REFLECTION: WHAT TEACHERS MAKE ...

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, “What’s a kid going to learn from someone who decided the best option in life was to become a teacher?”

He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

To stress his point he said to another guest: “You’re a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest, what do you make?”

Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness, replied: “You want to know what I make?” She paused for a second, then began…

“Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a 6.0 feel like the Congressional Medal of Honour. I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can’t make them sit for 5 without an ipod, Game Cube or movie rental…

You want to know what I make?” She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table.

“I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them criticize, I make them apologize and mean it. I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions. I teach them to write and then I make them write. I make them read, read, read. I make them show all their work in maths. I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity. I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe. I make my students stand to sing the Mexican National Anthem, because we live in Mexico. Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life.”

Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.

“Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make? I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make?”

IT'S A WRAP!!

Good morning All!

Today is the last session of your three week, 60 hour, Teacher Development Course that it has been a pleasure to share with you. To keep us on track for today's events, I am posting a 'rough' agenda for the day:

4 to 5pm: Participants finish off thier presentations
5 to 6pm: Presentations Part One
6 to 6:15pm: Coffee and Cookies courtesy of the UVM MTY
6:15 to 7:15pm: Presentations Part Two
7:15 to end: Conclusions, Reflections and ... Goodbyes!

Congratulations to all of you who successfully finish the course.

SCAFFOLDING: The questions and www's

1.What does ZPD stand for? (Meaning, main ideas)
http://www.fno.org/dec99/scaffold.html
http://www.west.net/~ger/vygotsky.html
2.The four stage process of ZPD (describe each stage)
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/vygotsky_zpd/index.htm
3.Strategies for scaffolding instruction
http://k6educators.about.com/od/helpfornewteachers/a/scaffoldingtech.htm

2ND ATTEMPT AT 2ND EXAM IN THE MEC

Please check the messages in the MEC. I have reposted the 2nd exam again and titled it: "2nd attempt" for those who wish to do it again. Good luck!

AUTONOMOUS LEARNING PRACTICE

Visit the following 3 web sites and add what you learn there to what you already know about CLIL.
www.clil-axis.net
www.clilconsortium.jyu.fi
www.isabelperez.com/

KEY TERMS OF CLIL

•Additional Language Increasingly used instead of terms such as foreign, second or minority language, to refer to any language other than the first language
•Bilingual Environment An environment in which two languages are used
•Exposure to ...The proportion of CLIL teaching experienced by a learner in a school year
• Low - about 5-15% of teaching time
• Medium - about 15-50% of teaching time
• High - over 50% of teaching time
•Foreign Language A language which is not usually used in the surrounding social environment
•First Language User A person who considers the target language to be his/her first language
•School Profile The public image of a school, its reputation
•Second Language Used to describe a language widely used in the surrounding environment
•Target Language The language used for CLIL
•Immersion Method One specific form of CLIL usually involving extensive exposure and very specific linguistic conditions in the environment
•Language Awareness Sensitivity to the similarities and differences between languages
•Language Shower Used to describe very short, but often continuous, exposure to CLIL
•Learning Styles An individuals preferences for approaches to learning
•Learning Strategies The ways in which individuals learn
•Mother Tongue This is generally used to refer to the first language a child acquires and
uses, but in some cases children will be fully bilingual and thus may not
actually have one first language, but perhaps two or more first
languages

ONLINE COURSE ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear all,

In order to maintain as greater degree of quality control on your course as possible, Rednova are requesting your participation in an online Course Assessment Questionnaire.

Please find below the instructions to access the Assessment Course online:

Access the link on http://www.rednovaconsultants.com/index.asp
Go to “Special Sections” and click on the “UVM” icon
Enter complete information: full name, campus, email
Answer each of the questions in the questionnaire
Once you have completed the questionnaire, click on “Submit”

This link will only be open today, Tuesday and tomorrow Wednesday, so please be quick!

Regards,

Steve

LEARN HOW TO SUCCEED ON THE TOEFL WITH GRACIELA'S BLOGSPOT

Follow this link ...

http://graciela-toeflpreparationcourse.blogspot.com/

Improve that score Grace's way!!

PROCEDURES FOR FRIDAY 17TH SESSION

Hi All!!

For tomorrow's session, I hope to be able to see your presentations of a class session that clearly shows that you have grasped well the idea of Blended Learning, this weeks general overlying theme of your course.

I would also like to 'convert' these presentations into microteaching, each workgroup having an opportunity to show us their plan in action (But due to time constraints, please remember what we mentioned about 'collapsed activities!!). Simultaneously, I will get some of your peers to carry out 'observation' and 'feedback' of your presentations/microteaching and this may well give you all an insight into how that is successfully and positively executed.

If anyone has any comments, please feel free to post here, or email me to the 'British' mailbox.

I'd like to take this opportuntiy to thank you all for your excellent participation and enthusiasm shown thus far on this course. You really are a creative and willing group of professionals and a credit to the UVM. Give yourselves a pat on the back!!

Have a great evening.

Steve

ROBERTO WANTED TO SHARE THIS PDF FILE WITH YOU ALL.

It is a brief about a new book that has been published and that deals with new trends in the e-learning revolution. On the surface, it looks extremely interesting.



Follow this link ...


http://www.thelearningweb.net/




Excellent discovery, Roberto! Thank you for this.

UVM MTY PARTICIPANTS BLOGS, WIKIS AND WEBSITES

UVM LDC MTY 2009 WEBSITE:
http://sites.google.com/site/uvmttldmty/


SCIENCE TEAM

http://scienceblogteachers.blogspot.com/


FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Wiki:
http://restaurantesenmonterrey.wikispaces.com/


Blog:
http://fasteasydowninthekitchen.blogspot.com/


LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
Wiki:
http://ramteam.pbworks.com/


BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
http://incubaciondeempresas.blogspot.com/


TECHNOLOGY TRAINING
http://traininginformation.wikispaces.com/


ENGLISH IN THE GLION SCHOOL
http://sites.google.com/site/englishinglionmonterrey


OTHERS
http://tigrescamp.blogspot.com/

TODAYS LESSON GUIDELINES

Follow each section in sequence. Make sure you fully complete each one.

PART A

Look at these 3 blogs set up by UVM teachers on last year’s summer course answer the questions underneath.

http://rnst-whereintheworldartyou.blogspot.com

http://goodviewinternational.blogspot.com

http://emorante.blogspot.com

1: What do you like about these blogs ?

2: What don’t you like about them ?

3: What would you like to do to ‘improve’ them ?

4: Did you find them easy to surf?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PART B

Go to

https://www.blogger.com/start

Have a look at the steps to make a blog.

Go to

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

or do a Google search for ‘make a wiki tutorial’ and find the YouTube video link there.

Watch the tutorial

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PART C

Go to

http://www.wikispaces.com/

and have a look around.

• Does it appear to be easy to start a free

wiki or blog ?

• What will you have to do before you begin to create one?

• What notes, preparations and decisions will you need to make?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PART D

• Go into this site and investigate the different advice

it gives about setting up personal web pages

• Follow any links you find interesting

http://personalweb.about.com/od/designapersonalwebsite/u/gettingstarted.htm

What useful advice have you learnt before

beginning to set up your own VLE ?

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PART E

Podcasts

A podcast is a series of digital computer files, usually either digital audio or video, that is released periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication.

Like the term broadcast, podcast can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which the content is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting.

A podcaster is the person who creates the content.

Go to:

www.youtube.com

and search for a podcast tutorial

Do 3 or 4 Google and other searches to gather enough information to be able to give a brief summary of the concept and possible uses of podcasts to the rest of the group.

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ACTIVITY: IN YOUR GROUPS, MAKE A BLOG, A WIKI OR A PODCAST

WHAT WE CONSIDER ESSENTIAL FOR FUTURE SCHOOLS

Looking at it in "General", " Teacher", "Learner" and "Governance" terms.

OUR TEAMS ACCORDING TO ...

HORIZONTAL = Homogenous language skills
VERTICAL = Mixed ability language skills

THE UVM MTY LANGUAGE SKILLS PHALANX

... as decided upon by you!!!! (Left to Right = + to -).

TODAY'S SESSION, 15 JULY.

Hello everyone!

We shall meet today in the usual classroom. I will be going over some notes and setting you up into groups, and then you will go to the Computer Room to work on some Blogs and Wikis of your own.

I will be posting some instructions and links in this blog at 4pm for you to work from when you get into the Comp Room.

If anyone wants to bring along their own laptops, please do.

See you at 4pm.

Steve

QUIZ TIME

Where does the word 'Wiki' come from and what does it mean?

UVM LOMAS VERDES EDOMEX BLOG

Good morning, Everyone!

My colleague, Samantha Mace, currently training in UVM Lomas Verdes, has kindly given me the link to her blog ... http://uvmrednovalverdes.blogspot.com

Please visit this site as there are many interesting and relevant posts there.

THE QUESTIONS FOR HOMEWORK

From the notes you took in class that these questions generated, try to make a short summary and post it here in the blog.

•How much technology do you use in class now ?
• Where can you identify new ways of incorporating these modern technologies into your teaching ?
• How much can you rely on your Ss to cooperate with you when you use computer-based activities and the internet with them in class ?
• How much do you think you need to learn in order to incorporate these methods into your teaching ?
• Who can you rely on for I.T support ?
• What are your main fears about using IT as a learning/teaching tool and how can you overcome them ?

Good luck!

CORRECTING WRITTEN WORK

If any of you have still not re-checked your written work that we went over using a 'Code', please do so today, and hand it back in tomorrow, Tuesday, for further checking.

Steve

A BLOG REVIEW OF WEEK ONE

This is a link to one of my peer's blogs. His name is Benjamin and he is training on the UVM campus in ... ahem! ... I don't know which one!! If you see this Benjamin, perhaps you can fill in the missing info!!

http://bnleez.blogspot.com/

It contains some great links to reinforce the work we were doing on the first week of the course.

Thanks for this, Benjamin.

A LINK FROM ANITA

Anita Pacheco has sent me this link to share with you. It is about how teaching has changed and if we have!! Thanks, Anita!!

http://dotsub.com/view/b98d7efc-08c0-4d59-bcda-56fc1c10669c

WEEK TWO

The overlying topic for week two of the course is about Blended Learning.
This is a fairly new term among teachers and educators, and is the culmination of many years of experimental teaching through the different e-media that has been evolving around us.
At the turn of the century, some 9 years ago, many learning institutions threw out the more traditional teaching approaches and learning strategies (books, blackboards and front-on pedagogy, governed by courseboooks and notebooks - remember them?!) to focus wholly on e-learning, delivered by the Internet, CDs, and subsequently, DVDs. 9 years on, the tendency is to balance input between face-to-face, more traditional approaches to teaching and a more refined thread of e-learning that has been developed over this period of time as technology has become more sophisticated and its delivery speed honed to maximise learners attention and intake.

If you want to read up on it a little more, follow these links.

Blended Learning
http://www.grayharriman.com/blended_learning.htm#7

Seven years of research at the University of Central Florida (UCF) has found that blended courses ...
http://www.educause.edu/ECAR/BlendedLearning/157515

This page provides links to some resources on blended learning - that is a learning solution created through ...
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/blended.htm

Best Practices in Online Teaching - Pulling It All Together - Teaching Blended Learning Courses
http://cnx.org/content/m15048/latest/

WELCOME TO OUR OWN BLOG PAGE

Hi to all the teachers on the UVM teacher development Course in MTY during three weeks of the very hot Monterrey summer 2009.

I will be trying to post different items on this blog to enable you all to easily access additional information and links that I hope enhance your learning experience on this course.

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas that we could include, please feel free to let me know.

This is for all of us to use and gain experience from so every little helps.

Have a great day

Steve E