WEEK 6. LOTS OF LEARNING AND FUN!

This week’s readings focused on strategies to create interactive power point presentations and techniques to teach large classes.


The most interesting thing I learned this week is some guidelines to present material with power point. From this link http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/powerpoint/docs/presenting.pdf  I learned that if I use power point, I have to emphasize on QUALITY rather than quantity. Besides creating an effective PPT, I also have to develop good communication skills such as the use of nonverbal language to keep my students interested in what I say, not just in the PPT. To keep my student involved in the presentation, I learned that I should ask them to perform a specific pair or group work task where they can interact with their partners and put theory into practice.

By watching these two videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgPO-agnnMk
http://www.microsoft.com/education/story.mspx

I learned to create interactive power point presentations such as a jeopardy game, a quiz and an interactive story. I created my own jeopardy game to review the contents of a unit of the textbook my students use and I am planning to play this game next semester. I am also thinking about implementing more interactive quizzes, especially to practice vocabulary and grammar. I am sure my students will love these new activities.

From the article “Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students” by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw, I learned some suggestions to engage students in lectures. For example, I have to use variety, correct pace, include interesting stories, individualization, routines, speaking style, enlarging the cycle and especially collaboration. Small group activities can promote collaboration and facilitate learning and the development of critical thinking skills. Furthermore, collaboration promotes social and emotional development, it helps students to respect and appreciate diversity, and it reduces student attrition. From this reading, I also learned some small group informal activities such as: think-pair-share, concept test, quick-thinks, minute paper, scripted cooperative learning, and so on. You can find more information at this link:
http://umbc.uoregon.edu/eteacher/webskills/material/engaging_students_handout.pdf

Finally, from this link http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/largeclasses.html

I learned to use i-class pair and small group activities to make lectures interactive. By giving students the opportunity to work with others, they have opportunities to internalize the information and as a result real learning takes place.

As you can see, I had lots of fun learning these topics this week! I hope this can be useful for you as well.