GROWING...

This week has been so productive and as well as in the image, our ideas are growing day after day. We have been working around the topic of engaging students through interactive activities, either using technology or not. A very interesting conclusion we have drawn is that technology is “one” tool not “the” tool and even such a good alternative can make harm if it’s misused or overused. We have worked on making interactive presentations using powerpoint and this has been a fantastic experience because many of us have learned a new use of this program, which in the past we used just like a transmission tool; and I say past because from now on we will take the most of powerpoint interactive features to make our presentations not only more appealing but better teaching instruments because students will interact with the material not only watch it, read it or listen to it. Some of the participants have even created a Jeopardy game, a very entertaining activity to change the mood of the classes and reinforce topics. I have also read about cooperative learning, another interesting strategy to engage students in their own learning. This is an approach which remarks positive interdependence and individual accountability of the group members, in order for everybody to work together for the group’s good result. I have a lot of things to learn about the cooperative learning approach, which is not a new one, but a theory we have to learn and manage in order to implement it appropriately in our classes. As somebody said in the discussion board this has been” a week of treasures” for us. We have discovered wonderful tools which certainly will help us in our purpose of becoming better teachers every day.