In teaching others we teach ourselves.

Week 5! Days are flying by!

So much has been done this week. I completely forgot about my foot. Examinations have already started at school and we are correcting scripts. So much has been done!

‘In teaching others we teach ourselves’. We are learning so many things to teach our students; to make teaching more interactive and more amusing. In so doing, we are arming ourselves with so many useful tools which we were never aware of or were not making use of. I feel really privilege to form part of this course. Thank you so much Donna for making our lives. 

I started reading on Assessment through which I started pondering on the mode of assessment that we use in class. I must admit that I used most of the time the traditional method of assessment. They are convenient methods and it suits our students. But, while reading the positive aspects of PBL and WebQuests, I felt really guilty and will surely bring about changes in my ways of assessing my students. I will also encourage my colleagues to adopt other measures for assessments. When our students are with their groups of friends they are more comfortable to work. Peer teaching, Group work and other collaborative ways of working will produce good outcome. Assessment in this way becomes easier. The teaching and learning atmosphere is different and less rigid.

Rubrics are really importance aspect in the teaching and learning process. Very often we do not find the need to give students rubrics as it should be. Rather, we briefly explain what we want them to do. Rubrics are the criteria that students will need to enhance their performance as a whole. Rubrics are here to guide them and also make them conscious about what they need to do or on what to improve. Appropriate rubrics are needed to guide students throughout. As teachers we won’t be biased in giving marks and it will be fair to all students. When we are correcting their mistakes, they know why we are doing so.

Also, we have been given so many helpful and interesting links. It really facilitates our task; creating a Rubric or creating a Webquests; has become part of the game now. I am really eager to share zunal.com with my students. Webquests appeared really time-consuming before, but, now with zunal, it is easier and more user-friendly. I tried creating a Webquest though not a perfect one but felt really satisfied and will be doing some more in the near future. 

About the change we had to bring in the class, I chose Nicenet and other useful links. When we think of change, then we realize that we have to change a whole system. Here, in my country there are signs of change but they are rather slow. Adopting and using this aspect of change will be difficult but not impossible. Slowly but surely, this change has to be made for the betterment of our students.

We hope for the best. 

Regards

Shavila