Tuesday 9 June 2015

How do you motivate your students to reach their full potential?


 

How do you motivate your students to reach their full potential?

 

While motivating students can be a difficult task, the rewards can be really worth it, because teaching a class full of motivated students can be enjoyable for both teacher and students. As a teacher, I try to do my best to make learning fun and inspire my students to reach their full potential.

 

Here is what I do to get my students excited about learning:

 

- I try to get creative, by changing around the structure of my lesson plan. I  try to create a stimulating environment using  videos and discussions instead of lectures, or movies and visual aids.

 

- I try to get the students involved and teach them responsibility by giving each student a job to do (tidying up the classroom, turning on/the computer and the smart board, working in groups and assigning each a task or role)

 

- I always encourage students; If I give them positive reinforcement, they are usually more likely to be enthusiastic about learning, as they feel their work is recognized and valued. I try to make them feel important by praising them for their contributions to the lesson

 

- I offer my students small incentives, like better grades to students who create an original multimedia project or coach struggling classmates in their collaborative or remedial activities. This kind of reward usually encourages students to work harder.

 

- I relate lessons to students' lives. It's important to demonstrate how the subject I teach (English for computer users) relates to my students and that they will use it in their career.

Monday 8 June 2015

Digital storytelling


How do you teach your students digital literacy? 

I'm always looking for creative ways to learn and produce. With the help of all the great tools out there, I want to make sure my students gain digital literacy and become fluent in finding and evaluating information, creating and collaborating.

For example,

I allow  students to maintain webpages that they can share and collaborate on with their peers:

http://carello-dicarlo.wix.com/bigchangetofacebook

and

I have students create digital stories that they can share and publish. Example of digital storytelling:

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/664414689190477824


 

 

Monday 1 June 2015

Can games actually be useful instructional tools?



 

Can games actually be useful instructional tools?

 

Game- based  learning is one of the major trends affecting education in the next five years. Some say the future of classroom learning should be digitized and “gamified,” so that students barely notice they are learning. Is it a positive or negative trend in education? Why?

Is it true that:

computer games give students a chance to learn at their own pace, take risks, cultivate deeper understanding, fail and want to try again and, ultimately, succeed in ways that too often elude them in traditional school settings?

computer games are essential to our social skills, adaptability, intelligence, creativity, ability to

    problem solve?


Some interesting articles here:

http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/trends/1861-videos-to-learn-about-gamification-in-education

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/neurologist-makes-case-video-game-model-learning-tool

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/tag/games/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-video-games-are-the-future-of-education/