Speaking with Genially

I think that this is a good example of what can be done with the help of technological resources, This is a project I did last year with my first of bachillerato class. You have to click on the numbers to follow the process we underwent, but I also explain it below:
1. Reading about what gender is.
2.We made a brainstorming with Mentimeter, a very interactive and easy-to-use tool, about how gender affected our lives. We, as a class,  decided it was important and we compromised to make what gender was known to the students in our high school. We chose a 3rd ESO class.
3. Outline of the project with Genially.
4. I gave them a handout to organise the activity they were going to present to the other class (Genially).
5. Preparation of the activities (2 classes)
6. Before presenting the activity to the other class, they rehearsed in front of their mates. They had to fill in a form on what assessment or feedback was to be given back and how (located in Scribd)
7. Making the final preparations, after their mates' assessments, they make the necessary changes and...
Camera. Actual presentations, I do not have permission to show openly the videos, but I can assure you, they did a great job.
Last, but not less important, you can see the rubric by clicking on Evaluation.
With this activity, they learnt a lot of English, they learnt a lot about teaching, they also learnt a lot about helping in the community... They loved the experience. Regarding to possible changes, I would give them one more session, I could not, because I had to evaluate them, but they were a bit hurried.

This is a big project, but this year I started a much more humble and simple one. Every day one or two of my students present a small talk of 1 or 2 minutes of different topics from a list I make them choose from about British and American culture, though they have one joker if they want to present something of their own, In this second term I told them they had to use a digital visual support, they can choose whatever one they want, so far, they used PowerPoint, Genially and the tool for presentations that Guadalinex has.

Activity with a timeline

This is the activity I had thought about doing with my class. It has been a long time that I have not studied specific methodology for reading or any other skill, I have been Head of Studies of my high school and I did not have much time, but now that my familiar situation has changed and I have more time, I was very happy to take this course. I had no idea about intensive and extensive reading; it has been eye-opening for me. 

My students usually have to read a compulsory book, all of them the same. Now, I think this is a mistake. Since this year we still have this one you can see in the timeline, which has been created with Canva, a great tool, called Tales of the Macabre. I have worked a lot with Picktochart some time ago and I tried TimeToast, but for me is too oldish, not too intuitive and more difficult for me than Canva or Genially.

I have decided to create this timeline with the steps of the activity they have to do so that they are also provided with an example. I will show them the three tools that I have managed at a point or another so that they can decide which one they prefer and we will have a variety of students using different tools, which will build up their confidence and their digital competence. Also, it promotes their improvement in the comprehension of the texts they read because they have to work in their brains with the information they are getting.

MY FAVOURITE READING STRATEGY

Reading is a challenge in the English classes, especially because our students do not usually read a lot, not even in their native language. I have learnt in this module that extensive reader has got much more advantages than intensive reading, which is what I mostly do in my classes. I will try to improve the extensive reading part.

I work reading almost every day in class, we use it mainly to read the instructions of all the activities that we do and also most of the exercises we do, we read them aloud, but I reckon that this is not a reading that students or even I enjoy; it is just that it is easier to focus their attention if we are working with written rather than oral texts.

My favourite strategy is the use of the reading to work other skills, especially oral ones. I usually use this one especially with lower level groups; this year I am using it with 2nd FPB. It consists in the following: I tell them to read the text on their own and silently and underline five to six words that they do not know how to pronounce (maybe they know their meaning or maybe they do not, we focus on its pronunciation), then we listen to the text read aloud (by me or played on any device that we can make use of), they should focus on the pronunciation while they are listening and finally they read it aloud making the effort of reading the words they have chosen correctly, in this way, they focus on learning the pronunciation of some words of their choice, it helps them develop a better understanding of the text and of oral comprehension. If all the class does it well, they get a prize, that is, extra points, listening to a song in English of their choice, getting time to do homework in the class and so on, it depends on the day.

MY READING HABITS

Helsinki's Public Library

I have liked reading all my life, I can remember how the pages of books made me happy and made me stay up till late. My reading habits have changed, though. When I was younger I liked reading novels, especially long ones from the beginning of the 19th century, nowadays I read a lot of articles, I still read some novels and I am starting to appreciate good poem books. I usually read literature on paper and articles on electronic devices. And I still try to read as much as I can, in fact, my favourite places are libraries and bookshops. I like reading in the original language, but this is only possible in English, French and Spanish, and the choices are quite the same for the three languages.

In the images you have presented us, we find several readers' profiles: it is interesting that children seem not to have chosen their readers, the one who seems to be with her grandmother has a book on flowers and the kids in class are all reading the same book (at least the first one has an affective bound to the person who has probably chosen the text). Adults seem to have more freedom and therefore be happier with their choices.

INNOVATIVE TEACHING PRACTICES SUPPORTED BY THE FOCUSED USE OF ICT TOOLS IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

I created this blog a few years ago to use it as a virtual notebook online for all of my courses. I usually write in Spanish in it, because I have been doing other online courses in which the language was Spanish, but I was sooo looking forward for a course in English.

I am doing this new one in English at the CEP de Castilleja, the "school for teachers" that our employees have given us teachers and which I am so proud of. This is a very necessary place for teachers to develop their skills and not to feel alone, if we work together, we will get further and that benefits our students. Therefore, we will have some posts in it in English.

I have added this list of links they asked us for, I have also added some more blogs and a picture here in the post. Since they asked for two pictures and I don't like entries with two pictures so much, I have changed the background of the blog with the picture I have for my real blog Close your books, which helped me work with my students for several years and also cowork with other teachers who didn't work at my high school (I don't know if you will be able to see it for, as long as I know, it was stolen from me a couple of years ago, so I had to migrate the contents to Close your books2). I have also created the list of links and the cloud of tags I was asked for, so I am willing to jump into step/module 2 when my tutor allows me to.

We are going to have a great course!!!

NUEVO CURSO: HABILIDADES PARA LA VIDA Y ALFABETIZACIÓN EMOCIONAL EN CONTEXTOS EDUCATIVOS

Empiezo muy ilusionada este curso sobre "Habilidades para la vida y alfabetización emocional" ya que considero que es fundamental aprender y enseñar estas habilidades y capacidades emocionales para llevar una vida feliz, que para mí, es mi gran objetivo en la vida, que podamos disfrutar de lo bueno y sobrellevar lo malo aprendiendo de ello.

¿Razones para desarrollar y esforzarse en conseguir que nuestro alumnado tenga esas habilidades que son fundamentales para la vida? A diario veo en clase que quien se conoce y acepta mejor está más relajad@ y sus reacciones son siempre las mejores dentro de las distintas opciones, puesto que son más asertivas. Me gusta hacer reflexionar a mi alumnado sobre las motivaciones de su comportamiento (autoconocimiento) y las razones de quien tiene en frente (empatía), así como procurar que lleguen a un entendimiento (comunicación empática). Sin embargo, soy humilde y entiendo que no soy una profesional del tema, por lo que este curso me va a venir fenomenal.


Esta es mi imagen de una escuela ideal:

Mi escuela ha de ser pública, con gran felicidad en toda la comunidad educativa y con un esfuerzo compartido por hacer un buen trabajo.

Por último a lo que me comprometo yo esta semana, aunque ya vaya un poco tarde:

A ver, una de mis debilidades es la adaptabilidad, aunque creo que soy flexible y una primera frustración la llevo bien, la segunda ya me cuesta más y suelo bloquearme, por lo que mi compromiso es seguir intentándolo y tener una mente algo más abierta para buscar otras soluciones distintas que puedan servirme.

Reto 5: Prototipo y canvas final

En el canvas que tenéis al principio de la entrada, está la mayoría de la información resumida. Voy a intentar hacer un pequeño resumen de lo que sería mi proyecto gamificado.

Es importante que tengamos en cuenta que hacemos esto principalmente por dos motivos: el primero de ellos es que nuestro alumnado aprenda, no sólo contenidos curriculares, sino que también desarrollen otras competencias que son fundamentales para la formación completa de las personas; el segundo es que ¡¡¡es mucho más divertido!!!. Es fundamental que el profesorado busquemos maneras de enseñar que nos haga ver lo maravilloso de nuestra profesión, de tener la posibilidad de ser parte activa en el desarrollo integral de nuestro alumnado.

En este proyecto hemos utilizado mecánicas de niveles, puntos y clasificaciones (barra de progreso) para fomentar la motivación extrínseca. El comienzo de la actividad y la recompensa final (aparte del aprendizaje de los verbos irregulares) son externos al aula y la materia, por lo que espero que sea más motivador. Podéis encontrar más información sobre las mecánicas utilizadas en  los apartados Niveles y Componentes (Soporte para el Juego) del Canvas que tenéis arriba. Las dinámicas incluyen el progreso personal, grupal y de su clase, que les representará en la partida final por lo que les moverá el poder sentirse parte de su clase (hecho de pertenencia a una comunidad) y el estatus de poder ir a la partida final, asociado al reconocimiento de Mens sana in corpore sano tras finalizar la carrera. Podéis encontrar la narrativa de mi proyecto en la entrada del reto 3, que ha sido revisada y mejorada tras la revisión de compañero/as del curso. (Gracias por vuestras aportaciones).

Este proyecto va dirigido al alumnado de 2º de la ESO, de todo el nivel, sería una actividad a nivel de departamento. Mi proyecto no tiene la estética de la fantasía puesto que considero que mi alumnado no entraría por ahí, he diseñado una narrativa pegada a la realidad y con recompensas reales en su día a día, en la clase de inglés y de EF para poder participar en una actividad de centro (La Carrera de la Primavera del IES Tartessos). De está forma, aúno el alumnado socializador con el triunfador y los conquistadores, quedarían de lado tan solo un poco los exploradores.

Mi compañera Angela Ochoa también ha estado realizando este curso y ya nos estamos poniendo de acuerdo para implementar ambos proyectos el curso que viene, así que, espero que me hagáis sugerencias para mejorar este proyecto que ciertamente lleva mucho trabajo detrás pero motivará al alumnado y a su profesora.

A mis compañeros y compañeras del MOOC, muchas gracias por vuestro tiempo y sabiduría. Al resto, ya os enseñaré los resultados y os comentaré si funciona.