Final Thoughts...

One of the last tasked asked for in the MOOC is to write down our final thoughts after completing the assignments proposed in the course. First of all,  I have to say that though I made it in time, its been a tough week with all the work at school, though its been  worth while since I have learned many new things to put into use next school year. These are the questions formulated by the MOOC for each participant to answer:

1. What have you learnt from the course? 

I have learned a lot about collaborative teaching and learning. The use of ICT tools is something I will definitely incorporate in my classroom, to a bigger extent than I have to the moment. I have learned how to use different tools online, and a number of ones I didn't know existed. 

2. What are the positive aspects of the MOOC? 

Positive aspects have been getting to learn from others, sharing experiences, and being able to talk about it with many like ourselves, from all parts of the world. Best part was being able to communicate with people around the globe!

3. What are the negative aspects of the MOOC?

Maybe the timing of the MOOC wasn't adjusted to all the labour I had to do at work, its been crazy last month at school.

4. What would you suggest to improve it?

I suggest offering the MOOC  at a better time during the school year, a more relaxed time if there is any :-)

Overall, this has been a great experience, and I am glad to have been able to share it with many teachers with the same needs as me. Thanks for reading, see you on the Network!

UNIT 5: FINAL PROYECT

After all the activities, peer revising and assessing, this is my final product. I have learned very much after coursing this MOOC. It's been a pleasure, and I am looking forward to putting into practice all what I have learned. In the meantime, see you on the network!

Final Project

UNIT 4: E-ACTIVITY

Project Design

In Unit 3 we are asked to draft a collaborative project to work with our students in school. As this year I had the great experience of working with 3 different classes on creating a class yearbook, I think it would be a great idea to expand and instead of making a classbook, make a European Newspaper, where students from different countries can share their experiences with others. For this I have elaborated the following draft of my project.

PROJECT: The European School Newspaper

ABSTRACT: The European School Newspaper will feature the different events that students engage in during the school year, such as their complementary activities and extra-curricular activities. It will also have a section where the students share their curiosities and tastes on music, films, and past time activities.  The idea is to create a newspaper where different activities performed by students of Europe  are shown.

GOALS: 

1.  Improve writing skills in English.  
2. Improve communication language skills (speaking in English). 
3. Use ICT tools successfully. 
4. Learn about interests and the different activities other students from Europe engage in.

WORK PROCESS:

The students of a given class will work in small groups of 4. Each group will have a task in the school newspaper. One group will be the one in charge of taking the different pictures to include. Other groups will write the articles of a given section. We will have one group working on the editing of the newspaper.

Communication among the partners will be done by email, social network, and twitter among others.  A common platform will be used to share the different articles that each group writes, being assessed by one another  on the contents and gramatical correction.

We will evaluate the project considering the implication of the students, using a rubric to score each group, and individually.

For the writing of the articles the students will have to create a guideline of the different information that should be included in them. This guideline will also be shared with others to help one another in the writing of the articles. The students will use word processors to write their articles. The articles then will be edited by the responsibles, and they will have pictures included.

EXPECTED RESULTS:

By the end of the project, the students will have printed out a full newspaper with the different articles created by their collaborative partners and them. They will also have the digital version which will be the one which can be shared online with the rests of the schools.

At the end of the project each student will have:

     -Cover an event at their school.

      -Learn how to write an article.

      -Practice writing an article.

      -Review their peers work.

AGE: 12-16

NUMBER OF PARTNERS: 2-3

AREAS OR SUBJECTS: English as a foreign Language / Computer Class

LANGUAGE USED: English

I hope you find it interesting to work with. Hope to get feedback on my ideas. Thanks a lot for reading...

Task two - Learning and teaching needs

In unit 2 brainstorming was the first step to take to realize what could improve in our teaching process, and how this would help our students in their learning process. Together we shared our thoughts on a PADLET (new tool that I have never used before, clear and attractive to the eye).

The questions we had to answer were: what can I improve? What would I like to try? What am I not happy with? Is there anything which is not working?

This is my contribution to the PADLET:

Communication Strategies, Algeciras (Spain) - Cristina Rodríguez

I think the major problem I find with my students in class is the difficulty on reading comprehension and lack of communicative skills. I teach English as a foreign language, and students are not comfortable with communicating in the language. I think I need to improve and find new strategies to help students in their oral and reading skills.

I would like to try working with others in the process of sharing and communicating, perhaps in a real context students will be motivated to communicate in the second language.

I'm not happy with the lack of resources that my school has. The use of tablets or computers in school would help with the development of a project.  

Reading the rest of the posts on the padlet has made me realize that we all have common goals, and together we can accomplish them. Many of us want to improve our students communication skills, whether if its speaking or with presentations. Also, the use of ICT tools is something that most want to exploit. For this, the list.ly is a great platform where we can find all kind of tools, projects and apps to use when working with our students. In this list I have shared the presentation tool PREZI. 

I would be happy to know your thoughts and contributions to my post. Thank again for reading...

See you on the network