WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

What were most useful for you?
 The tool that was the most useful for me was Interactive PPP. It was the rediscovery of PPP, which I had abandoned.


Which tools will you use in your classes?
I will be using the one that I have tried in my classes - Interactive PPP, tools to foster PBL, englishbreakingnews.
I would like to try webquests.


What other tools might we have covered or would you suggest that we could have looked at? I would have covered Social Learning Platforms. I think they can offer many possibilities for our students to communicate with us and share their work with their peers.


I gave my students a writing assignment: Tell me the project that you liked the most this school year.

I would like to share some of their thoughts:

Diego

"I have done several projects along these years, however, I think that the radio project is the most interesting of all."


Carlos

"One day, our teacher told us about making a radio programme, but there was a rule, we were going to do all the project on our own, he would just guide us a little. My group worked on advertisements and it was really funny because it was the first project whose limit was our imagination."


Pedro

 "We did a project for the University of Oregon. First of all, we decided the different topics or categories that we were going to talk about. Later, each group chose one these categories. My group was in charge of the interviews. The result was incredible!!! The app used for the project was very good and it had a lot of options so it really seemed like a radio programme. I enjoyed the experience!"


Lucía

"Mr López was chosen by one university of the USA. Because of that, he had to do some projects like the radio programme with one of his classes. He chose us and we started with the project. All the groups presented their part and Mr López recorded it. It was very funny!"



THIS IS WHAT I HAVE LEARNED, WHAT MY STUDENTS HAVE LEARNED. SO, THANK YOU ALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, THANK YOU DONNA (YOUR SUGGESTIONS, UNDERSTANDING AND HARD WORK ARE INCREDIBLY VALUABLE), AND THANKS CLASSMATES (YOUR EXPERIENCES HAVE BEEN REALLY INSPIRING FOR ME)

LEARNING STYLES AND MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

I have always found these two topics as something really interesting and as something which can make our students be successful or be unsuccessful when learning. We, as teachers, are supposed to get the best of our students and lead them to success. Knowing their learning styles and knowing the kind of intelligence that is stronger for them can be a perfect tool to direct our teaching.

I must say that I have never been good at arts and crafts and I have always considered that my spatial intelligence is not good. That has been one of my weaknesses as a student but it has not been a hindrance to be successful. I think that is what we have to bear in mind, that our students have a lot of possibilities and that they can exploit a lot of technology tools to try to develop those intelligences that are not so strong.

As for classes, I consider that PBL is a good way to make our students exploit their strengths and best intelligences as learners because they can focus on what they can do and try to do their best. However, there is one danger about this, since sometimes our students only work on that that they can do and leave aside things they should focus on. That would be the challenge for us, to make them move on to those things that they neglect because they think they can not do.

I must say that both topics this week are extremely interesting for me and we still have a lot of work to do, above all, a lot of possible technology tools to discover and use so that we can exploit our students' learning styles and intelligences to the max.

ANVILL is here to stay! It is admirable seeing people who work hard on something and then they offer their work and findings to the world for free! Thanks Mr Magoto, you are an inspiration! I do not have the time to explore this tool with my students because my students are taking their finals and I was chosen as part of the board of examination for the university entrance tests and I will not be at my school for a whole week. But I find this tool a good one and I want to put it into practice next school year!!!








Well, I made it! I wrote my final project report using the good suggestions that Wadha gave me. Thanks Wadha, you made me go over things that I had not noticed and I am now very proud of my report. I owe you one ;).

Our course is coming to an end, mixed feelings showing up!!!

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

We are getting ready to finish our course and our projects. Wadha uploaded her project and I gave her some feedback. I must say that I did not have to make many suggestions because she has done a really great job. I uploaded mine and I am looking forward to getting feedback from her. In fact, my draft was an incomplete draft, since I used the technology (Spreaker and Podcast) on Friday and we were supposed to upload it on Wdednesday. I am really happy about the results and the good work my students have done. I will share all my findings and impressions next week!!!

This week we had to go online and take a look at different webpages and create a resource online or offline. I went for "Tools for Educators" and created three different worksheets: a sport vocabulary handout, a sport crossword puzzle and a sport search word. I decided to do those because I will use them as a good chance to review the vocabulary we have learnt in class.

I must say that I have some mixed feelings: the course is ending and I feel sad for that but it is also the beginning of a lot of experimentation and new teaching possibilities!

Hey!!! We are linked now on Facebook!!!

USING MOBILE DEVICES IN CLASS / MY FINAL PROJECT

I normally use my Ipad in class, my students are used to it. But now, we have taken a step further because I am promoting the use of SmartPhones since I want them to communicate with me using EdModo through the app this platform has both for IOS and Android. The good thing about it is that communication is more fluent and obviously quicker.

I am in as far as mobile learning is concerned. I have taken a course about it and I am learning a lot of possibilities. One of the apps that I used in the course is the one I will be using for my project - SPREAKER. This app allows to record podcasts as if they were a radio program, since you can include music, background music, audience reactions, applause, etc.

We have used a new tool, PADLET. It is quite useful when you want to post short messages or links. I think I will use it in class to include links of my students' works and put them together according to the topic we are working on. This can be done when they publish on-line on Glogster and Prezi.

                           Example of Padlet taken from
   http://www.fundacionluminis.org.ar/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Planetas.png


Apart from all that, I have a peer-partner. It is Wadha from Kuwait. She is working with her students on implementing an ICT tool to make her students speak in English. I am very interested in this skill and since my students will also focus on speaking (making a radio program), I think we have a lot in common and we will review our final projects in a very effective way and giving good and interesting feedback to one another.



WHAT WE DID FOR THE PROJECT THIS LAST WEEK

1. Students decided what the sections of the radio program want to include.

2. Students decided who the components of the different groups are going to be.

3. Students assign groups to sections.

4. Students start to work on organizing the sections they will work on and they start to write their text for the radio section.


Students let me know that they are really interested in this project because they can make their own decisions. They also let me know that all projects should be done this way.
What do you think about this?

INTERACTIVE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

As promised, here are my findings about using an Interactive PPP:

1. Students were all eyes, it was a new thing for them and they really wanted to know what was going to happen.

2. They paid a lot of attention because they wanted to answer the questions correctly.

3. They said that the PPP was funny and interesting.

4. They really liked the inclusion of the video in the PPP that showed in detail what they had learnt with the PPP.

5. Conclusion - something to repeat, a must!!!


After showing the PPP I asked my students to do some interactive PPP. I am really satisfied with their work, they have done a very good job!!! They have been really creative!!!


The same happened with the presentations that my teacher-students showed to my 13-year-old students. You could see that they were having a really great time because they were paying attention in order to give the right answers to the questions included in the PPP which had to do with means of transport.

PPT is here to stay!!!

I have a confession to make:  I had sent PowerPoint into exile,  I had banished it from my mind and from my world. But, I brought it back to my life this week, thanks to Webskills.

"Interactive PowerPoint Presentation", it is like music to me. And, it really is. Making a PPP interactive has opened up my mind to new possibilities, to new ways of making my students take part in their learning, and above all, to make them speak, give their opinions, show their ideas, feelings, etc. I believe in PowerPoint again!!!

I made a proposal on one of the NiceNet threads this week. I have two students who are job-shadowing me a part of their instruction requirements to become teachers (it is a Spanish legislation requirement). I said that it would be a good idea to make my students create an interactive PPP and present it in front of my class so that I can take notes and see the whole experience from  the outside. Some of you gave me the "go ahead" and I will let you know about it on another post this week!!!

I prepared an interactive PPP for my students and I will present it tomorrow! I am really excited because I think they will like it and I want to get feedback as soon as possible!!! I will post on it too.

As for the implementation of a new technology to make my students interested in learning, that is, to engage them and motivate them to work on different subjects using English, I commented to them that we are going to prepare a radio program and that they have to decide the different sections it is going to have. We are going to produce podcasts using SPREAKER and I will record them on video using my Ipad. I am waiting for their proposals because one of the key points of my projects is that they have to decide what they want to do and that it is what they really like what is going to be crucial for the project!!! I AM SO EXCITED AND I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT!!!

Oh, what a world!!!

This week we have dealt with different topics and we have read quite interesting articles.

We have learnt about PBL - Project Based Learning - something that is widely used in my school, above all by all the teachers who are part of the bilingual programme. We normally establish at least one project a term based on the same topic for all the subjects - for example - WWI has been the last topic on which our students have to research - in English they have to research on the way it has been shown or it has appeared on movies.

I found the article "Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer really inspiring and I must say that it opened up my eyes and let me find the way to get the possible solution to the "issue" that I want to solve using technology. My students have to decide what their project will deal with. That is the key question that I found out when reading this article. I think I found the "quid" to lead my class to a good improvement.


We have also learnt about rubrics - in my school rubrics are also widely used. We normally set them up by using Rubistar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/) which is exactly the same web-page that we have been recommended by the course. Using rubrics is extremely useful to carry out a good assessment of different aspects of our students' learning process. And what is most important, our students are aware of what our expectations are about their learning and what we want them to learn and the objectives which  we want them to accomplish. I find this tool incredibly useful, something which is shared by the administrators in my school.


Webquests was another aspect of the course this week. This has been totally new to me. I am looking into it and even though there was an extra credit assignment, I guess I need some more time to try it. Webquests are useful because we can guide our students through a learning journey through which they can discover new things on the web. I definitely must put it into practice, and I will!!!
I found some information on a Spanish web page - www.isabelperez.com (this teacher has even made a doctoral thesis on webquests).


This week Michael Jackson's new posthumous CD is being released, I'm so excited.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/09/michael-jackson-xscape-review-tim-jonze

Week 4 - So far so good!!!

Another week that went by really fast!

It's really incredible all the new things that we are learning with this course. That is one thing I extremely like about my job: in order to teach, you must learn first and you always keep learning.

This week we focused on writing, reading and vocabulary. I visited several webpages related to these topics and I read some of my colleagues' comments on Nicenet and found out good webpages. My delicious is growing longer and longer, it is burning ;). But I must admit that the one that I liked the best and the one that is going to help me now and in the future is www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ because it contains pieces of current and not very old news adapted for reading at different levels. Each unit of work contains a large amount of activities which exploit pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading phases. It's simply spectacular!!!

 

                            BREAKING NEWS ENGLISH


Apart from that, we had to do some reading and I want to mention one that I found really interesting and useful:

Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books by Mei-Ya Liang

The best summary of this article is included at the beginning of the article:

"This online extensive reading lesson focuses on intermediate and advanced ESL/EFL students. The objectives of this lesson are to guide students to read authentic e-texts outside of the classroom and to improve their overall reading, writing and thinking skills by synthesizing and evaluating online materials with peers."


We also had to design a technology enhanced lesson plan using a template. I decided to do something that I am going to put into practice. So, I chose my 4º ESO students (the ones I will be implementing my project with) and I chose a lesson that we are going over right now, that is, the environment. For the lesson plan I will be using Prezi, EdModo and the new discovery, the breakingnewsenglish web-site. Let's see the way it goes!!!

                                                                        PREZI

For the project we took a step further and analyzed what the problem that we want to solve using technology is. Mine has to do with the fact that my students do not consider using new technologies as something interesting and motivating. That is what I want to change and solve in my class!!!

To sum up, I must say that everything is going so far so good, everything is marching along!!!


 
          
                                          EDMODO

3rd Week - New things!!!

Another hectic week went by! This week I had to study for the tests that I had to take in Madrid yesterday morning and this very morning. They are tests that I have to pass in order to get a position as a teacher adviser in a foreign country. It is a position that the Ministry of Education offers to teachers with the aim of promoting Spanish language and culture learning in foreign countries. I applied for the following countries: Australia, the USA, Ireland and the UK. I think I did a good job but now I have to wait for the results. That is the reason why I spent Saturday and Sunday in Madrid, which is about 500 Km away from my city, Granada.

As for the course this week, I must say that again I learnt a lot of useful things. I learnt how to use "Delicious" which is an extremely useful tool. Imagine that you are surfing the net and you find different and interesting webpages. You normally bookmark them using your browser. "Delicious" is similar but it goes one step further, since when we bookmark any webpage, with this tool, we can add interesting comments about it. That way, when we need to find a specific web-site, we can access and consult our "Delicious".

I read two articles from the Teaching Aural/Oral Skills block. I enjoyed both of them, but I must say that I really liked Maria Busa's article, "New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation", becuase she focuses on an element that I consider of capital importance, that is, the pronunciation of prosodic elements. In Spain we normally teach pronunciation, but we do not put a lot of emphasis on trying to pronounce prosodic elements in the right way. Spanish prosody and English prosody are quite different. I also read the article "Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials" by Lindsey Miller, and my intention is to read the third article "The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills" by Juila Gong.

Another assignment this week was the one devoted to visit a webpage related to Teaching Aural/Oral Skills. I visited the one by the BBC  "Pronunciation Tips from the BBC". We were supposed to comment on the good things of this web-site. I found the activities quite good and I recommend it because you can find materials and activities that can be adapted to any level of English.

Today, I read a Final Project Report by Joanna Zubel from the Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education "Ignatianum" in Cracow, Poland. I analised what the project was about and expressed what I liked the best about it. Joanna's reality is quite different from mine, we have different needs, but both share the idea of trying to make our teaching as interesting as possible, above all with the use of ICT tools.


It is really rewarding that bit by bit we learn different things and the majority of them are quite useful.


LET'S KEEP UP THE HARD WORK!!!

One week that went by really fast!!!

In Spain this week we have had our Holy Week, the equivalent to Spring Break. We normally go out and watch processions, so I have not had a lot of time to do my my homework.

Firstly, we started by taking a look at different search-engines and search-web pages. I found some of them quite useful, above all, Bing, iSeek and Columbia Encyclopedia. The feedback that some colleagues gave on the different webpages was quite useful.

This week we also learned about ABCD objectives. In my view, it is a fantastic way to state objectives in a straight and clear way. I think that it is a good way for students to understand what our expectations are and to know exactly what they have to do and how they are going to be graded. It is incredible how one simple thing can help us so much!

I took a look at different posts on NiceNet related to ABCD objectives and Class descriptions and I was so excited to see that we all share the same needs, curiosities and even problems. I remember when I went to work in Texas as a Spanish teacher and my students asked me about teenagers in Spain. I used to tell them that they had a lot in common, they had the same problems, the same hobbies, likes, etc. It is the same with teachers!!! We have a lot in common and what is more, we can help one another a lot sharing what we know and what we want to know!!!

We have started to set the foundations of our project, yay!!! I am looking forward to it! I spent some time thinking about the class that I would choose and I decided on 4º ESO B (4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education). My challenge is going to be to implement technology in the class so that they learn how to use new tools that make them interested in getting a good product when working on the Integrated Unit with Math, Spanish, French, Social Studies and PE. I know it is a big challenge, but I am ready to go for it!!!

So far so good!

This first week has been really hectic! I went on a school trip with 77 students to London and I was not able to have access to the on-line course, so I was a little bit anxious about my not being able to complete the different tasks that Donna was sending us. I sent her an e-mail to let her know about my situation and she let me know that I could start working later once I was in Spain.

I must say that I have done my work in 2 days but it is incredible the fact that a lot of teachers from different parts of the world (Africa, Asia, Europe, America) are taking part in this experience and they are participating in the different discussions that Donna has set up. I think I am going to learn a lot because different points of view are being presented and the atmosphere is quite relaxing. I must say I am extremely excited to have started this journey!!!

Hallo teachers and friends!

Welcome to Webskills Spring 2014!

I am looking forward to sharing my experiences along this journey with you! I hope you will be accompanying me!!!