I'll miss you

Week 10

And this is it!

This is the end of our adventuresome learning experience of 10 weeks… Relieved but sad, conflicting feelings after this journey, these hard working weeks in which we have created empathy and bonds, and after which I am pretty sure I’ll never hear from some of you again…hope I’m wrong!

From ABCD objectives, to more effective web searching, skill-building websites, bookmarking, technology-enhanced lesson plans, PBL, webquests, rubrics, student-centred classes, interactive PPts, learner autonomy, one-computer classroom, mobile learning, teacher online resources, peer reviewing, MI and LS… well in ten weeks, that’s a lot and tough! I learned a lot every single week by reading and by investing my time and effort in all tasks to make them useful, purposeful and relevant for myself, my students and you.

I can’t really say what topics were most successful, useful, or relevant once I tried them all in classes and will keep on using them in different classes with different age groups and different levels of proficiency. All are equally successful, useful and relevant if used sensibly and it’s up to us teachers to do that part.

This last week I have equally accomplished the required tasks and readings. When asked about what other tools might the course have covered or I would like to suggest, I find it difficult to answer as what is new and interesting today, will very soon be outdated and overcome. This is particularly true in what concerns new technologies, gadgets and tools. I would say that it also depends on our interest and time to find out what is out there and how we can apply to teaching / our classes. After reading https://www.calico.org/html/article_683.pdf I came across this very recent article http://www.teslej.org/wordpress/issues/volume17/ej68/ej68a1/    

that I would strongly advise you to read and which has a suggestive question for a start “Is CALL obsolete?”. It does shed some light on this fast paced (and unstoppable) evolution process which was unpredictable in 2008 when the former article was published.

As I’ve stated before, this elearning course has been the most enriching and comprehensive I have ever been enrolled in. It has surprised me by its scope (honestly speaking I wasn’t really sure what to expect), fulfilled me professionally and has filled my days for the last couple of weeks because… it has been perfect! It has been a wonderful learning experience, under Donna’s supervision and guidance, to get to know and share so much with hardworking and committed learners / teachers as the participants in this course have proved to be and I do hope we can establish more international projects in the future.

Working with Karim and Zeljko virtually has been a most rewarding experience. Dedicated, focussed, really professional and inspiring as teachers, and real gentlemen – not else was expected but still worth my words of praise - I couldn’t have had better teammates! Hope this project and/or other projects take(s) us further and who knows? May be we can meet, one day, in person. Just like students say “That would be cool!” In the meantime, a poem, not dedicated to any lover as it was Yeats’s case, but dedicated to ourselves as committed teachers / learners as well as to our students: we all have our dreams and therefore tread softly!

“Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

W.B. Yeats, The Wind Among the Reeds 1899

Hope I have been treading softly on my students' dreams. I am thankful to them: I teach for them and learn with them every single day;

Thank you all for sharing and commenting; 

Thank you, Donna, for your constant support and encouragement.

Alex

Technology!

"Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important."
Bill Gates

Tool: http://muzy.com

Week 9

Almost there, only another week to go!

I may sound pleased – and I am – but at the same time, sad because this brilliant community of worldwide educators led by Donna is soon to come to an end and nothing will ever be the same.

The truth is that we’ve connected as teachers of English, some more closely than others, and I wish I had the chance to get to know you in person – at least some, to be reasonable, the ones closer to Portugal. Though Donna is so far away, I would really like to meet her to congratulate her personally or a follow-up with the same group of participants in one, two years’ time… As the word cloud above clearly shows, I am deeply grateful for the opportunity provided by the UO, by Donna’s omnipresence and words of encouragement. Also thankful to you, dear participants, you have been the heart and soul of this group!

Week nine is almost over and while MI and  LS have long been of my interest, I confess I feel a bit disappointed for not having managed to access some of the suggested links. The nicenet discussion is done and so is my final project, my biggest concern for the last days. And how relieved I feel – relieved for having finished it on time and for having managed to complete the tasks with the students - and so well – active learning via photography! I am really proud, and so are the kiddos and their parents. Couldn’t have been better, really! Hope the same happened with your projects and classes J By the way, I was thinking about downloading all documents, hope there is no problem about that.

Before we part ways, I have one request if I may…

In the first week, I had asked to tag your countries on the map, but there are only 8. It’s so easy:

1. place your cursor on the map

2. on the left hand side you’ll see some icons – click on the one that looks like a pen

3. click on edit

4. place the cursor on the map and double click to tag your country – you can choose the icon, leave a link with info to your country or simply write down your name.

5. In the end Save Tag / Save. Done!

 And again, thank you so much.

Learning!

"Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners."

John Holt

Tool: http://recitethis.com/