On Connected Educator´s Month and the RSCON4

Video on the Importance of Being Connected





Visit The Future of Education

Conference Season is here!
I can´t wait to attend the so many opportunities that these coming months will bring us, educators from around the world!  Let´s all meet there!

On attending and presenting a workshop at FAAPI, 2013, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Things learned at FAAPI13

My friend María Bossa (@mariabossa) is presenting at RSCon13, on the 12th October, 11am Argentina Time!
Gabriel Díaz Maggioli taught us a a ToT is a Teacher of Teachers.  In the course of our lives as educators we all end up doing some "totting".  Those teachers are no longer the experts, but teachers who have been in the profession for a longer period of time and they all posess the Theory of Experience and they apply it by using common sense.  I liked the idea of learning together as a community, a subject also brought about by Fernanda Coelo Liberali in her experience with pre service teachers.  Collective practive finds validity in the community who has agreed to construct knowledge together by negociating, reflecting, changing based on informed decisions. Never alone or in isolation.  Learning as participation.  Learning is messy, you don´t have to tell me! I know that!  I also liked the term: Technology Mediated Teaching and Learning, which also needs a special pedagogy so that it REALLY stands as something innovating and not more of the same old stuff with most appealing design.  Laurillard´s plead to educators to know what is out there, to assess their potential for educational use, not just use just for the sake of using it.
As Leonardo, teachers have all the tools to foster curiosity, to try, to reflect, to share, and by doing this in a supportive way we pave the way for the ones to come, who will in turn take their own ways.  Gabriel urged us to generate local research, valid to our own scenarios.  We owe it to our students.  Change one thing, and see what happens, he said.  Wise words.  In a world driven by change our brains tend to repeat learned skills.  Unfortunately or luckily our classrooms are changing.  Some of us teach at home, others at institutions but our students change, so we should too.
I heard about a new variety of English: Estuary English, it was new for me.  I loved the physical exercises introduced by Helen Ashton, I can´t wait to put them into practice with my students!
The British Council Programme for connecting classrooms is something I would definitely check if I had a primary or secondary school class.  PD, Workshops.  http://www.britishcouncil.org/es/argentina
I can´t wait to invite Fernanda Coelo Liberali to a Learning2gether session to learn more about her innovative practises at Pre-Service Teacher Education, because I believe that would be-teachers around the world would benefit from establishing connections with other student-teachers so that when the time comes to connect the bonds will already be there.

        Things I missed at FAAPI13

      My dear teachers from Santa Fe, especially those at Almirante Brown Teacher Trainning College, namely my Adscription teacher (Language II) Adriana Díaz, whose creative and inspiring work brought me to present at FAAPI and whose silent mission continued in their workplaces.  My dear teachers Daniel Fernández and María Isabel Recamán whose lively classes I was lucky to attend and who were there all the way.  One thing I am particularly proud of is also my two colleagues from the same institute who participated in a contest by the British Council, one of them the winner of the contest! Congratulations Letizia María Russo for winning, and  María Cristina Rivas for being selected too! You can check the projects here: ICT in Action.

     More twitter linked educators.  Guys, you are missing all the fun!
     More enthusiastic people like my friend Pía, who came alone, we found each other, again! Keep coming!  Or my friend Vance Stevens from EVO Webheads and Learning2gether another inspiring soul, who arranged the hangout (twice! because I had mischedulled the time!) so that people around the world would be able to join in a workshop about being connected!  Or Gabriel Díaz Maggioli´s sessions full of data, theory, inspiration.  Fun, facts and mentoring.  Such a thrill after having met both at the EVO Mentoring Sessions.  I was one of their EVOers last summer!
     I could not help to feel so sad for a teacher from a rural area whom, I was told later made a comment about not knowing what she was doing there, since her school lacked all the technology.  I wanted to find her and tell her that it was ALL about those teachers who are far away and technology brings us, human beings together and helps us not to feel alone anymore.  I couldn find her to tell her this, I wish I could.  I have one amazing educator from Australia.  Her name is Anne Mirtschin who is living in a rural area, and also Govinda Prasad Panthi from Nepal, who does not have electricity all day long, or Endang Palupi from Indonesia who are all strugling to bring their schools connected with very limited resources.  I wanted to tell her IT IS NOT ABOUT THE TOOLS, IT HAS NEVER BEEN ABOUT THE TOOLS, BUT ABOUT PEOPLE.  Gabriel Diaz Maggioli mentioned this in his session.
      More clapping (and why not dancing!) like the spontaneous one when Sao Pablo based teacher Fernanda Coelho Liberali shared this archetypical ( Sing along and dance even if you don´t know the lyrics! ) song at the closing ceremony urging us to put Freire´s proposed theory of Happiness into practice.  Though I am not fluent in Portuguese, I could not stop my tears from falling at: "...a vida e bonita, e bonita.."  After all we are in the best time to be a teacher of English, we have a lot to celebrate!
     More TeachMeet/Unconference time where teachers could share what they are proud to have achieved with their students.  As I was walking down the hallways I heard teachers commenting among groups of friends about this and that that they were doing.  However these comments never left the small circles of close educators, they never reached teachers from different circles who might as well benefit from the experience of others.  As requested by the organizers, I had previously uploaded my presentation on Slideshare and it had already been viewed by at least 50 people BEFORE the 5 (!) attendees had the chance to take a look at them during my workshop.  One teacher from Canada even asked me if she could use the presentation for the upcoming and now running Connected Educator´s Month.  I said yes, of course, that´s the spirit!  Another pleasant surprise was the amount of people requesting permission to share the documents attached to the post containing ALL the materials in my workshop, which of course I also shared.


I left Buenos Aires under a persistent drizzle, the post began to take shape, and,  as I was finishing I realized the sun was making his way through the clouds and I remembered Fernanda Coelo Liberali´s Brazilian proberb: "Everything ends in the Summer!"  Let´s teach as if it was Summer all year round!  Our students will not probably remember what we taught them, but how we made them feel.

My friend Anne Mirtschin´s blog, from rural Australia






 

Materials for my workshop for #FAAPI13

HERE´S A LIST OF THINGS I PREPARED FOR MY WORKSHOP AT #FAAPI13, IN BUENOS AIRES FROM SEPTEMBER 26TH TO 28TH.

This is the theoretical phramework submitted for the proposal.

And here´s the presentation featuring my own pictures (and some icons from Iconfinder)

The Connected Educator in Progress. from mariacolussa

This is a short handout with useful information


This video is the last part.
(Song by: Dokashi Teru, The Annual New England Xylophone Symposium. From CCmixter
Here´s a list of my newly acquired words

On presenting a workshop at FAAPI 2013, Buenos Aires, Argentina

As I am finishing the last requirements of the organization commitee, I am starting to ask myself why I am in this situation.  Tomorrow I travel to Buenos Aires, a five hours´ bus ride from my city to attend the congress that every year gathers teachers of English from all over the country.  It was all fine untill I decided to submit a paper and it was accepted, putting myself way beyond my comfort zone.  However I have never regretted having done it.
What I would like to share with my colleagues is the joy I have experienced during these last two years as I became more and more engaged in web based activities.  I have learned so much and yet I realize that there is still so much learning to do that I am looking forward to coming back and setting my schedule for my next month.  Apart from this, I have often been involved in activities which could have been more profitable to teachers who are in front of a regular school, institution class.  I often found myself  saying: "This would be perfect for a primary/secondary school teacher."  Hence this idea of presenting the workshop was born.  During my journey I had so much fun with other teacher´s students who were always respectful, curious, amusing, that I wished somebody else had the chance to experience it too.
On the whole this experience helped me get organised with my learning and I am excited at the possibility of adding more Argentinian friends to the connected world of teachers.
Wish me luck!

Some reflections on my learning how to ski.

I am not an experienced skier.  Last year we decided to go to a ski destination so as to share a holiday with our three adolescent kids during the winter break.  This year I decided to take things easy and enjoy the experience as much as I could, given that last year I spent two valuable days trying to master the snowboard technique only to find myself full of bruises on my back and a severe pain in my neck.  The regular skis were my choice this year and it was like starting everything all over again.
Some observations:
Children:  Oh, the joy of being naive, light and fearless!
I used the same "bunny slope" where children were taken to give their first slides and I enjoyed watching them slide smoothly knowing that the instructor was there for them, encouraging, helping and praising them for every small accomplishment.  I secretly followed them and imagined that they were praising me! Well done,  María!  I like the way you did that turn!  Skiing was the most natural thing for them. How cute they looked in those outfits wearing the tiny helmets and pretending to fly like aeroplanes!
Adults: Fearful, clumsy and self concious, I struggled to master my equipment slowly and carefully.  Eventually I managed to go down the blue slope, but only when I was confident enough, and that was on the last day of our holiday.  What a bliss! The feeling of achievement, the pride of having accomplished something after mastering my own inner voice that warned me about invisible dangers.
I wonder does this have anything to do with teaching at all?  It made me a learner again, thank you for that!  I look forward to skiing next year and going back to teaching with a humble spirit.

On The Flat Classroom Conference,Hawaii 2013

I met Theresa Allen around October, 2012.  She was the first person from the Hello Little World teachers skypers who agreed to have a short meeting to explain to me the mechanics of the group.  Then we realised we had many things in common. For example we were collaboration believers and mothers of three children.  However I am here to reflect on her sesion at the Flat Classroom Conference in Hawaii.
To begin with there are many opportunities for the English Language Teacher if they want to collaborate either asynchronously or synchronously, whether you have the technology or not, because it´s not about the technology anymore.  It begins with a teacher whose instinct tells her that there is a potential for learning in connecting her class to another one, and then the road begins with small steps, as the ones she made, first by trying to explain to the authorities of the institution where you work that there was nothing wrong with it, then by figuring out a way to find your partners and finally polishing out the details of implementing a project. You would say that my friend knows how to solve all the technology problems.  The truth is this:  Theresa believes in the power of doing things together, she goes around it with a curious mind and success finds her working hard.  By success I don´t mean, as she said "flashy" success, but the satisfaction of seeing your work done.  I know that the work of teachers like Theresa is done mostly in the silence of the time between family meals and going to bed when the house is quiet.  That´s how passionate educators find their way out of the daily problems.


Flat Classroom Conference ning.

Theresa´s session at the Flat Classroom Conference, Hawaii 2013

What I learned in one hour during #globalclassroom chat

Someone showed us their edu interests
https://sites.google.com/site/skypershello/home/links/mysteryskype
Posters!
Collaborative Projects
Someone else shared this presentation about Social Media
International Peace Day
A teacher showed us what she did for International Dot Day
Skype Classroom, a place to meet world classrooms and post your project
Virtual Edcamp!
A site to find blog resources
Aurasma was mentioned, check this later!


On Saturday 6th July at 3 pm I joined the Global Classroom Project  monthly chat as I regularly do every first or second Saturday that I am available. I have become used to rushing to my computer to sit and chat with teachers from all over the world on different topics which I always find interesting.  Because the chats are open to a global audience there are three different times, for Argentina they are at 8am, 3pm or 11pm.  At the beginning of the post are the links I highlighted during this session.  I intend to give them a closer look during the week.
What I always find refreshing about these chats is the willingness to share and reflect.  If you ever find lonely in the teaching profession give tweetchats a try.  It´s like going back to the teacher training college when you met with friends and talked about the classroom experiences you had, the problems, what you did to solve them, and what it all felt like. Even better because there is an archive where you can go to in case you want to see if you missed anything, so everything said during the chat is recorded there.  Here´s the archive of the one I was in.