Week 10. Keep climbing the ladder!

I can’t believe we are at the end of the course and I would have to start “taking steps” autonomously in exploring more web tools. We’ve talked a lot about developing students’ autonomy in learning now I feel in their shoes. This course and community of teachers has been a ladder on which I was encouraged to climb to get to the heights I haven’t been before in using the web tools in language teaching. Now it is important to continue climbing this ladder alone, feel confident and not to climb it down for the fear of falling.

I have greatly enjoyed all the topics of the Course Weeks. Every week I would learn something new. Starting with the first week’s creating a blog,  every week there was something we had not only to learn but to apply as well. Of course for me some of the weeks were easier than the others. I felt at times that some of the tasks were overwhelming and I tried and tried and nothing went right and then it would work and it was the most rewarding thing one could experience. My favourite week was Week 6 when we learnt about interactive tools for large classrooms. I found that very useful for my classroom even though I teach small groups. Interactive ppts, games work well with small groups. I also liked the Alternative Assessment tools. I have found out about some automated assessment tools like Turnitin but I have also learned how to create a rubric. I think this is a very useful skill that simplifies the work of a teacher and in the same time makes the task and what is required more comprehensible for the student.

In a way every week was insightful. Every week I would feel like Archimedes who shouted “Eureka” only I would discover things that were new for me alone with no novelty for the humanity. 

Everything we learnt is relevant to a classroom that is going to be shortly a reality in Moldova. Just because we do not have computers in the English classrooms yet that does not mean that we should not use what technology has to offer in providing efficient tools for language learning outside the classroom for the time being. Many of the things that are common nowadays used to be new and unconceivable for a classroom only some time ago yet they have slowly came into use and have become something we cannot do without. The same with webtools: I can start using them outside the classroom as a home assignment and then they will slowly come along with the computers in a Moldovan classroom as well.

The other day I was preparing the activities for the class site and I needed a comprehension quiz for a listening activity. I remembered that we covered this topic in one of the weeks and I found it. I created a quiz using http://www.easytestmaker.com. I knew where to look for the tool I needed. Although I had to struggle a little bit with the final step of printing/publishing the fact made me realize for the first time what a great enriching experience this course brought in my teaching practice.

There are a lot of new things that I have learnt in this course. However I have heard Sam from Japan speak about Moodle as an alternative to WebQuest. He said that it has more options included than some separate tools that we got familiar with. Maybe the future participants could learn how to use Moodle along with the WebQuest.  I found the idea of Moodle interesting although I still need to explore and learn about it a lot.

 And lastly I have heard my colleagues talk about finding a way to keep this discussion group "alive". I would be more than pleased to do so as I still have so many questions and sometimes I need a hand to climb a shaky step.

Week 9. Multiple Intelligence or a Global Mind

This week’s topic about Multiple intelligence has raised a lot of questions. And while some of my colleagues argue that it is of no relevance to the large groups I can see it being efficient in my case. Most of my groups are small and I know all of my students very well. I teach them from the beginning to the end (with some random exceptions) and I can definitely identify each of them as having one or other predominant type of learning based on the type of intelligence that prevails in them.

And from now on the sentence, that I found while reading about multiple intelligences on the site Concept to Classroom http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/index_sub2.html has marked my teaching. It says: “The next time you have a chance to reflect on your class, imagine your students as individuals who have fully realized and developed their intelligences.” That is really something we should keep in mind. Comparing our class to a class with J.K. Rowling, Richard Feynmann, Lauryn Hill, Julian Schnabel, Mia Hamm, Colin Powell, Deepak Chopra, Jane Goodall, and Gary Larson is an extremely powerful and easy way to put it. I imagined my class. Now each time I look at them or give them an assignment I keep this idea in my mind.

Undoubtedly our students are different and they all learn differently and as a teacher I have always wondered why some of the students that had modest results turned up to be very successful in real life, career, and personal life than the students that showed good academic results.

Now going from Gardener’s definition of intelligence: “Intelligence is the ability to solve problems or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings”  the question above becomes clear to me. One may possess a set of knowledge which s/he hardly uses or one can know the scheme of how s/he can find this knowledge and going from the need - apply every little bit s/he learns. Therefore it is not the mere memorization of content that matters it is the ability to create not to reproduce.

Unfortunately the Education System in Moldova is heavily based on reproduction. This is why in many cases the students don’t see the link between what they reproduce and real life and lose the motivation for learning. They don’t see how they could possibly apply what they learn because they are taught globally. They are viewed as all the same with the same mind (they are not given tips of interdisciplinary connection that would enlighten the bulb in the mind and make the connection with their area of interest or kind of intelligence). And they are expected to figure out by themselves how to apply what they learn.

Last week a colleague of mine threw a phrase that comes right in this context. She said: “Math teachers teach the students the formula of how to determine the area of a surface, but my child does not know how to estimate how much wall paper we need for his room. Is that normal? Why does he learn maths at all if he can’t do that much?” She is right – what is the use of teaching formulae if the students don’t see how to transfer them into a real life situation and use it when they need it most?

Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence theory brings a new approach towards the human mind. Where the mind is presented as a multicolored map of the world where some countries are bigger than others and their degree of influence in the world is different. There is no such a thing as better or worse, there is just the term of diverse. And I think that this diversity is great. No two minds are alike. And the trends of “globalization” have proved to be detrimental to the cultures and national identity worldwide. Can’t the same happen with the trend of “globalizing” the minds of our students? Will the individual melt and disappear in the global standard mind? Will we have "overweight" mind trends because of this mind "globalisation"?

Week 8: Web Tools to encourage Learner’s Autonomy

Last week we discussed about Learner Autonomy and this week there were discussions about how a teacher can build autonomy in students and what technology tools can help him with that.  

In this order of ideas this week we’ve been acquainted with ANVILL. It sounds like the name of a pill ADVIL) – a pain reliever, but in fact it stands for A National Virtual Language Lab. It is a virtual “lab” that the teacher can make available for the students’ practice of their listening and speaking skills as well as feedback in terms of grading. It is in a way a “Pain Reliever” for the teachers that have discovered it and use it in the classroom simplifying their work and in the same time encouraging learner autonomy.

Another tool which can be used online and offline is HotPotato. I have seen my colleagues write about it the previous weeks but I thought it is the classic Hot Potato Game which I also use in my classroom. J It turns out it is a programme. I am still exploring it but I have checked out the activities created by other teachers and it seems like a very resourceful programme and I intend to use it at some point in creating activities with my students.

I have been using the Online Crossworsds, Bingo, Domino, Certificate and Puzzle Makers before but I would print them out and use them as handouts. What was new for me is that I learned that there are also Test Makers and I thought that tool extremely useful .

Week 7. Project Implementation

My project aim is to develop the students' writing skills. For this purpose I have created a site https://sites.google.com/site/thequestforperfectwriting that I dedicated to developing writing skills of my students. It consists of Reading Material and links to online exercises as part of a Home Assignment, that would develop the understanding and use of a writing improvement tip. Thus the first week November 11 through 17th was dedicated to writing similes and this week's theme is: writing metaphors.
Also by the end of this week the students will have to submit a piece of writing on the topic "What is writing for me" for a writing contest "The Writer of the Month".

From last week up to now I have noticed that all the students were very motivated to do (and did) the online exercises (made by using the Quizlet and Educaplay) in learning the most commonly used similes but not all of them wrote their own similes (on Popplet).


I reflected on the reasons as initially I had thought that they did not know how to handle the popplet, or hadn't understood what is a simile. But as it turned out some of them simply didn't want to undertake the task as there was no mark for it and it was done for the mere improvement of their writing skills and not for an official credit. And here again I thought about Learner Autonomy and deducted that not all of my students are ready for that.

While some of them are willing to venture in the journey of independent learning some of them are pretty comfortable with just following directions.

Week 7. Facing the world or hiding behind the teacher’s shield of directive learning

Autonomy is a great word in itself. It implies independence, self-determination, strength, choice, respect, voice (in deciding). It is an independent ride on a bike on the road of learning. There are always signs alongside of the road to help us ride properly and avoid accidents and there will always be teachers to guide students on the challenging path of knowledge.

Reading the articles on autonomy I have realized how dependent on the teacher are the students in Moldova and that it is mostly due to the teacher’s attitude of authority and dominance in a classroom. Do we ever give credit to the student in choosing what to do? 

I have found myself being overly directive in some situations overcome by the frustration of not meeting the Curriculum requirements and fulfilling the programme of study. But in these moments it didn’t occur to me that by giving the students a free ticket to ride, all of them will take the ride and possibly enjoy it especially if given a comprehensive directions map. In this case they will never get lost in the controversial maze of learning and will consequently be able to create their own maps as they go.

As powerful and important as it sounds it is not as easy to put in practice. How to develop this very precious attitude towards learning? This was the vector of my query in searching and skimming the articles on Learner Autonomy.  I was looking for the exact methods to use in the classroom to encourage if not to build Learner Autonomy.  I have found in this concern very useful  the wallwisher created by Robert Elliot our class teacher where I have found Rajinder’s link on www.voxopop.com and some other useful links where I learned about specific techniques and tools on how to get to that Learner Autonomy.

Among these are: e-learning, assignments like e-portfolios, pen pal writing, e-mail exchange, forums, designing independently activities/tools for learning (Eg: crosswords), translation (from English into Native language and back and confronting with the original), the Web 2:0 tools that stimulate the student to participate.  And there are so many more that are yet to be discovered by me.

The one thing though that I should never forget when teaching is that the student knows better what he does not know, what he needs to know and how he can learn it more effectively. A good teacher has to consider that and use it in promoting independent, autonomous learning. Otherwise we get to bitter statement: “You can’t force people to follow directions they deem arbitrary”.