Thank God Tuesday and Wednesday were holidays in Morocco,
otherwise it would have been impossible for me to do all the readings and the
postings by Wednesday. Monday is a killer for me this year (I don't like
Mondays, you know the song? Summer 79 ) because I teach six classes of
varying levels from 8 to 6 and I get to deal with about 180 students on the
first day of the week. You can just imagine what would be the first thing to do after
I reach home. I envy ;-) my course mates who were able to respond to
the tasks right after Donna posted them. Amazingly unbeatable. I
definitely need help here because I am unable to manage my time to successfully meet
the deadlines under these circumstances.
Having said that, week 2 was very fruitful in terms of content
and interactivity especially with the web searching task. Almost every one of
us realized how Googleholic we were. Noodletools is a gold mine for all teachers
without exception but especially those of us who are coping with the use of technology
in our teaching situations. Noddletools deserves to go to the top of the list of my
bookmarks. Reading the reactions of my colleagues was also an enriching
activity as I learned much more than I did myself from the findings they shared.
Reading my colleagues reactions was the best part of the tasks of this week.
Also, the ABCD
objectives made the task of writing lesson plan objectives easier and clearer
for our students. With Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind, and a little practice, the
confusing objectives will soon be revised and updated. As for the project task, I discovered something that I was not aware of. That is the majority
of my student population is girls. I learned this when I was collecting the
information to describe my class. However, I am not clear about the project
itself and which technology to use to solve which issue. I trust that the
coming weeks will help to get a clearer idea about this.
In the end, I would like to invite you all to
listen to the song that inspired this blog post. I am sure many of you from
my generation know the clip.
Enjoy
Dear Karim,
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear that you managed to organise your time and find time for all of these readings, it is a lot of work but I found that it is all related, useful and applicable. I don't think we will be able to give google up at once but with the help of noodletools we can find usefull alternatives for it. Google one day may become history, who knows?! Do you think having a majority of girls among your class is a distinctive factor when speaking about technology, I am not sure.
One last thing, my wife and I enjoyed your song.
Yours,
Ra'ed
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHappy you enjoyed the clip.
DeleteThe girls in most of my classes outperform the boys in that they score higher but most of the time, the top of the class is a boy. Interesting, isn't it? Is that the case for you? However, girls are at a disadvantege in terms of technology because accessibility is unequal. How is the situation at your schools?
Hi Karim,
ReplyDeleteWe are all definitely - or should I say, we have all been -googleaholic. Can't say if google days are numbered, but I can say is that we are now able to do wiser searches.
Bloom's taxonomy has also been revisited after so long in the shelves, and you know what? I'm loving this course for this opportunity to deal with technology to enhance teaching / learning as well as to update pedagogically. Practice and theory!
Unlike you, Mondays and then Fridays are the lighter days. Though I have classes everyday, Tuesd. Wed and Thursdays drive me mad with so many classes and I spend the whole day at school. I have to admit I didn't know the song you shared, but right away came another on to my mind which I think is quite appropriate: "Just another manic Monday... wish it was Sunday" (Bangles). Here is link to one of the youtube videos available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAZgLcK5LzI
Hope you also like this on. Best greetings from Portugal,
Alex
Thank you for your sympathy and for the song. I like that one, too.
DeleteYour students are very lucky to have such a great dedicated teacher.
We are equally lucky to have you with us on this course.
Obrigado
Hi Karim,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the song and your sense of humor that lighten up the course. I think I am luckier than you and Alex- until now- in the sense that we are, in Egypt, still in the mid-term holiday so I take a long breath before the start of the second term. As for the point you raised about gender differences in terms of using technology I have to quote this finding "Margolis and Fisher (2002) reported that computing is claimed as “male territory” very early in life: from early childhood through college, computing is both actively claimed as “guy stuff” by boys and men and passively ceded by girls and women. Society and culture have linked interest and success with computers to boys and men. In the words of Margolis and Fisher (2002), “curriculum, teachers’ expectations, and culture reflect boys’ pathways into computing, accepting both assumptions of male excellence and women’s deficiencies in the field” (p. 4).
(Source: Mims-Word, M. (2012). The Importance Of Technology Usage In The Classroom, Does Gender Gaps Exist. Retried on Jan. 2014; http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php)/CIER/article/view/7271) I advise you to read this article. As a researcher, I can say that in implementing technology or any other teaching strategy, we have to consider learners' learning styles and individual differences whether males or females. We consider the differences in achievement by statistical means to detect which gender exceeds the other. Therefore, in your project all what you have to do is to consider the learning styles and preferences so that you can; for example ask females to choose topics or do tasks and projects that suit their nature and preferences. It doesn't mean at all to change the technology you use, but vary the types of tasks within the same approach. Don't worry about your technique or problem as we all trust that Donna's step by step directions will guide us throughout the whole course to finalize our projects.
Salam,
Amira
dear Karim ,
ReplyDeletedon't worry about your time and organization. Looking and reading your post, I can see myself this week. Our winter holiday has just finished and , tomorrow, on Monaday, we start school again. Considering Google and googleaholic(as Alex said), I don't think that G. is going to the past.As a matter a fact, if you read additional reading, some webmasters think to improve search engines (G. is the leader) and roof searching topics into one unique searching engine that will give you results according to your current position, or to what your friends likes etc. Don't you think that Google would miss the chance?
ooo, yes, I love you link , but,"I don't care If Monday's blue" because I know that "on Friday I'm in love" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0)
greetings from Serbia
zeljko