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Standardized testing as a metric for learning.

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There are and will always be debates when it comes to measuring knowledge. Even in our daily basis, we always tend to think that the information we want to share is true and the others' is wrong and they’ll pretend the same. When it comes to education and school, we can admit that it happens pretty much the same thing. As we have noticed that many CEO-s, artists, public figures, sport figures didn’t even go to college or don’t have a certain degree, we also know that a bridge doesn’t build itself, a patient doesn’t usually heal himself, neither a PC doesn’t fix itself, and for that skills and degrees are needed. But where and how these skills qualify, it’s all on education and how the learning process is measured. Since we were little, we remember taking good or even bad grades. And from these grades, today we are able to make a discussion whether that is the right form to determine the student’s future or not. We can start by mentioning the pros and later on the cons of this proc...
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Reflection on our group project...

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Group project... the monster I feared most throughout my school experience. As someone who used to be timid and introverted, it was never a good news when the teacher assigned us to divide into groups or work in pairs. Adding also the fact that I thought of myself as a perfectionist, it didn't help knowing that I would have to trust and rely on other people to work on the project and their work wouldn't match my expectations. But this semester, I was proven wrong and have completely changed my mind for good. The assignment was interesting and challenging enough, to be able to simulate a Teaching English classroom session. What made it even more so, was the fact that we had to work in pairs. I was to work with Alkida, a classmate I didn't know really well. But I was determined to work hard and I would still give my best nonetheless, especially after seeing others' presentations and trying to reflect and learn from my friends. To be truly honest, I didn't start worki...
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Can you guess this important ESL skill...?

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  From everything I have heard and seen so far, I have come to the conclusion that there is one very important skill that will help anyone in life: problem solving . I consider problem solving probably the most useful skill, because if you can solve problems that appear in everything you do and if you can manage situations well, you can achieve all you are working for. Problem solving is extremely useful throughout life, whether it be school, work, or even relationships and pretty much anything else. I want to focus now on the problem solving as an ESL skill. Imagine, you’ve planned a class, you know the students and everything is going to be great. During the class, no one’s getting it. The enthusiastic students are tired and everyone’s getting restless. As the teacher, everyone looks to you and you need to rescue the class. You develop an instinct in the class- you think fast and try new things. If that doesn’t work, you keep your cool and find something that works. This is a ...
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Online Classes Issues and Struggles...

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Technology can really influence teaching in good and bad ways. Of course, it comes in handy, since media can also make things more complete and interesting. However, every coin has a flipside and the flipside to this is that technology sometimes can complicate some processes and cause issues for the whole class. Sometimes, some factors such as technical difficulties or unfamiliarity with using technology can cause problems to occur during classes and teaching-learning processes. Such problems or issues might be:   1. Technical issues Technology is both a blessing and a curse. It can be really practical and time saving, while doing also the opposite and destroying all your nerves during the process. Technical issues occur all the time, and sometimes it is not because of the lack of knowledge, but simply to the fact that the internet connection might be unstable or even out of service, the computer might be lagging and freezing, the PowerPoint presentation is not loading, your ...
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Lesson Planning - Technology Edition!

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  W e can't say that technology has never been used before in the classroom or during lesson planning, but, since the online school replaced the real-life one, teachers and students have been getting themselves more and more familiar with all the possibilities and tools technology has to offer. Starting from, of course, digital devices, and moving on to programs and apps that serve for a specific purpose or just make everything easier and more interactive.  Starting from the most helpful and obvious technology tool, search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo, which provide numerous helpful apps, such as translators, docs, books, forms, sheets, and so on; then moving on to video platforms such as YouTube or Dailymotion, then moving on to general or specific apps and websites. The shift to remote learning had many teachers scrambling to find effective ways to share lessons, deliver instruction, and allow students to collaborate. Here are some of our favourite tools, divid...
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Cooperative Learning

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  Can you guess from the name what Cooperative Learning is about?  In this approach, also named as Collaborative Learning, students work on a task in groups and often are rewarded either partially or completely for the success of the group as a whole. Aspects of cooperative learning have been part of education for a long time; some form of cooperation has always been necessary to participate on teams.  he more active a lesson, the more students tend to engage intellectually and emotionally in the learning activities.  The use of cooperative learning groups in instruction is based on the principle of constructivism, with particular attention to the contribution that social interaction can make.   In essence, constructivism rests on the idea that individuals learn through building their own knowledge, connecting new ideas and experiences to existing knowledge and experiences to form new or enhanced understanding.  The core element of cooperative learning...
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Multiple Intelligences - Gardner's Theory

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What does "Multiple Intelligences" mean?  All of us discover at one point in our life, whether it is in an early age or during growth, that we are better at some things than others. As we grow and learn, we gain new skills and work on assigned skills, usually from school, society of family, but this happens to all of us: while we try to be great at everything, we realise that we don't perform the same in every skill. Maybe we are great at writing and vocabulary, but struggle with mathematics. Or maybe you are good at visualizing and designing but perform poorly in sports and physical activities. Everything happens because of... multiple intelligences! So, what exactly does Gardner say about this?  Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences proposes that people are not born with all of the intelligence they will ever have. Meaning that, w hile a person might be particularly strong in a specific area, such as musical intelligence, he or she most likely possesses ...
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