ESL Research, Methods and Assessment. Seminar 1

Dr. Mattix started with a simple activity, we wrote our names, countries and the words which describes us in a piece of paper. It was a mnemonics for her. My word was Visionary, because I like to think about the future with my feet in the present, think about projects for a medium and long term. Like usually Trust was making us laugh with his funny explanation about him. He is happy because in his home is happy, at GMu is happy and everywhere is happy. :)

We played TIC TAC TOE, which allowed us to know each other more. For instance Viktoryia speaks more that 5 languages, Elvin has been in more than 6 countries, Appia had a cat as pet but he ate it, Trust has two daughters and 18 years working as a teacher, Nurgul has no kids, Elliot was invited by his president to have dinner, Marlene is the youngest in the group, and much more.

We identified challenges we have at schools with English Learners that are common in different countries, e.g: English learners aren't motivated in learning english, the pronunciation is a tough task, learners forgets the topics year by year, irregular verbs is difficult for them to memorize, among others. The succesful things we have done with them are for example practicing with online games, combining some topics with kinesthetic activities and songs.

"Teaching English Learners is like track and field athletes in a competition"

Many students start but not all of them can succeed.

There are also factors that influence English learners' learning. My fellow Appia and I concluded:

• Plethoric classes
• Teacher's attitude
• Time for practicing the language
• Content or quality of the curriculum
• Extracurricular activities to suppport the teacher (clubs, karaoke, etc)

Then Dr. mattix shared some others

Two games were played. Why and because and white board slam. We enjoyed a lot. They can be easily played in our classrooms.

Seminar 3. Pedagogy and leadership

In this new meeting we talked about Multiple intelligences MI with Dr. Shahrokhi. This theory proposed by Howard Gardner  in 1983 contradicts the concept of intelligence as a single general ability, instead claims that there are seven  different intelligences and a person posseses all the  intelligences. Then other two intelligences were added. So, nine have been discovered so far. But even most interesting is that the intelligences can work together in complex ways, that means that they don't work isolated, and the majority of people can develop each intelligence in an average level of competency.

A self reflection about ourselves, our most developed intellegences and the least ones was carried out. For me, I am intelligent beacuse I can easily make new friends, socialize with people I don't know, work in teams (Interpersonal intellegence or relating to others) I can easily remember faces of people I have seen before (Visual) and I have a persuasive use of the language (at least in my Mother tongue, he he he), that is a Verbal intellegence, but I  am not good at orientation, find and address (spatial intelligence) and it's not easy for me understand musical structures (musical intelligence).

The intelligence the teacher has, impacts on the materials he/she uses at the classrooms. We avoid using methods or materials that require our least developed intelligence. In spite of the weakness we have in any of these intelligences we should potentiate all of them in our classes.

As a consequence, planning a lesson needs more time and care than before. Teachers should think about ways of developing all their students' intelligences. Following these steps:

1. Focus on specific objective or topic

2. Ask key MI (Multiple Intelligences) question

3. Consider the possibilities

4. Brainstorm
5. Select appropriate activities

6. Set up a sequential plan

7. Implement the plan

Reference:

Armstrong, Thomas. 2009. Multiple Intelligences in The Classroom. Third Edition. Virginia USA: ASCD.

New Pedagogy, Reflection and Leadership. Seminar 2

INSIGHTS, PERSONAL REFLECTIONS AND COMMITMENTS

In this second seminar with Dr. Shahrokhi we discussed about the first two chapter of the book "Leading in a culture of change" by Michael Fullan. One of the conclusion of the seminar is that leadership is an important trait for teachers who wants to have essential changes in the schools, communities or countries they are. Besides, "leadership is needed for problems that don't have easy answers". So teachers are needed to generate those changes our society requieres. As a matter of fact, the deep reforms depend on us, no on extraordinary people.

A leader is not a crucial person form history or a person who was murdered to give freedom to his/her community. Being a leader doesn't mean being a superhero. We have many leaders around us who inspires others, who gives ideas to confront hard situations in our daily lives, who can guide a team to find out differents ways to solve a problem, different perspectives of something or supports others.  

A leader not necessarily born with that ability. This one can be developed over the years or depend on the circumstances you are going through. Here is when relationships have lot of relevance, since they can find people who join him/her to achieve a goal or to make it easier. "Students don't learn from teachers they don't like"

In brief, good leaders need to be aware of the change is part of the society, develop good relationships, promote knowledge building,  have goals with a moral purpose defined, and be coherent.

One of the moral purposes in education is to make a difference in our students' lives. My personal moral purpose is to make my students aware of they are part of a global citizenship, doors can be open not just in our community but also in other cities or countries and English is a key to open them.

QUOTES FROM THE BOOKS

"The more complex society gets, the more sophisticated leadership must become" (p. v)
"Leaders in business and education face similiar challenges -how to cultivate and sustain learning under conditions of complex, rapid change" (p. vii)
"If relationship improves, things get better" (p. 5)

My First Technology Class

In my first seminar of "Teaching with Technology" with Drs. Norton, Hathaway and Tareque we talked about the concept of technology and concluded that Technology is anything that help for us and mediate between us and the world.

We can use tools that helps us to live and understand our world and also to teach in our schools. They are classified in:

• Concepts
• Symbolic tools 
• Electronic

All those tools facilitate our teaching and achieve our goals with Authentic, background building, constructive and sharing activites. For these ones, teachers should assess the technology he/she is going to use, because different technologies afford differents activities and goals.

In this first session we created a blog, which will be a nice resource to keep track of what we are learning in this university and that allow us reflecting in English, developing writing skills as well.

"Teachers are designers of students' learning opportunities"

Introduction

Hello everybody!

I am Andry Cordoba Díaz, an English teacher from Colombia. I am extremely happy for being selected to participate in the Teaching Excellent and Achievement program. It is organized by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State. and  provides international teachers with an opportunity to enhance their teaching skills and increase their knowledge about the United States. The TEA program is a six-week customized academic program that includes seminars on curriculum development, lesson planning, instructional technology, and new teaching methodologies. Fellows participate in a practicum in a U.S. secondary school, working closely with US teachers and students. The program provides cultural enrichment, mentoring, and support."

This blog aims at recording all my insights, perceptions, learnings, personal reflection and commitments generated in our seminars at George Mason University GMU in Virigina, US.