:: English - Courses ::

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/education/index.htm (I chose this one since it talks about education)

http://ocw.usu.edu/English/introduction-to-writing-academic-prose/index.html (this one since I think it is interesting and also it would be helpful for us)

http://ocw.usu.edu/English/Technology_for_Professional_Writers/index.html (I chose this one too since technology is one of the main issues around the world)

:: An Open Mind ::

When reading the text the first thing that came to my mind is about how different are this time from the past. Now, we have lot of access to information since all you need is internet conexion. The only thing that you need to do is google certain topic and that's it, you are going to find lot of pages with the information you may need. On the other hand, we have books which are very expensive in our country, and sometimes it is hard to find them in a library. But, we cannot find everything on the net since there are several materials which are only in books. And that is how although now we have several ways of finding information, we cannot have everything we want since books are limiting our knolwdge.


Now, I have a strange feeling about watching classes through a computer machine. I think although it is great finding lot of information and classes on youtube for example, there is something there missing: love. When teaching there are only one thing that I like the most and that one is being near my students. I think most of us know how important is being there for real since our students have lot of needs that we cannot denny. Moreover, it is sad to think that in the future we may be replaced by machines since we do know how important the presence of a teacher is into the classroom. But, we need to take into consideration the importance of internet in our lives. That is why I think that it is great having these online classes. So, if you are not an american student you can watch their classes online anyway. It is an adevange that we need to bear in mind since it is very useful.

:: Rubric ::

Evaluation

	Needs Improvement 4	Satisfactory    5	Good 6	Outstanding 7	Score
Handout/ notes	Handout is incomplete even with teacher/peer help and reminders.	Answers short/some incomplete sentences. May be hard to read.	Answers complete, few spelling errors, easy to read.	Answers very clear and complete. Neat and easy to understand.
Group participation	Did not work well with others.  Off task. Did not participate.	Tried to work cooperatively. Participated in/ contributed to most group activities.	Worked well with others. Participated in/ contributed to all group activities.	Excellent participation/ enthusiastic contribution. Helped others--took a leadership role.
Group presentation	Presentation unorganized/ incomplete. Very few facts-Many errors and/or difficult to hear or understand.	Attempt at organization-Some facts but weak on persuasion. Some errors in text.	Organized, including an introduction. Facts are used to persuade audience. Clear with few errors.	Presentation includes intro, well thought-out, supporting facts, and a conclusion that is clear, strong and persuasive.
Final Poster	Ending not complete. Many grammatical errors. Illustration not colored in and/or carelessly done.	Ending contains some grammatical errors. Word choice is weak. Illustration is complete but may not support text.	Ending has few errors. Word choice is good and contains verbs and adjectives. Illustration colored and supports text.	Ending has no errors. Excellent word choice and freshness of expression is evident. Illustrations are detailed and add to the story.

:: Class Research Observation ::

Group Lesson: Group 1 (Catalina, Juan y Francisca)

Assignment:

1.      Choose on of the following research ‘topics’ to observe.

·         Teacher talk and student interaction

2.      Choose one video from Wednesday, April 6^th and one from Monday, April 11^th    

Group 1 (Francisca, Catalina y Juan) From April 6th

3.      Write a “field note” observation account of the topic as it can be observed in the videos:

* One of the teachers gave the instructions to the students. 

* Students are form 9^th grade

* Use of ICT, power point

* Interaction between teacher and students

* Little use of movement, no mimics

*Different students participating

* Use of productive skill: Speaking

* Good projection of voice

4.  Interpret your field notes into an academic analysis of the observations.

According to what we already observed, I can say that we attended to a well prepared class in order to incorporate student’s interaction with the teacher. Although they were 9^th graders they had fun as little children since the activity was very engaging. Moreover, as we know almost 70% of our students are visual and that is why it is important the use of ICTs, and this activity was very appealing to this learning style. What is more there was a lot of interaction between teacher and students because they practice a productive skill as speaking. Now, although there were some students who were not paying attention, I could observe that most of the class was very interested as the activity was very catching. Also, the projection of the teacher’s voice was very appropriate and that is an important thing to take into consideration when we are teaching.

5.  Formulate conclusions based on your observations and your analysis.  Were you able to arrive at empirically valid and robust conclusions based on your observations?  Explain why or why not?

I think that although I did not get lot of information about teacher and students interaction, I can say that it was presented in the class. Although they were doing the same activity the whole class, we can appreciate that teacher and students were interested and engage with the activity they were doing. Moreover, different students could participate which it is important too. So, maybe I can not create a robust conclusion, but I think my observations and analysis make valid my conclusion.

Group Lesson: Group 6 (Nicole, Bárbara, Katherine)

Assignment:

1.      Choose on of the following research ‘topics’ to observe.

·         Student motivation and engagement

2.      Choose one video from Wednesday, April 6^th and one from Monday, April 11^th

From April 11th

3.      Write a “field note” observation account of the topic as it can be observed in the videos:

*  Use of mimic and body language

*  Use of ICT

* Interaction between teacher and students

* Use of flashcards

* Good projection of voice

* Use of words like: good, excellent

4.  Interpret your field notes into an academic analysis of the observations.

As we can see through the video the teacher was very enthusiastic and that was very important to engage students with the topic of seasons. Also, she was very motivating since she was using mimics and body language the whole time. Moreover, we need to take into consideration that TPR is and important tool when we teach little children. Thus, we have the use of ICT and flashcards which help students to understand better the concepts and also make it more interesting too. The projection of the voice was appropriate and the tone of voice too.

5.  Formulate conclusions based on your observations and your analysis.  Were you able to arrive at empirically valid and robust conclusions based on your observations?  Explain why or why not?

From my point of view, I think that I got enough information in order to make a valid conclusion. We already observed a very well prepared class. It was motivating, appealing to children and entertaining. Moreover, form the very beginning the teacher was able to engage students through mimics, body language and images. Thus, something that called my attention was the use of words as “good and excellent” since I believe that they are key when we teach, not only children but teens too.  As a conclusion, according to what I already saw I could say that their class had everything that students need in order to be motivated.

:: Learning Italian ::

As we know Grammar Translation method is very well known. It is a method in which rules are all important and in which the mother tongue is translated into the target language and vice-versa. As an example of this we have a webpage in which you can learn Italian. It is called "Professor Gio" and it is for free.

http://www.professorgio.com/

We can get from it several examples of this Grammar Translation method. Here we have:

Sono i nostri.
They are ours.

È il tuo?
Is it yours?

An then we have more examples to learn the word "bravo"

Il ragazzo è bravo.
The boy is well-behaved.

La ragazza è brava.
The girl is well-behaved. 

I ragazzi sono bravi.
The boys are well-behaved. 

Le ragazze sono brave.
The girls are well-behaved.

As we can see the use of this method is exposed by several examples in this page. And most of the content it is explained in the same way, through translation. The idea is that you can memorize these phrases or chunks and they repeat them. Moreover, we can see that the grammar is explained in the native language and only later applied sentences through translation from one language to another. Example:

In Italian, all words are either masculine or feminine. The rule of thumb is that singular words that end in o are masculine and singular words that end in a are feminine. To make these singular words plural, change the o to an i and the a to an e. Take a look:

Word	Meaning	Gender
libro	book	M
libri	books	M
sedia	chair	F
sedie	chairs	F

And that is mainly the way in which this link works a grammar translation web page.

::MLA::