I was genuinely flattered to be asked by Ken Royal to be a guest author for his blog http://www.educatorsroyaltreatment.com, although I asked him what he felt I had to offer as I really feel like a complete novice at this whole malarkey! It is true that I have a great enthusiasm for all that I use in my classroom, but I would never profess to be any kind of expert. I work on the theory that if I want to do something, it is surely possible, so it is just a matter of working out how So I settled down to it, and here is my post for Ken's site.
LANGUAGES AND LEARNING - THE PATH I HAVE FOLLOWED
Today I led a whole-day event on ICT & MFL teaching and learning, which included my own department as well as 12 members of staff from several other schools. I have never led such an event before and therefore wanted to keep the numbers manageable.
Why did I even want to run such an event? Believe me, I was asking myself the same question last night, as I prepared the last of the handouts. But yet I am so glad that I did, for it has benefited me as well hopefully as those who attended. As teachers, we are told that we should be reflective practitioners, and yet it is rare that we have time to take stock and really evaluate what we have learnt over a given period of time. The aim of running this day was to show people some of the new stuff I have learnt over the past year, and let them have a go too. It was only when I started to map out the agenda that I realised just how much I have learnt since last July, when I had the extreme good fortune to be sent to BLC 08, in Boston. The November Learning conference was mind-blowing and I came home enthused, armed with a list of of sites to visit and web 2.0 tools to check out.
I followed the instructions of David Truss (http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com) and Ewan McIntosh (http://edu.blogs.com/) who both said that if we did nothing else, we should start a blog when we went home. This I did, with my "Languages and Learning" blog at http://amandasalt.blogspot.com I also joined Twitter, although I found it a lonely and pointless activity initially. I now find it to be one of my main sources of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and also a place where people are generous with their praise and genuine in their concern.
A visit to the Isle of Wight for a languages and ICT conference, organised by the amazing Joe Dale (www.joedale.typepad.com), added to my enthusiasm, and as I approach the end of this academic year, I have created a wiki for my pupils (http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com) and also dabbled with Audacity, Goanimate, Voki, ToonDoo, Animoto and Voice Thread, amongst others.Today I ran workshops on all of these as well as an overview of blogging, Twitter and Diigo.
The format seemed to work well, with a very hands-on approach by the participants, and a vast quantity of helpsheets to take home. They were amazed that I did none of this before last summer, ut in a way, I think that reassured them. I do not profess to be an expert at any of these, yet I find my approach to teaching re-energised and my pupils highly motivated. I too have much to learn, and it is a true pleasure to show others all that this brave 2.0 world has to offer us.
Showing posts with label "David Truss". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "David Truss". Show all posts
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Friday, 2 January 2009
BLC 08 DAVID TRUSS "THIS MY BLOG HAS TAUGHT ME"
WED 16TH JULY SESSION 2
“THIS MY BLOG HAS TAUGHT ME”
DAVID TRUSS www.pairadimes.davidtruss.com
David's talk included how you should consider the following when you have a blog:
• Leadership
• Audience
• Podcasts
• Learning
• Blogrules – what pupils are expected to do
• Web 2.Oh yeah – students sharing ideas and thoughts with the teacher coming in. Bear in mind that the teacher intervening in a dialogue can sometimes stop conversation, but that they should be there to ask a question in order to steer the dialogue in the right direction, or to intervene if necessary
What did David learn in the first year or so of having his blog? He made the blog a private and sheltered environment. He created Wikispaces – http://sciencealive.wikispaces.com, where the kids like to see cluster maps of visitors from around the world.
If we consider Bloom’s taxonomy, whereby
Higher order 6 Create
5 Evaluate
4 Analyse
3 Apply
2 Understand
Lower order 1 Remember
then using a blog and a wiki are excelllent tools for creation and experiment by the pupils.
Other ideas to arise out of David's excellent talk included:
• One pupil’s idea may trigger someone else’s e.g. blogging about science experiments
• Eduspaces – forum for social networking for teachers
• TakingITGlobal – online community for youth to get involved in local and global community
• Encourage contributors – check profile. Allow them to do assignment on paper if they want
Why blog? It is where we do most of our learning, connect with other educators, challenge ourselves to improve and link with other people
It is BLC 08 and in particular these 2 talks by Ewan McIntosh and David Truss, that I credit with the creation of this blog and my Spanish wiki http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com
Here's to connecting with others and pushing ourselves further in 2009!
“THIS MY BLOG HAS TAUGHT ME”
DAVID TRUSS www.pairadimes.davidtruss.com
David's talk included how you should consider the following when you have a blog:
• Leadership
• Audience
• Podcasts
• Learning
• Blogrules – what pupils are expected to do
• Web 2.Oh yeah – students sharing ideas and thoughts with the teacher coming in. Bear in mind that the teacher intervening in a dialogue can sometimes stop conversation, but that they should be there to ask a question in order to steer the dialogue in the right direction, or to intervene if necessary
What did David learn in the first year or so of having his blog? He made the blog a private and sheltered environment. He created Wikispaces – http://sciencealive.wikispaces.com, where the kids like to see cluster maps of visitors from around the world.
If we consider Bloom’s taxonomy, whereby
Higher order 6 Create
5 Evaluate
4 Analyse
3 Apply
2 Understand
Lower order 1 Remember
then using a blog and a wiki are excelllent tools for creation and experiment by the pupils.
Other ideas to arise out of David's excellent talk included:
• One pupil’s idea may trigger someone else’s e.g. blogging about science experiments
• Eduspaces – forum for social networking for teachers
• TakingITGlobal – online community for youth to get involved in local and global community
• Encourage contributors – check profile. Allow them to do assignment on paper if they want
Why blog? It is where we do most of our learning, connect with other educators, challenge ourselves to improve and link with other people
It is BLC 08 and in particular these 2 talks by Ewan McIntosh and David Truss, that I credit with the creation of this blog and my Spanish wiki http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com
Here's to connecting with others and pushing ourselves further in 2009!
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