Week 8 Teacher resources online

We are on the second half of this course and I need to share this: this course has changed me. I feel a legal digital citizen now. (Not native yet) But I feel much more confident working with several windows at the same time. It reminds me a little of when I learned how to drive. Gear, windscreen wipers, lights, driving wheel, they were too many things at the same time, I felt much the same when I started this course.

Now I have to focus my energy on the project. Motivating students to do assignments more enthusiastically through the web. I must say I have not been able to see all what  my classmates have created (this is part of what I have had to change,  I used to read everything, now we have to select as there is too much information at hand simultaneously) However, while reading the discussion thread on the creation of a website or exercise, I found Hassan is doing something similar.  I am still shaping mine so I will see if Hassan helps me inspire.  I believe in synergy.

Week 7 Students autonomy, Is teaching possible?

I liked what I read in Thanasoulas' article in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html
Especially when dealing with constructivism, the writer says that we can not teach anything, only learning is possible. I think that's quite close to what it really is. Everything is affected by context, history, emotions, so our role is that of facilitators and learners at the same time.
Once we accept that, anxiety decreases and we accept that the objective is the jouney, the process, the way... the goal is just an excuse to move... the moving is the goal. With or without technology.

My own daughter has repeated her 10th grade four times, and I have found it hard to accept it as walking. So I am not just talking for the sake of it. I mean what I say.

Ken Robinson: Changing Paradigms (Spanish)

Week 6: Motivating students to do homework more willlingly

"Students don't go over the assigned readings", "They come to class without having done research on the topic", "They don`t want to think".. 

What do I do to change that? How do I engage students into doing what I "have-to-teach-them-because-it-is-in-the-syllabus?", do I create opportunities for them to use what they "have to" learn?

I think I want to start by creating blogs like this for each student and ask them to make a weekly comment in theirs and someone else's blog, as we do. This is because students should get into the habit of logging in to do an assignment. In that way I would move from facebook, which I am using for the habit formation, to blogger.

Week 5: PBL, Webquests, tasks tasks tasks...

I started late this week, but I showed up. Project Based Learning I am familiar with but I found Gael's article very ... touching. I am that kind of teacher, with fewer resources which are starting to be more, we do similar things. Engage students in learning because we open doors and windows ajar to reality. The classroom is in many cases isolated from the world where we ALL live. Project Based, Task Based, Constructivism, CLT, Critical Thinking bridge that gap. 

That's why I attach my strawberries, which are not mine, I help them grow, they are part of the Earth as I am, as you are...