Today was a special class, 8:30 - 9:30am, to discuss the first recordings by students. We met in the Feb 14 classroom, since no sessions were scheduled for this week.
Overall, a good session. I hope that from this the next student critiques will be more incisive. I tried to balance good points with weak points, and not be too negative, although I'm afraid I might have failed on this with one recording. I was very very impressed with one teacher's work.
Student participation was adequate, hope they will offer more next time (Friday) and I will be able to say less.
I forgot to record today! :-(
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Feb 18 (online)
First class back in Korea.
Class was short, less than two hours (of scheduled 3). But that's ok, we have enough live class hours, and originally there was no Friday class, only Wednesday (which we swapped for Friday due to my travel schedule).
Good class, more participation -- I asked more open-ended questions, and we weren't discussing a reading!
Next week Monday's class is 8:30 - 9:15AM, we will talk about 1st recordings critiques. I was happy that the first recordings were done on time, and one of the open-ended questions tonight was how that recording process went for people.
Next week Friday's class is also 8:30 - 9:15am, to talk about 2nd recordings critiques and a bit of review for the final. I also promised tonight to get some kind of review materials up on the moodle. No Wednesday class (I'm busy).
I reminded folks to get all their assignments done by Friday Feb 25th, that is the last date I will accept things for points.
We talked about portfolios too. These are not something students can do in just two hours, will probably take more like 8 hours, to do good commentaries on their learning.
And next week we will schedule 1:1 consultations for the week following, roughtly 15 minutes per consult. The consultation will include student's oral critique of 3rd recordings, discussion of the portfolios, and general review of the student's performance in the course. (Lot's of work for me!)
Tonight I also did a general comment on the first recordings, based on my notes from the one video I have critiqued so far. The purpose was to help people think about things to comment on in their own critiques. And help them do better on their second and third recordings, which they might do before we meet next Monday morning.
It was a good class.
Class was short, less than two hours (of scheduled 3). But that's ok, we have enough live class hours, and originally there was no Friday class, only Wednesday (which we swapped for Friday due to my travel schedule).
Good class, more participation -- I asked more open-ended questions, and we weren't discussing a reading!
Next week Monday's class is 8:30 - 9:15AM, we will talk about 1st recordings critiques. I was happy that the first recordings were done on time, and one of the open-ended questions tonight was how that recording process went for people.
Next week Friday's class is also 8:30 - 9:15am, to talk about 2nd recordings critiques and a bit of review for the final. I also promised tonight to get some kind of review materials up on the moodle. No Wednesday class (I'm busy).
I reminded folks to get all their assignments done by Friday Feb 25th, that is the last date I will accept things for points.
We talked about portfolios too. These are not something students can do in just two hours, will probably take more like 8 hours, to do good commentaries on their learning.
And next week we will schedule 1:1 consultations for the week following, roughtly 15 minutes per consult. The consultation will include student's oral critique of 3rd recordings, discussion of the portfolios, and general review of the student's performance in the course. (Lot's of work for me!)
Tonight I also did a general comment on the first recordings, based on my notes from the one video I have critiqued so far. The purpose was to help people think about things to comment on in their own critiques. And help them do better on their second and third recordings, which they might do before we meet next Monday morning.
It was a good class.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Feb 14 (online) -- and plan for remaining class meetings
Last early morning class in San Diego completed! :-) Happy Valentine's Day!
It was, possibly, the best class we've had. Everyone was present with no serious technical glitches (although Angela was about 10 minutes late because she was waiting in the wrong classroom [the wrong date] and Kelly's web-cam didn't work). The first hour was very productive, as I discussed their third lesson plans (which was supposed to be the work of last Wednesday!!!). This was a nice chance from last week, where Wednesday was full of headaches on my side, and Friday the webserver was down.
The second hour was, in some respects, less productive because students hadn't completed the assignments (Scrivener Observation Tasks #4 & #5 for the MATL-2 video). I spent a bit of time talking about the expectations of those two observation tasks walking through the forms, why they should be useful for the students in developing their observation skills for their classmate's videos and their own classroom development. On the other hand, students had discussion time the last few minutes of the class, when they could ask questions and let me know of problems (for example, I needed to unlock the late submissions for the first two lesson plan critiques because a student had only submitted in the forum rather than also in the assignment).
In the copy of the class whiteboard (below) we noted things students need to know for the remaining weeks of the class. Not listed here are the portfolios, which we discussed briefly, which are discussed more fully in the moodle assignments. There is also information on my yousendit account (blurred for this blog), and all students saved this page on their own computers so they can use my account for this purpose
Look at the teaching timetable below for revisions to the teaching timetable (addition of the last week of February). We will meet those days in the classroom for February 14th. Meeting time is 8:30am (8:45? )til 9:15 or 9:30 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. But if students get their videos done earlier, hopefully we can skip Wednesday.
It was, possibly, the best class we've had. Everyone was present with no serious technical glitches (although Angela was about 10 minutes late because she was waiting in the wrong classroom [the wrong date] and Kelly's web-cam didn't work). The first hour was very productive, as I discussed their third lesson plans (which was supposed to be the work of last Wednesday!!!). This was a nice chance from last week, where Wednesday was full of headaches on my side, and Friday the webserver was down.
The second hour was, in some respects, less productive because students hadn't completed the assignments (Scrivener Observation Tasks #4 & #5 for the MATL-2 video). I spent a bit of time talking about the expectations of those two observation tasks walking through the forms, why they should be useful for the students in developing their observation skills for their classmate's videos and their own classroom development. On the other hand, students had discussion time the last few minutes of the class, when they could ask questions and let me know of problems (for example, I needed to unlock the late submissions for the first two lesson plan critiques because a student had only submitted in the forum rather than also in the assignment).
In the copy of the class whiteboard (below) we noted things students need to know for the remaining weeks of the class. Not listed here are the portfolios, which we discussed briefly, which are discussed more fully in the moodle assignments. There is also information on my yousendit account (blurred for this blog), and all students saved this page on their own computers so they can use my account for this purpose
Look at the teaching timetable below for revisions to the teaching timetable (addition of the last week of February). We will meet those days in the classroom for February 14th. Meeting time is 8:30am (8:45? )til 9:15 or 9:30 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. But if students get their videos done earlier, hopefully we can skip Wednesday.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Feb 11 - Server Failed (report)
I and students tried to access the server from 9pm (Korea time, 4am in San Diego) until 10. I got an email at 9:15 Korea time informing that the server was down from James of TESOL Alliance. The server was working at 11:10, but by then we had cancelled the class.
Feb 7 online (report)
Back from Seollal (no classes Feb 2 and 4). Angela couldn't attend.
Session was a bit short (only about 20 minutes in the second hour)
Session was a bit short (only about 20 minutes in the second hour)
Jan 31 Online (report)
I didn't do a report for Jan 31. I have the video recording of the session. First session on the new computer (I bought a new computer for my mom) and there were no tech problems. Angela had some technology issues. We talked about the midterm, and MATL-1 recording (my teaching from 2003). I needed to produce MSWord test reports for students, because with matching questions it didn't show the correct answers.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Feb 9 - class failed, technology question
The class ran less than 30 minutes tonight. I couldn't get in until nearly 20 minutes late, couldn't upload documents, and it crashed after about 25 minutes or so. My mom's new computer couldn't access anything, used my old notebook and it was slower than usual. So we only got about 1/4 through the anticipated class work.
Here's my note to students after the class.
This is very, very frustrating. I've sent a note to the school asking if there was a change in technology, and I'll investigate from my end too.
Here's my note to students after the class.
Hi folks,
So sorry about the technical issues Wednesday night. I'm checking to see what's different since our meeting on Monday, why it didn't work now when it did then.
Attached are my simple comments within the lesson plans presented. (I don't know why the comments didn't appear in Se-Ok's version, fortunately we got most of that done in the class meeting before it crashed). I had planned to present these during the live class tonight. We will discuss the other two more fully in the future, I guess. There are also some comments on the assignments page in moodle.
I am up to date on your assignments in moodle. Note that your first video lesson is due to be shared with classmates by next Wednesday evening (Feb 16). Reminder that we have no live class that night (I'm flying from USA) but we WILL have class on Friday Feb 18th, which originally was not scheduled. Let me know via email if you have problems with the recording or file-sharing.
Rob
This is very, very frustrating. I've sent a note to the school asking if there was a change in technology, and I'll investigate from my end too.
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