Well, it looks like we are at the end of the road, aren’t we? After ten weeks of sharing and reflecting, it seems it’s time to pack up and collect everything we have picked up on the way!

I’m not ready for that! Webskills course has helped me gain speed and run in a very specific direction: Innovation for excellence, not for fireworks… that could be a good motto, wouldn’t it? And I want to make the best of that. It’s not the applications I have seen, or those that I have shown, it’s the visions I have shared with my colleagues that have made me richer. It’s those weekly discussions, and the reading of those posts from my friends that have made me think about what we teachers do. And that has helped me see there are quite a few things to be done in order to improve and reach that “excellence”. My final project will try to put another grain of sand there, and I hope it won’t be washed away before other grains join it and make a vast beach.

It’s not a good-bye… as I work everyday in Barcelona, Luisa’s, Natasa’s, Yuliya’s, Robert’s and everyone’s thoughts will be present in my professional performance. Thank you all!

Ricard Garcia
http://about.me/ricardgarcia

photo credit: lecalife via photopin cc

We have always been honest teachers, or at least so we say. We have struggled to learn about new techniques to improve our teaching skills, new methods to achieve our goals, new tools to make our lessons more engaging… but we always forgot something, something that has always been there and we did not have eyes to see.

We all knew there were students who had less talent for languages, or those who were really “gifted”. We tried to keep the balance by asking those more skilled to help the others in their learning process (or was it help “us”?), and that made us feel good. We gave more assistance to those who needed it, some more extra worksheets, some more explanations at the end of the class… but something was not right… what was it? Why ordinary children did not succeed at all in their learning English… or were we so bad that we cold not succeed in our job?

It seems that things are getting clear… we must definitely assume that not every child learns in the same way… their intelligences differ. Of course, some will be more talented that others, but that does not account for complete failure. The important breakthrough that meant discovering and assuming different ways of learning has also meant that teachers must change the way to treat “diversity”. This so called “diversity” should be now based on seeing and understanding how our students learn, have a clear picture of their learning profiles, and adapt our teaching as much as possible… and that sounds extremely difficult… insurmountable?

Not really, indeed. If we stick to old methodologies, to children in rows listening to a master class where teachers teach how to build passive forms and then ask students to fill in the gaps and transform sentences, then it will be really insurmountable. But if we look around and see the scores of possibilities we have to cover the different needs of our students, there’s light at the end of the tunnel!

PBL and technologies create a blend of tools, resources and techniques that can turn our lessons into pools of knowledge research, acquisition, analysis and transfer. It’s about time we turn to Bloom’s taxonomy and get a clear picture of the kind of tasks and projects our students are doing. This way it will be easier to detect what we can offer to every single learner. Distributing different tasks, using different tools and resources and assigning different roles will possibly create a scenario where many more students will find a proper learning path, probably a path full of challenging goals and attainable objectives… suitable for everyone.

photo credit: Mónica, M via photopin cc

As we get close to our final weeks in this course, as we are having our projects ready, one issue has risen this week: Online activities for the ELT classroom. This raises some questions to be answered.

Does online learning provide with the necessary coverage of all aspects of the students’ learning process?

If we analyse what kind of learning is being offered to students, we will see that there are two main types of methodologies. Both could be analysed as self-access resources or as “guided” resources as both contain activities that can be carried out in class with the teacher or at home .

The first type contains those resources that consist on drills related to skills (reading, listening, writing), to grammar and vocabulary. Sites that offer interactive activities to reinforce a certain aspect of the language. These sites can be used as support resources in the classroom, or they can be referenced as self-access tools for students. It would be foolish to mention any of them… there are hundreds of websites offering this, and many have an excellent quality both in aspect and in content. These sites contain activities that could also be linked to a second type of online services for learners: Virtual Learning Environments (VLE’s)

This second type called VLE is based on the idea of transferring the course-based concept of teaching from a physical classroom to the net. VLE’s contain materials connected together in order to shape up a whole course for students. All materials contained in a course hosted within a VLE usually comply with the requirements for a standard course. It is directly related to the type of resources described as first type as these can be embedded within a VLE as part of the course. VLE’s are usually teacher guided, of course, but quite often those tasks and activities can be followed by students in a self access approach. That implies the loss of assessment that teachers provide in the guided VLE, which can contain grading and feedback. Many of the resources we link to VLE courses contain self evaluation, so students can also check their own progress on a personal basis.

Do we have to rely solely on a VLE-based course?

A good course in a VLE can provide with different types of activities, practises and drills that can shape up a really engaging course. Nevertheless, if we know the course will be our basic structure to be used both at home and in the classroom. We could, or rather should, include classroom activities that do not depend on the use of computers. Communicative drills as well as some writing and aural skills that we have traditionally used in our classroom should be preserved and fostered within a VLE used in a classroom. Some of them have their counterpart online, but students need changes of rhythm and that is easily provided when the format of the activity varies.

Online? Offline? VLE? Interactive exercises? A perfect blend will probably create the right combination for a perfect educational cocktail!

photo credit: ©athrine via photopin cc

When we reflect on our job, we always do it putting all the weight on the teachers’ side: What we must do to motivate students, how we must organise our lessons in order to get the best of them, how to teach certain skills, how to use ICT… but we usually neglect the learners’ side.

We must be really aware of our own process as teachers, of course: We must prepare ourselves to become better teachers in order to help our students, and we must learn new approaches and tools that will make our performance more efficient.

But we must also look carefully at the students’ side. Students have their learning process, which goes forth as it gathers knowledge and method on the way. Learners improve their learning skills as they grow. We teachers help them look at their weaknesses and strengths, at their needs. We help them analyse their goals as learners: What they want or need to achieve, and what they need to reach those goals…

Do we really guide them in their own learning process? As mentioned above, we do help them as we go hand in hand, and we show them the tools they need… but most of the times, we solve their problems, we make them practise… but what is also extremely relevant is to teach them how to walk the path of their learning process on their own. They need a sherpa to climb that hill, but when they are on their own, they also need a pair of good
hiking boots.

We must teach them to see those weaknesses by themselves, and to find solutions by themselves… what is that? They should be able to find their own way in order to improve their skills… writing, reading, listening, speaking… and how? Students must learn how to access resources where drills and activities can be used in their learning. They must find those resources which also help them see whether they are achieving the stated goals of the practice successfully or not… accessible rubrics for different tools, activities and students’ autonomous production would definitely prove really helpful when it comes to seeing how you are progressing on your own.

Tough job, challenging goal, but really rewarding… teaching students to lead their own learning path… alone again, naturally.

photo credit: Steve-h via photopin cc

This long week has been really fruitful. Our colleagues and I have been dealing with potential issues that might raise difficulties in our lessons.

One the most recurring issues is the difficulties learners have when they must speak in public, or, in other words, when they must speak in English.

Spoken English is the big issue, we could say. Historically, most teaching approaches were based on the written language, bot reading skills and grammar acquisition were paramount if learners were supposed to “succeed” in a language course. Of course, that did not account for succeeding with the use of the language they learnt when they had to use it in real-life situations. There are many adults who have undergone years of English lessons and who are not able to ask for help in English if they get lost in the middle of Seattle. This approach given in ELT classrooms has proved to be a reason why this happens.

With time, new generations of teachers have come to the classrooms, and many of them have given a different approach to lessons: learning through songs, TPR, role-play activities… Listening skills have been enhanced widely without neglecting reading and writing skills. But speaking is still down there… why?

Most of the times we try to encourage our students to speak by asking questions in class, or asking them to work in pairs and role-play. If they are not confident, progress will be scarce.

We might want to step further into more compelling drills that place students in a situation where they must use spoken English: Sketches to be played in front of the class, with dialogues created either by teacher or students; short talks given by students on topics assigned by the teacher; short sketches recorded with a videocamera, either depicting a story or simulating a news broadcast, giving a weather forecast or even explaining a cooking recipe!

Accuracy is important, style is also desirable, but the ability to communicate meaningfully is the real target!!

photo credit: Wayne Large via photopin cc