Hola a todos!!! Acá estamos de vuelta! Se preguntarán: ¿Por qué?

Y sí, muchas veces escribí sobre la importancia de seguir perfeccionándose y adaptándose a los nuevos tiempos. Por eso, hoy, empiezo un curso otra vez!

En lo que va del año hemos trabajado mucho al respecto más allá de no haber continuado con el blog… seguramente este curso sea el puntapié que faltaba para dejar de hacer un alto en el camino y comenzar el trayecto otra vez.

Come digo siempre,

PODEMOS HACERLO!

Sólo contarles que la semana pasada pude disfrutar y reflexionar durante casi tres jornadas!

Sí, Pro T 2012 bajo el slogan «evolving pedagogies, evolving Englishes» nos brindó la oportunidad de escuchar y aprender sobre:

– la necesidad de cambio en nuestras prácticas

– el uso de las nuevas tecnologías en la enseñanza del inglés

– el uso de obras literarias para la enseñanza de esta segunda lengua, y muchas cosas más.

Qué decirles! Por dónde empezar?

Quizás dando gracias a todos los que disertaron por su generosidad. Por qué digo esto? porque compartieron sus experiencias en el aula e incluso nos dieron sus blogs – algunos de ellos los encontrarám junto con otros links- para que podamos profundizar en el tema.

Quizás mencionando que todos coincidían en la necesidad de cambio y que dicho cambio debe ser paulatino, que no hay necesidad de tirar todo «lo viejo» por la borda – se hablaba de «blended learning».

A todos aquellos que no hablan Inglés y no tienen la suerte de acceder a tanto camino ya vivido, prometo compartir con ustedes todo lo que me enseñaron.

Para empezar, me gustaría contarles sobre PREZI; ideal para hacer presentaciones  y reemplazar a Powerpoint.

Podemos usar Prezi para crear redes conceptuales, resumir novelas, profundizar vocabulario, crear líneas de tiempo, etc.

En este caso me gustaría compartir con ustedes  «Introducing each Other»; herramienta que utilizaré para presentarme a mis alumnos la semana que viene.

  introducing each other

Espero les guste, es fácil, dinámico y creativo.

Podemos Hacerlo!

Hola a todos!!!!

Cuánto tiempo ha pasado! y sí, todos necesitamos y merecemos unas lindas vacaciones en familia con el objetivo de empezar este  ciclo escolar 2012 con mucha fuerza y ganas … y, por sobre todo,

dispuestos a seguir haciendo el cambio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Qué contarles? Por ahora no mucho, la verdad es que recién me estoy poniendo en tema otra vez… hoy, por ejemplo, encontré un sitio web realizado por Mrs. Gold, maestra de tercer grado, INCREIBLE!!!!

Los invito a visitarlo porque VALE LA PENA en cuanto a diseño, recursos, etc. La verdad es que sus alumnos deben sentirse súper motivados y agradecidos!

Les dejo el link: www.mrsgoldsclass.com

Sigo investigando así les cuento!

Aprovechemos estas dos semanas para incursionar un poco más en las nuevas tecnologías. Tenemos 15 días durante los cuales podemos planificar con cuidado y creatividad muchas ingeniosas estrategias.

Mucha suerte!

Cómo sigue todo por ahí?

Me imagino que más tranquilos teniendo en cuenta que el año ya se está cerrando.

Mi propuesta hoy es algo totalmente diferente: el blog se llama «Critical thinking Puzzles» y plantea todo tipo de situaciones problemáticas como ser:

• cúantas personas hay en un cuarto,
• cómo reaccionará una hormiga
• el rompecabezas de la botella de vino,etc

No sé, me pareció ingenioso y provocador así que aquellos que disfrutan de encontrar soluciones a problemas, recuerden visitar puzzles4you.blogspot.com

Hasta la próxima!!!

Cómo sigue todo por ahí?

Hoy quería compartir con ustedes este artículo que encontré en Langwitches: Learning About Blogs FOR Your Students- Part II: Writing.

Siempre hay algo nuevo por aprender así que acá va.

El artículo nos habla a nosotros, los docentes, y nos pide que dejemos de buscar excusas por las cuales no escribir un blog . En cambio, nos pide que nos enfoquemos en sus posibles ventajas y beneficios.

Entre las excusas que solemos poner menciona:

«No tengo nada interesante por decir»

«No sé escribir bien»

«No tengo tiempo»

Las tres son refutadas pero por sobre todo, el autor, nos cuenta que bloggear es un camino y que cuando escribimos un blog no debemos hacerlo con el objetivo de agradar a alguien sino como evidencia del proceso de nuestro propio aprendizaje!!!

Espero lo disfruten; una vez más mil perdones a aquellos que no entienden la lengua inglesa.

Disfruten los videos, también!

Podemos hacerlo!!!!

Learning About Blogs FOR Your Students- Part II: Writing

November 26, 2011

You are reading Part II of a series of blog posts that started out of the desire to help teachers learn more about blogs for themselves in order to help/coach/facilitate their students’ blogging adventure. My guiding questions for this series of blog posts are:

• How can I make it easier for teachers to learn about the process of teaching and learning with blogs?
• How can blogging enhance student learning?
• What are components of QUALITY blogs?
• How can I guide teachers in experiencing a shift in teaching and learning and help them make a pedagogical commitment to blogging.

In Part I, I laid out the importance of READING blogs in order for the teacher to be able to gain and understanding of student blogging as a platform FOR learning, not “just” a vehicle for technology integration.

I do see blogging as a journey. It is not as simple as waking up one morning and deciding “Let me blog with my students” or attending one Professional Development workshop or conference presentation about blogging and thinking to yourself: “I’ll start blogging on Monday.”

The journey begins with reading blogs, but it has to continue with WRITING.

I firmly believe, that an educator who expects his/her students to blog for learning, NEEDS to be blogging for their own learning. 

The biggest obstacle for writing is YOU! I hear educators, who are or want to blog with their students,  tell me over and over again the reason why THEY don’t/can’t/won’t blog for themselves:

1. I have nothing to say that might interest anyone
2. I am not a good writer/ I don’t like writing
3. I don’t have time

Let me address each one of these:

“I have nothing to say that might interest anyone”

My response to the reluctant or scared bloggers, who feel that they have nothing to contribute to the edubloggersphere, is usually that blogging should not be about “others”. Writing a professional  blog should foremost be about yourself as a learner and about your own journey. Writing for others might come later down the road.

I explored “Who do You write for?” in a previous post. I listed MY reasons for writing.

• I write for myself, because I enjoy writing.
• I want to practice writing in order to get better at doing it.
• I blog because I want to have a record of my thoughts, my learning process, and resources that I find.

Seth Godin,  in a video, expresses that the METACOGNITION of thinking matters when blogging.

It does not matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it. What matters is the metacognition of thinking about what you are going to say. How do you explain yourself […]? How do you force yourself to write in three paragraphs why you did something? How do you respond out loud?

The blogger needs to realize that the primary reason for their blogging is NOT to please others, but to be a process that aids in their own learning.

“Obvious to You, Amazing to Others” is a short video clip by Derek Sivers that talks about what so many new want-to-be bloggers also feel like in respect to their potential writing contribution to the field.

“My ideas are so obvious, I will never be as inventive [as others]… but I continue to do my work, I tell my little tales, I share my point of view, nothing spectacular, just my ordinary thoughts.

He continues to explain how one day someone emailed him to ask HIM how he ever came up with that genius idea?

“Everyone’s ideas seem obvious to them[…] so maybe what seems obvious to oneself, might seem amazing to someone else.”

We need to keep this profound little discovery by Derek Sivers in mind, when we think that we might not have anything to contribute through our writing that would be of interest to others!

“I am not a good writer/ I don’t like writing”

Diving into blogging with our students, it is our hope that they grow as writers, that they connect their learning with new knowledge and that they will be able to express themselves in age appropriate eloquence. We also acknowledge that looking and preparing our students for their future must include a literacy (of reading and writing) through different media and new genres.

If we are in charge of preparing our students, we need to be riding the wave as well.

Karl Fish asks on one of his blog posts titled “Just Write Poorly. In Public. Every Day.”

This begs the question, of course, about how much our teachers are writing. Particularly our Language Arts teachers, but really all of our teachers. If it’s so important for our students to write, how come we’re not modeling it?

Seth Godin continues to share in the same video mentioned above that

If you are good at it (blogging) someone is going to read it. If you are not good at it and you stick with it,  you will get good at it.

If you are one of those who feel that they just don’t like writing, maybe due to writing assignments from their own years as a student, keep in mind that:

Writing for your own blog IS NOT like a writing assignment from college. There is pleasure, inspiration and satisfaction to be found in your writing.

Give writing another try, without the deadline, performance Angst or grading pressure that used to come with it. Remember you are writing for yourself. You are writing for your own learning journey.

I don’t have time

Oh yeah… the good old response: I don’t have time…

It is a great response for almost anything. It is easy and quick to say… It fits perfectly, it molds itself to any request, idea, proposal, thought… for the not so good, the great and the best ones…My thoughts are somewhere between “then don’t”… and … ” choose your priorities wisely”…

So, let’s get down to real life tips to help you write your blog. Keep in mind, that the same basic principles apply when facilitating blogging with your students.

• Just write!
  Write for yourself first. Blogging is about your own learning. Use it to remember, to document, to follow and refer back to your own journey. Remember that the destination is not always the goal, but that the journey is what you after. No more excuses for not getting started.
  
• Write about what interests you
  No reason to force subjects and topics on you that bore you. Digg deeper into your area of expertise or explore something you always wanted to learn more about. Don’t feel confined. You can find a niche by writing about one area of interest/subject matter or you can write about anything that think and wonder about. It is, after all, your blog
• Don’t force a certain writing style on yourself
  Find your own: be formal/conversational/narrative/ straight forward in outline form, etc. Experiment with different forms.
• Link to what you read
  Connect ideas you read about to your own ideas and thinking (give credit where credit is due of course!). Collect quote and citations you come across, as you read traditional books or during your online reading. See them as puzzle pieces that you assemble during your writing to paint a picture of your point of view.
• Add visuals
  Find ways to add visuals that support your thoughts. Creative Commons images (from Flickr for example) are your best friend. Sometimes a single visual can even spark your writing. Remember to also take your own images( to use in your blog) as you explain the way you see the world. If you enjoy graphic design, consider creating your own visuals as well. Many visual minds learn best by taking an idea or concept apart and by visually re-assembling it.
• Make writing  (on your blog) part of your work and learning process
  Don’t see blogging as something in addition to what you do. Incorporate, embed, braid it into your work.
  Need to write a lesson plan? Lay it out via your blog. Explain your rational for choosing certain activities and pedagogy. After you taught a lesson, make reflecting  (on your blog) part of the lesson planing cycle.
  Doing research about a certain topic and need resources? Use your blog as the platform where you collect and review the resources you find.
• Leave a positive Digital Footprint
  What would you like others (colleagues, students, parents, administrators, future employers) to find about you, if they were to google you? The answer to this question can give you ideas about what you could write about as you are starting to share and shape your digital footprint.
• Create a professional brand
  Brands used to be reserved for companies. Since we have become a “producing” society (not just a consuming one), the concept of branding has spilled over to us “individuals”. Your “brand” represents who you are, your beliefs and points of view across different media and online platforms. The writing on your blog will help define your professional brand.
• Don’t be a perfectionist
  Obviously do your best, but the point is to get it out, to process your thoughts, to formulate your thinking. Don’t spend hours on finding the “perfect” image at the expense of actually writing the post.
• Don’t get stressed
  You don’t/ won’t (most likely) get paid for your blogging, so don’t add unnecessary stress to your life. Work at your own pace. Don’t set yourself deadlines that you won’t meet and only stress you out. You will enjoy your writing much more.

Gwyneth Jones, The Daring Librarian,  in a post titled ” Just Blog it! Blogging Tips & Ideas” gives the following advice:

Blogs are like pets – you have to feed them regularly […] If you start a blog you should try to maintain it. Post when you can, be upbeat, share what you can, give anecdotes about your profession, tech tips, lesson ideas, student successes, & professional philosophies.

• Start When You’re Ready, Already!
• No Excuses!
• Keep an Idea Folder Going!
• Schedule it
• Get Graphic
• Share Shamelessly
• Gimme a Widget!
• Be You!
• Give Credit
• Be Thankful
• Be Stubborn

Just as Karl Fish called for above: Just Write Poorly. In Public. Every Day. I am calling educators out to stat writing too. To start writing FOR their students (Not necessarily FOR them to read your professional thoughts), but in order to become:

• better writers FOR them (to teach/coach/facilitate)
• transparent learners
• aware of their own learning journey

How can we teach/coach/facilitate blogging and hence writing, if we have not gone through the process ourselves?

What is the most important advice you would give a teacher to start blogging/writing?

Hola a todos!!!!!

Alguna vez alguien me preguntó de dónde obtengo las herramientas que uso con mis alumnos??? Bue, acá va la respuesta: de sitios como COOL TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS que generosamente asesoran sobre TICS.

Es impresionante la cantidad de herramientas que tenemos a nuestra disposición. En el caso de COOL TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS incluso las agrupan por el tipo de uso que se puede hacer de ellas: de escritura, de audio, visuales, sobre ciencias, matemáticas, etc… hay muchísimas!

A ver, el ciclo escolar 2011 está llegando a su fin; sería bueno empezar el 2012 habiendo investigado sobre alguna de ellas. Hay tanta diversidad que seguro alguna nos va a ser útil.

Comprometámosnos con nuestros alumnos!

Comprometámosnos con la Educación!

Podemos hacerlo!

Hola a todos!

Se acerca la semana de cursada por lo cual me imagino que muchos deben estar a mil, con muchísimas obligaciones pero al mismo tiempo tratando, entre otras cosas, de planificar la clase haciendo uso de las TICS.

Por esta razón los invito a seguir este link:

http://www.totemguard.com/aulatotem/2011/10/mapa-conceptual-recursos-tic-para-desarrollar-las-inteligencias-multiples-de howard-gardner

En él encontrarán un artículo que explica que son las inteligencias múltiples de H. Gardner. También recomienda y sugiere diversas TICS que podemos utilizar teniendo en cuenta las inteligencias múltiples de nuestros alumnos. Hay tantas para elegir!!!!!

Espero haberles sido útil y recuerden:

Lo estamos haciendo!!!

Hola a todos!!!

Sólo quería contarles sobre mi corta pero a la vez  fructífera experiencia con Edmodo.

En algún posteo mencioné que me impresiona la actitud de mis alumnos con respecto a esta «nueva» herramienta. Les conté que un gran porcentaje de alumnos prefieren trabajar digitalmente a hacerlo en una hoja; especialmente los más desprolijos o aquellos que erróneamente tildamos de «vagos». En consecuencia, entregan sus tareas e incluso trabajan sobre el feedback que les doy ya que no es necesario reescribir todo una vez más.

También les dije que a partir de Edmodo he logrado que mis alumnos se comuniquen utilizando la lengua inglesa; tarea complicada en el día a día. es impresionante, ver cómo no sólo «dialogan» conmigo sino entre ellos; y todo en Inglés!

Otro aspecto que les interesa es el poder enterarse de sus notas incluso antes de volver a clase! y si tienen dudas antes de una prueba, las consultan incluso fuera del horario escolar!

Para ser prácticos, me gustaría que vean los resultados de una actividad que les propuse: Nuestra unidad trataba sobre los sentimientos y la música razón por la cual a través de edmodo les propuse varios videos que bajé de You Tube.

Ojalá hubiesen estado ahí, tenían que verlos!!!! Cada pareja con su computadora escuchando las canciones, buscando las letras y analizando las estructuras gramaticales conforme a lo que habíamos estado trabajando en clase.

Pero eso no fue todo…  como proyecto final les pedí que eligieran sus propias canciones e hicieran una reflexión sobre los sentimientos y las experiencias descriptas en dichas canciones.

Estos son los resultados:

A´s Songs         Metallica

D´s Songs              Miley Cyrus / Taylor Swift

R´s Songs      Bob Marley

No me queda mucho más por decir, creo que estos trabajos son prueba suficiente de que nuestros jóvenes son muy creativos y tienen mucho para dar y para decir! Démosle la oportunidad!

Podemos hacerlo!!!

Six Reasons Why Kids Should Know How to Blog

El siguiente es un artículo que destaca 6 razones por las cuales es necesario que nuestros alumnos aprendan a bloggear.

Entre ellas destaca:

• CREACIÓN DE HUELLAS DIGITALES POSITIVAS: nuestros alumnos deben entender que ellos son los autores y controlan la imágen que la Web tiene de ellos mismos.

• COMUNICACIÓN A PARTIR DE LA UTILIZACIÓN DE HERRAMIENTAS TECNOLÓGICAS: nuestros alumnos aprenden a entablar diálogo a partir de otras herramientas diferentes a las redes sociales.

• TRANSPARENCIA PARA PADRES Y FAMILIAS: Tanto alumnos como familiares tienen y tendrán acceso al archivo digital que refleja el proceso educativo de los mismos.

• MIRADA DIFERENTE HACIA LAS HERRAMIENTAS TECNOLÓGICAS

• EFECTIVA PRÁCTICA CIUDADANA DIGITAL: oportunidad de generar conciencia sobre nuestras prácticas en el ciberespacio.

• ORGULLO POR LOS LOGROS ALCANZADOS

La verdad es que no está nada mal, no? Creo que estas seis razones justifican el intentar lograr que nuestros alumnos puedan expresarse y dar sus puntos de vista sobre temas varios. Al mismo tiempo, tendrán la oportunidad de intercambiar opiniones  así aprender a respetar al que no piensa como uno.

Defender nuestras ideas muchas veces no es tarea sencilla. Los docentes debemos encontrar herramientas que nos permitan acompañar a nuestros alumnos en el recorrido que ellos hagan hacia el pensamiento crítico. BLOGGEAR es una de esas habilidades!!!

Los invito a leer el artículo:

August 30, 2011 | 2:30 PM | By Tina Barseghian

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Tech Tools, digital footprint, eportfolio

Flickr:Pixelsrzen

In the digital age, kids need to have an understanding of what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. They need to learn the technical how-to’s, as well as a more global comprehension of how to navigate the online world. To that end, Melbourne educator Jenny Luca made a commitment to help her students start blogging and to create ePortfolios. Here are five reasons why, at her school, these skills are now a high priority.

By Jenny Luca

• CREATING POSITIVE DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS. Kids need to start establishing a positive digital impression of themselves. Without question, it will be the norm for these students to be Googled when they begin to look for jobs — even if it’s part time. As young as they are, they need to cultivate their personal brand, and they can do this by posting about what they’re involved in at school, learning in their classrooms, or other co-curricular activities they enjoy. We want our students to understand that they can control the message about themselves on the Web, and that they can point prospective employers, colleagues or university admissions officers.

“As of August 6 my blog has had 533 visits worldwide. Amazing or what? WOW.”

• COMMUNICATING WITH DIGITAL TOOLS. We want our students to have a handle on how to use digital tools to communicate, and not just through networks like Facebook. Plenty of our students are Facebook users, but there is a higher order skill set required to maintain consistent posts on a blog. We’ve taught our students how to set up categories, add widgets, use the HTML editor to embed code, and how to tell the difference between a legitimate comment and a spammer. As our world moves ever closer towards the Internet as the main vehicle for communication, we feel that we are helping our students understand the language they will need to navigate this new territory.

• TRANSPARENCY FOR PARENTS AND FAMILY. Our curriculum is becoming more transparent to parents. As our students write more about what they’re learning, we now have a means for their parents to feel more connected to what happens at school. Where once a child would write for an audience of one – the teacher – now they are writing for a potentially much larger audience that includes their immediate and extended family. Students will not only have a digital archive of their learning, but will see comments from friends and family that they can revisit in years to come. Their access won’t be limited to the box of cherished school records and mementos relegated to the attic. For these kids, an Internet connection will enable them to revisit their childhood and adolescent school years.

• NEW WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT WEB TOOLS. We need a digital space to demonstrate new methods of learning how to use important Web tools. Already this year, our student ePortfolios have been used to embed Slideshare and Google Docs presentations, Glogsters, podcasts created with Garageband, Google MyMaps, Prezi, and links to Wiki pages they have edited for different subjects. Just having our students understand how to hyperlink to other people’s content, and the potential this opens for two-way conversation, has been eye-opening for them. These spaces have helped provide even more reasons for our teaching staff to use Web-based tools and teach themselves new skills in the process.

• EFFECTIVE DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP. By creating ePortfolios, or a digital collection of their work, our students learn how to conduct themselves in digital spaces in the context of their curriculum, not just in isolated lecture-style presentations that may strike a chord with some students, but miss the mark with others. When I talk to my seventh-grade students, they can clearly articulate why we’re using these ePortfolios. It makes sense to them, and they know it is important for their future lives.

• PRIDE IN THEIR WORK. For many of our students, their world view is changing as a result of posting in public spaces. Many of them have embedded clustr maps into their sidebars, and they can see where people are visiting from. Recently, one of our students posted about the effect this global audience has had on her: “Okay- so is this is amazing. I’ve used this blog since March 30th and so far it’s been a great resource and an amazing display of some of my work this year. It hasn’t just been my teachers, my classmates, my family and I that have looked at it — as of August 6 my blog has had 533 visits worldwide. Amazing or what? WOW.”

Wow indeed.

 Jenny Luca contributes to PLP’s group blog Voices from the Learning Revolution.

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/08/six-reasons-why-kids-should-know-how-to-blog/

Ahora, sólo nos queda reflexionar… y,por qué no? ponernos en práctica.

Podemos hacerlo!!!