Week 5

                          

This is another week of reading, exploring, sharing and learning!
This week's main topic was about PBL and closely related to that we also had to read about alternative assessment.
Since PBL is in itself an alternative way of teaching, we could not but learn about alternative assessment as well. PBL was not something entirely new, or something that I have never tried before.
In fact, in one of the subjects that I am currently teaching, we encourage our students (future teachers) to turn PBL from an alternative way of teaching to a traditional one. While reading about PBL, about its advantages and how it is gaining more and more ground in teaching nowadays, why can't we also encourage our students and colleagues to work with it?
Recalling the old saying that Omar also mentioned in one of his class discussion, only when you do something, then you will never forget it. This is the essence of PBL. Students are actually doing something that they will never forget. Let them learn geography or history or English by actually searching for that information themselves, by actually building it themselves and being proud of their product.
I also know that I am carried away with optimistic feelings and thoughts but at least it is worth trying.
When I first introduced my students to PBL, I honestly, thought they would not make it. I thought that they are never going to work after classes for an assignment that they have never done before. I thought that all the difficulties will discourage and defeat them. On the contrary, I was the one to be disappointed with my own gloomy thoughts. The first projects that they prepared were really good.
Now that I have also learned about WebQuest and how to make a project there, I am certain that my students will like it even more to work on their projects.
My only concern about project based learning is not teaching at the university level, where we are not so obliged to follow the national curriculum as long as we achieve the overall goals. The issue that I also raised on Nicenet discussions was time. The reason why I am also mentioning it here is to raise a question.
I don't know much about the other countries but in Albania if you are a teacher of a high school or elementary school, you will have to prepare every day your teaching journal (a detailed lesson plan) that is conform to the curriculum. Things are stricter at this level than at university level. So, teachers have to follow a plan that has to be according to this curriculum. Therefore, I raise my question again: Where are teachers going to find their time to work with their students on a project? Is it going to be an after class assignment. since there is no internet in class? Are we sure that it is going to be successful on regular basis?
These are some of the questions and issues that I see as drawbacks concerning the application of PBL in our classes.

Closing another fruitful week,
Best regards,
Daniela

Developing multiskills

Hi there,

http://www.piclits.com/viewpoem.aspx?PoemId=212378

This week's reading highlighted one common advantage that technology enhanced teaching brings and that was bringing the whole process close to reality. Coursebooks do not always provide the most recent information, they do not aim to develop real-life skills.
We all should share a common goal i.e. developing higher-thinking skills among our students. The traditional way of teaching did not develop them as students were mainly asked to produce the information that the teacher gave. They were never asked to process, analyze that information and then create something of their own. We took our students far from the reality and locked them in some artificial classes.

Teaching a foreign language was even more artificial. Students just read, answered some comprehension questions, rarely discussed and never communicated or created something of their own. These classes did not accommodate their different learning styles. Some of them failed just because the environment did not allow them to develop.

Nowadays, things have changed. Technology has its word to say in every area, including here teaching. Students can write without having any fear of their mistakes. They can do their homework by simply writing to a friend. They can bring to class their own ideas and write them on personal online journal to share them later with friends. They can be part of the world by discussing the same global issues with their peers anywhere in the world.

They can watch and listen about places, culture and history of countries they have never visited. They can virtually do anything and learn while doing it.

And this is technology! So let us develop it further and make it part of our "old" classes and colleagues!

Regards,
Daniela

Week 3's reflection

Week three is coming to an end and looking back at it, there are a lot of things to reflect on.
The more I get to know the other colleagues by reading their discussion posts, the closer I get to them. We all have in common our desire to change something about the way we teach, to make teaching and learning more motivating. To motivate ourselves and our students!

This week as usual became with our reading assignments tackling on an issue that is almost neglected in my teaching context, listening. Developing listening skills never gets a priority in a teacher's plan and there are many excuses teachers use and I used to think before getting to know so many different websites that focus mainly on listening. During this year, I was part of some webinar series where one of the topic was listening. There I learned the most important thing about listening: you need to cultivate listening habits in your learners. We can cultivate a habit only if we keep doing and repeating it several times. If our students practice listening activities not only in class but outside it as well, then they can improve their listening skills and turn them into a habit. I would like to share with you some the materials of that presentation, copied from the slides as there were 38 in total.
 http://api.ning.com/files/jtJ034c97Hx9YqV9zKmR43mn7-jELTegwYl1E3RB--2haTjy5lrKuqTaLmNs66d6xvjE0DZokkRtA6NU4TGrz9-JqiwqnhtS/CultivatingHabitsofListening.pdf

Each of the slides raises some important issues that we need to take into consideration:

Features of L2 Listening
Builds on L1 listening
Requires more focus than L1 listening
Anxiety is often a factor
Products (for example, tests) are often emphasized more than the process

Cultural Dimensions of Listening
Listening behavior varies from culture to culture
Face to face
Classroom
(teacher-centered or student-centered)
Large groups
Status (older/younger; teacher/student)
Female and male

Minimizing Distractions, Maximizing Attention
Identify your distractions and ask yourself:
Can I eliminate or minimize these in any way?
What can I do to keep focused?
Keep a distraction journal
Keep note of distractions during activities that require deep attention—preferably after the activity 
Think of ways to quiet your “internal noise level”
Make an effort to lessen any negative self-talk or negative judgments of others
Visualize a peaceful place or image while listening

Another interesting and useful tool we learned about this week, was social bookmarking. I personally like the idea as my bookmarking used to be very simple on the bookmark bar and I could organize them in folders but only in one computer. And that is the computer, I usually keep at home rarely carrying it with me. It means that my links were there and sometimes I need to show my students those links, which I copied manually and saved them. Social bookmarking was a breakthrough to my manual and conventional way of saving my links.

As to the project task we have to accomplish in the end, I think that I have a better idea after having three or four project reports that Courtney shared with us to be analysed and discussed.

Bye for now,
Daniela

21st Century Teacher

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/06/traditional-teachers-vs-21st-century.html
When I become a teacher I want to :

• Collaborative work will be just as important as individual work
• PBL ( project based learning) won't just be an acronym
• Edit, remix, and share media with my students
• Learn from my students
• Expect change
• Create my own personal learning network
• Add students on my space in Facebook 
• Encourage appropriate online interaction
• I won't fear technology , I ll embrace it
• Create positive learning environments

Another inspiring video for teachers who want some change: 

From Model 1.0 to Model 3.0

Hi,

There are a lot things to reflect after these two weeks full of new and interesting information.

I am very excited about the whole experience especially after virtually "meeting" so many experienced teachers with so many things to share.

The first thing that I would really like to share was my experience with web searching with the new list that we got from the course. While exploring with the new search engines and being interested in technology integrated teaching, I came across something I would like to share with you.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/06/education-20-vs-education-30-awesome.html

WE HAVE been educated in a 1.0 education model, we are teaching in  2.0 model but our students are living in a 3.0 model. These three models chronicle the major paradigmatic shifts that education has witnessed over the last century. They also represent, in an ironical way, the huge abyss between the actual needs of our students and what is actually being delivered to them in schools.

Below is a very interesting chart created by Dr John Moravec in which he compares between  the three models we mentioned above. Have a look and share with us what you think of it. Enjoy.

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