LOGBOOK

WEEK 1                                                                                             
DATE 28/09/2012

A Successful Primary English Language Teaching

Our first task in this subject consisted to think about what is a Successful Primary English Language Teaching for us, and to draw it.

Firstly, I couldn’t draw the image I have about a successful English class. Then, I started to think about my English classes in my High school, the English academy or at University. After that, I mixed all the positives aspects I saw in those classes, and I could start to draw.  However, the main example I have is in the classes I’ve been in my school practice during the second year at University.

The second task was about to write a narrative about our draw. I tried to explain as better as I could what my draw means and how I see a Successful Primary English Language Teaching.

I have to admit that I never thought about this question and sincerely, it’s more important than I think. What about my future as a teacher? Well, this concept makes me think the idea of a well-balanced English class and how I can handle it as a teacher. If I think that some parts are essential to teach English, I’ll apply them with my future students.

In conclusion, my draw reflects how exactly I think an English lesson could succeed and my class in the future.  

DATE 01/10/2012

TALK. 2.0 Apps: Easier and catchier

This Monday we had the pleasure to receive a class of Ricard García, the editor of edu365.cat website and Crea and English professor since 1988, among other specialties.

About the new information gained, he showed us multiple resources to use with our students and teach them English –or other subjects, of course- in a dynamic and easily way. Some of these tools aren’t difficult to use, even for the children. Using it, we will see our students succeed in their learning process.

We can create avatars, new and original stories, share different opinions and points of view. The important part is that they’re creative, esteem and catchy. Some of the resources are, for example:

Voki, thinglink, voicethread, woices, Havefun!, bookr, Go!Animate, Storify or Glogster.

One important thing Ricard told us is that we should be really familiar with these apps and technologies in general before use them. Show them to students; let them see how they work and what can do with it.

However, I have some questions about the talk. I enjoyed so much knowing some new applications and examples of how to use these with our students, but my question is:  Where are the resources for the early childhood education? Most of the tools are focused for children between 8 to 12 years old, as Ricard said. If I have a class with 3-4 years old, where they can’t even read properly, which apps can recommend me?

Finally, as a future teacher I would like to apply technologies in my lessons and to opt for a new methodology with creative activities. Sometimes, original teaching is catchy for the students.

DATE 05/10/2012

Personal Learning Environments

In the last class of this week we started with a draw about our concept of Personal Learning Environments (PLE). Thus, we thought about what content we want to include on it.

In groups, we discussed the different parts of our PLE and the common aspects we had. Then, we included the points we thought interesting and shared it with the rest of the class.

In relation to the new information I think this graphics could be important to apply in my future as a teacher:

Learning to learn -> Critical thinking -> Collaboration -> Creativity -> Reflections -> Evaluation