Saturday, August 31, 2013

New School Year Resolutions

   Every teacher probably agrees with me when I see every end-of-year or start of school year period both as tense and stressful moments, though very enthusiastic to start again. The never-ending cycle of challenges adds to the experience and expertise of every teacher wherever /she happens to teach. Every world has a set of challenges to face. You might say that change is slow, so sluggish even, in our developing world, but this does not exclude the fact that our teachers are learning new things each day, even though they are not of urgent need now, but who knows? Let us keep crossing our fingers for a better system everywhere in the world. However, let us remingd ourselves that the system cannot change if teachers , the icon of development and new learnings do not alter their ways of teaching and adapt ways that do conform to the age spirit. With all of this taken into consideration, I might seem a 
I do have many resolutions for this new year's start and I am willing to implement them. Nonetheless, I shall not forget to direct your attention to this article I have had such a joy reading and it has inspired me to translate my thoughts into words.Here is the link :  http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/content/get-best-start-your-teaching-career                  

Here are my resolutions. The order is at random. Hope they do ring many bells to you, too!
 1- Reflect, Rethink, Revise, Revisit : I do sincerely think of empowering my relfective practices by keeping a personal teaching journal where I can revisit my practices, my teaching style more objectively and scrutinize the way I teach, even if that means filming myself and asking my mentor's or my colleagues' advice.
2-Evaluate more. Evaluate my learners' progress and get more feedback from them whether directly or indirectly.
3-Smile more. Smiling does not only spread positivity but it also helps lighten the weight of stress on all.
4-Obliterate stress by learning through fun and funny activities.
5-Love my pupils and treat them warmly, equally and sensibly. Every learner is a wealth to discover. Wish my pupils' number per class would shrink.
6-Understand my learners, their needs, their motives, their ambitions and teach accordingly. 
7-Trial and error is  the key to success, but success is not final and every success is followed by a series of failures we must learn from in order to take steps forward.
8-Interest the learners more and more by tackling subjects and topics of interest to them. 
9-Overcome negative feelings. At some stressful periods, negative thoughts reign and as a teacher/ a learner, we do feel very low and we need that encouraging word that makes us move forward. We may pretend to be self-sustaining creatures, but we're more positive when others do appreciate what we are doing even with an appreciative smile. 
10-Nurture creativity in my pupils , whether tech creativity or non tech creativity. 
11-Sustain, support my learners, whether low achievers or high achievers during the learning progress.

   These are my resolutions. I am sure I will do my best to concretise most of them. Hindering blocks I would certainly meet every day, but with the aim in mind, I will work harder and overcome , hopefully, most of them. 
Visit language garden http://www.languagegarden.com/PlantMaker2/index.html to make beautiful plants :-)


   Wish every teacher/ learner a fresh start and Happy New school year. Enjoy every bit of your teaching/ learning and life will be merrier. 

Friday, August 23, 2013

My Favorite quotes

   Personally, I have a weakness for quotes. Do you share my weakness? I can read pages and pages of quotes without getting bored. I feel that they teach me a lot about the person, the matter, the subject am interested in. More than this, Whenever I read quotes, I do unconsciously switch to a reflective mode. Does this happen to you, too? 
Below,  I am sharing with you some of my favorite quotes, which are revolving around teaching. Whch one do you agree with? Which one do you think it is not YOU? Hope to hear your thoughts and comments! 
You can also add your favorite quotes ...


If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.





One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.





Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.




I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.





There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.



A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.




One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.




The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.




It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.




I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.
 

Happy Reading Great Teachers:-) 


Tuesday, August 20, 2013

My A-Z Top favorite tech tools

   Being techy savvy ,these days, is an absolute must for all teachers everywhere in the world. (Un) Fortunately, the responsibility lies on the teachers' shoulders (especially in the developing world)  to explore, learn, unlearn, discover and share knowledge. In this post, I am including the A to Z list of the in vogue techy words that every teacher can have some fun exploring and why not exploiting these tools in one's teaching for the benefit of all the learners, who can be more or less digitally conscious or unconscious.
Enjoy discovering these online tools, web apps or websites and I would be happy to hear back from you about your top favorite tools.
A-
Audacity:Free audio editor and recorder. 


Audiboo: You can record and share audio files with anyone.



Animoto: It makes it simple to create video-based lessons or presentations for the classroom and to share them with students or anyone else.


B-
Blog : an interesting tool that help teachers connect with the world and themselves

Box.net: a useful tool to share documents in a blog.


Bitstrips: to create funny cartoons starring you and your friends and share them.



C-
Creaza Education: A nice storytelling tool.



D-
Domo Animate:  Interesting to let the learners create their own stories.



Dropbox: Dropbox is a personal cloud storage service that is frequently used for file sharing and collaboration.




E-

Edmodo: It provides a safe and easy way for us , as teachers and our class ( in the future) to connect and collaborate.


F-
Faceyourmanga: to create your own avatar (MangaAtar) and recieve it via e-mail. This is fun and engaging.


G-
Glogster:  An internet tool that allows users to create and share interactive posters. 


Goqr me: A QR code generator . @ (http://goqr.me/)

H-
How stuff works : http://www.howstuffworks.com/



I-
Instagram: Take a picture or a video and share them with your friends on social networking sites.


Ipiccy: Free online photo editor.(http://ipiccy.com/)

J-
J-clic: Is a platform for the creation, playing and evaluation of multimedia educational activities.

K-
Kidblog:   
Create safe and simple blogs for your students.


L-
Language garden plant maker:   Make creative word 

plants using this online tool and save them as pictures. (@ http://www.languagegarden.com/PlantMaker2/index.html)





Learnoutloud.com: Browse over 3000 educational vide
os, audio files,podcasts,etc..  @( http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Languages)


M-
Mind Mapping tool: Mind42: This is an online mind mapping tool.@ (http://mind42.com/)

N-

P-
Photopeach: Make your own free slide show in seconds.It could be used as a storytelling tool
.


Pinterest: You can pin just about any image you find interseting. Many teachers are using this site as a place to collect lesson ideas; plans, etc..


Popplet: You can use popplet to brainstorm ideas, create mindmaps, share and collaborate.


Prezi: is a cloud based presentation software. 


Pixlr: Free online photo editor.


Q-
Q R codes : Qrstuff.com: Generate QR codes and download them.



R-
Ribbet: Online photo editor.


S-
Scoopit: a wonderful curation tool. Have a profile and start following topics of interest to you.


Storybird: Create, read and share visual stories. 

T-
Tagul:  Create beautiful looking tag clouds and embed them.


V-
Voicethread: a digital storytelling video making it possible for colleagues, friends to collaborate on the same project, whether a story to tell, a video to make, a narration to share.

Voki: Create customized avatars and add them to your profile. @ (http://www.voki.com/)


W-
Wallwisher: Easily create some sticky notes ( by sending a text, an image or a video ) and make your profile public or private.


Wordle: Generate word clouds. This is wonderful word art. 


X-
Y-
Youtube: Share your videos with friends, family and the world and exlpore a wealth of videos. 


Z-
Zondle: Create, play and share games to support teaching/ learning.



Hopefully, all that starts well ends well. In fact, while looking for effective tech tools, I have searched the net for more confirmation from experts in the field. That's why I am including links to articles, blogs and sites that have been of immense help in my search. Below are the links I have flipped through. With all my due respect. 
Happy Blogging :-)