Posts

Showing posts from June, 2021

Standardized testing as a metric for learning.

Image
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...

Reflection on our group project...

Image
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...

Can you guess this important ESL skill...?

Image
  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 ...

Online Classes Issues and Struggles...

Image
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 ...