jueves, 11 de abril de 2013

On MOOCing. /mu:kin/ 


      Many times I found myself envying my children´s gatherings at home with the excuse of the production of some creative piece for school. I tried to recall when was the last time I gathered with student friends in order to produce a creative piece. It was over twenty years ago in the Teacher Training College. The subject was Language and Communication Workshop. We had decided to record TV programmes: there was a weather report, a newsflash, commercials, music (rap), soap opera, weather forecast. It was an exhausting experience but I still remember how much fun we had.  Teachers and students working together, making original creative things for an audience, which was the rest of the teachers and fellow students. It did not feel like work, we were engaged, we were having fun. It was a success. Then we got our degrees, we got serious and stopped having fun.
      When was the last time I did something just for the sake of enjoying the ride? I have recently signed up in a Language Teaching MOOC in order to look for some fun by sharing teacher stuff with others and in so doing recovering that feeling of togetherness lost in the rush of everyday teaching. We are supposed to teach communication skills. I want to put mine into practice. However I am open to the unexpected. I know I will receive more than what I am expecting to get. We will see. This morning I heard that in order to learn your brain should be engaged.  I am very curious about language teaching.  There is so much going on out there that I will take this opportunity to catch up with what other teachers are doing or struggling with to find myself in others to recover the togetherness lost somewhere between my student years and today.

Interview with Jeremy Harmer
Here´s the schedule in case you want to peep.

2 comentarios:

  1. Ah! The workshops! I still have a bit of those in Language III with the Cartoon Show. If you want to have a look at the students' productions, I have some DVDs we made.

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    1. I´d love to see them! It´s amazing what we are able to achieve when such mentors inspire!

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