The dreamed 10th week

Week 10th 

I haven't been to too many places in my life. I was born in the suburbs in a small town, there I grew, went to school, married, had my kids and maybe I will retire living in the same place.
As a human being, one of the greatest things I enjoy is being in the technology era. I have a grandgirl who doesn't know how to read but she is computer literate.

I have a job that barely allows me to take care of my house, so, since I work at Inadeh I have no time to attend any kind of course, school etc. I love learning new things, I never think how or when I am going to apply what I learn, I jus love learning.

Gathering in Panama with people from different places of the world and having a teacher who is in United States is possible only in a Virtual Classroom. I have had a very rushing time, but I felt challenged by people who had bigger problems than me  and they were still fighting for a certification; that took me forward.

This week is just  conferencing about what we learned and suggestions for new comers, feels like it was yesterday I enrolled in this class.

I wish I could shake my classmates hands and hug Sean, as I am taking so  much from them with me, I am taking knowledge that would help me be a better teacher. It feels like we would never have the chance to meet again but who knows, I bet you never thought you would share a space in class with  a Panamanian.

Good luck!

Nubia from Panama

NINETH WEEK

MY LEARNING STYLE

 

 

My husband loves to joke about how much I talk, he says I am like a Cellphone Company offer; you pay for five minutes and they give 20 free. Maybe, my husband have never heard about multiple intelligences. One day while watching together THE BLIND SIDE movie, he asked how come Big Mike was able to orally answer tests and get good grades but he wasn't able to write them down. This week I had the opportunitty to explain my husband the reason why the main character of the movie was able to apply for a sport scholarship by getting help of his teacher.  We also talked about Linguistic Intelligence, he now says that I got the wrong profession, I must had chosen to be a politician.

 



 This nineth week we are conferencing about different learning styles, and multiple intelligences.

In 1983 Howard Gardner of Harvard University identified seven intelligences all humans possess, but in a book called Frames of Mind, he states "because our understanding of the brain and human behavior is constantly changing, the number of intelligences is expanding. Two to three new intelligences had been added recently. Gardner also states that we all have all the multiple intelligences, but that no two people are exactly alike.

Nevetheless, "there is no scientific evidence, as of yet, that shows that people have specific, fixed learning styles or discrete intelligences, nor that students benefit when teachers target instruction to a specific learning style or intelligence. However, providing students with multiple ways to learn content has been shown to improve student learning." (Hattie, 2011) (1).

We were given a link to "Project Zero" a project of Gardner at Harvard University but the link is broken, and so are various of the links in this site, so I am searching about it on my own. Concept to Classroom: Multiple Intelligences is a very interesting site with broad information, activities and resources on the topic.

I took the free test Wh"at Is Your Learning Style?" available at http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz . Answering 24 questions may give you new insights into your learning preferences, takes short to complete it. I tried other test, (I like personality and skill tests) but this site asks for payment. http://www.ldpride.net/

 

 

There is still a week to go, and there are many other sites I haven't been too. I'll be back.



 

 

 



Week 8

10/8 Week and counting

I love social networks, even when most of the information you gather in them  is published according to the user point of view, there are some institutions and companies that had understood that social networks is the fastest ways to connect directly with people. I follow USA Embassy in Panama on Twitter. On Friday, July 19, 2013 they posted about E Teachers On Line program scholarship offer.

Eight weeks ago I wasn't sure about being able to pass this course, as I read the content, the activities and all the assignments seemed to me that time I had to study wasn't enough to do everything. It had been  stressing to cope with work and  study, but I don't regret any minute I had been siting in front of  my computer reading and learning how technology can work to my students and teachers side.

My  tutor had been leading us to be teachers and professor with so may sources to be outstanding guides to our students. In my case, as a team leader I feel able to be a multiplier agent so my institution is also blessed with this course.  

Week 8 is about to end and I still have to make myself through many activities I haven't finished yet, time is not on my side and so many events had collide in the same point and place and I had been  positioned to have no choice than giving work all my time. It makes me feel ashamed because I would like to finish my course in the honor roll; so I wish I would be an octopus to put four arms to work for my institution and the rest to work in my course. To this point, I feel sad, stressed and tired. I had been to other classmate blogs and looks like they drop the course out in previous weeks. They may had had bigger problems than mine; that took me back to my first week quote: crying for having no shoes and there are people who have no feet.

So here I am, trying to unthread the check list and push myself up to catch up. We still have two weeks to come. This may be a learner autonomy momentous, then it is my choice to plan my goal, concentrate, focus and learn.

This is the moment to put on a paper how would I, as a teacher, help my students to overcome a problem using technology; my first draft was about lack of motivation. Now I think that many of our students may have felt in the same position I feel now, so I am trying to find a technology related solution to this case so I can apply it to my class.

 

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Elbert Hubbard

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/persistence.html#okAUxfb1doxIPfc0.99

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Elbert Hubbard

 

 

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Elbert Hubbard

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/persistence.html#okAUxfb1doxIPfc0.99

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Elbert Hubbard

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/persistence.html#okAUxfb1doxIPfc0.99

 

WEEK 7 

This week trending is Learner Autonomy and One computer classroom.   Discussions split and I choose to read about Learner autonomy.

Learner autonomy has become the word in EFL. Claiming and promoting some kind of learner independence; some editorials have positioned their textbooks in a high rank.
There is a lot that a teachers have to do even though the term; as learner autonomy doesn't mean that that the pupil wont need responsible teaching.

The term was coined in 1981 by Henry Holec, considered the "father" of learner autonomy. Many writers have given different definitions according to the context of the discussion. One of the spots I focused in Holec definition is if autonym is a  personal human trait or not.

The methodology developed with learner autonomy is based on the initiative of the subject who is formed, so that it can achieve the objectives of the program following the instructions of the given material. The facilitator acts as guardian and must be present but not as an information source, but as a counselor. The training materials developed by the tutor must be shared and the pupil has to be self-sufficient. The individual who makes self-training has differential personal characteristics on multiple variables: attitudes, knowledge, interests, socio-familiar, learning habits, which require a flexible, adaptable approach to such diversity. Learner autonomy provides precisely the possibility of individual adjustment, not being subjected to spatiotemporal parameters unique for everyone.






 

Week 6

 

 

 

Week 6 was very challenging, I was assigned to go to the country side to organize and coordinate the opening of a new branch: Inadeh Soná, at Veraguas province.

 

None of the things I planned came to reality, On Monday night, the power company informed us that they could not connect the electricity, so we had to buy an emergency electric plant. No electricity, no internet connection. Four days to the opening and the president of Panama was the main guest.

 

I won't talk about the stress, the fatigue, the heat, the mosquitos... I am now very proud of my co workers; we worked very hard to organize everything and fortunately we welcomed the President in a brand new facility ready to welcome the students and start courses.

 

Now, back to the city, I have a lot to do to keep up with: desk work, my course and my family. nevertheless there is no place like home.

 

WEEK 5

 I would have been asked out I would have literally to answer: I am "in the middle of something". This is the middle of the course, I am still in the middle of the readings and in the middle of some insecurities. In the first week, when I went over the material, I felt like running for my life. I had the feeling that the job I do is wide different from the environment the course is based on; yet I felt challenged to go through and gain knowledge even if I couldn't use it in my current job.

I have learned a lot reading my classmate experiences, every post tells a story about different places in different parts of the globe but they all collide in the same point: they all share the same interest which is to master the techniques to teach. Technology is on our side so we are all thirsty of knowledge on how to out to work in our benefit even when in some places, many of us have little resources.

Rubrics! It is our topic this week. Rubrics are like a contract between teacher and students that set up: what the teacher expects what and how the student has to do. "Heidi Andrade’s commonly accepted definition is a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria, or what counts, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor."
(http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=WhatIs)
 

I checked on my grades and I was surprised because I am missing a grade.   I felt confused and somehow disappointed. My first reaction was to send Sean, my tutor, an email asking why I was missing 5 points. I recalled that I was late to my middle of third week post. My mistake, so I just accepted not getting points for not completing my task on time. This week, while stating what is rubric, I went back to my grades and to this course rubrics; to find out what happened. I have clear now, how is the blog task evaluated but still confused about how many posts we should have. The point is that  Rubrics guide the students on how to perform assignments and even if they get lost in the activity, Rubrics is always a reference to find hints.
 

PBL (Project Based Learning) is currently discussed in my office and in the class, each place has two opposite extremes; on one side Projects are to be removed of our assesment list and on the other side we are learning how to put it to work on student side to gain knowledge. Confusing? 

"Teachers who love teaching, teach students to love learning."

WEEK 4

 

Week number four is on. We are about to reach the belly bottom of the course. I have read so many articles that when I try to write about it, I have to go back to the paper and make sure about what I am going to cite. Week number three wasn't that busy. I had fewer responsibilities at my office and course activities were easy to achieve-

Sean our tutor mentioned in our weekly newsletter "I continue to be very impressed with how communicative and sharing everyone is. You all show such wonderful strength in supporting, helping, and sharing with one another. Your students are so lucky to have you in their lives." that made me quote Jose de Cervantes Saavedra, "Cada uno en su oficio puede alabar a Dios" (Ech person's job can praise God). I think of teachers as doctors who prevent and cure knowledge diseases. We, as doctors have to come up with new remedies for our new generations whose needs are wider than ours.

 

This week we are conferencing about Reading/Writing skills and technology Enhanced lesson plans. Readings include step by step how to put technology to work as a tool for students in classroom, how to use ebooks in reading activities.

I have still half week to go, so I will enhance this explanation as I continue to complete more activities. J

 

 

My computer crashed! The screen just freeze. My first thought was: It may be needing a time "to think" but after some minutes: PANIC!!!  All the hints I could get from my acquaintance was "format". How could I!!!

 

I wrote on my blog for about 2 hours. I had nice thoughts on the topics we studied in the last week..thinking, analyzing, writing, editing... and then --> SEND ... no response. The clock sand whirling on the middle of the screen. I cried in my heart. It took a little time to say: why not, let's format.   I finally did. I was able to save my files: family pictures, videos, old documents and so... but I wasn't able to save my blog.  

 

Proof reading on the material we had gone through the past week, I keep thinking about Mey-Ya Ling's recommendations  on her Three Extensive Reading Activities about how to use eBooks in class. She deeply set a plan to get the maximum of these activities:

1. Choosing the book.

2. Reading and Sharing the books

3. Evaluating books

 

Each topic includes: Goals, Procedures, Study guide and How to evaluate. If done as recommended, Miss Ling concludes that at the end of the activities students would be able  to interpret the texts and even study outside the classroom. Isn't it great?

 

 

 

 

WEEK THREE

Week number three is over. For the first time I checked my grades and it surprised me to see that I was missing grades. I had tried to keep up with all my tasks, so I checked and sadly realized that my blog for week two was still in drafts, not sure what I did wrong.

Studying on line is not easy as many of my co workers tell me, they think that not attending a classroom makes things easier but I had been very busy at work this week, especially because I tried to be engaged with every task we were assigned. I printed all the suggested readings and read them all, most of them I read while having lunch.

 

I wasn't too excited about bookmarking but reading my classmates posts and visiting all the links we were suggested was awesome, clicking on any other link I visited the Congress Library. That was a good tour.

 

Reading "Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Material" by Lindsay Miller I found interesting hints for teaching. We teachers, regularly go straight to the point and most of the time have to deal bring more material to reinforce. Miller’s recommendations is make Pre-, While-, and Post- Listening activities. I am sure that trying these steps would help us to change our previous results.

 

Project Task #2 was enriching also; I choose to read  Aleyda Linares from Honduras. What she did wasn't complicated but as she explains was relevent to her stdents needs and interest and it is also very interesting hint. Most of the time techers may think of bigger changes but if they dont catch students attention may not work as expectated.

 

I tried to do the optional task but the link keeps sending a message that it is a forbidden site.

 

I feel we are doing very well, I wish Sean our professor would post more answers to our post but I guess we are too many.

 

Week number four is knocking the door, it's midnignt in my side of the world so I better go to bed. Hope my classmates and professor have a good night too.

 

Week 2

There was about an hour left to write about what I have experienced during these weeks in the Webskills Course. I had been procrastinating that post because there were still too many thoughts storming in my mind and I really wanted to picture my experience in detail.

In two weeks I have read every post (and there are so many posts)  my classmates had published telling their experience about every topic. The greatest of these readings is that I have realized that even when  we are in different parts of the world, the  teaching - learning process behave almost the same everywhere.

Writing Objectives are not part of my tasks since I switch from being an elementary teacher to be a virtual tutor.  Virtual teaching environment has a lot of advantages and since I am teach virtual courses I left behind all the tasks a room teacher does like for example planning, writing objective and so forth.

Then Sean, my professor, assigned us to read and write about ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives. These new words came up while I was reading: audience, behavior, conditions, degree; one by one they have a meaning I already knew, but the four together meant something totally different: an objective that explains exactly who, what, how and it is going to be achieved in the class.

New things to learn, new tools to work, more knowledge; words that describe my course in the second week.

Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops.
Henry Brooks Adams

WEEK 1

 

After "Introducing myself", "Comments on the guidelines and ground rules for discussion" was the topic  I liked the most on first week. Reading all my classmates posts, gave me a wider point of view about setting up rules. I learned methods not only for discussion but also for email exchange in virtual environment.

 

In my position, one of the hardest job in virtual classes is to make students follow certain "etiquette" while posting on forums or requesting for help via email. Even when they are sent all the previous material, they are supposed to read it and follow instructions, this week I learn that we, virtual tutors, can not take for granted that they are simply going to follow rules if we haven't discussed.

 

Sean not only posted the rules, he also invited us to discuss if we agree with them. I now understand that most of the incongruences we have had with some students is because we never discussed  the rules, and even when the rules we post in our site are almost alike those I have to observe in my class, they work properly in my class because everybody agree that we have read, understood and were willing to work by those rules.

 

I have something very important to teach my colleagues, somehow I feel we had disrespected our students by simply demanding they to obey instead of asking them to discuss the rules and feed us back about them.

 

I feel positive now that we are about to have a new beginning and that everybody is going to be comfortable as we are going to first agree how are we going to behave and later we will do the course homework.

 

 

 “Are you asking me or telling me?” ― Irvine Welsh, Filth

 

 

 

Creating my blog

Creating my blog

 

I had blogged before, but surely it is not the same to feel hyper or down and just come to your blog and express how you feel than being assigned to create a blog as part of your class tasks.

 

Creating a blog for serious business is all on the other side, mainly because knowing that you have to be objective, focused and serious in what you write, it is kind of stressing to sit in front of the pc and just tap with your fingers thinking how not to sound boring or out side.

 

Well, I have to say that once I made up my mind that this is my homework blog, I decided that I had to do my best, as what I want is to get high scores. The first thirty minutes I spent trying to find a good name for my blog and my expectation were high but the system kept telling me "that name is not available" so I had to keep watching until the blued check mark appeared.

 

Choosing what to say and how to say it didn't look like a hard task until I noticed that I had spent more than ten minutes typing and deleting all that came to my mind. I think that creating a blog to use it for class is very distant from what I am use to write a blog for, but I have to accept that I never thought of a blog before as an educative tool.

 

Analyzing how would I use a blog as part of my learning strategies is not clear to me yet, but then I realized that this is exactly what I am going to learn in my class so I think I had fulfilled my first task here.