A rewarding Week No. 6.

Good evening my classmates and Robert,

In this week I have read about different topics about ideas to use when using power point to be more interactive for students participation in lectures, I read about how to deal with large classes and small classes, I read some of my classmates power-point work, and I think all of us are able to create better and more meaningful classes. Everything has to do with a simple thing, teachers need to be focused on students’ needs all the time, and in that way being motivated to plan great classes. If a teacher is not willing to do it, no changes will be done.

I am learning from that and I started to carry out my project with Language Arts by the use of the tools I had not implemented before. It has been difficult to me to do that but at the end I have began to received some support from parents, and that has made me feel more confident to do what I said last week about my problem. Including more authentic material has been interesting for students and I see them now getting more involved in my class. It is a little change in a week but it is a good beginning. They are working, they keep using notebooks, textbooks and they have not forgotten about some traditional activities and learning we use in class. Moreover, they feel we have varieties of things to use and they (kids) have made parents being part of this by asking them questions when use internet at home, by asking for some advice when sending an attachment and by sharing with parents about the activities we have done this week. They seem excited in reading more in order to write and send me comments; they are taking their reading book home to be able to work on their assignments (the ones they did this week) and they and me feel more comfortable in class.

Now, what is next? Well, I am in the middle of the use of blogs, this scares me, as Robert said I have to be careful of what I plan. Also, another thing that has not worked so well has been the use of sites for reviewing, practicing and studying spelling, listening and some conversations. Unfortunately not all my students have tools at home to listen, so I used one hour this past week for that and the site did not work fast, we took some time in downloading exercises for pronunciation in www.pbskids.org for my science class and www.spellingcity.com . I will use fewer computers next week and have them work in pairs. Anyway , if someone has an idea on how to use listening activities sites better please let me know ok, maybe I forgot something about the sites and I am blocked on that issue.

Thanks again for all the suggestions from Robert and I hope all of you being part of my project development as well, let’s be positive and I hope to have a great week 7.

Good evening,

Yariela Cantarero

PS: classes were canceled because of our national elections, so I will have classes until Tuesday.