Week 8 (updated)

Another week has gone by and fast, very fast our course is coming to an end. I started the week struggling to finish my draft and didn’t even have the time to reread it attentively, which I’ll do this weekend once I fear I missed some details and some other positive aspects.
By now, I have already taken part in the nicenet discussion, explored the links shared by Donna and created a website which I intend to use with my classes for assignments, resources. In it, I included my ready to use resources for the lesson plan I shared with you a couple of weeks ago but added crosswords and a word search using some of this week’s new tools. Not much to read but a lot to create and that's what I really like - hands on activities and projects, always making the best possible use of everything learnt each week. Among others, I've also tried Hotpoatoes, the freeware that allows us to easily create a multitude of exercises for our classes; padlet, the blank wall that allows us / anyone to put up post-its about virtually everything; the ones I've used for this week's examples,  http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/create.html and http://www.toolsforeducators.com/ which, in the twinkling of an eye and simply by introducing our data, allow us to create free crosswords, wordsearches, worksheets...for further consolidation and practice, or simply for fun - the only problem is that they are not embeddable, we can't save them for later use.
Yet to be done… Karim’s draft to read and gaining some courage to read Zeljko’s comments on mine. How I “envy” you who manage to accomplish everything so fast and well. It’s a compliment, believe me, because I am slow but I spend the whole day at school and only manage to have some time by Friday which means that I have to do a lot overnight.
Saturday I’ll read Karim’s draft and will reread mine surely to be rewritten. In the meantime, I have my children / students sending me material from photos to texts, ideas and comments always popping up. They are absolutely delighted with the blog and their virtual friends!
Best of luck to all and a great weekend,
Alex

Here I am again.
I’ve just checked here that it was indeed Charles Dickens who started “Tale of Two Cities” with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...” Please don’t laugh at me, but as you have already noticed I have my ups and downs, and these antitheses somehow mirror my state of mind.
I have participated in a few teacher training courses both at home and abroad (the latter always with Comenius Funding) but this has been, by far, the best but also the most demanding course! As we have discussed in nicenet, every week I/we come across so many great sites, links, suggestions – real goldmines for some, pearls for others. I feel completely overwhelmed by the stuff that is shared and then also by the required tasks. I wish I had (much) more time to dedicate to this course as some of the sites will have to be further explored. I try to do my best, but by now I am feeling drained by so many hours of classes, school meetings and the course without breaks, holidays. Consequently, I get the feeling I am not doing my best and I’m not pleased with what I do. Those around me tell me I should not be as demanding with myself and therefore with students. Poor children… hope I haven’t set too high standards and expectations. They have managed to do what was expected, (victory! wow!) and on their own also as expected, but I wasn’t counting on so many obstacles with Flickr. Maybe my fault, maybe theirs for their dependency and lack of autonomy, but that’s what may happen when you do something for the first time, right? They are doing fine and I’m really pleased with their blogging, commenting, photo skills (almost 300 beautiful photos), text production... Learning the hard way, for the students as well as the teacher.
Now, back to the quote… on the one hand, taking all the pressure aside, after so much learning and sharing with such a supportive and encouraging group, I am now starting to feel I am going to miss this enriching and rewarding experience, this amazing contact with all of you. Even the stress.
I don’t think I can now measure the impact or the benefit this course will have in myself, my teaching and my students. One thing is certain: it will!
Thank you so much,
Alex

Autonomy!

Morpheus: "I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one who must walk through it." (from the movie "The Matrix")

Tool: http://wigflip.com/roflbot/ 

Week 7

"…

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep."

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", Robert Frost

Familiar with these lines?

That’s exactly what I’m feeling right now: I still have a long way to go before being able to rest and sleep peacefully. Indeed I’m getting more and more excited, more and more restless with this project involving my students, Karim’s and Zeljko’s and our communication is getting more and more intense as we approach the project’s deadline.

If you check our class blogs (http://shiningasoure.blogspot.pt and http://1s1tetuan.blogspot.pt), you’ll see how busy our students have been posting and commenting. My students are very excited about being able to post themselves and not simply comment. This autonomy is something new to them and it’s doing wonders to their self-esteem. I am surprised myself (and definitely very pleased) with their enthusiasm and curiosity also towards their Moroccan peers – about their school, ages, clothing, headscarves and what it means/implies being a Muslim. Isn’t this real learning? Multiculturalism, diversity, tolerance all together! Their interest is such that Karim and his students will prepare an activity for us on Ramadan, Muslim traditions… I can hardly wait or disguise my excitement!

Though the weather has been hindering their photo taking, this blogging activity is also very encouraging and I’ve been supporting them all along by different means. In what concerns the project itself, by now, I already have some photos and when there are some more, I’ll see how to organise the material they provide. A bit slower than I was expecting, but still - that’s what it is possible. Even for the photos, my kids (as I affectionately call them) are so engaged and willing to do their best that they have asked parents for help who, in turn, have even asked the local representatives if they could provide older photos. Wow! So much buzz around the project. Delightful!

Well, I would go on and on, talking about this and haven’t even mentioned this week’s fantastic discussion topic on mobile technology. I believe I was the first teacher to allow the use of mobile phones in the English class and this completely took the students by surprise. They couldn’t believe their ears and looked around as if checking if they had listened correctly. Now it has become common place among my older groups but my kids, having heard that, have already asked to do the same ;) All started with a speaking activity: I asked them to take their cell phones and choose a picture they felt comfortable to share with others. In pairs or small groups they described the pic and the others would ask them more questions about it. It was real fun as they remembered why that particular photo was memorable and why they had taken it. Something personal and no time "wasted" to prepare it ;) Students love their mobile phones but I am no exception! I do whatever I can with it – from calls, texting, emails, audio recording, photo taking… all pics are automatically uploaded to my dropbox and at home I just have to organise the files in my laptop. Now you understand the need to create several accounts… to have more space to share and edit files ;)
So far, so good... but "miles to go before I sleep" and time for the project draft to have it ready for my fantastic colleagues and peer reviewers. How fortunate I am, don't you agree? (bet you all say the same ;))

Heart!

"The best teachers teach from the heart not from the book"

https://www.facebook.com/edutopia?fref=ts 

Week 6

This week has been dedicated to Interactive teaching, large classes and powerpoints to increase interaction. The amount of my learning just by reading the articles has been amazing and was complemented by doing, by creating an interactive powerpoint. For the first time, though, it took me ages to do my own PPt, first because I always want to develop materials that I’ll use in class and couldn’t decide what to do; second, well, you know, tired as I am and with tons of other things to do, it has been hard to focus long enough to feel pride of the final result. In the end, I came up with two (one for grammar, one for content) ready to use interactive powerpoint presentations because I really wanted to create a jeopardy game. Hope they are fine as I am unexperienced in this area :(

In the meantime, a new, outstanding experience!

As settled last week, I created a google doc (to be precise!) and shared it with Karim and Zeljko. And…voilà! Though late at night, after 2 or 3 minutes, Zeljko was accessing the document and after around ten minutes, it was Karim’s turn. We were all dead tired, Karim had just posted in our nicenet discussion… with our tired eyes and eyelids feeling heavy, all fighting sleep, yet, suddenly, there we were, the three of us, connected educators around the world, meeting virtually and collaboratively drafting a project – and well awake by then J Glorious technology!!!!!!! What an amazing experience with hardworking, dedicated, amazing colleagues I’ve never met in person. And that hasn’t happened only once, but twice already – and more virtual meetings are already scheduled for next week. There’s no time to waste, is there?

As for my own project, my students have been engaged in our blog and, weather permitting, they are willing to take photos and leave them in our new photo album. 

The same park in Summer and two days ago: flooded (as everywhere around
the country) with the ducks roaming around freely

Back to our collaborative document, by now, we have already exchanged links to our newly created class blogs so that our students can get in touch. I would like to ask YOU and YOUR students to do the same – visit and leave your comments at http://shiningasoure.blogspot.pt/ When students see that their blog is visited and commented by other teachers but, above all, by other students around the world, they’ll be over the moon to have a real audience, and their writing with that purpose in mind, will certainly increase and improve. So, please, if you have a class blog, share the link so that we can also do the same for you and your students. Even if you don’t have a class blog, I / we welcome you with open arms. Thank you.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all, wherever you are!


Here are freshly baked chocolate heart shaped muffins for my 3 Valentines.

Enjoy!!!

Teaching!

"If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow."
John Dewey

Tool: http://pinstamatic.com/#sticky 

Week 5

I wish days had more hours and weeks were longer so that I could do more. Right now the truth is that I can’t and tiredness is taking its toll.

I started this 5^th (and middle week) by reading the texts on rubrics and assessment, PBL and WebQuests, both the main texts and the additional resources and by Wednesday I had already managed to leave my post on Nicenet, our faithful asynchronous discussion platform.

Rubrics have definitely been the most difficult part. Not that they are more complex than what we have done before, but it’s just that I’m not used to creating them. I have already shared with you the link to my first rubrics and I’m pleased with them in spite of acknowledging they are very straightforward; my / our concern is that they have to be understood by our students and in my case, these are for a group of 12/13-year olds.

I have noticed that some participants are going to use WebQuests in their projects. Nice that we can share so many links of ready or almost ready to use links for WebQuests. About two years ago I created one you can find here (the links disappeared as the site underwent changes) which means I was already familiar WebQuests and PBL.  Nevertheless, I am already outlining a new one – which, in fact, has been in “lukewarm” (Portuguese saying), waiting for an opportunity to be created. If interested, please check this post, the basis for my new WebQuest, whose link I’ll share later.

While I consider WebQuests very rewarding and challenging for students (and for teachers, too), I have to choose a NEW technology tool for my project and that hasn't been that easy. On the one hand, I have to think I’m designing a project for tweens and therefore it has to be simple and doable also in what concerns my time. On the other hand, I have already tested so many tools that I feel at a crossroads… and back to the beginning of my post: if only I had more time!

Time to cheer up... Let me share with you a video that a good friend once shared to cheer me up - it worked and up to this day, it makes me smile every time I listen to it or watch it. Hope noone feels distressed...
Enjoy!

Reading!

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more things that you learn, The more places you'll go"

Dr Seuss, I can read with my eyes shut!

Tool: http://wigflip.com/roflbot/