Making Connections

One of the requirements for my TCHG503 course is for students to use a reading strategy in their class and write report on that experience. This assignment is clearly described in the course outline. But as in my other courses, I too am completing this assignment.

I have identified a reading strategy that I want to try with my class..the virtual reading circle based on the idea of literature circles and virtual groups. The students have to read a novel of their choice and make weekly entries, comments and responses onto a discussion board. Each participant makes at least three posts and three responses to the circle’s online discussion. The assignment indicates that each post should contain “original, well-developed ideas about the author’s craft or makes insightful text-to-text, text-to-world, or text-to-self connections. Text-to-self connections may include a description of how the student is creating meaning as he or she reads. Questions and musings (“I wonder why...?”) are also appropriate. Discussion includes appropriate examples from the text. In addition, excellent work introduces a new idea or stimulates discussion…Work is posted on time” (Beeghly, 2005, p. 14).

So here is a reminder:

In Appreciation!

Yes, I am back! And this semester I am keeping two blogs, one for my diploma group and one for the masters group. Several students from my diploma groups joined me again this semester. Thank you! Your enthusiasm and confidence to sign up for a second class with me is deeply appreciated What a wonderful acknowledgment and thank you for me! We had such a fun time learning!  And welcome to the students I had not met before. I look forward to getting to know you and seeing you grow in this class. I hope that you will start your own blogs and comment on mine. We are all in this learning experience together! My thanks in advance for all that you will bring and share to this class.

We Are Powerful Beyond Measure...

Retrieved from http://loveandtheairport.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-deepest-fear.html

All Things Come To An End!

In this life, one can never imagine what will happen. I never imagined that I would be teaching teachers in Egypt, and I am sure that the Egyptian teachers in my two courses never imagined that they would have been taught by an Afro-Caribbean woman from Trinidad. But it has happened, our paths have crossed, and we have learned from each other, shared, laughed, cried, got mad, discussed, calmed down, reached out, and stressed. We have been bored, motivated, impressed, impassioned, surprised, and delighted. We have felt relief, anger, pain, and joy. But above all of this we have all enjoyed a wonderful sense of accomplishment! We did it! And now the time has come for this semesters work to be packed away. All we will have are the memories, the blogs, and the stories to tell. My best wishes to you all. Thanks for touching my life in the ways that you have. In the words of my late, dear mother, All The Best!!!

Learning by doing!

The black and white image below is based on Edgar Dale's work on the Cone of Experience in the 1940s. Since then percentages have been added by unknown persons to produce the more common expressions of Dale's work as seen in the coloured figure below called The Cone of Learning. The take away lesson is that we learn more by doing! 

Educating the mind and heart, with heart!

Learning from our students!

Who should learn more in a classroom, the teacher or the students? As I continue on my journey as a teacher/learner, I have come to realise that as teachers we should leave our classrooms with more knowledge than when we entered. Using blogs has enabled me to learn a lot about my students, their lives, their interests, their thoughts and their intentions. They have also probed issues, extended questions and posed new ways of looking at teaching and learning. I have learned so much from reading these blogs. True learning should be two-way. Classrooms as a learning space for teachers and students. What do you think?