Re-Thinking Curriculum

 I decided to read the blog post titled "Three Ideas for 21st Century Curriculum" written by Terry Heick. This blog caught my eye as I was hoping to read some new ideas about possible ways to modernize my curriculum. Heick touches on three ideas on how to "globalize" a curriculum. He suggests ways to adapt to learners, rethink learning spaces and leveraging role playing. He suggests that educators need to adopt modern technologies such as social networking sites and even video games to engage modern students more effectively. He says teachers need to create spaces that promote learning and stimulate the students mind. Finally, he calls on teachers to create informal learning areas so students are able to work together.

Heick, kinda rehashes some familiar ideas that have been floating around for some time. I have to say that I never read anything new in this blog. However, I do agree with many of his sediments. Living in Korea, I find this country is a bit lacking in the three areas of curriculum globalization he touches on. Speaking from my own personal experiences, I would really like to have more support implementing more technology into my class. However, I have recently taken steps on my own to address this. I also believe that the learning environments need to be improved in many Korean schools. The classrooms I teach in are very drab and there isn't much of anything to stimulate the students. Also, there isn't much in the way of collaboration spaces that are available to my students. The classrooms are not set up for students to interact with one another. Finally, I would also like the university to create some more informal learning spaces that the students can utilize. We currently have an English Cafe but more work could be done to create spaces where students are able to work together on projects and learn from each other.   

Collaboration Age

 I took some time and read "World without Walls: Learning Well with Others" written by Will Richardson. Basically, Richardson is talking about how modern communication technology has changed the whole way people learn. He refers to it as "The Collaboration Age." In the past, we collaborated generally with people that were local or on site but today in an instant you can be working with or learning from someone that lives on the other side of the world. He touches on some positives and a few pitfalls that this shift in learning has created but leaves us with a call to action for teachers to embrace the changes and strive to implement more technology into the classroom.

I have to share Richardson's opinion that connecting technologies have transformed the way we learn. I also believe that students being able to seek out rewarding learning experiences easily from the comfort of their own homes is a great thing. Free online college programs, forums, online groups, etc have allowed people to gain valuable opportunities to learn. I agree with Richardson that educators need to embrace this shift in education and introduce their students to all that is available to them online. I wasn't really shocked to read that a college student in Canada faced expulsion because he set up a group to with his classmates to share notes and ideas, as a lot of education institutions are still not sure what to accept when it comes to the utilization of online resources.  I can only imagine how this paradigm shift will affect the way I learn and teach my class in the future but it's my responsibility to keep up to date with it and provide my students with the best learning experience possible. 

Award for the best ScreenCast goes to...

Not me. Ha. Here is my screen cast with some helpful hints to save you some time when searching the net using Chrome. Enjoy. Here is the URL link as well. http://www.screenr.com/joYH

The End is Nigh

Hard to really believe we are wrapping up this course in a week. Lots of stuff to complete before we finish but reflecting back on what we have learned so far I would have to say that I think being introduced to Prezi will definitely change a lot about the way I teach from now on. There have many countless little tips throughout the course that I will take away and utilize in my class but Prezi will definitely have a big influence on how my students will view my class from now on. I think most of the teachers from Bucheon University have made it clear that it can be a challenge to get and maintain the attention of our students. I really believe that Prezi will help out a lot in getting the students engaged and focused on the lessons I am introducing to them. I am planning on combining Prezi with a number of other tools we now have in our repertoire. I can easily see my students creating Prezi presentations that have audio tracks they have created themselves using Garage band, screen casts that they can embed into the presentations, or even short films that they create. Using the dynamic templates available to them I can see my students getting excited about presenting rather than dreading it. It is really hard to pick just one thing that is my favorite from this course, as I can honestly say that this course has been one of the most informative classes I have ever participated in. When Steve said at the beginning he wanted to arm us with new weapons to bring to class he wasn’t kidding. The hardest part from now on will be finding enough days in the term to get a chance to use all the tools.

Rounding Third

And heading for home! We are closing in on the end. As I mentioned previously it has been one of the most informative courses I have ever taken.One of the projects that we completed that I didn't expect to be as useful as it might be was the audio recording/Screen Cast. After completing the assignment, my head definitely filled with possibilities for using more audio lessons in my classroom. Teaching ESL, I can easily see the benefit of students learning how to record themselves and using each recording they make as benchmarks in their progress. I am considering getting the students to record themselves on a weekly basis so that at the end of the two terms they can see if they have made any improvement in their pronunciation, intonation, and fluency. I like the idea of using Screen casts a bit more than just plain audio as I think the students will have more to say if they can play off the visual cues provided by computer screen. Along the same lines, having my students do a video project will also provide them with an opportunity to reflect back over time to see if they have improved. I also see myself making more audio recordings and screen casts for my students. I can set up a Dropbox or Google docs site so students can at anytime go into it and view or listen to pre-recorded lessons. I can provide my students short lessons( couple minutes) and they can review these lessons at their leisure. Our students are beginner level so they can benefit from having access to the materials at home. I also sometimes have students tell me that they have problems with the speed of my voice or my accent. Making recordings that they can review will allow them to listen to me more frequently which will hopefully lead them to understand me better in class. There are many ideas floating around in my head to improve the quality of my classrooms lessons, I am going to be stuck for time to get everything done. But, after seeing the way my students have reacted to just a few of the tools we have learned over the duration of the course, I am determined to totally revamp the way I approach my classes.

Where is my presentation? It is under this title

Hi guys,

Here is the information for my presentation. I'll probably create another copy of this presentation without the pictures of me and minus the beer store so this presentation could be implemented into a younger students class. So, you can check back later at the link I provided for that version.

My presentation is a good lead up if you have to teach directions in one of your text books. I will be using it when I teach shopping or eating out at restaurants as well. It can be useful for a few different topics. I have uploaded the picture of the map I showed you in class so you can let your students know what kind of map you expect them to create. I have also have included the link to Draw Island so if you want to make the lesson completely paperless you can do so. Another program, that is good is Google Sketch which I have used a couple times on my own.


As I said while I was talking, this presentation is meant to get the class participating in the lesson. I prefer this to just having the answer a bunch of questions on a worksheet. More prepositions can be added but for me the eight that I used are generally sufficient for beginner classes.

If you have any suggestions to improve the presentation they are welcomed.

Thanks

Here is the link to my Prezi presentation. I will keep trying to embed it on this page but for now the link will have to due.


http://prezi.com/8u_54mv05loz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Styling and Profiling

Here is a sample website that I would us for a project in my class.

Here is the basis break down on how I would introduce the lesson.

1. I would use this project in the first few weeks of my course where my ESL students are learning how to introduce themselves and talk about themselves.

2. I would use a presentation or screen cast to guide the students through a free website building site. Ex. Wix

3. After the students understood the basics of building a website. I would inform them that they have to create a profile of themselves. In this profile,  they would have to include a Bio which would cover general information about themselves such as name, age, hometown, etc then they would have to create 4 pages of their interests. Some examples would be sports,fashion, food, travel, family, photography, music and so on.

4. I would give them a week to complete the website then the students would have to send me the link for final approval. Once all the students have completed the task to my satisfaction, then they will have present their websites in class. Guide us through it and explain their pages.

Rubric ideas.

Students could be evaluated on website presentation, content, grammar, and their verbal presentations.

If you have any suggestions on how to make this lesson better, feel free to add a comment below.

Here is my sample site for my students.