El comienzo

This class has been very helpful because I had the opportunity to reflect on the way I teach and also provided me with more information on instructional strategies I can use in my classes.

Most importantly it made me view teaching as a human endeavor and not just an academic one. There has to be a human connection between you and your students because if you do not achieve this, you will lose them. You need to know what their interests are and make a connection of what they are learning to their lives in order to have a meaningful learning experience.

I also learned that you don’t have to worry too much if something doesn’t work out the way you expected, you need to try and test things out. You might get eighty percent of the class engaged one day and it’s ok because you can’t please everybody. Every student has a different way of learning, what matter is to have variety of instructional strategies in your class.

It was interesting to hear about the increase of online courses nationwide and the example mentioned about the Indian Reservation. I guess what struck me the most was the fact that the percentage of students taking the online classes lived in the dorms of the university and had easy access to the classes on campus, which suggested that they wanted more flexibility in their schedule.

I was very curious on this topic because I never took an online class neither taught it. To my surprise a good number of classmates were in the same situation as mine and the assumptions we had toward online classes were very similar.

Interestingly enough, I happened to watch a documentary on PBS and showed what is happening to some students who are taking these type of classes. Many of them can’t find a job because they got their degree online and never got any hands on experience, they have the license and the documents but nobody wants to hire them, to the point that some of these students feel that they have been deceived and are in the process of suing these universities. Looks like it’s all about profit

Online classes in the US

Advantages: Less travel, more work time, independent time, flexibility

Disadvantages: Less access to professor, confusion about expectations, hard to check students understanding, difficult to work in groups, no connection between students and instructor.

I found “Clickers and Concept mapping” very useful. It was very interesting to know about the small machines especially for me because I never used one.

It was clear that the use of clickers is more beneficial in large science classes because it increases students participation and you can get immediate feedback on the understanding of the topic. Unfortunately I don’t think it would work well with language classes because for the most part you want your students to orally participate and not just report their answers by clicking the best answer.

On the other hand, Concept mapping seems to be more applicable not only to teaching and learning language but in the corporate environment too. For instance, I could ask my students to read an article and create a concept map on the main ideas mentioned. It was also very interesting to hear about the silent technique while elaborating the concept map as a whole class. I think this is something my students will enjoy and everyone in the class will be included, even the most introvert ones.

Discussing assessment in class gave me another perspective on the topic. I guess I never thought of it as a learning and teaching tool and not just another way of measuring how much a student learned.

Why a learning tool?

It helps our students to reflect on their learning and to make adjustments on their studying skills.

Why a teaching tool?

It gives teachers the opportunity to analyse and reflect on whether students met the objectives and also make the necesary changes if needed.

Most importantly assessment should be about constructive feedback because only by doing that we would be able to help our students have a significant learning.

If you are teaching female students, you might consider reading this article review. The study tried to identify the most effective teaching strategies preferred by graduate female students.

The students who participated in the study were asked whether the teaching approaches used in their program were effective and also to explain the reasons for their statements.

As a result 72.1% said yes, 11.3% said no and 16.6% said yes and no. The percentage of students, who approved of the effectiveness of the teaching approaches, stated that the professors included adult centered learning techniques, knew about adult learning theories, and adopted an adult education model. As for the 11.3%, they often felt that professors lacked on communication skills, did not understand the learning process and did not know how to teach. Moreover, the students expressed their learning preferences such as their appeal on hands on experiences and being visual and practical learners among others.

The most effective teaching strategies mentioned by the students were working in small groups, student teaching students, self directed learning and independent study. Also, students said that being part of small class sizes let them discuss, share their ideas and experiences in a more personalized manner. They found it very beneficial since it led to more interaction and constructive feedback

We learned that objectives are essential to have a reference and guide on what you want your students to achieve and how to get there. They need to be:

1. Specific (What is exactly what your students will learn)

2. Achievable

3. Measurable (How you are going to measure what students learned)

4. Built with action verbs (Eg. list, define, describe, evaluate,etc)

It is also very important to remember that they are closely linked to assessment. Our objectives will help us assess the student’s learning.

What is the role/responsibility of the teacher in meeting individual student learning styles?

One of the roles consists of finding effective ways to assess learning, but how ? What do we need to take into consideration?
For language instructors or facilitators, I think it’s relevant to create activities in which the main purpose is to communicate and not to memorize a set of grammatical structures. With this I’m not saying that grammar is not important,  but it’s not what learning a language is about. We must keep in mind that we need to prepare our students for real life situations, grammar is just a tool to achieve this.
In addition to this, the learning activities you use in class should be based on your students’ interests (whether they are prospective nurses, doctors, businessmen, etc, give examples related to their work field) because this is how significant learning will take place, thus they will remember it the most. In a nutshell, we need t show them what they can do with what the have learned.
A second role would be to provide feedback, this does not mean that we should deliver  the right answers instantly but to make students think of how to get  there. As for a language instructor, it is necessary to first listen to what the student is saying(even if he/she is making pronunciation or grammatical mistakes) without interrupting him/her, bring up the errors at the end for him/her to rephrase what was said. Thus, you direct students to learn from his/her mistakes.

Another role is to facilitate learning in a learner centered environment, where there is an infallible interaction between teacher and student. No more instructors talking in front of the class the whole time and students just listening and being passive. Students need to take responsibility for their own  learning  and understanding of the subject matter. They are also encouraged to work in groups and pairs not only for assessing their learning but for creating projects that enable them to produce what they have learned and achieve their goals.
It is also essential to build trust, for instance if you don’t know the answer  to a question, don’t make things up, let them know you will look it up for the following class. Students will understand that you are not a “walking encyclopedia”. If you lie and they find out later, they will never trust in you again, you’ll lose respect from everybody.
How about inspiring your students with your enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject you teach. In short, show them that you love what you do.

According to Schwarz there are nine ground rules for effective groups. However I’ve decided to use seven and this is the way I remember them:

“I DARE U S”

Interests

Decision making rule for commitment

Assumptions and inferences(testing)

Reasoning and intent

Examples and important words

Undiscussable issues

Share important info

All of them are important but I think testing assumptions and inferences is my favorite one because you’d be surprised by the great deal of misunderstandings you can avoid just by applying this rule.

I’d like to summarize these rules into one though…COMMUNICATION…such an important element not only for work but for solving conflicts in your daily life.

How often do we avoid talking about issues that may cause conflict in a group?

Many of us find ourselves in situations like this at home, work, school or even within a group of friends. We don’t like to address problems because we try to avoid confrontations or hurting other people’s feelings at all times. However, we soon realize that the problems begin to escalate and become more difficult to tolerate.

To discuss the undiscussable in your groups, first and foremost you need to be open to accept any constructive critic from your teammates and then provide a certain degree of commitment to change and ultimately solve the problem. Unfortunately this is not possible unless you have built some trust.

I found the pink elephant activity very useful because it lets you explore and identify undiscussable issues you might encounter in your group.

I am sure many group members wonder whether it’s safe or not to disclose certain things about themselves. Some might find it easier yet some others very difficult because that would mean risking their membership and therefore being rejected in a group. But really, should we all hide who we trully are in order to be accepted?

This brings me back to the first day of classes when we were working on the shoe box activity. I was a little hesitant about telling my teammates who I was and I didn’t feel like I had things to hide however it was not easy to share personal things with them. But I guess they were strangers to me at that point so there was not enough trust to totally disclose.

When I socialize with my teammates now I’ve noticed that we have developed bonds of trust that have strenghthen our relationship as a group and we definitely trust each other more. Therefore, we’ve found ourselves disclosing more personal things which is enabling us not to come up with untested assumptions.

I think you need some time to reach that comfort level in order to disclose.