March 4, 2008

Becoming a Web2 teacher

Teaching Reflections 4/3/08 

Allan and Eliot tell us to try stuff you can’t do with pen and paper. Cool, but HELP! How do you manage a class when they’re online and you’re not? When they know more about computers and hiding what they shouldn’t be doing than your meagre skills can keep up with? When your classroom is a shared learning space and you can’t control the level of noise your own class is making, let alone tha of the other users of the space?

Obviously my first foray into web2 teaching was not as smooth as I could have hoped, but lets look at this objectively. My first classes while on prac had mixed success and this is a similar situation - teaching from outside my comfort zone.

What worked?

  • the online figurative language quiz
  • directing students to use a thesaurus/dictionary to gain an understanding of unfamiliar words
  • asking students to relay their new understandings to their colleages
  • working in pairs

What needs work!

  • some sort of format to display instructions so I don’t have to rely on voice and individual instruction - a whiteboard would work for me at the moment, but I should look at an eboard, laptop and projector, or even directing them to a site with the task and instructions. How do I set that up?
  • classroom management - quiet signals, agreed on no-go sites/applications (like the voice thing?!) and agreed on consequences.
  • ability to monitor student engagement in the task - teacher monitor screen like upstairs?
  • lesson structure - go back to aims, resources and students learn to/about
  • lesson closure and reflection - post reflections on a class site? How do I set up such a thing?

Trial by fire. Y9 worked well, about 90% engagement. Some of this was due to spacing issues - very hard to fit two kids to a computer. Due to time constraints, I don’t think they reviewed the top 10 tips with much detail, and not all were able to email me their reflections.

Y10 were more challenging - they know their stuff too well and some kids were really late, meaning that I was back at the begining with them while others were getting bored and - surprise surprise! - mucking up. One student made the really good point that the reflections on the tips was more than one lesson’s work. Unfortunately, now that I’ve used this particular resource, I can’t go back and ask them to spend more time on it.

 I need to learn to abreviate my reflections, either that or type faster!

Bring on my new laptop and the Breakfast Club. 

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