Here I am, sunday again- I've never liked sundays much.
This past week was TOUGH.First, last weekend I didn't really have a weekend, I mean, I didn't get to rest at all, so it ended up being a long 12-days week.
Then I had to prepare a lesson to be assessed by a colleague (who I don't consider to have the skill to evaluate me n anyway) besides the usual work, and then I had a headache all week and on friday I found out it was low blood pressure because of the heat (+- 30ºC) and my tendinitis decided to strike again. As my tendinitis takes up my right shoulder and hand, it becomes hard to work on the computer - in fact, the more hours I work on the computer, the worse the tendinitis gets. Even though I have been training my left hand to do most stuff, I'm not that good with it, so my interactive powerpoint ended up being less-than-perfect.
As for my project, so far, not so good. The parents of one of the kids refused permission for posting his photos or work on the class blog and now I have to decide whether I exclude the kid altogether - which I find unfair- or I get round it. So I decided to transform the class photo in order to make us all look like cartoons (which I have not done because it requires a lot of movement accuracy, which I can't do until my tendons go back to normal). As for mobile use, school director was not at school this week and I didn't manage to get permission. If I don't get it, I'll have kids make their recordings outside school. Anyway, on Tuesday we are going to have our first all-computer lesson. We are going to do a webquest and some interactive exercises online. Kids are going to work in pairs and the writing tasks will be e-mailed to the e-mail address that belongs to the blog. They are really excited about it and so am I.
I was amazed to find out I was the only one -or almost- who nevr used Forum in class and can't explain why. Everytime I read on of the print editions I find something interesting but end up not bringing it into practice. I have to reflect on that!
That's all for now.
Sara
Hello, Sara,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we are on a same boat. We are all teachers and probably also have much extra burden than others. In addition to teaching, I need to manage workshops and work as consultant to join lots of MOE meetings. Especially, I am handling with organizing 2011 South Taiwan Education Conference now. Only I can try to catch up this course is to use my spare time such as weekend. As well as you, I don’t have weekend and honestly, even though a short response, I need to spend most of my time on reading materials. Although I am strange to integrate technology into teaching, but tools national wide are different than what I used. However, I am benefit by lots of amount of readings, but I have no time to take a rest and it is quite stressful. So it is not good to hear that you were sick. I am sorry for it and take care!
From reading your post, it seems that you already start to implement your project. Do you have a link that I can go and visit? I only teach one class for research purpose, but those students are going to graduate in three weeks, and I don’t think they will access to my blog and follow the course. So, what I can do is just try to deign activities for young kids and see what I can discuss. Another alternative idea is to design course for teachers and find some teachers to join it. But all those ways of thinking are not perfect yet. I am still taking all issues into my consideration. Hope we all can run our project successfully.
Best,
Rachel
Hello Sara!!
ReplyDeleteDespite of problems we have to keep being enthusiastic to help our students. I hope you get better, take care!.
Talking about your student, I think you have to make the final effort to include your student by talking with his parents. Give them valid arguments to post the work. It is fine that you are having your computer lesson for a webquest and online exercises.This is another great strategy to keep our students motivated and engaged in lessons.
Try some of the activities on Forum, at the end you will find them really useful.
Mory-Ecuador
Hi, Sara,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to know you through your blog and I can tell that you are always very busy.
I hope you can catch some breath while trying to everything taken care of.
It takes courage to ask people to be partner with and now I can be in the shoes of my students when I asked them to.
I am wondering if we can work together as partners and help each other.
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Yaling, Taiwan.