I began to work as a teacher two and a half years ago in Gjilan, Kosova, and during these years I taught English to students who went to a vocational high school. I worked as a teacher in the Technical High School for two and a half years, and now I'm working in the High School of Visual Art.
So, during my experience as a teacher until now, I had to deal with teenagers, and I have faced almost the same problem. Many of the students in these vocational high schools, especially in the technical school said : "Why do we have to learn English, we are here only to learn a craft." I saw that they weren't motivated to learn something new, in this case English.
Even though I tried in different ways to motivate them into learning I succeeded at least to make them come regularly to my class, but it isn't enough.
While creating this blog I've learned new things and found them very attractive. This is what I need to make my classes more attractive and also more creative, in order to motivate the students to learn English.
After all, now-days almost every kid and every teenager uses the computer, and different websites. So, I strongly believe that this course will help me to improve my teaching skills through the web, and I will try hard to apply all the things that I'm learning during this first week and what I'm going to learn during the next nine weeks.
I'm certain that this course will have a great positive impact in my teaching career because I'll be able to prepare more interactive, attractive, and creative classes for my teenager students.
So, during my experience as a teacher until now, I had to deal with teenagers, and I have faced almost the same problem. Many of the students in these vocational high schools, especially in the technical school said : "Why do we have to learn English, we are here only to learn a craft." I saw that they weren't motivated to learn something new, in this case English.
Even though I tried in different ways to motivate them into learning I succeeded at least to make them come regularly to my class, but it isn't enough.
While creating this blog I've learned new things and found them very attractive. This is what I need to make my classes more attractive and also more creative, in order to motivate the students to learn English.
After all, now-days almost every kid and every teenager uses the computer, and different websites. So, I strongly believe that this course will help me to improve my teaching skills through the web, and I will try hard to apply all the things that I'm learning during this first week and what I'm going to learn during the next nine weeks.
I'm certain that this course will have a great positive impact in my teaching career because I'll be able to prepare more interactive, attractive, and creative classes for my teenager students.
Hello Blerta,
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Nicaragua. Congratulations for having this incredible desire and willingness to learn more about the appropriate use of blogs for our classes.
Of course, everything is a challenge, especially when we talk about education. First, we need to take into account that we work with people who go to our classrooms full of feelings and diverse type of behavior and character.
I have 10 years teaching, and in my personal experience I have learned to use these students’ feelings in my objectives and plans for classes. Currently I teach in two places, so I can see the different ways of approaches I can use with my groups of students.
Nothing is the same, every year and every day is different. And our lesson plans can be changed right a minute before we start teaching.
I like the way you see students, they are creative all the time and we as teachers need to be creative too, but mainly, we have to be encouraged to teach, if we like teaching anything is possible.
In my personal case, I will find some trouble with the use of blogs for my students in the school because I am currently teaching children from 8 to 10 years old, and I will need the support of their parents. For me, to involved and teach children the way we can use blogs won’t be the main problem, it will be parents training. When I say training I mean that parents in my country are not very confident with mixture of technology in our curriculum. Maybe is due to the fact that most of parents come from what experts called “Next Generation” and our children are in the “Net Generation”. So, I have heard some comments about not using blogs nor internet stuff in classes because it won’t let students use their critical thinking in works, and other comments that I considered negative to implement technology in classes. Not all the parents think this way but 50% probably will need more explanation from me in order to feel confident about the use of this amazing tool in classes.
I guess is afraid to new things that I need to face first. I agree with your opinion about creating interactive classes, so I am beginning this course with a main objective which is to be able to let parents see how effective is the use of blogs in English, Science, and Math and Social Studies classes.
Books will be there in our classrooms, but we are only using all the tools to fulfill students’ needs to reach our goals. It is not teachers’ needs or parents needs, it is students needs. They are the ones who are going to live in a world full of technology and in a more technological environment.
With your positive impression of this blog I feel more encouraged to work on my projects to improve my teaching process. Thanks for sharing your feedback. And let’s keep learning and updating every day.
Best regards,
Yariela
Dear Blerta,
ReplyDeleteI am happy to meet you here in the course. Nowadays we can't find many young people who have desire to work at school and teach children. It's hard and at the same time it is beneficial. We teach our students and learn from them.
Good luck to you!
Hi Blerta,
ReplyDeleteI'm Aung Zaw Htun from Myanmar. After having read your reflective post, I find some similar or same opinions and feelings from myself. I'm strongly agree with your words,"Everything is a challenge, especially when we talk about education. First, we need to take into account that we work with people who go to our classrooms full of feelings and diverse type of behavior and character." But I begin to realize that's the reason why I'm stuck in this life because you know, we can do our continuous learning only from this kind of situation. Your students' question ""Why do we have to learn English, we are here only to learn a craft." is a bit different from that of the ones here. In my community most of the students know the long term benefits of knowing this language though they themselves are less motivated and industrious. But as you said, youths today are using computers and webs so we can take the advantage of it in our teaching-learning process.
Thanks for your attractive post and I'm keen on reading your further ones.
With love,
Aung Zaw Htun