Teacher in Development

I have recently found (can’t remember where exactly) Doug Noon’s Borderland blog. Fascinating and thought provoking, a true story teller.

Yesterday Doug sounded off on a test that I’ve never heard of, but I think his post is relevant for many of us today:
DIBELS and the Seductive Lure of Snake Oil

“…if it’s taught because it’s tested, what typically gets taught is not the skills or content, but test-taking itself.” (Borderland, 2006.)

I see the crossover into ESL. The TOEIC, TOEFL etc. How often do our prep classes turn into TEST TAKING classes. Where we focus on how to hack the test and shortcut to success.

Students can score high on the test, but has anything really useful happened to their English skills? I’ve said it before: I know people who have scored high on the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) but cannot hold their own in a conversation.

Blogging and podcasts (for listening and content creation), have very obvious applications for intermediate and advanced level English learners. What happens when you have a room full of true beginners? Can 2.0 help you?

Aaron Campbell has a really useful post around this that I really appreciated.

Flickr for “Low Level” EFL Students

“Students can begin by constructing their own galleries and profiles, while adding short descriptions and ‘notes’ to their own photos. This can be coupled with tag searches for themes of interest, followed by building a contact list and making simple comments on interesting photos. It doesn’t take a linguistic expert to carry out these tasks, and they are fun to do, too.” (Campbell, 2006 par. 2)

What I really liked about Aaron’s idea was how well this type of work would lend itself to learner autonomy.

Flickr’s growing picture bank is mind numbingly huge, and that means finding things that are personally relevant or interesting to students will be quite easy. That ups the probability of them getting hooked, of doing it themselves, of connecting with somoeone else {an English speaker}- OUTSIDE of the classroom.

“Placing [english learners] in a Web 2.0 environment and showing them how to use its tools to meet people and express themselves, is far more likely to motivate them to want to learn further than sitting in a traditional classroom with their peers doing pair work - they’ve already been exposed to that and it has obviously failed to do the trick.”(Campbell, 2006. Par. 3)

Isn’t that the truth? 2.0 classrooms, be they ESL or other, up their level of interestingness the more they merge with relevance to STUDENTS.

I teach business English in companies around Mexico City. I’ve never had a group where computers where available in class and students never seem to have time to seriously delve into blogging or podcasting etc.

So I become the web. It’s a slow beginning, but at least I can leverage some 2.0 power. Adopting me as the net approach to Aaron’s idea:
1. I pay careful attention to my student’s hobbies, passions, interests etc.
2. I go to flickr and find pictures of interest. I print them off - and include the comment space under the picture.
3. Students write their comments on paper.

You could stop there, or go a little further. What if you took those same pictures, with the student’s comments, and handed them around the room, or even to other English groups. Other students could post their comments as well, and then return the pictures back to the original commenters.

It’s not instantaneous, but it follows the principal of interaction. Of communicating for and with an audience. Best of all, it’s PERSONAL.

One reason I am totally sold out on blogging for purposes of professional development, is that it is incredibly easy to connect with others who are thinking about, and doing, the same things as you are - or are attempting to do.

Their experieinces, ideas, ponderings, failings, are all at my fingertips helping me along on my own journey. Instantly, I have models to follow. Mistakes I was about to make, can now be avoided because someone went on ahead and took the time to honestly reflect on what happened. (The good, the bad, and the ugly.) Most of all though, I now have connections. A community of fellow practitioners. There is no more isolation. There is no more trying to figure things out on your own. We figure things out in community.

Case in point:
jamesmatthew, over at Palimpsest Redux, is also exploring around portfolios as the BC ministry of Education has implemented a mandatory graduation portfolio.

Fascinating stuff:Palimpsest redux » Blogs as a Potential Portfolio Delivery Format…

Using the tools of blogging (internal and external linking, categories, comments), the portfolio would take on a fluid, evolving appearance…isn’t that more representative of who we are as individuals? If we are actively engaged in learning /reflecting/ experiencing the world around us, then we will be fluid organisms, changing and evolving as we learn/reflect/experience more.

The blog-portfolio also provides a great forum for a multi-faceted portfolio.” (jamesmatthew, 2006)

Portfolios of today, in my humble opinion, are not static and therefore lifeless things. They are organic. They grow. The develop. The reinvent along with their owner. They are, to borrow from James, “fluidly evolving.”

Noone remains the same. Experiences shape us. Blogfolios, ePortfolios, and paper based solutions must actively follow this evolution.

Reading James’ entry then led me to the comments, where Ewan McIntosh (Very interesting blog.) explores portfolios and their static vs. evolving nature. He also goes on to make a really fine point:

“I think the realist in me, though, says that most educators and, particularly, examination bodies do not see a portfolio as something that should be changed. We speak of ‘final drafts’, ‘final exams’ or simply ‘finals’. Of course, this is ridiculous. The most ridiculous ‘final exam’ I ever sat was for my Honours year when I sat European Law. Two weeks afterwards, and I knew this was going to happen as I sat the exam, all the Treaty numbers of the EU were changed as part of the Amsterdam Treaty. ‘Final exam’? My eye! But those attitudes haven’t changed at any stage in the education system.”

Ouch. Painfully true. In today’s world, most everything that comes out as a “final version” is outdated the next day. Change or die.

Follow the comments to Ewan McIntosh’s site. The conversation is very interesting. Should portfolios demonstrate a “finished product” or specimens of ongoing growth?