Last Week .- the course ends

We have been working for ten weeks, learning many new things that for sure will serve us in our daily activities in the classrooms, I remember when I began talking about technology in the first post, then we continued the whole process talking about technology and the final conclusion is that we have to use it everyday,  teachers must be skillful when using computers because we have to teach our students, if you remember students learn with our example they learn by imitating their teachers, of course at the end the will become autonomous learners but after giving them the tools they need to succeed .

Another aspect we have to keep in mind is that we have to assess our students the most accurate we can, so they can trust our job as teachers and also because they will have the chance to improve what they are learning everyday, I also agree on the use of rubrics to do a great job and reinforce what the students need to reinforce, as I told you those days, in my country is a little bit difficult to implement rubrics right now but some teachers are working on that to improve the quality of education .

I really enjoyed working and playing with some tools internet offers, I liked the experience of doing some power points really interactive, I learned how  to do them, and I also learned how to design web quests and so on, when I applied them in class it was kind of rewarding see the students' faces.. they really enjoyed those activities.

We have to consider the use of technology in our classrooms, teachers are learning new things , they are learning to learn because the society pushes us to do the best for the students, we live in a era of technological changes, but these changes focus on the ability a student has to learn, we are applying tasks according to the level of acquisition a student has, we have to adapt all the tools strategies and methodologies in this process.

We must take advantage of the resource internet has, we have to be a little bit curious, a teacher is a researcher inside the classroom and we have to change our point of view of just going to class an share something we know, let's share more than that for the benefit of our students.

Week 9: Multiple Intelligences

In the last decade we have been dealing with multiple intelligences stated by Gardner, since then the view of education has changed dramatically. Nobody knew that every human being has a different way of acquiring knowledge, this fact made teachers change the whole view of how to teach.

We know now that in a single classroom you find different ways of learning of the students, we know that there are students that always get the best scores in some subjects, but the same students can get low scores in other subjects.

We have the chance to create different tasks or assignments according to the characteristics of each student, but for knowing what task to send the students, we must know each one of them and their personal environment and characteristic, we have to the sign different tasks for a single theme, so meanwhile some students of developing interactive power point, others could be developing a video or something, just for telling an example.

It is a mistake to believe the we can reach a desired goal sending the same project to the whole class, so we must be aware of the students` characteristics and the intelligence or intelligences he/she could have.

Teachers resources on line

One of the most used strategies for teachers are the games or something fun in class, after checking all the tools we have , I have realized that we do not put in practice this with our grown up students, and I think they could enjoy activities like wordsearch (  I did it) crossword puzzles, etc, we think they are not children, but it is not necessary to be a child to enjoy things like the ones I tell you...... Just remember, when I buy the newspaper I go straight to the section in which I found the cross word puzzle, and i really enjoy it, so, why not doing fun activities in class?.

Every resource we use in class is valid if the students enjoy and learn from it, I think we all should begin the class with  fun activities to catch the attention of the students and make the atmosphere nicer and friendlier.

Sometimes we think that the only tools we have are the cd player and the tv, we have to look beyond this to help our students in the target of learning a new language.

Week 7. Learning to learn

Education is changing, and society is also changing very quickly, we could not imagine the tremendous impact that technology is having today, let's just talk about a few years ago, when there were not such technological devices we know now, of course, our students and even our children cannot believe we could live without Internet , mobile phones, plasma t.v’s , etc. A world without technology would be like a book without words, empty. Communication is not only human as we know, but the humans are the ones that need communication more than any other creature on earth.

We live now in a world full of knowledge, but how  we are applying that knowledge is the fact that really matters, there is a teaching in almost every activity we do, so, there is much sense when we say that the students need autonomy to learn, because they are the ones that have to know how to process that information, I think that we cannot give them tools for overcoming difficulties in this issue, we must be advisors and our mission is to let them work and learn by themselves , even they have to learn what tools to create and how to use them.

I am learning to learn by myself, it is not an easy topic to handle but I am trying to be better every day, I know my limitations but I am sure I am going to succeed in the end…

Marcos Morales

WEEK 6 INTERACTIVE POWER POINT

This was really a great experience, learning about how to make interactive power points, I have to admit but it was very difficult at the beginning, I read a lot about it and then I watched the videos and something was wrong because i repeated many times following the same procedure but ....nothing!!!! I almost got crazy since this issue is completely new for me, but I really enjoyed doing that assignment, then I learned that it is a funny way to motivate our students.. of course it is time demanding at the beginning but later on you can take advantage preparing some wonderful ppp for your students, for sure they will enjoy discovering that learning English is always nice and fun.

I can also say that I have watched some of my classmates presentations and they are really nice, it seem they had more experience like myself doing these kinds of things.. .....

Anyway, what I have learned is really valuable and I feel happy to learn new things!!!

Week 5.- Rubrics and Assessment

Assessment is a complex issue that we must handle as English teachers, this is a complete culture that in some countries is new, and we have not had the chance to apply.

During this week we have learned that Rubrics is a central element is any process, we must be sure about what to measure and how to measure, and the students must know we are going to assess them.

It is well known that teachers keep our assessing style as a secret, nobody knows how teachers get the grades of the students, of course the teacher is the chief and nobody has to question his authority, but now, we know that nothing must be hidden, everything has to be clear so secrets are out of the daily lives in  the educational system. 

Rubrics are here to stay, and the students know how and why of their grades, besides they have the chance to improve their skills and performance since the knowledge is not quiet, in my country the culture of rubrics is completely new our traditional grading system was or is the famous tests and the lesson but without a value scale, o the students are good or bad and they do not have the chance to improve in the issues they have failed.

We have to understand that learning is a holistic process in which there must be a compromise of teachers authorities, students, and parents, it is easy when students and teachers are the only ones involved in this process because not many parents want to have part in their children's education, that view has to change because the reality is that human beings need the protection and guidance moreover our children and adolescences.

Week 4.- Multi- skills web sites

There are many web pages that can be used to teach and make the students produce a new language, they are really interesting and with a correct use they are really worthy.
Some web pages are devoted to develop specific skills in the students, well, actually they help in the current activities done by teachers, the activities are varied and begin with basic things just for making the students get confidence in those activities.

Sometimes we do not know there is this kind of help just in our hands, that is because the lack of the time and the unflexible schedules and activities carried out by teachers, but if we want to improve the level of acquisition of our students we must use all the help we can have, in this case the web pages with lots of activities.

It is easy to use technology when we have the desire to help others, just look at the web pages suggested by the instructor, they are easy to handle, and the activities are really fun and engaging, the video and the MP3 files help in the process of practicing and producing the language.

Another important fact is that the students can check their progress, so they have the chance to repeat what seems difficult and they have the chance to improve something that is weak, besides there are also themes of interest that young people like, those actual facts are what they want and the vocabulary acquired is useful and real.

You think of giving your students better tools, so it means you are thinking to include these kinds of activities in your daily class, for sure they will enjoy solving them and checking at the same time their level of knowledge.

I found some pages really interesting but I think there are in the web many pages that we can use, the idea is to put into practice and engage the students so we have to be skillful when proposing them the activites because many of the students do not like to participate in extra curricular activities, they think what is learnt in class is enough, that is a normal problem we have to face in our classess , but let's be positive  and we will succeed.

Marcos Morales