Module 1 Activity 11

I have taught this topic so many time but never generated as much interest. The children remembered the characteristics of each homeland almost without prompting. At the end of the unit, many scored high on the quiz they were given.

Module 1 Activity 10
This activity was particularly insightful. I was able to really see one of the benefits of using small groups work. Each student was forced to participate and share their idea, whereas in a larger group the shy student would have been able to hide hide behind the others and not participate.

Module 1 Activity 9
As a History teacher, I have learnt through experience to ask question which will aid students interpret the text. i do not see me changing my strategy any time soon as I had to resort to this type of questioning to get the students to be analytic about their reading.

Activity 8

I guess because of the rigorous training at teacher training here in Antigua and the continuous assessments which our government carries out of their teachers, I have always incorporated Piaget's principles in my teaching. What I have always found particularly useful was the principle of putting pupils into groups. Most of us know that most boys do not like to read and as I spent a great part of my teaching career at a boys' school, I found it prudent to arrange the boys in groups to facilitate revision and to peek their interest.

Module 1 Activity 7 Pt 2
The stories the children wrote were interesting. I want to believe that because they were working in groups. the plots were well planned, and the script well written.

Module 1 Activity 7 Pt 1

I have always believed in grouping children for I have seen the benefits of collaborative learning. This exercise served to remind me of the importance of group work. The exercise also spelled out the benefits. These benefits I never thought to research.

Module 1 Activity 6
If  I was not a convert of Vygotsky, the articles I read for activity 6 would have made me one. I kept reading   and remembering my first daughter and how she always spoke to herself as a child. I believe this contributed to her learning to read at a very early age. I also saw myself in the readings for I always worked things out in my mind, knew what I wanted to say and could not verbalize my thoughts. These readings have serious implications for teachers' teaching styles.

Module 1 Activity 5

The readings for this activity were especially interesting. I found myself thinking about the children in my school and seeing what had been written being played out in the lives of so many of them.

Module 1 Activity 4

I felt really bad having to resort to suspension as a way to curb loitering, but no one could come up with a better way of curbing the behaviour. The only way to get these children to change a negative response to a positive one is to remove what they enjoy. They school has a culture of fights and deviant behaviour. One policy of the school was to move a child up once they would have spent two years in one level. Of course the children are now wise to this and so for their second year in the same form, they misbehave and do no work for they know that at the end of the day they will still be moved up.

Module 1 Activity 3
I have just taken over the management of the second largest secondary school in Antigua. For me it was a culture shock. I had been managing a small school in the country for three years. The difference in the culture of the school were vastly different. This school has many gangs and students from the slum area of the country. Most of them come with chips on their shoulders and a short fuse.

Dealing with students like these. one is always unwilling to refuse to listen to their problems and very willing to punish. I have learnt that no matter how deviant a student is one needs to be prepared to listen. Sometimes they are disadvantaged simply because of their background.

Module 1 Activity 2

As I read through the information much of the information I learned years ago came flooding back. I found I kept asking myself, how can I adopt the information to help students use ICT to help them in their learning. It was also surprising that although Piaget published his finding years ago what he learnt then is still current when it comes to education

Module 1 Activity 1

I completed Activity 1 since 4 this morning but did not post for I wanted to really think about the activity. The activity made me think about the number of years I have been teaching. Monday 17th September makes 31 years I have been teaching. A life time. I realized a long time ago that I would not do anything different if I had to do it all over again.

Discussion

Discussion on Christopher Columbus

Please use the link below to join the discussion

MdE5SWGlkc0FnaWVJLTh6WndiU1MxWXc#gid=0

My Wiki

Columbus' Voyages

Use the link below to comment on my wiki.

http://tutorscorner.wikispaces.com/Christopher+Columbus%27+Voyages

Questionnaire on Christopher Columbus

Use the link below to participate in this quiz

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHkwbzNDUE5obVhfY3JkbkJGRktNbWc6MQ

Christopher Columbus

Please go to the following link and complete.

Questionnaire

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnQfYvpjjUwMdGlIaXExcmpibkJ2ekt4bjFVMGktNFE

Brainstorm Document

Antigua is fast becoming a multilingual society. Should students be taught a second language on entering school at kindergarten upwards? Discuss

Read and post your opinion.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnQfYvpjjUwMdEpKZmJ0RXpuc2E5aFRVQlR4aDVjbnc#gid=0

wiki

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR MILESTONES IN ANTIGUA'S HISTORY?

Read and post your comments

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnQfYvpjjUwMdDZiellVbjhzRDRiRXp5bUFON25kb3c#gid=0

Antigua's History

Describe as many of the major milestones in Antigua's history as you can remember from what you were taught in school  and from what you have heard from your ancestors.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnQfYvpjjUwMdHBzYWN0RTBEWXE3ekdMcVFScGg5NGc#gid=0

2a-4 Activity 11

I have finally created a twitter account for my school and over the next few days I will begin following sites and individuals and inviting others to follow the site.

2a-4 Activity 10

Completing this activity has brought home to me that I was not using twitter to its fullest potential. Due to time constraints I do not think this will change soon. I have started following some very good teachers' sites though and has been able to garner some information to help with my teaching.

2a-4 Activity 9

This activity was one of the most interesting of this module. I think because we found it so interesting there was a high degree of interaction

2a-4 Activity 8

I have taught this lesson before without the use of ICT. What I am discovering as the course progress is that using ICT in teaching fires up the students. They appear more willing to learn. The teacher has to be more of a organizing and guiding though or the students loose focus.

I have taught this lesson before without the use of ICT. What I am discovering as the course progress is that using ICT in teaching fires up the students. They appear more willing to learn. The teacher has to be more of a organizing and guiding though or the students loose focus.

1b-3 Activity 5

The blog I posted as activity 4 should be the blog for activity 5.

Reading both articles has left a lasting effect on me where group work is concerned. As teachers, we shy away from putting students in groups to work for group-work much preparation for it to be successful. After learning about the advantages - where students learn from each other and that it allows pupils to better understand difficult concepts, I will be encouraging my teachers to engage in more group work.

1b-3 Activity 4

The integrated approach to learning is a method of learning Primary School teachers has been encouraged to adopt for years in Antigua. When composing Extents, teachers are encouraged to link all the Subject areas. for example, If the teacher in science to look at the weather, in Social Studies they may examine Homelands. For Poetry, they may look at poems that look at the weather.

2a-4 activity 6

This Activity was one of the simplest I have had to complete on this course. What I usually try to do is see how each activity will be able to help me as an administrator. I can see how the class teacher can make use of this activity to ascertain how well the children in her class is doing.

2a-4 Activity 7

This activity was not difficult to complete. the difficult part was when I was finished and ready to discuss and then realized that most of us were thinking alike. I want to believe it was because of the readings for 1b-3. What I discovered was that the readings from 1b-3 usually help with completing my assignments for 2a-4. Even though I am not an IT teacher, reading about integrating the lessons to teach ICT skills make much sense. I completed a course in Spreadsheet about ten years ago and I have forgotten almost everything I have learnt. Teaching the skills this way gives meaning to what the student is learning.