Saturday, 24 February 2018

Continuing Professional Development

As a passionate, curious and life-long learner teacher, I embarked on an interesting learning adventure during last year. I learned a lot of things to improve my teaching practices, become an "innovator" teacher and thus, offer my students new and innovative ways to engage them in my English classes.

First, the Moodle for Teachers EVO Session. This experience enabled me to learn more about blended learning. A five-week course whereby doing and working collaboratively I was able to create a course for teenagers on a Moodle platform. Moreover, it allowed me to meet wonderful teachers from Russia, Serbia, Greek, and The USA, who are now "my virtual friends". Good projects with them are coming!!!

Second, the ICT4ELT EVO Session. An enriching experience where teaching and technology met to provide tools and ideas for our classes. Wikis, blogs, Edmodo were some of the enlightening resources offered us to start innovating our practices as well as the knowledge of the SAMR  model.

Finally, the Flipped Learning EVO Session. Great!!!! A new approach which guides you to discover and understand its four pillars: F. Flexible Environment, L. Learning Culture, I. Intentional Content, P. Professional Educator providing us, especially "newbies" like me, a helpful checklist.
What Flipped Learning offered me:

  • A better understanding of Bloom's Taxonomy
  • Be aware of the importance of differentiation 
  • Put into my students' shoes when planning
  • Maximize the in-class moment engaging my students with meaningful activities and more opportunities to practice the language
  • New and innovative tools 
  • A desire and commitment to continue reading and researching about it
My summer holidays became "learning holidays" and I enjoyed it. Now,  you will understand why I defined myself as a "passionate, curious and life-long learner teacher".

Monday, 29 January 2018

Welcome to my blog!

I am a passionate teacher and life-long learner. Teaching English as a Second Language has been my field of expertise for almost 18 years so far. Walking through noisy and sometimes quiet classrooms are a big part of my life which intertwine with my mom and wife's role. Why this profession? Well, let me quote Carol S. Dweck to answer, because "teaching is a wonderful way to learn".