Week 10: Wrap-up

I have been more than happy with this course. Although sometimes it was frustrating trying to do all weekly assignments, it was definitively an amazing, interesting and enriching academic journey. 

In this final blog post, I would like to recognize and express heartfelt appreciation to our instructor Sean for all his hard work, patience and the knowledge that he shared with us. I know that working online is a lot of work because  there is no time or space limitations. Thanks Sean and keep up the good work, I am forever indebted to you!

Secondly, I would like to thank the  American English Institute at the University of Oregon, Department of Linguistics and the E-Teacher Scholarship Program. This was a valuable and enjoyable experience that I truly appreciate. The knowledge I received will be used  to become a better teacher, to enrich the  strategies used by my fellow colleagues  and it will also be used help my students to become better learners at the University of Guadalajara.

Finally, I would like to thank all my classmates. What I have gleaned from your insights, knowledge, and experiences shared have left indelible marks on my outlook as an English teacher, it was indeed a pleasure!

Week 9: Learning styles - technology connections

WOW! Week 9 has almost ended... but even though we are almost finished with the course, we are still learning a lot. I enjoyed the process of thinking about ideas and ways to use technology in order to address a variety of learning styles. I decided to think of one idea for each one. This is what came up with: 

Verbal-Linguistic/Active learners: Choral reading: Teacher will provide the students with a poem or a tongue twister,. The group will have to read the poem/ tongue twister, memorize it and finally record it using their cellphones, iPods, iPhones or Ipads. Once the group has recorded it, they will have to upload it to their personal blog, YouTube, Facebook, for the rest of their classmates to see and hear it. 

Optional poem: Drive the nail aright boys, hit it on the head; strike with all your might boys while the iron's red. When you've work to do boys, do it with a will; they who reach the top boys, first must climb the hill. Standing at the foot boys, gazing at the sky, how can you get up boys, if you never try? Though you stumble off boys, never be down cast; try and try again boys, you'll succeed at last. A Conch folksong.

Optional tongue twister: Betty Botter had some butter, "But," she said, "this butter's bitter. If I bake this bitter butter, It would make my batter bitter. But a bit of better butter, That would make my batter better." So she bought a bit of butter – Better than her bitter butter – And she baked it in her batter; And the batter was not bitter. So 'twas better Betty Botter Bought a bit of better butter.

Logical/Mathematical/Sequential learners: Teacher will provide the students with a website that contains lots of food recipes http://allrecipes.com/video/1028/aunt-teens-creamy-chocolate-fudge/detail.aspx?prop24=VH_FeaturedVideo. 

Students will have to choose one recipe, read and elaborate a flow chart that explains the sequence of the recipe. Students can use PowerPoint, Prezi, Cmap Tools... Once the group has created the flow chart, they can present it to the class or upload it to their personal blog, Facebook, class wiki... for the rest of their classmates to see it. 

Visual/Spacial/Visual learners: Students will have to create their own comic strip by using the following website: http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/. Once the group has created the comic, they will have to send it to everybody by email, or print it to show on the following class. 

Bodily/Kinesthetic/Active learners: Students in groups will have to see and listen to one of the following songs in YouTube: 
a) Where Is The Love? by The Black Eyed Peas, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc. 
b) I can by Nas, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUqLGRMrFAg

After they choose the song, they will have to create a choreography to record and post it online or present on the following class. 

Musical/Rhythmic/ Active learners: Students will have to sing the following karaoke song in YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md7yizjJYnQ

Intrapersonal/Reflective, sensing and verbal learners: Students will have to write a personal reflection on their personal blogs about the following news: Fast & Furious actor Paul Walker mourned, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25178851

Interpersonal/Reflective, sensing and verbal learners: Students will have to share their personal perspective on a discussion thread in Moodle about Paul Walker's death. Possible questions: How does it make you feel?, Why? What effect or impact did his life have on his fans? Do you agree with car racing? Explain your answer. What do you think about the perspectives that your classmates are sharing? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25178851

Naturalistic/Sensing learners: Students will have to visit a pet shelter in their communities, ask questions about their favorite animal, take a picture of it and write a physical description of it. They can present it on the following class or upload it to their personal blog, Facebook, class wiki... for the rest of their classmates to see it.

Existentialist/Reflective learners: Students will have to sign to an online community that promotes a safe, healthy interaction and reflection among its members. Student then can present the community and the interaction that they have had with it, during a class presentation.

Week 8: Teacher Resources Online

Interaction, collaboration, creation, community, dialogue, discussion, meeting point, contribution, participation... these words could serve as a humble attempt to describe what Web 2.0 is all about. As teachers and students, we are not merely reading, watching, listening information that some other people upload; since we can actually do the same and more by making comments and re-organizing other people´s ideas.

All the teacher resources that we looked this week are extremely useful tools to help our students improve their English language performance. Our responsability now is to make sure we know who the students are (level of English, interests, needs, motivation, degree of independence), the facilities we have, and what problem we are going to be tackling.

We might be eager to start using everything right away in our classes,  however it is mandatory that a real language problem or goal is that which drives our channels our decision to use one type of technology over another. I think that our ultimate goal is that the students learn English... though if we are not careful enough, we might end up making the use of a new technology or tool the ultimate goal.

That's exactly why we have to be very specific when identifying and defining the problem in our projects: "The issue or problem is explicitly and clearly stated, focused to a single or connected teaching issue. The problem is solvable with technology, and within the time frame of the course."

Autonomy is a process that sometimes includes technology and online tools and sometimes it  doesn't.  Therefore let's ensure that when we decide to use the interactive Web 2.0, that our decision it is a carefully thought through one. 

Week 7: Attaining that which was not withheld???

If you consider taking into account the students' learning habits, interests, needs and motivation as imperative and at the end, you do not give them a real opportunity to choose materials and tasks, why bother even considering after all?

On the other hand,

If you just give the students total freedom to choose materials and tasks without first actually considering their learning habits, interests, needs, motivation, you might end up doing cool stuff for them, but you are not going to be sure if that cool stuff is actually contributing to  the language learning process.

As the articles and the discussion have mentioned, learner autonomy does not mean a classroom without teachers... additionally, learner autonomy does not mean students take on the role of teachers. In other words, learner autonomy does not cause the teacher to disappear magically... in fact the existence of both depends on the existence of the other.

Take for example parents and children. When a son or a daughter becomes autonomous, it means that he or she is able to do many things without the strict supervision of the parents. However, parents are still around (they can be contacted for help), they do not suddenly disappear because she or he has become autonomous... then again, if there were not parents at all to begin with, the kid would not have to go through the process of becoming autonomous at all.   

Autonomy cannot exist if there is not a person who confers or bequeaths the said autonomy to another who accepts it, no more than effective communication can exist without a  transmitter and a receptor . If we want our students to be autonomous learners, we will have to be there, helping them, making them think... Otherwise, being autonomous will lose its gist. You certainly cannot become autonomous from nothing, the very word implies that something initially withheld has been attained. 

Week 6: Creating Student-centered Classes and Interactive PowerPoint

Although I am currently teaching, it will be impossible to apply this technological change during this term because I have already finished reviewing the last topic and next week, I will start applying final exams (according to the University's official dates). However,  the following are the details of what I am planning to do with the group next term; based on my specific context and students' level of English proficiency:  

READ AN ONLINE ARTICLE (for developing reading skills):

The students in the group that is supposed to present are going to read an article from the following websites (new aspect): http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ or  http://www.manythings.org/  -this last page provides the students with the audio (for developing listening skills) and the script at the same time, and they can actually change the number of times the audio is repeated-. Every group should decide which article they are going to read (from one of the two websites provided). Once the group has chosen and read the article, they will have to develop an oral presentation about the article taking into consideration the following aspects: content presentation, language used, delivery, comprehension and time frame. The students will know beforehand that their oral presentation will be evaluated with a rubric provided by the teacher.

Choosing themselves and reading the article online (new aspect) might give the students the opportunity to have more variety and access to articles that have been more recently published. Furthermore, choosing and reading the articles from a webpage might add some "new flavor to the classroom", provide interesting topics and as a result of this, maintain the students' attention.

PREPARE AN ORAL PRESENTATION (for developing speaking skills):

Once the students have read the online article, they will have to prepare an oral presentation. Before, no rubric was used to assess their oral presentation (new aspect), but this time the students' presentation will be evaluated with the following rubric:

Oral Presentation Rubric : Online articles

CATEGORY	4 EXCELLENT	3 GOOD	2 AVERAGE	1 POOR
CONTENT PRESENTATION	Student presents all the main and relevant  ideas (5 or more) from the article . The student demonstrates a thorough analysis of the article.	Student presents almost all of the main and relevant  ideas (4 or 3) from the article and demonstrates moderate analysis of the article.	Student presents some of the main and relevant  ideas (2) from the article and demonstrates limited analysis of the article.	Student presents almost none of the main and relevant  ideas (1 or none) from the article and demonstrates superficial analysis of the article.
LANGUAGE USED	The student demonstrates an effective use of vocabulary, grammar and target language structures. The meaning is completely understandable and clear.	The student demonstrates a fairly effective use of vocabulary, grammar and target language structures.  There is some inappropriate use of language but the meaning is still understandable.	The student demonstrates a restricted use of vocabulary, grammar and target language structures.  The meaning is barely understood or clear.	The student demonstrates a inadequate use of vocabulary, grammar and target language structures.  The meaning is not understood nor clear due to the  distorted and exceedingly ungrammatical language used.
DELIVERY	The presentation is fluid, understandable and sustained. High intelligibility. (2 or less errors)	The presentation is generally fluid and clear with some difficulties. Good intelligibility. (3 to 6 errors)	The presentation is moderately  fluid and clear with some difficulties. Moderate intelligibility. (7  to 10 errors)	The presentation is not fluid nor clear with lots of difficulties. Almost  no intelligibility. (more than 10 errors)
COMPREHENSION	Student responds correctly to all (100%)  the questions asked by the teacher or peers.	Student responds correctly to almost all  (90-99%) of the questions asked by the teacher or peers.	Student responds correctly to only some (80-89%) of the questions asked by the teacher or peers.	Student responds correctly  to few (79% or less) of the questions  asked by the teacher or peers.
TIME FRAME	Student administrates the designated timeframe accurately. 15 to 20 minutes.	Student deviates from the designated timeframe by one to two minutes. 23 or 12 minutes.	Student deviates from the designated time frame by four to five minutes. 25 or 10 minutes.	Student deviates from the designated timeframe by over five minutes.

Follow-up activities:

For developing writing skills: students will have to create a personal blog where they share thoughts and make weekly comments: about their oral presentations, about that of their peers, and about the articles read.  

Finally, students will have create a delicious webpage where they can add their favorite pages to keep practicing their English skills at home. 

Week 5: Rubrics, project-based learning and Web Quests!

I enjoyed reading about rubrics, project-based learning and Web Quests. However, what I have enjoyed most is the readings about rubrics. As I mentioned in the nicecet discussion thread for this week, I think rubrics can facilitate the learning process in diverse ways. They function as anchors for teachers and students, they provide a standard to which everybody can refer to and they even provide a measure with which to determine the quality of performance on the basis of pre-established criteria.

As I was doing my rubric, I realized how complex and interesting assessing students’ performance can be. Simply marking the students as good or bad does not always provide sufficient feedback to give them the opportunity to learn and improve their language skills. In fact providing limited generalized feedback, can even be a reflection of the teacher’s reluctance to carry out a thorough evaluation. Rubrics, on the other hand, give specific and detailed information to the students and teachers. They explain what the relationship between different degrees of performances and their corresponding grade. To me, they serve as learning contracts: if you do this, you will get that.

Finally, I would like to share with you 2 pages I found interesting and useful for calibrating rubrics:

1- Examples of Likert Scaled Responses Used in Data-Gathering

http://www.rpgroup.org/sites/default/files/Surveys%20Interactive%20Activity%20-%20Examples%20of%20Likert%20scales.pdf

2- Likert-Type Scale Response Anchors

http://teorionline.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/scale.pdf

Week 4: Be specific and congruent!

Be specific and congruent!

After this week (and all the previous ones), I have learned that being specific is exceptionally important when giving instructions to the students, describing a class (setting, needs, classroom problem/issues) creating a technology-enhanced lesson plan, writing ABCD objectives and even when sharing our favorite sites on the class wiki.

Every time I read the instructions on the Google site, on Nicenet.org and the weekly e-mails from Sean, I realize that ¾like Sean's¾  my instructions have to be clearly written, neatly organized and properly delivered. So far, I have mastered the Google site and the weekly assignments because of the congruent layout of the Google site and the constant instructions and reminders from Sean. Although this seems to be an easy task, it is not. Therefore, on my blog reflection for this week, I would  like to recognize Sean's hard and professional work and effort. I am building my teaching skills by looking at his teaching skills.

Thanks for your hard work Sean! 

Week 3: We still have lots of work to do.

When I was studying to be an English teacher at the University of Guadalajara, we had a class where they taught us ways to help student develop their listening skills. We learnt about the three stages in the tasks to that end: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. However, back at that time, the internet was not the same as it is nowadays. I remember our teachers using lots of printed hand-outs (some of them were almost completely discolored) for almost every activity. Copies were made for every single class and we as trainee teachers had to make copies for every student in his or her class.  

After reading the articles provided by Sean, having looked at the websites for pronunciation and speaking, online lesson plans and having created my  delicious page, I (once again) realized how interactive and useful the web and the Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) can be for teachers as well for learners. This is not only just a matter of time (students accessing to the exercises at any time), or a matter of space (students practicing everywhere), in fact, it also implies that using the internet and CALL involves aspects of interests, reactivity, sense of personal growth, endless repetitions, authentic material with richer language context... among others.

Nevertheless, I cannot go further without saying that not all the activities and resources that one can find on a webpage are exactly the ones we need (suitable for our specific context) or that they are methodologically correct (some of them might even have grammatical errors). It is, therefore, imperative that we have some trustworthy references (like the articles we are reading) which can be used to examine and evaluate the online activities and resources. In addition, we  have to take into consideration the age of the students, their level of English, and the type of material on hand before we use the activity in class ¾an attractive activity for me might end up being a boring or inappropriate activity for my students¾.  Even thought the interactive web has endless materials, sites and lesson plans, we have to be academically cautious when trying something new.

Back in time (when the internet was naught), the aforementioned learning resources were not exactly easy to access. One had to go to a library, look for a book, consult an article or talk to an expert before finally getting the information that was sought. After going through all this process, we could almost always be sure that the information was trustworthy. On the contrary, nowadays, information is fairly easy to access: you just turn your computer on, log in to the internet and voilà: you have thousands of pages with lots of information available. What is left up to you is make sure that the information you got in a second is trustworthy. It is the same process, but the other way around.

We still have lots of work to do. 

Week 2: The time I have is not the time I need!

After having looked at noodletools.com and scrolling down to see all the pages and search engines it contains, I actually felt extremely disappointed. Why would someone feel disappointed with so many resources available? Exactly because of that! So many resources available and so little time available!

It amazes me the amount of information and resources that the internet has. Every time I get the chance to have a look at the pages, the information and the resources,  my curiosity gets agitated and feels like a kid in a candy store. However, reality makes its come back and reminds me of the other responsibilities and duties that we as humans beings cannot simply ignore.  

People, places, answers, opinions, contra-perspectives,  political topics, news on health, politics, economics, education, maps, photographs, videos, speeches, sounds, encyclopedias, books, even articles for writing ABCD objectives ;) ... the possibilities for planning awesome, interesting classes and acquiring knowledge are virtually endless.

I guess we have to take one step at a time... otherwise, we (both students and teachers) might stumble and fall in our stride to get ahead of ourselves. Don't you agree?

Finally, I am pleased to share with you a quote I found, and liked on http://www.quotationspage.com (provided in noodletools.com): 

Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working. Anonymous

Week 1: Technology takes time!

Week 1: Technology takes time!

This has been definitively an exciting week for me. In order to better acquaint myself with the navigation of this Program, I have been checking the pages, documents, rubrics and all the material that we are going to be using since Sunday. 

On Monday I checked the course website over and over... trying to get accustomed to the layout. I can proudly say that I have gotten to know it very well. 

Today (Tuesday) I finally managed to create my blog! Even thought I had created a blog in a different website before, I must admit that creating this blog was kind of confusing and time-consuming. I do not think that the Blogger web page is totally user-friendly. However, what will be life like without any new challenges? 

For later (Wednesday) I will join the class discussion: Conferencing Topic: Week 1: Ground Rules for Discussions, on Nicenet.  

For the rest of this 1st week I will be "developing a weekly rhythm for working through the topics", as stated in the course website. 


What I learned: 

After reading the "Bloggin for ELT" article (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/blogging-elt) and looking at the additional resources on the website, I would like to point out two very important blogging advantages that I found: 

a) Academic advantage: using a blog for a class would provide the students with lots of opportunities for foreign language learning (extra practice, feedback from teachers and peers, access to online resources appropriate for their level, enhancing the writing process). 

b) Emotional advantage: having the students create their own blog might increase the sense of community (shy students included) and also help to build a closer relationship between students in large classes. 

These two aforementioned aspects when put together, can make the language learning process an amazing journey... for students as well for their teachers.  

I'm eagerly looking forward to the challenges ahead.