters students’ understanding of their own composing needs. Another advantage is that students might build writing strategies and become faster so they can even do well is a timed based writing task. Process writing gives students the chance to work on their piece for themselves, it provides students with meaningful chance to learn from their own mistakes as they follow the instructor’s feedback. But as with anything else in life, process writing must be seen in the prespective of balance, for placing too much emphasis on the process might lead teachers to overlook the product. Process writing should be seen as a means to facilitate the process, and to make students eager to learn from writing besides learning to write.
Teachers are responsible for showing students that there is a need for what they have to say, that their voices and thoughts are valuable sources of knowledge to other people. To be read and seriously taken into consideration, one has to engage in developing techniques, but should bear in mind the importance of an interesting, mind provoking, inspiring final product.
What all theories of language acquisition account for is the ability of human beings to learn in different environments or circumstances. All the main theories draw conclusions based on indirect evidence. Language learners have to make do with the methods at hand and hope to have inpirational teachers who despite the absence of comprehensive theory can draw conclusions and look for the best practices to the specific group of people in front of them.
There was never a single method that would be effective to all learners worldwide, but an educator might choose from past methods elements or techniques to add to his/her repertoire and be able to justify the choices. It’s common in language teaching programs to study different methods and learn the approach and rationale behind them so that a teacher can make decisions in terms of what principles to incorporate into practice. New teaching ideas abound and every language teacher has had the experience of trying out a new activity in class.But no matter how carefully you plan your lesson, there will always be a moment in which a reflexive teacher will realize she/he should have done things differently. It’s paramount to realize that our beliefs and approaches must not be set in stone since educators will always face the challenge of preparing people for a fast changing future. A teacher has to be dynamic and eager to experiment and take calculated risks, trying new ways and ideas here and there. The relationship between our beliefs and what actually happens in class should be our guide when we are to decide what changes we welcome in our practice. A 21st century teacher not only faces the challenge of looking into the past to learn that each method brought advantages and drawbacks but also look into the present changes and the future to sort out what new ideas to implement. Here is a Quizlet about approaches and methods - an overview (adapted by Nunan 1989) from Teaching by Principles to refresh my memory and brush up.
I was sitting in the teachers's room talking to two workmates who had just finished a four semester Teacher Development Course that I had just started.
I really enjoyed the first semester. Advanced grammar was really interesting, but I don't remember much, one of them told me. I was worried... I didn't want to waste all the time I invested in professional development just like that! I was also worried because I know I cannot trust my memory too much. I like to think of myself of an active learner, and I wanted to keep track of what I was learning and to get acquainted with tools my students could use to become active learners themselves. I devoted time to exploring quizmakers, and I chose quizegg.
Advantages
Userfriendly. You can use it for free and you can embed the quiz. The editor is rich; It allows hyperlinking and editing pictures.
You can ask students to prepare quizzes to help them study or review.
Disadvantage
If you love the tool, you'll have to buy the lisence. It only lets you make 3 quizzes for free. Here are some of the activities I prepared with it.
These quizzes are great ways to remind myself of what the content of the course was. My workmates will love to be able to review too! Quixegg, fantastic tool to use in class. Thumbs up!
I attended a great workshop at school today. We discussed the use of -web1.0 - Powerpoint presentations in class. We agreed that a good presentation helps us build a sense of community, as all learners tend to be on the same page, so to speak. I personally believe that a well designed presentation facilitates learning, but we need to keep in mind many things when comes to putting one together. I thought I was doing ok, but when the presenter asked us: "As we are living the concept age...How many of you actually use powerpoints to tell stories?" "How many of you use powerpoints to have students create?" Well... She got my attention. I decided to put a checklist together to raise my awareness of how engaging my presentations are. Please, feel free to adapt and make suggestions!
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