EDL 2012

To mark this date (or simply to provide information on any issue), I decided to try out Textivate, a web tool that creates instant interactive text based activities.
I started by pasting a text into the Textivate window, clicked on "Textivate now" and it automatically gave e 27 different exercises / variations to choose from. By clicking on one of the squares, ranging from scrambled sentences to gap fill exercises, we instantly have an interactive activity. It's fast, useful and, above all, involves no prep time from the teacher; furthermore, these automatically generated activities, allow us to use the same text over and over again because each time we click for an exercise, it shows us a different text order, a different set of gaps, etc.
The problem with these online / interactive activities though, is that most of the time, I don't teach in computer rooms and when it does happen, some of them are not even running... In this case, well, yes, worksheets: copy and paste what you get, print and hand out.
What you have below are the ones I chose for my class but here I'm including the whole text so that you can have the original version. In what concerns the exercises, I chose one first example in which the text is disorganised and students have to put it in the right order by dragging and dropping the so-called "tiles" - beware that the columns are ordered horizontally!

Click below to access the activity. (Opens in a new window on touch devices.)

Click here to open the above activity in a new window.

In the second exercise, the text has no spaces and no punctuation; in the third one, all vowels are missing. As it so often happens and there are no computers available, we can copy, paste and print the different activities and work in groups to promote cooperation and some competition. With time, I would even copy these 6 (can be even more!) parts of the text, cut them into slips of paper for the students to order. In any case, there should be at least a follow-up with questions, either written or dictated by the teacher, and the answers written down by the students.

Click below to access the activity. (Opens in a new window on touch devices.)

This exercise may only be accessed via this site.

Some examples are posted here but all the documents and activities I referred to are here.

Back To School

http://venspired.com/?p=2293

Summer holidays are over and it’s school time again!

Many years have gone by since the first time I walked into a classroom. No doubt I have walked a long way, but still have a long way to go – in teaching as much as and in learning.

Despite all adversities including budgetary shortfalls, economic crisis, bureaucratic issues,… there we are, year after year, ready to teach more, larger and different classes and focus on student learning.  It’s not the students’ fault that so much is wrong in our schools, is it? Our job is to teach what is relevant (by giving students choices, connecting to their own life experiences, involving authentic materials and audiences) and with rigor, addressing all our students’ needs by allowing them to go beyond and start thinking critically. Building strong relationships is of utmost importance and students need to understand we do care about them and about their learning progress.

By now you are thinking – easy talk… yep, ideally, yes, but as the old saying goes “No one rises to low expectations”. Clear goals have to be established for ourselves and for our students to promote as ambitious as effective teaching / learning.

teachinginthecouv.blogspot.com

School is more and more often associated with testing and grading; students are just test-takers as teachers are forced to sprint to cover the curriculum, forced to adopt a shallow approach which, in the long run, sacrifices real learning. We are asked to cover X units and the issue here is: am I supposed to teach the book or the students??? I’ve always chosen to teach my students; I can cover all units without going through all course book pages… I choose one exercise here, another one there and always introduce something of my own that I believe is more appropriate for a particular group – more challenging, more updated, more achievable. This brings me to two professional dilemmas:  1. I admit that, though time consuming, I enjoy researching multiple sources and don't like to work with the same course book day after day – I have nothing against them, I do use them and parents wouldn’t be pleased if they bought a book that wasn’t used, especially now… I still plan my classes the way I learned in my first year as a student teacher but keep readjusting my practice, strategies, lesson plans and my materials to cater to students’ needs;  2. I have often worked with colleagues at school and online, and do find such experiences enriching. I have absolutely no problem in sharing my materials and my views, and the proof is this blog and all that I’ve already posted here.  However, as I keep changing stuff, I feel I have some problems as a teacher… is it wrong not to follow every line of our plan? Is it wrong to change stuff before and often even during classes? Am I the only one facing these dilemmas with course book usage (more lack of it) and colleagues?  In what concerns extra activities, I’ve always advocated learning opportunities outside of school… is it pretentious? Is it too much?  It does involve loads of (extra) work … in the beginning of another difficult school year, maybe it’s time to start prioritizing differently and just follow general guidelines... I don't know... Right now only Marva Collins' saying comes to my mind: "You can pay people to teach, but you can't pay them to care."

Anyway, hope you do have a position and are ready to start - at least I belong to this group.
A great school year!

INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY - 8th September

Book Image; Credit: © Shutterstock

"I know you're still young, but I want you to understand and learn this now, he (the girl's father) said.  Marriage can wait, education cannot. You're a very, very bright girl. Truly, you are. You can be anything you want, Laila. I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducted, Laila. No chance."

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

For previous postings and info, please click here, here, here and finally here.