Dzień dobry,

Witaj na moim blogu.

Czego można znaleźć? Na razie informacji jest nie wiele, ale z czasem będzie coraz więcej. Planuję różne tematyki pod wspólnym mianownikiem naukę oraz nauczanie języka angielskiego. Dużo będzie o tym, co robię w English with Maria. 

Na dobry początek postanowiłam omówić w kilka postów metodyki nauczania, które są mi najbliższe.

Dlaczego piszę o metodykach? Otóż nie wierzę, że jest jedna jedyna słuszna metoda nauki języka angielskiego. Zawsze uważałam, że to nauczyciel/ lektor poszukuje skuteczną formę przekazu, a nie uczeń/ słuchacz dopasowuje się do metody nauczyciela. Tak jak każdy z nas to inny ‘zestaw’ cech osobowościowych, tak samo nasze style uczenia się różnią. Dla tego dopasowuję metody nauczania języka obcego do słuchacza/ ucznia .

Jeden z filarów, na którym opieram swoje nauczanie to CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), po polsku to zintegrowane kształcenie przedmiotowo-językowe. Metoda ta polega na jednoczesnym przekazywaniu treści z dziedziny przedmiotów szkolnych (np. matematyka), łącząc je z języków obcych.

Czy taki CLIL ma racje bytu w szkole językowej?

Choć odpowiedź nasuwa się sama z siebie, to pozwól, że uzasadnię:

* każdy uczestnik kursów ma zasób wiedzy, z której wchodzi na zajęcia. Wiemy co to krokodyl, ustalamy gdzie mieszka. Rozmawiając o wakacjach, pracujemy z mapą. A jeżeli uczymy się liczb, to dlaczego nie zrobić kilka obliczeń po angielsku.

                              Klasa 1 powtarza cyfr 1-10 w obliczeniach przy użyciu dodawaniu i                                                                          odejmowaniu oraz gry planszowej .

* stymulacje różnych rodzajów inteligencji, np. matematyczno-logiczna, ruchowa czy wizualno-przestrzenna. Gdybyś chciał(a) dowiedzieć się więcej, polecam poszukać Teoria Wielorakich Inteligencji Howarda Gardnera.

* naukę poprzez stymulację zmysłów

* zawartość tekstów do przeczytania/ posłuchania nawiązuje do istniejących miejsc, wydarzeń. Czy wiecie, że autor serii Speak Out (książki dla młodzieży i dorosłych) oparł cały materiał na prawdziwych tekstów? Bardzo często z uczestnikami zajęć English with Maria poszukujemy dalszych informacji właśnie na podstawie tych materiałów.

* książki do nauki języka obcego coraz częściej odwołują się do kultury krajów, nie tylko anglojęzycznych. To zdaje się świetny pretekst do nauki, wykorzystując metody projektowej.

Następnym razem napiszę o filozofii Montessori, drugi filar w English with Maria. Do zobaczenia w listopadzie.

Stare vs Nowe

     Od jakiegoś czasu noszę się z pomysłem wrócić do swojego blogu, tym razem pisząc po polsku. Czy uda mi się co jakiś czas wrzucać swoje przemyślenia? Czy będę miała na to czasu? Okaże się z czasem. Na pewno zrobię duuużo błędów i z góry dziękuję za wskazanie. Może się lepiej nauczę :)
    Na razie się witam serdecznie i obiecuję, że przygotuję swój pierwszy post już za tydzień. 

#ds4oer

Haven't studied for a while :)

DNLers :) Moodle and Bloom :)

FOC Wks 4-5

I heard the recording from the meeting on Monday, and kept thinking ever after on what teacher, facilitator and moderator mean to me..
So far it is the moderator which is easier to separate. My association goes that it is the person who looks after a forum, i.e. checks relevance and quality. Facilitator in turn, would be the one who makes the discussion go on towards some desired end. And a teacher (I am aware of what Leigh wrote, but would still run the risk :)), this is a combination of both roles. Why? I'd attempt to answer that question using the prompts that were given on the course's main page.
When does the act of teaching compromise the role of a facilitator of an online community?
Each time a teacher starts a new online course, (s)he assumes more the role of a facilitator than that of a teacher. It is the first weeks, not to say the first hours that are very often decisive about the course's success. Thus, it seems that right there at the beginning a teacher should try to incorporate facilitator's strategies to comfort each participant in a new learning environment within a new group of people.
When does the act of moderating online discussion compromise the role of a facilitator of an online community?
Generally, moderating a discussion one takes care of its content, relevance and even quality. I believe that a moderator is someone who by his/her 'care' unites the participants, and it is that unifying character of moderator's tasks that makes it possible to compare him/her with a facilitator.
When does the act of facilitation compromise the role of a teacher or moderator in an online community?
The answer to that question would surely summarize my answers above. A facilitator has to make sure that online community members share interests, common grounds and have enough opportunities for interaction - similar to a teacher in an online course (and not only). Simultaneously, a facilitator is 'uniting' participants in a shared cause, problem, issue, topic, etc. This is the characteristic, which I could compare to a moderator.
When are these three roles appropriate in an online community?
The fastest way to answer - whenever an online community emerges. What all these roles share is authority. Whether it is a teacher of an online course, a moderator of an online discussion or a facilitator of an online community, they all have exercise authority over the rest of the participants. They bring in a sense of leadership and care.
I'd try to investigate the skills later on in a comment to this post.

FOC Wks 2-5 (probably a bit off the record)

I came across an interesting question, while reading forum posts on the discussion group. Bronwyn Stuckey raised the issue of facilitation coming through public and private channels.
In the courses I have taught so far both channels are used. Public goes through forums, whereas private is either via Moodle's messenger or e-mail. Of course, blended courses offer the opportunity for a f2f support, which, however, is rarely taking place in online courses.
I would indulge into discussing the channels themselves. As already mentioned, the public channel is based on forums. I use two types of work facilitation forums - News Forum and I Need Help.
The former is set to give news and announcements. The participants can reply, but cannot have a discussion between themselves. The latter is the place where cries for help are posted, concerning technical difficulties or unclear tasks. I believe that this way of dealing with problems is quite efficient - it is very often the case that the post's author might get a reply from another participant on how to solve their problem. In such situations, I always leave a 'thank you' note. I think that this way my online presence is enhanced.
The private channel - Moodle's messenger or e-mail. Mostly private communication goes through the messenger. In the language courses, I use it to correct mistakes in forum posts: that usually takes some time. However, later on I have a clear record on mistakes and could easily see whether the person is working towards improvement. The next function is to praise and rarely to criticise. This one-to-one approach helps especially those who are shy, or simply not used to studying online.
Sometimes participants contact me via the messanger with a problem. If it is a single person issue - I reply, but advise them to use the 'I Need Help' forum, as the chances to get a faster response are higher. If several participants contact me with the same problem (which means that I have overlooked something in the course), I usually post my reply in the 'News Forum'.
I believe that being able to contact the teacher privately is of high importance, especially when the student finds him/herself in a completely new learning environment.

FOC Weeks 2 and 3 Online Community

Tones of work over the past two weeks completely prevented me from participating on a par with the rest - a mere excuse, but still.
Well, reading your posts on the forum, I realized that the train of thoughts I have been following for a while is taking me to a dead end. Still, as there is barely enough time to re-organize everything I will not attempt answering the question what an online community is.
Instead I would just mention my conclusions from my learning experience:

• the bibliography I have used in my research is already outdated;
  
• there are many perspectives to take into account;
  
• in my work I am going to answer the question that Leigh posted "What is community really, and what aspects transfer online?"
  

An argument, or may be several arguments that I am surely going to keep are summarized in the following paragraph:

"On-line interaction can be in no way separated from the participant's off-line activities. Each participant lives within a certain social and political context. These contexts either enable or disable the participants to access on-line communities, become users/members or decide not to become such. While being on-line the participants bring with them their off-line experiences or even their whole background; thus changing, negotiating or interpreting on-line interaction. That is why when exploring virtual communities one has to bear in mind variables such as class, gender, and age, as these are believed to affect greatly computer use. It should also be investigated where from on-line community members access the Internet, i.e. whether it is at home, at school or at work. To access the net from work means that the participants have some free time, e.g. a larger break between classes. If, however, the participants access the Internet at home, this would mean making some compromises concerning family, leisure time and other responsibilities" (this is part of my end-of-year paper, that's why I quote it. I write about classes as my initial intention was to research EFL teachers.)

I would be grateful to hear your feedback on my hypothesis stating that online community participation means "sacrificing" personal off-line time.