miércoles, 6 de diciembre de 2017

Digital teaching portfolio

Pedagogical Experience II - Stage 4: digital teaching portfolio.


Laura Sterling. 

Introduction:

Being a teacher may be a difficult labor but it's also an amazing one, I've always thought that we never quit being students, so the best way of learning is teaching. When I started learning English a Teacher told me that there are no mistakes just learnings, because if we made a mistake that is not really an error it is just another way of learning, that's why, the students who make more mistakes are the ones who learn the most.

And now, I want to talk you about my first experience as a virtual English teacher, that was amazing, that’s why I invite you to join me in this trip… 

Laura Sterling. Oporapa-Huila-Colombia.

martes, 5 de diciembre de 2017

Who I am as a teacher:


a)   My teaching philosophy: I reckon that the most important thing as a teacher is knowing and understanding students, how they develop and learn. I know that students actively construct and transform their own knowledge based on past experiences and prior learning. I know that students do not all learn in the same way or at the same rate. I believe it is my responsibility as a teacher to be an effective diagnostician of students’ interests, abilities, and prior knowledge. I must then plan learning experiences that will both challenge and allow every student to think and grow.


b)   My beliefs about my teaching: I believe a good teacher has to understand motivation and the effects of peer interactions on learning. I want all my students to achieve at high levels, so I avoid sorting them and setting them up to compete with each other. I know most learning happens through social interaction; therefore, I structure learning so that students productively collaborate and cooperate with each other the vast majority of class time. So, the best way to teach is involving students in the entire process of learning – teaching.


c)   What I learned about teaching speaking skills: Speaking is the ability which involves all the others abilities, I mean, if you want to speak in an average English level, you must understand all about grammar rules, verbal tenses, show a good pronunciation and appropriation of vocabulary and being able to understand what people are saying to you as well (listening) then, I consider this ability may possibly takes more time to be acquire for any English learner. To sum up, as I always say to my students, “Practice makes perfect”.

d)   What I learned about teaching in online environments: It was just amazing, taking advantage of the technology we can interact with people around the world, without boundaries. The online speaking sessions allow the teacher to share different points of view with people from different parts of our beautiful country. However there is something out of our control and it’s the connexion to internet, even more when the weather didn’t help us but in conclusion is an outstanding experience. There are no excuses to not learning English.

e)   My principles about teaching speaking online: Well, let’s just write 5 of them:

1.     Give all the students the opportunity to express their ideas and opinions about the topic we’re working on.
2.    Always encourage them to go beyond of what they already know. Encourage them to get out of their comfort zone in order to learn more.
3.    Bring some games to the speaking session, they will feel really good and they won’t notice they’re learning at the same time.
4.    Change the roles, let them being the teachers is a good activity, they will understand the commitment of this labor and maybe acquire more confidence.

5.    Involving students in some activities they can be in charge of. 



lunes, 4 de diciembre de 2017

My learners


a)   Characterization:




b)   Achievements: They improved their english abilities, specially speaking, firstly they didn’t feel confidence to speak but after the first encounter they felt more motivated and continue speaking a lot, of course, there were lot of aspects to be improved such as: grammar, verbs in past, pronunciation, demonstratives, prepositions of place, among others, it was a nice task, they worked together in order to learn and take advantage of those speaking sessions. I feel really happy because I consider I did a great job teaching them. We both learnt, teacher and students.





c)    Testimonials:

Mario Portilla: I liked learning new words and meet my partners; I would like to improve myself in the conversations. It was a good experience for me, I could practice and learn, the teacher is amazing.

Liliana Carranza: I liked these sessions because I was able to untangle my way of speaking a little, what I see as good, since I feel a little more able to speak. The teacher was always clear and precise in her explanations, explained some things in Spanish and repeated the necessary times so that we could all understand. I do not see anything negative in these sessions, I liked it a lot. Thank you.

Mario Alfonso Ruiz: This is a very important activity to learn english, Laurita Our Teacher in very friendly, in this session everyone share different thoughts, she transmits the confidence and we want to participate. I'm very interesting to learn English but I give you excuse for my fault of don’t attend all the sessions.

Viviana Delgado: I learned a lot in this class, phrases that were unknown to me, I practiced my speaking effectively, the teacher's class was very good, and even more so was her patience and respect for each one of us, which I really appreciate. The bad thing was the connection sometimes, but that is because of the internet.

Juan Guillermo: I think these sessions are very productive, we already worked as a real group, not based on the theory but on what we live in daily life, these sessions with Teacher Laura I love them, and not only because the teacher knows how to understand, if not also because all the classmates have a great desire to learn, and that motivates me even more to continue studying. Negative I only find my bad luck by not being able to attend some sessions.

Mary Rojas: The good of these classes was that were very interactive I had the opportunity to practice the 4 skills, the bad thing was that I lost the first classes because I didn´t see the message.

Reynaldo Valle: We can do attitude to learn by practicing; the enthusiasm of all of us; the topics are really correct; the willness of our teacher to listen to us and correct some mistakes; the work as a team.


Mariana Bajonero: I feel happy because this class was fun I learned new things, this was a good group and a great teacher.



domingo, 3 de diciembre de 2017

Artifacts supporting evidence


a)   My teaching journal: Here is where I registered all the speaking sessions and some observations to have in mind as a teacher.



b)  Two sample lesson plans that I liked and why: These were really good topics, I could realize that they were really happy and learning a lot.




c)   Two sample lesson plans that were particularly difficult and why: they were some difficult topics for them, but as usual they did their best.


d)   Samples of didactic teaching material designed by me: Some material according to the students’ interests.


e)   The lesson reports submitted in Stage 3 with their videos:



f)   Two videos of my classes that were particularly meaningful to me and why:

This video was very meaningful because students fell confidence to speak and explain a topic in English; in fact, they also correct and help each other, that was just amazing, I re affirmed that collaborative learning is really helpful.



This was a topic that they didn’t know a lot, that’s why was very welcome for them, they worked doing their best and learnt a lot. 


sábado, 2 de diciembre de 2017

Conclusion

It’s not a secret that the educational field has been implementing various methodologies and learning strategies, to improve and gradually enrich the teaching-learning process, making the educational process meaningful for everyone.

That’s how the online learning arose, from my personal perspective I think that learning in virtual environments enhance learning, because through these tools that technology gives us it is possible to acquire a faster and more effective knowledge, sharing with others and exchanging knowledge, without boundaries.

This experience was a very meaningful process, which strengthened not only my professional part but also allowed me to enter another world, a world where it is possible to know and learn from others regardless of where we are.

I also improved my speaking ability as I always said, the practice makes perfect, in these environments not only the student learnt but also the teacher did, in addition the virtual practice environments allowed me to explore and learn other learning tools, implement other learning resources with special characteristics.

I would like to give you some advices if you’re consider being a virtual Teacher, first of all, be confidence and trust what you know, do not be afraid of anything, this is an experience that strengthens our skills and allows us to discover those abilities that are still hidden.

My second advice is please encourage your students because although the practice is developed in virtual environments, we all need someone to support us, someone to motivates us,  a person to guides us and brings us closer to true knowledge, someone who listens us, and that’s your role, being there as a guide and help them the most you can.


And finally, never forget that before being teachers we were and still are humans, we have to understand the different situations our students overcome every day, remember that our task goes beyond giving a grade or just a feedback, our task is oriented to form and to consider the student from the attitudinal, aptitude and cognitive part, achieving that the student reaches a harmonic development of the human being.