My grandmother used to tell me I was always trying to learn something! In fact, I think I'm quite a learn-driven person (if this phrase exists). All my life I wanted to learn something. I remember nagging my aunts because I wanted them to teach me how to read words before I went to school and asking my brohter to let me hammer some nails (although I actually always hammered my fingers instead.)
Everytime I start learning something, I fall in love with it. I make a tone of projects, I get addicted to that and than, when I have learnt enough... I move on to something else. Thus I'm always learning something but I never get to be a specialist at anything. I think I've got a Renaissance spirit...
2011-06-16
2011-06-10
10 De Junho, Dia de Portugal
Today is National Holiday in Portugal. I leave you with our national song type FADO. I hpe you like Mariza and the poem by Fernando Pessoa. Enjoy
The hours
I was going to write "ten" weeks. Then I was going to calculate the days. Finally I settled for "The hours" (although I must confess I never read the book nor saw the film by that name).
It is impossible for me to calculate how many hours I invested in this course. It doesn't matter because being an e-teacher for me is to be an everywhere/ everytime teacher. In fact I got more conscious of how I teach, what is not so good and what I can do to improve it.
At first I was really excited about meeting people from other countries and those people were quite a pleasant surprise!!! Then this course caught me in some busy weeks - all of a sudden I had so many things to do I felt my time was not enough. But I managed. I learnt to use every spare hour reasonably - I had to give up reading before going to sleep because whenever I got to bed I fell asleep by KO. I went to the APPI congress in Lisbon and many things started to fit like a puzzle in my head (that was when I came up with the everywhere-teacher idea).
Curiously, the hours I remember were not the hardworking hours. I remember the excitment hours, the enthusiastic hours on-line, off-line, in the car driving home and thinking about projects and ideas, in lessons reflecting on how I could make things different...
You see, I started teaching without knowing if that was what I wanted to do. Then I fell in love with it and I remember my training year as one of exhausting work and deep enthusiasm. I worked hard and got feedback from it and tried new ways and was so tired and so happy! Then I spent almost twelve years regretting and questioning most of the time until now. Finally I got excited about my work again, fell in love with it again, felt that enthusiasm again because I was doing my best and getting feedback from it and support and appreciation.
In fact, some hours in our lives make up for years of doubt. No, this is not the part I tell you about the depths of my heart. All I want to say is that enthusiasm and appreciation change everything!!! This is the most important thing this course is leaving me with.
2011-06-03
week 9- all my pictures
I've just uploaded my final report along with the assessment forms and the analysis I made of the students' answers.
I decided to make a graph with the students' answers. Remember I am a visual, global person so I love the general picture. These graphs are my work in colours and different shapes. It was really nice to do. I remember when I was a kid I was really great at drawing graphs, even those circular ones you had to make lots of calculations to be able to build. Now there is an amazing thing called excell where you write numbers and get perfectly drawn, colourful graphs. I also remember getting furious at a professor at university who told us we were studying languages, therefore we weren't able to understand graphs! I do understand graphs as graphs are pictures and languages can also be pictures as music can be a collection of pictures too.
My head seems to be full of pictures all the time and I always dream in colour, I'm sure. However, I don't like reading books with pictures because they interfere with the pictures I make in my head when I read them, as I don't like seeing films based on books I read as they rarely match my mental pictures and I always get disappointed. The problem is I can never put my thought into pictures- I'm lousy at drawing! - so I need words to make my picture and I'm usually good at that. Those graphs are part of my thoughts and feelings in a picture! I love computers when they solve our problems like that!
( picture in ramonaspainting.com )
2011-05-29
Week 8 uuuuuuuuf
(This is my cat, Pintas)I finished my report in time. I reviewed Gaby and Yaling's reports. I rewrote some parts in mine and improved it according to my peers' suggestions. It was good work and then I took time to relax.
Today I'm not working besides writing this blog and going around other people's blogs as usual (I already took a peep at the discussions pages) and then I'm going to walk by the river among books in the book fair. It's incredibly hot here and the best thing is really to be near water in good company - in my case, family and books are a good combination.
As for what I learnt this week, well, online test and exercise makers are great, creating a website is a thrill but takes time and dedication, the more I find out of the internet world, the more I like it and the more I want to search. I'm a bit anxious about my final report. My peer reviews helped a lot but now I feel a bit insecure - should I elaborate more? Should I include something else? Is this the best I can do? What can I improve.
I wonder if I'm too much of a perfectionist or if that's only because I'm not used to doing this kind of work and it wasn't as hard as I had thought before. I'm going to reread it tomorrow again and decide. Now, it's relax time! Everybody follow my lead and take time for yourselves- we need and deserve it!
Take care, enjoy yourselves, have fun!
Today I'm not working besides writing this blog and going around other people's blogs as usual (I already took a peep at the discussions pages) and then I'm going to walk by the river among books in the book fair. It's incredibly hot here and the best thing is really to be near water in good company - in my case, family and books are a good combination.
As for what I learnt this week, well, online test and exercise makers are great, creating a website is a thrill but takes time and dedication, the more I find out of the internet world, the more I like it and the more I want to search. I'm a bit anxious about my final report. My peer reviews helped a lot but now I feel a bit insecure - should I elaborate more? Should I include something else? Is this the best I can do? What can I improve.
I wonder if I'm too much of a perfectionist or if that's only because I'm not used to doing this kind of work and it wasn't as hard as I had thought before. I'm going to reread it tomorrow again and decide. Now, it's relax time! Everybody follow my lead and take time for yourselves- we need and deserve it!
Take care, enjoy yourselves, have fun!
2011-05-25
Project Report
My draft is almost done but it has been hard. The weather is too good to work and this week I'm also dealing with two other projects - one related to assessing aural skills and teaching English to children.
So yesterday I spent most afternoon watching aural exams and filling in forms, in an hour I'll be driving to another school to watch a 4th grade English lesson and then I'll fill in some other forms. Then I'll have to rush back for a class meeting. I feel I am rushing all the time this week and with the hot weather kids are going nuts and driving teachers nuts! Everybody is tired around here and many of us have a lot to do, while others, surprisingly, don't seem to.
Now got some tests to correct and some more to make for next week and yesterday I had to work late at home so I'm quite sleepy and living on coffee.
Even so, I'm ok. I feel that these projects are what really keeps me going because they drag me from the paperwork and school routine.
Now something is annoying me - I can't do much with my 7A class in the next days because tomorrow and Friday are "cultural days" at school and on Tuesday we have the school "walk for health" and then on thursday a test! All those uninteresting activities preventing us from learning English! Unfair.
:)
So yesterday I spent most afternoon watching aural exams and filling in forms, in an hour I'll be driving to another school to watch a 4th grade English lesson and then I'll fill in some other forms. Then I'll have to rush back for a class meeting. I feel I am rushing all the time this week and with the hot weather kids are going nuts and driving teachers nuts! Everybody is tired around here and many of us have a lot to do, while others, surprisingly, don't seem to.
Now got some tests to correct and some more to make for next week and yesterday I had to work late at home so I'm quite sleepy and living on coffee.
Even so, I'm ok. I feel that these projects are what really keeps me going because they drag me from the paperwork and school routine.
Now something is annoying me - I can't do much with my 7A class in the next days because tomorrow and Friday are "cultural days" at school and on Tuesday we have the school "walk for health" and then on thursday a test! All those uninteresting activities preventing us from learning English! Unfair.
:)
2011-05-20
Week seven - project development
Hi, everyone.
First of all I'm really excited about this project. I'm so excited I find it hard to write it down. I mean, I've written most of it but it doesn't seem to fit into the template. LOL. I'll have to work it round!
Yesterday was my mobile phone video lesson. Kids were really excited! First they were amazed because they were the only class who ever got permission to use mobile phones at school. Then they were very enthusiastic about making the video. Curiously, two of my best students didn't want to make the video, while the weakest who rarely say a word in English in the lesson were very commited to making it right. Two girls who are usually very quiet and shy in every class partenered together, borrowed my mobile and did some nice work! In the end, twelve kids made videos, while four didn't want to and, as I didn't want to force them into doing it, I asked them to partner and write dialogues about hobbies, which they did.
After having made the videos and watched them, the twelve students filled in a self-assessment form about the video activity. Afterwards, all kids filled in an assessment form about the technology-enhanced lessons anonymously. I thought it wasn't important to know who wrote what or who exactly liked what as I wanted to get a general impression of their feeling towards those lessons. On the other hand, I thought I could count on their honesty, as it was anonymous.
Now I'm going to have a look at the forms and maybe put the results in graphs and add them to my project report.
Some other kids saw my class outside with their mobile phones and later came to ask me what was going on. Actually, they thought they were fooling me and came to warn me that my students were breaking the rules! I told them it was a special project but didn't tell them anything else as they are not my students and I like the feeling of raising some curiosity among kids who may be my students next year. [Is this being proud?]
Anyway, yesterday my husband asked me what I get from these projects besides being overworked and tired. I told him they make me learn and make me happy in my work and he thought it is fair! :D
First of all I'm really excited about this project. I'm so excited I find it hard to write it down. I mean, I've written most of it but it doesn't seem to fit into the template. LOL. I'll have to work it round!
Yesterday was my mobile phone video lesson. Kids were really excited! First they were amazed because they were the only class who ever got permission to use mobile phones at school. Then they were very enthusiastic about making the video. Curiously, two of my best students didn't want to make the video, while the weakest who rarely say a word in English in the lesson were very commited to making it right. Two girls who are usually very quiet and shy in every class partenered together, borrowed my mobile and did some nice work! In the end, twelve kids made videos, while four didn't want to and, as I didn't want to force them into doing it, I asked them to partner and write dialogues about hobbies, which they did.
After having made the videos and watched them, the twelve students filled in a self-assessment form about the video activity. Afterwards, all kids filled in an assessment form about the technology-enhanced lessons anonymously. I thought it wasn't important to know who wrote what or who exactly liked what as I wanted to get a general impression of their feeling towards those lessons. On the other hand, I thought I could count on their honesty, as it was anonymous.
Now I'm going to have a look at the forms and maybe put the results in graphs and add them to my project report.
Some other kids saw my class outside with their mobile phones and later came to ask me what was going on. Actually, they thought they were fooling me and came to warn me that my students were breaking the rules! I told them it was a special project but didn't tell them anything else as they are not my students and I like the feeling of raising some curiosity among kids who may be my students next year. [Is this being proud?]
Anyway, yesterday my husband asked me what I get from these projects besides being overworked and tired. I told him they make me learn and make me happy in my work and he thought it is fair! :D
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