To sum up...

PEER EVALUATIONS

I'VE LOST THE COUNT OF HOW MANY PEER EVALUATIONS WE HAVE DONE...!

But why so many peer evaluations?

I have searched on the Internet some information about the benefits of peer evaluations in order to understand why they are so important in our class methodology. 

Firstly, I would like to highlight a sentence which says: "Group work can be more successful when students are involved in developing the assessment process." I totally agree with this statement because I strongly believe that if the students are who have taken part in the group activity, the teacher can not assess with precision all the groups involved in the task, so the assessment by the students should be fairer. Furthermore, this involves critical thinking and a deeper approach to learning. 

Moreover, I would like to point out some advantages that I consider that have had a positive effect in my learning process:

• Encourages student involvement and responsibility. 
• Encourages students to reflect on their role and contribution to the process of the group work.
• Students are involved in the process and are encouraged to take part ownership of this process.
• Provides more relevant feedback to the students as it is provided by the peers.

That's why I believe that it is really important to introduce peer evaluations in primary schools since developing student's autonomy and responsibility is a crucial factor nowadays. 

However, it also has some disadvantages, and specially I would like to mention one of them: 

• The process has a degree of risk with respect to reliability of grades as peer pressure to apply elevated grades or friendships may influence the assessment.

It is true that for me it was not easy to assess my peers, specially when I had to assess my close friends. However, little by little I realized that I needed to be fair with my marks and separate friendship from university. So that, I made a lot of effort and I put on my teacher hat feeling really proud about myself. 

To conclude, I would like to point out that from my humble point of view the advantages have more importance than the disadvantages. I consider that during this course the peer evaluations that we have done have been really useful. Specially, I would like to highlight when we had to assess our peer's projects because thanks to that, I compile a lot of new ideas from the other projects that can be really useful for my future. Moreover, the feedback from my peers helped us a lot to modify little aspects of the project that we did not take into account when designing it.  

To see the website from where I have extracted the information click here.

A funny image about peer evaluations. Enjoy!

The Meetings!

The Fishbowl

Last day in class we did the fishbowl activity and per groups between 8 and 10 people we had to sit down like this picture shows:

Firstly, I had the opportunity to be an observer, and after a while, the roles changed and I was inside the fishbowl. According to that, I would like to point out that my feelings were different depending on my role.

On the one hand, when I was an observer I couldn't talk, so I just listened to the opinions and ideas of my mates inside the fishbowl trying to answer some questions proposed.  In that moment, I felt impotent and anxious because I wanted to add some information, suggest some new ideas and ask some questions when I didn't understand what my mates were saying, but I COULDN'T. 

On the other hand, when I was inside the fishbowl I could talk and share ideas with my mates, so I felt free to express my thoughts and at the same time really observed by my mates. We tried to widen the previous answers and answer some new questions. From my humble point of view, I strongly believe that we did a great job because we respected the turns of each member and we listened carefully to all the suggestions. However, when the observers explained us what they had understood about our discussion, I felt a little bit frustrated because I realized that some ideas were not still clear for them. 

WHY THE FISHBOWL ACTIVITY DESERVES AN ENTRANCE IN MY BLOG?

I have created this entrance for two reasons. The first one is because I want to show that depending on the role that you have inside this activity, the emotions and feelings can vary. However, we need to adapt ourselves to each moment because both situations can be really useful for learning. If we are observers, we can learn through listening our mates and taking notes and if we are inside the fishbowl, we can learn through sharing our ideas and thoughts with our mates and trying to build the answers together. 

The second reason is because I believe that this methodology can be implemented in primary schools since students can develop social skills and communication skills through a cooperative learning. Furthermore, this methodology can engage students with the subject and allow them to notice what behaviors are helpful or detrimental to a discussion. 

Development of Intercultural Competences

The 26th of November, our UIUC mates were in holidays, so we had the pleasure to have a guest lecturer in class, Kaisa Hahl's. The seminar was about the development of intercultural competences. I would like to highlight that after reading her article I could clarify some ideas about what intercultural competences were. 

In general, I found this seminar really interesting since it was the first time that I could immerse myself in this topic. At the same time, I found it a little bit difficult sometimes because some ideas were new and abstract for me. Nevertheless, I would like to mention some key points that I learnt thanks to this class and I strongly believe that are really relevant for my future as a language teacher because nowadays there are normally several students from different linguistic backgrounds in schools.  

1. Teachers should not take for granted intercultural competences. They should plan when and how they will implement them in their lessons.

2. We can't think that multicultural and intercultural are the same. On the one hand, the first one only needs a group of people with different linguistic backgrounds. On the other hand, intercultural means that there is also an interaction inside the group.

3. The purpose of intercultural education is awaken the students' curiosity and interest in the importance of intercultural issues and make students consider their own prejudices, stereotypes, and behavior to deal with them in multicultural situations.

4. From my humble point of view, I assume that everyone has some prejudices or stereotypes in their minds. However, if we are teachers, we should avoid making explicits these prejudices and stereotypes to students.

Here you have two videos that I found in Youtube which criticize in a humorous way the prejudices that normally people have depending on citizen's background and culture. Enjoy it!

Moreover, to know more about intercultural competence click here (It's a fantastic article by Unesco!).

"Every effort has its rewards"

NEW KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ASSESSMENT

To see my reading assignment, please click here.

EXIT SLIPS

 

THE TRUTH

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR KIDS

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND this website to use it with kids in primary schools. I did not know about this tool before, and when I had the opportunity in class to explore it, I actually felt like a little girl excited   with a new present. This is because this webpage encourages the user to interact, investigate, and become a little scientist thanks to its awesome interface and content.

THE BIG PICTURE

During my last three years of Primary Education degree, I have been taught the general ideas about planning a teaching sequence. However, I had never studied in depth the steps that I need to follow to plan a project, and even less, the steps needed before implementing a project enhanced by technology. Hence, I really appreciate all the material provided by our professor related with planning a TEPBLL, because I strongly believe that it is really useful for my future as a language teacher. 

From my humble point of view, I can not highlight one specific theoretical aspect that was new for me because everything helped me a lot to understand the TEPBLL concept that has appeared in my mind so many times since I started this subject. That's why I have created a powerpoint explaining step by step, the process that we should follow before implementing a TEPBLL (based on the materials provided in the blog, the discussions in class and my personal thoughts).

False alarm!!!

This was my face when Melinda told us: "Today, we are going to do an exam" 

 ( A SURPRISE EXAM!!! ).

 My main feelings at that moment were:

When I had the exam in my hands, I started to feel a little bit more relax and happy (just a bit!) since I read the questions and I realized that I could answer several aspects that were asked. So that, I felt somehow proud of myself because all my previous work had a positive result in my learning process. But I still felt nervous...

Suddenly, we were told to make pairs in order to continue with the exam and try to widen our answers. I was really surprised because everything was really strange!! But at the same time, I started to feel more relaxed and happy. When I was with my mate doing the exam, we were really concentrated on the questions and I felt self-confident. We had a lot of ideas thinking together and we made a lot of effort in order to fill in all the questions of the exam.Thanks to this type of interaction, I made a big effort  thinking in all the contents and it helped me a lot to finally embraced several aspects related with the big picture. Moreover, the ideas and thoughts of my mate were really useful to widen my knowledge. So I actually think that it was really useful!

These are some examples of the exam questions that we could answer after a fantastic discussion between us:

Finally, we were told to make groups of 4 in order to continue with the exam. In that moment, I realized that it was a "false" exam. At that point, my mates started to feeling demotivated because we detected that each pair had the solutions of the exam of the other pair and vice versa. So that, I began to feel really bored. Referring to this type of interaction, I strongly believe that it was not as useful as the previous mentioned.

 THEN, IT WAS NO MORE A CHALLENGE... 

"Although this false exam got on my nerves, I believe that it has been really useful to embrace several aspects and realize that I am actually LEARNING"

 

Jibjab

Last day in class, I had the opportunity to explore this fantastic tool called Jibjab. I did not know about this program before and it really impressed me. I strongly believe that it is a good tool to use for telecollaboration, as it highlights the social factor.

If we are implementing a TEPBLL that involves partners from other parts of the world, Jibjab can be a good tool to present ourselves to our peers in a funny, motivating and creative way. Thus, in spite of making a video of presentation, we can elaborate an eCard choosing the topic or the characters thar we prefer, adding a message to this card and sending it to our mates. Moreover, it could be used to wish a happy celebration such as Christmas, Halloween, birthday, etc.

Furthermore, it could be a fantastic tool to create a warm atmosphere between the two groups of pupils since the can put their faces together in the eCards, so they are not actually together (they only see each other through a screen) but it seems so.

The only disadvantage that I can find is that the majority of videos or e-cards are not free. So that, if we want to create something free, we will have very few and limited options to choose.

Now, you will see an example of an e-card that I have created to wish a happy graduation:

Stressful moments

 I need to recognize that I've had days of stress and frustration, and today is one. I believe that the main problem is that I am used to traditional methods that are teacher-centered. Thus, the teacher explains the lesson and the theoretical aspects, and then we practice it. However, this course is totally different since it is student-centered. So that, we are responsible of looking for the information (which is normally on the blog) and understanding it. In other words, we are responsible of our learning process.

I am not against of this methodology, but it makes me feel frustrated, stressed and sometimes lost, because if I don't have a professional who explains me the theoretical part, I feel insecure. I don't know if I'm understanding everything well or if I'm missing some important aspect. Furthermore, I would like to point out that my intention is not to underestimate the moments where we share knowledge with our mates, because they are really useful to organize the ideas and meet other points of view and opinions, but for me it is inevitable to have these kind of feelings sometimes.

Nevertheless, I hope that I'm going to get use to this methodology during this course. I need to trust more myself, and believe that I'm going to achieve all my goals. 

Uni Collaboration Website

I strongly believe that this website can be really useful for language teachers who want to implement intercultural exchange projects, because it provides  lots of resources and materials about a wide range of tasks, projects and sequences. Moreover, you have the opportunity to find a partner through this web to collaborate with. If we want to implement a TEPBLL project, we have to bear in mind that it is really important to meet and know our partner before starting planning.
 From my point of view, even if you don't have so much experience in this world (as me), it is really easy to understand the concepts presented and guide yourself through this webpage as it is really well explained by the professionals. 

In order to illustrate all the aspects that this website provides, I have created an ad using Glogster in order to show it in a creative way, and to engage people to visit this fantastic webpage!


Please, visit this link: http://cristinuski.edu.glogster.com/uni-collaboration-website/

Virtual Worlds

In this image, created using "Cacoo", I have shown the steps that I followed to learn some theoretical and practical aspects about VWs. Firstly, I was a little bit nervous when I had to read the text because VWs were new for me, so I did not know if I was going to understand it. However, while reading the text, I started taking notes of the main points and I realized that it was easier to understand than I expected. So that, I started to feel more relax. 

In order to show the key points that I embraced of this article, I have created a video using "PowToon".

After two weeks, I had to explain these key aspects to my peers in class. Although I had to make a big effort to summarize them because we did not have so much time, I felt really self-confident as I could explain everything and my mates understood it. This activity made me realize that I truly understood the general idea of the article. Moreover, when I had to explain it, I embraced better all this theoretical part about virtual worlds. 

Then, my peers had to explain me the key points of their articles. While I was listening, I took notes about the aspects that interested me the most and were new for me. 

________________________________________________________________________________

After several weeks of having published this entrance, I have had my first contact with second life world. I had a great time in class creating the avatars and interacting with our mates. I strongly believe that it is a good tool to help pupils to acquire new language and to practice communication, but the problem is that normally you have to pay in order to create a secure and private island in second life. Furthermore, many pre-tasks are needed to teach children how to use it, how to move their avatars, how to communicate, etc. However, the mentioned before can not stop us from introducing VWs in primary schools, because instead of making students create an avatar and interact with it, we can use VWs to introduce our projects in a meaningful way through avatars in order to engage and motivate students.  The latter was introduce in Sant Jordi school from Mollet del Vallés with kids from 7 to 8 years old, and was a big success! 

To see more information about the TEPBLL carried out in Sant Jordi school, please click here. 

WHY TEPBLL IN SCHOOLS?

After my first and second week doing this subject, I can say that I have had my first contact with TEPBLL “world”(Technology-Enhanced Project-Based Language Learning). So that, I feel that I need to summarize the main ideas that I have embraced about this type of projects. However, I would like to point out that I feel a little bit insecure because I have very general ideas, but I hope we will take a close look at the different aspects that form TEPBLL. 

My question is: WHY TEPBLL IN SCHOOLS?

Answering to my question, first of all we should bear in mind that technology plays an important role in our society nowadays. Moreover, the use of technology is quite commonly featured in education too.

The mentioned above plus becoming a language teacher means that we need to teach our students how to adapt to new ways of communicating. To do that and according to the introductory videos that our professors provided, I would like to highlight that pupils will probably need some competences:

1. Ability to work collaboratively:

This idea was even before computers were developed. In 1934, Vygotsky claimed that all human learning is attained through interaction with other people. For this reason, he created the concept ZDP (zone of proximal development) which refers to the benefits that learners can have from social interaction when the tasks they are engaged can not be accomplished alone. Furthermore, in 1971, Hymes assumed that language was a socially constructed phenomenon.

Referring back to Vygotsky and ZDP, I would like to recommend the article "Teaching in the zone" by Angela Lui. I strongly believe that it is really useful to understand this theory and apply it in an educational context (http://www.childrensprogress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/free-white-paper-vygotsky-zone-of-proximal-development-zpd-early-childhood.pdf). 

" What the child is able to do in collaboration today, he will be able to do independently tomorrow", Lev Vygotsky. 

2. Think flexibly and creatively

3. Be innovative

At that point of the course, these two competences are the most difficult for me. I strongly believe that this is because I am used to traditional methods of education. So for me it is really difficult to think on motivating and creative activities. However, I hope that at the end of this course I would have so many resources and strategies to teach these two competences to pupils. 

4. Language & Communication

From my point of view, this competence is the most important and it is related with the others mentioned above, because if we do not have language, we can not think and if we can not communicate, we can not collaborate.

So, language teachers are essential for the next generations, and we can integrate all this concepts through TEPBLL:

PBLL + TECHNOLOGY = TEPBLL

PBLL (project based language learning) is for authentic purposes, it requires cognitive engagement, it is audience centered, it involves all kind of interaction, it is linked to other content and learning activities, and it is a carefully planned sequence of activities that sequels one sub-task into another while aiming for a final product. Furthermore, when we introduce technology, the project can expand the world and go beyond the classroom. 

Where am I starting from?

In order to help myself to organize my previous knowledge, I have took some ideas from the "personal checklist" (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ul4uc34t2aj5mvf/EPOSTL_Checklist.docx?dl=0). 

This has been the result of my initial self assessment: