Hello Donna and colleagues
Here again another
week full of learning spices. I really loved this week because through I found
some interesting solutions for my way of teaching. For instance, the rubrics, I
used to hear a lot of complaints from my students concerning the grading systems.
Every time one will state that such grade was not what they expected and so on
so forth. But this week gave something which can heal all those wounds and
which also help my students be more autonomous.
Besides, I also
loved the PBL which is a great way to enlighten the teaching methodology. It is
also a good way for teacher to shift from the old fashioned way of teaching
which focus only in class. I think Elsa book's title: Making meaning, making
change said it all about PBL. Through it students will learning meaningful
language and build a strong community among themselves.
Creating an online
rubric and a webquest page was really something new to me but made me feel so
proud of myself because it is not something easy at all. It requires some
computer skills that I and many other teachers luck. Coming every week to the
same place would be somehow boring but coming to the same place with some new
ideas every week is never boring. These weeks will really represent a turning
point in my life and the life of many colleagues.
Looking forward to
sharing more with you for the weeks to come,
Brahim Abdoulaye Thiam
Mauritania
Hello Brahim,
ReplyDeleteEvery time exams, homework and projects were evaluated a group of students had something to complain about, mainly grades. They keep asking "where did my marks go?" Only lately, rubrics have been utilized here, especially when it comes to segments or branches that are subjectively evaluated (composition papers for instance). Rubrics made it a little easier to evaluate students' performance and products.
As for PBL, my blog this week is mainly related to that, but I want to stress on is that true we need to have this shift from traditional methods of teaching to more autonomous, student-centered approaches but the question is do we really have the qualified, motivated and well-trained teachers? A teacher's role with PBL is to facilitate rather than teach therefore he/she needs to be well-prepared for that. Not many teachers are willing to give up their traditional role and turn into a facilitator; a much harder job perhaps.
Regards, Wadha
Kuwait
hello Wadha thanks for you nice comments on blog. we really share the same points about this week and it was really a wonderful week for all of us.
ReplyDeleteAs well as ABCD Objectives, rubrics provide clear rules that empower students and teacher develop a good class performance and, eventually, the whole education process gets more meaning. It's great to recognize that teachers are expected to include something new once in a while; otherwise, everybody will be bored. When something like this happens, this is the beginning of the end.
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ReplyDeleteHello Brahim,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that the creation of the rubrics on line as well as the WebQuest was not easy. It took me a lot of time to accomplish every part of the webQuest for my class too. The good thing, though, is that it is more independent for the students as they get to work on it alone or in groups. At the same time, it is less boring, as you say, to them because they have more web skills than we do. This course is also a turning point for me. Best regards.
Angel
Paraguay