Short reflection as the term winds down...

I'm amazed that Term 1 is almost over. The time just flew by! Hmmmm, I must have been having fun. (Right!) Tomorrow, my Form 4 and Form 5 students will write their end of term English exam, and frankly I'm a little nervous about how the Form 4 class will handle the paper. They really stretched me this term (and that's such an understatement!)

Of course, I'm probably more nervous than they are. They seem to be blissfully unconcerned about trite things like exams.


I saw the most progress with the Form six class this term. I really enjoyed teaching Communication Studies. I was able to incorporate more technology into my lessons with them, and I actually look forward to next term with these students. They really are an encouraging bunch.

The journey continues...

Go Soca Warriors!

I've never been crazy about football. But I must admit that my heart has been doing all manner of flip flops when the Soca Warriors were playing their last two matches. Yesterday in particular, the whole school was buzzing. Neither teachers nor students could fully concentrate on school work. Unfortunately, none of the televisions in school were showing properly so people depended on radios and suddenly in the middle of my class, jubilant screams rang throughout the school. I don 't know how the children found out, but somehow they had heard that a goal had been scored. It turned out to be a false alarm. I tried to continue teaching my class (valiant soldier I was), but then another round of shouts erupted. This time it was true. We had scored a goal! By this time, nobody could concentrate. Eventually the principal dismissed school early. We were supposed to have had a department meeting at this time. HAAAA! Couldn't happen. Our wise principal understood this. When the final whistle blew, those who were still on the school compound shouted in relief and absolute joy. I felt dazed.
"So this means we going to Germany?" I asked a student who was nearby.
"It seems so, Miss," he replied with a wide smile.
Wow...
As I made my way home, I could feel the jubilation in the air. Motorists had their lights on high beam, even though it was two in the afternoon. Trinidad flags were fluttering from cars. Everyone was smiling. Some were shouting. That kind of togetherness warmed my heart. I wish it could last forever.

Today, I saw people of all races and backgrounds united in the joy of the Soca Warriors' victory. I saw political opponents share a platform and salute each other as they paid tribute to the team. I have to admit that I'm still not a huge fan of football, but there's something to be said about the power of that one moment when Dennis Lawrence butted that ball into that net. It gave a tiny nation a feeling of hope. It made us forget the escalating crime for a while. It reminded me of the beauty of the Trinbagonian spirit.

Well done Soca Warriors!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhh!

Okay it's been a long, muggy, cold day and I struggled with my photography assignment for Ed Tech class. I've felt comfortable with all of the other components so far, but for some reason I've been feeling a little out of my depth with the photography. Although I like seeing "nice" pictures, I've never really had any interest in all the mechanics of producing one. I've never even used a digital camera before (bowing my head in shame) and for the past few days I've been trying to familiarize myself with it. Today I finally have my ten pictures. I'm not sure if I've "tested the limits" of the camera as the lecturer wanted me to. I'm just relieved to have the pictures. Then, when it was time to download the pictures to the hard drive I had all kinds of stress trying to figure out how to do it, and nobody I asked seemed to have any idea. When I got home and tried to install the camera software, I kept getting error messages and then I got fed up and opened it with the Canon software that was already on my hard drive. It was then that I discovered that I apparently had neglected to set the date on the camera and some of the pictures are stamped with the year 2003, even though I took the pictures over the course of the past few days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Argggggggggggggggggggggggggh! I know for sure that I will not be choosing Digital Photography as my Practicum option. A person can only handle so much frustration!

Reflections on Ed Tech

As this term winds down, I can’t help but reflect on the highs and lows I’ve experienced thus far both as a teacher and as a student.

My experiences on this Ed Tech course have been very enriching for the most part. Certainly there were hiccups, and certainly there were times when the constant assignment demands literally made me ill, but despite it all, I do not regret signing up for it at all.

First of all, I’ve met some fantastic colleagues in education and our diversity as a group has made the Thursday classes a constant source of amusement and excitement.

In addition to meeting new colleagues, I have also been exposed to a whole new world of gadgetry. Terms like “visual presenter” and “pen drive” “pod casts” are not alien to me any more. But even more important than being exposed to technology, I’m seeing ways to move from the vague area of theory into the more practical world. I’m putting my newly learnt Power point skills into practice especially in my Communication Studies classes. My students have even begun to create their own presentations, which has made me feel like a proud mom. Thanks to Miss Popplewell (you really need to check out her website here!) I can now script and produce a pod cast and next term I will be putting this new found knowledge into practice. I finally have some idea on how to create my own website (thanks to Michelle!) and I think I’m going to incorporate it into my teaching next year and I’m excited about that. If I wanted to, I can now create a newsletter using Word, and Excel is not as intimidating as it used to be. Still can’t get the hang of databases though!

My favourite course so far was the Media Literacy course. I thoroughly enjoyed all the presentations we had to do and those skills have come in handy as I work with my Communication Studies students!

Of course, I do not want to sound as if the use of technology has magically erased the challenges of my profession. In order to use the technology, I have to be prepared to do all the running up and down that is necessary to ensure that the class runs smoothly, and despite my best efforts, I still face some of my students’ apathy, insolence and illiteracy. Of course I get discouraged sometimes, and I hold elaborate self-pity parties, but this course helped me to see some possibilities that I hadn’t seen before, and I’m excited…The journey continues...

Testing, testing, my website is (tentatively) up

Thanks to my fellow student M., I was able to overcome my Mambo fears and create my own website. I still have a lot of work to do on it still, but I'm so excited that after dreaming about it for so long it's finally a reality. Check it out here.