Although it's difficult to believe, we've completed Week 10 and the course is closed! Amazing. It's been a quick 10 weeks with lots and lots of hard work, confusion, exclamations of a-ha!, struggles, frustration, discovery, and delight.
I am completely impressed with how beautifully everyone did during this course. The amount of work, and the quality of the work was truly impressive.
I wish everyone a fruitful upcoming academic year. I hope that all of your dreams come true!
Donna
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
We're Beginning Week 10!!!!!
I cannot believe that we are beginning the final week of the course. It is completely amazing and astonishing to see that the course is almost over. Once again, I am so sad to lose such a great group of friends and peers. I've learned so much from everyone, and I feel like I've a group of colleagues all over the world.
This coming week is a week of reflection. Course participants are asked to reflect on what they've learned over the last 10 weeks on their blogs. They are to read about the LoTI self-reflection levels of technology integration of their classes--both now and where they'd like to be in 5 years.
I think that the LoTi scale is interesting. When I read it the first time, I was teaching three different types of classes. One class is adult learners at a local community college. There is no technology in the classroom, and these learners have no access to technology either in the school or in the classroom. They really need to achieve computer literacy and are denied access by a horrible classroom. I am going to teach this class again this fall and I'm seriously thinking of buying my own projector to accompany my laptop so I have a one-computer classroom. While I won't have a computer lab to use, a one-computer classroom is better than nothing.
My second class is at a university and there is a projector in the classroom that I can hook my laptop up to. We use Blackboard in this class (in fact, using Blackboard is a program requirement) and I use BB daily to post grades, readings, writing examples, my syllabus, homework, etc. I love it.
The third class I teach is this Webskills course. It is 100% technology and I love it, too. To me, using technology enhances my teaching and my learners' experience.
Well, it's been a wonderful course with an incredible group of people. I will miss everyone. You are very dear to me!
Donna
This coming week is a week of reflection. Course participants are asked to reflect on what they've learned over the last 10 weeks on their blogs. They are to read about the LoTI self-reflection levels of technology integration of their classes--both now and where they'd like to be in 5 years.
I think that the LoTi scale is interesting. When I read it the first time, I was teaching three different types of classes. One class is adult learners at a local community college. There is no technology in the classroom, and these learners have no access to technology either in the school or in the classroom. They really need to achieve computer literacy and are denied access by a horrible classroom. I am going to teach this class again this fall and I'm seriously thinking of buying my own projector to accompany my laptop so I have a one-computer classroom. While I won't have a computer lab to use, a one-computer classroom is better than nothing.
My second class is at a university and there is a projector in the classroom that I can hook my laptop up to. We use Blackboard in this class (in fact, using Blackboard is a program requirement) and I use BB daily to post grades, readings, writing examples, my syllabus, homework, etc. I love it.
The third class I teach is this Webskills course. It is 100% technology and I love it, too. To me, using technology enhances my teaching and my learners' experience.
Well, it's been a wonderful course with an incredible group of people. I will miss everyone. You are very dear to me!
Donna
Monday, August 15, 2011
Oh My Goodness . . . Week 8 is over!!
Week 8 is over and I cannot believe it. We are off and running on Week 9 and are almost finished with this course. It's just amazing. Everyone turns in the final drafts of their reports on Friday, and then we have a short week after that with just a few, finalizing tasks to do. The course ends on Friday, August 26th.
It has been such a joy to facilitate this course. The participants are wonderful and have created such a supportive learning community. It is so gratifying to watch it happen. I wish everyone could facilitate a course such as this one.
The one thing I really like is that I learn right along with all the participants. I review and revisit all the technology and tools, and I learn new and different ways to use them. Teaching and learning is the only way to go. This course is the best!
Donna
It has been such a joy to facilitate this course. The participants are wonderful and have created such a supportive learning community. It is so gratifying to watch it happen. I wish everyone could facilitate a course such as this one.
The one thing I really like is that I learn right along with all the participants. I review and revisit all the technology and tools, and I learn new and different ways to use them. Teaching and learning is the only way to go. This course is the best!
Donna
Monday, August 8, 2011
Week 7 Is Over and We're On The Runway to Completion
Well . . . Week 7 has drawn to a close and Week 8 has begun. Last week the focus was on the one-computer classroom and learner autonomy. I've used a one-computer classroom for years and year, with access to a computer lab when needed. I find that it works just fine. I have rediscovered this fact this last year in another school teach in. This school has me in a classroom with absolutely no technology at all. I have one white board and that's it. I teach advanced language learners and have no access to a computer or projector. It's awful. I'm thinking of buying my own projector so that I can at least project PowerPoint, games, and other things for my students. It's really hard to teach with no technology at all--especially when I'm used to it at my other job.
I cannot believe that this course is almost over! It's just amazing to me. Equally amazing is the huge amount of work that everyone has done. Ive learned so much from the course participants--it's just lovely sharing and learning together. I feel that we are peers and I am a facilitator, not an instructor.
Teacher training is the best!
Donna
I cannot believe that this course is almost over! It's just amazing to me. Equally amazing is the huge amount of work that everyone has done. Ive learned so much from the course participants--it's just lovely sharing and learning together. I feel that we are peers and I am a facilitator, not an instructor.
Teacher training is the best!
Donna
Monday, August 1, 2011
Week 6 Has Finished!!
My goodness . . . . We are now finished with Week 6! Where has the time gone? I imagine that all the course participants would answers, "The time has passed with an enormous amount of work and effort, Donna!"
What a huge amount of work everyone has accomplished. We just did a week with interactive PowerPoint. Everyone's PowerPoint was amazing--creative and wonderful--and interactive. I used to HATE PowerPoint because it was so non-interactive. Students or an audience would just sit and be blasted with slide after slide. All they did was suck in words and pictures . . . no activity. Watching pictures or listening to a hyper-linked video is not interactive. These types of PowerPoint are boring, boring, boring. There is little difference from listening to a speaker without PowerPoint. I have attended some of the worst PowerPoint presentations in the whole world were the words were tiny, the slides were crammed with as many words as the presenter could get on a slide, and the presenter read off the slides. What a yawn. How can this be teaching?
Interactive PowerPoint is another world altogether. It can be simple, such as asking a question and inserting a blank slide so that the audience must concentrate on answering the question. It can be as complex as a Jeopardy quiz. Good, interactive PowerPoint can help produce a lively, active classroom with happy, participative students who are learning, learning, learning--rather than sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.
Donna
What a huge amount of work everyone has accomplished. We just did a week with interactive PowerPoint. Everyone's PowerPoint was amazing--creative and wonderful--and interactive. I used to HATE PowerPoint because it was so non-interactive. Students or an audience would just sit and be blasted with slide after slide. All they did was suck in words and pictures . . . no activity. Watching pictures or listening to a hyper-linked video is not interactive. These types of PowerPoint are boring, boring, boring. There is little difference from listening to a speaker without PowerPoint. I have attended some of the worst PowerPoint presentations in the whole world were the words were tiny, the slides were crammed with as many words as the presenter could get on a slide, and the presenter read off the slides. What a yawn. How can this be teaching?
Interactive PowerPoint is another world altogether. It can be simple, such as asking a question and inserting a blank slide so that the audience must concentrate on answering the question. It can be as complex as a Jeopardy quiz. Good, interactive PowerPoint can help produce a lively, active classroom with happy, participative students who are learning, learning, learning--rather than sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.
Donna
Monday, July 18, 2011
Week 4 Has Finished
Well, Week 4 has finished and we are almost half-way through the course (after next week). It always amazes me to turn around and realize that the course is half over.
This last week we focused on reading and writing. These are particular loves of mine--as I've been focusing on teaching reading and writing for a long time. I really love to teach writing--most teachers hate it. I believe in giving a lot--I mean a LOT--of feedback to my students on their writing. I also believe that students need multiple drafts of their writing tasks and a lot of scaffolding in the form of outlines and organizers. Organizers are particularly helpful as they give students something to write "into."
As I said, most teachers I know hate to teach writing because it means huge amounts of grading and marking and writing feedback. It takes hours and hours.
I also love to teach reading. I believe (and research backs me up) that students need both intensive and extensive reading. They need to be explicitly taught reading strategies. They need to intensively take apart difficult, academic reading material in order to understand it, and they need extensive reading. Extensive reading should be interesting, fun, and at or below their reading levels. Making students read material that is too difficult for them--without helping them with the content and vocabulary--makes them hate reading.
Finally, students must be taught vocabulary. Reading well requires a great deal of vocabulary.
Well---Week 4 has been a good week. I hope everyone has learned or been reminded of a few things.
Donna
This last week we focused on reading and writing. These are particular loves of mine--as I've been focusing on teaching reading and writing for a long time. I really love to teach writing--most teachers hate it. I believe in giving a lot--I mean a LOT--of feedback to my students on their writing. I also believe that students need multiple drafts of their writing tasks and a lot of scaffolding in the form of outlines and organizers. Organizers are particularly helpful as they give students something to write "into."
As I said, most teachers I know hate to teach writing because it means huge amounts of grading and marking and writing feedback. It takes hours and hours.
I also love to teach reading. I believe (and research backs me up) that students need both intensive and extensive reading. They need to be explicitly taught reading strategies. They need to intensively take apart difficult, academic reading material in order to understand it, and they need extensive reading. Extensive reading should be interesting, fun, and at or below their reading levels. Making students read material that is too difficult for them--without helping them with the content and vocabulary--makes them hate reading.
Finally, students must be taught vocabulary. Reading well requires a great deal of vocabulary.
Well---Week 4 has been a good week. I hope everyone has learned or been reminded of a few things.
Donna
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Week 3 is Almost Over
Well, week 3 is almost over and things are going fine. It's been a week of some excellent discussions. An interesting question came up this week. It had to do with authentic English. What is "authentic" English? Whose English is authentic? If students are watching a video, made in America in which the actors are using "Valley" English--is that authentic? If students are watching a movie that is filled with slang and inappropriate language, this that authentic and good for them? I wonder. How authentic does the language have to be? How do we get authentic language to our students?
Another question that came up concerning pronunciation is what accent (American? British? Canadian? Australian? etc.) do we teach our students and how accent-free do we wish them to do? Isn't it unfair and impossible to ask our students to be error-free in their pronunciation? How great a tolerance should we have when we grade our students? Shouldn't we go for intelligibility? What's the "right" accent?
Anyway, these are questions that came up for me this week. I'm finding it intesting to ponder
them.
Another question that came up concerning pronunciation is what accent (American? British? Canadian? Australian? etc.) do we teach our students and how accent-free do we wish them to do? Isn't it unfair and impossible to ask our students to be error-free in their pronunciation? How great a tolerance should we have when we grade our students? Shouldn't we go for intelligibility? What's the "right" accent?
Anyway, these are questions that came up for me this week. I'm finding it intesting to ponder
them.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Week 2 is Over; Week 3 is Beginning
One of the things I like about this course is the introduction to ABCD objectives. Of all the ways of writing learning objectives, the ABCD method is a very good one as it's clear and easy to apply. And there are hundreds of websites and articles about how to write objectives!
Writing learning objectives is an art--and one that takes some time to perfect. When first beginning to write objectives, one often has the tendency to write too much. The urge is to include everything we can think of. However, if we focus on just one thing that will be assessed, it's easier to write the objective.
Goals are the overarching aims of instruction--what we want the students to learn and do at the end of an entire instructional year or term or program of study. Objectives are the small demonstrations of the steps the students take to reach the goal.
Assessment and objectives are closely connected. Objectives must name observable and measurable behavior. Assessment is the measure of the behavior. If it cannot be observed and measured, it cannot be included in an objective. A good way to think about this is to ask yourself, "How do I know a student has accomplished this?"
Rubrics are totally wonderful, because they go hand in hand with assessment. Rubrics inform students and instructors exactly how a task is measured and evaluated on a numerical scale.
Education should never be a mystery. Students should always be given learning objectives, clear ideas of assessment, and rubrics.
Anyway, I've always liked Week 2 because I think it's a great idea to begin the course with a focus on writing good learning objectives.
Now, we're off to Week 3 with another incredibly wonderful too--Delicious!
Donna
Writing learning objectives is an art--and one that takes some time to perfect. When first beginning to write objectives, one often has the tendency to write too much. The urge is to include everything we can think of. However, if we focus on just one thing that will be assessed, it's easier to write the objective.
Goals are the overarching aims of instruction--what we want the students to learn and do at the end of an entire instructional year or term or program of study. Objectives are the small demonstrations of the steps the students take to reach the goal.
Assessment and objectives are closely connected. Objectives must name observable and measurable behavior. Assessment is the measure of the behavior. If it cannot be observed and measured, it cannot be included in an objective. A good way to think about this is to ask yourself, "How do I know a student has accomplished this?"
Rubrics are totally wonderful, because they go hand in hand with assessment. Rubrics inform students and instructors exactly how a task is measured and evaluated on a numerical scale.
Education should never be a mystery. Students should always be given learning objectives, clear ideas of assessment, and rubrics.
Anyway, I've always liked Week 2 because I think it's a great idea to begin the course with a focus on writing good learning objectives.
Now, we're off to Week 3 with another incredibly wonderful too--Delicious!
Donna
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Almost the End of Week One of the Webskills Class
Well . . . . it's nearing the end of week one of our webskills course. Amazing! Most of the participants are on board and working away. This looks like it will be a wonderful group of people. I just love working with teachers from all over the world. I am in awe of their experience and expertise.
Donna
Donna
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Week 1
We're off on a great adventure--week one is underway for the summer term. I am looking forward to working with all of the teachers in this course. It will be amazing, interesting, and great fun!
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