:Daniel’s Teaching Blogfolio

Just two days away from the start of my vacation and the call for proposals arrives in my e-mail this morning. Since I won’t be thinking much about it for the next seven weeks, I suppose I could mull over a possible proposal for the next two days. Fortunately I’ve got until November to submit.

Today I’m thinking about a workshop on using the San Diego Quick Assessment in an ELT environment. Since the tool wasn’t conceived for English language learners, I’ll have to come up with a justification for the application. Whether or not others agree, I think that ELT’s need an easy and FREE assessment device that we can use to quickly estimate our student’s reading level in English in order to help us guide the development of their reading skills.

In my workshop, I would explain what the SDQA is, why I chose it and how it works. The rest of the time participants would listen to student examples and score them, then discuss the results.

I’ll be experimenting with the SDQA more in the Fall and may find that I don’t want to pursue this any further but for now, that’s the direction I’m heading for this conference.

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We’ve been seeing lots of potential colleagues in the hallway these last few days of the academic year. People are being interviewed for positions this fall. A couple of days ago, a colleague who was part of a panel interview with one of the recent candidates commented upon how well the candidate had answered the following question. “How would you teach critical thinking?” 

This got me to thinking about what my response to that question would be. Honestly, I don’t know what would come out of my mouth in an interview situation but here’s my own answer to that question. 

I wouldn’t teach critical thinking. I don’t believe it needs to be taught because I think people do it naturally. They may not do it about all things all the time, but I believe that all people do think critically about some things some times. 

As educators, we want our students not to become critical thinkers but rather to become better at thinking critically. This can be done by modeling critical thinking ourselves, encouraging students to think critically and by rewarding students for taking up the challenge regardless of what we may think of their outcomes. 

How do I model critical thinking in my classroom? I’m not sure that I can answer that at this time. 

How do I encourage it? I encourage critical thinking by asking students to explain why they believe / say a particular thing is true, worthy, correct etc. Sometimes I challenge their suppositions about particular subjects. I also try to create an atmosphere in the classroom/community that is safe for questioning me about my suppositions. 

How do I reward critical thinking? I do this primarily (exclusively?) through verbal praise. If it’s necessary, then I admit shortcomings in my reasoning when a student “catches me out” before the class. 

Since my critical thinking skills are certainly in process and in need of improvement, I’m sure that my methods for modeling, encouraging and rewarding are also in need of improvement. 

I’m not sure how that answer would fly in an interview, but for the moment, these are my thoughts on the matter.

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This morning’s session was more enjoyable than yesterday’s. This is in part due to the fact that refreshments were provided and thanks to ML’s indulgence of our questions. In fact, he was so indulgent that we pretty much side-tracked him from his lecture and ended up having a group discussion/Q and A which was very pleasant.

Originally he intended to talk about a) how radical the lexical approach can be and b) how it can and can not be used to inform teaching practice in the classroom. The conversation that actually took place did hit upon those ideas but not (I guess) in the detail that his lecture might have had he been able to give it. Not a problem really since.

In the conversation he did concede a point that I’ve made several times to folks who would listen: nearly every approach/method that’s been used has been effective to some degree. “Traditional” approaches, techniques, methods have all produced speakers of the target language. The truth of the matter is that we don’t (and can’t) empirically know that students learned because of or in spite of the method. Assuming that this is correct, it ought to make one question whether or not teaching a language in an institutional setting is a worthwhile endeavor.

Maybe I’ll ask ML his thoughts about that at lunch today…but probably not.

I’ve just finished lunch with ML. I tried very hard not to talk about ELT and language and I failed. Consequently, I did get to ask he views of the validity of ELT as a profession.  If I understood him correctly, his take on the question is that language teaching is valid if one doesn’t place too much weight upon the concept of teaching. When it comes to language learning, we (teachers) do not impart knowledge so much as we guide students through their learning process. Obviously, he is very much in line with the dominant theories (not necessarily practices) of our day; namely that teachers as authority figures are out-dated and teachers as facilitators/managers/guides/gurus are the future.

I’m content to let that go unchallenged in the context of language learning and teaching, however from a philosophical perspective, I simply disagree. I say that there is such a thing as Absolute Truth and/or Objective Reality which is/are necessary for the existence of Authority. I would also maintain that I am the authority in my classroom but I am not The Absolute Authority….but I think I digress.

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Does that name mean anything to you? It didn’t to me when I first saw the e-mail that the man was coming to do some professional development sessions with us during the two “study days” prior to the beginning of exams. It didn’t take long though for me to figure out that this is a person of some importance in the field of linguistics and ELT.

The session that I attended was his attempt to get his audience to start looking at language in a new way. Presupposing that we were all largely guided by the traditional belief that language is “lexicalized grammar” he attempted to get us to see language as “grammaticalized lexis”. I suppose this really means that instead of thinking of grammar first and training students to plug their vocabulary into the grammatical structures, we should be thinking of lexis (words and combinations of words) and then taking note of the grammatical structures in which they are found. While it was an interesting way to pass the time, I’ve not had that epiphany where I suddenly grasp how to improve my teaching by following this approach. Certainly there are some intuitively gratifying sentiments in this approach such as “forget explicitly teaching grammar” and “reading to students is good”, I don’t know how I’m going to let some of the other things I heard inform my classroom practice, but I feel like that if I continue to plumb this lexical approach, something good will come from it.

Lewis will be with us tomorrow for another session, so I hope that this one will give me something that I can practice in order to be able to use it in the classroom this coming fall.

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The Award Nomination Committee is asking for nominations from the faculty for the program’s teaching award. While I think it’s great to be recognized for the hard work that one does, particularly by one’s peers, I see a small flaw.

There are 24 potential candidates from Foundation English and the truth of the matter is that I don’t know the majority of them well enough to nominate them for anything. Take a look at the sought-after characteristics:

A. Significant contributions to teaching

B. Innovative classroom techniques and classroom materials

C. Availability to students

D. Ability to inspire students and motivate them to learn

How does one measure A? Is it the number of contact hours per week? What makes teaching significant?

I think the answer is D, however without observing the teacher, how would I know if D applies to a given nominee? For that matter, it’s necessary to observe someone in the classroom in order to address B. Of all my colleagues, I’ve only seen one in the classroom with her students and that was only one time toward the end of the class. As for C; we all keep office hours and the common complaint is that students rarely/never take advantage of them so wouldn’t it be better to evaluate the teacher’s attitude toward availability? Better still, their approachability?

Perhaps I’m over analyzing the process…I’m prone to that sort of thing, I know. Again, I’m reluctant to nominate anyone when I know so little about them in this way. That being said, I was on the verge of nominating one colleague who is passionate (to a fault) about helping his students, eager to improve his technique and easily accessible to his peers. However, I stopped short because a technical glitch with the online submission form gave me time to reconsider in light of this person’s perpetual conflict with authority.

So what’s the solution? I guess I’ll refrain from nominating anyone, look at the candidates once they’re presented and then I’ll…probably repeat this post except I’ll remark that I don’t feel good about voting for any of them for the same reasons that I couldn’t bring myself to nominate any of them. I wonder if I’ll feel more informed next time this whole thing rolls around next year?

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Today begins the last week of regular classes before finals begin. I’ve started conducting the second San Diego Quick Assessment with my two groups. You can read here and here about what I’ve been doing with the SDQA during this semester.

As I’ve written before, the SDQA is not meant for EFL students so its validity is highly questionable. That being said, we really need a reading level assessment on these students when they come in so we can give them some direction instead of just shoving some books at them and telling them to get started reading. Since we don’t have one, this one will have to do.

So far, it seems that the majority of students have not moved up a grade level on the SDQA. There have been some who have but not many. I don’t think that this group of students will yield the best information because as I’ve noted earlier, I’ve not been with them reliably and I haven’t applied a consistent reading enrichment scheme. In the fall, it will be different. I’ll be a lead teacher and I can be more consistent in promoting reading and following up on it.

Another thing that I’ve gotten back recently in terms of student feedback has been the questionnaire that I put in Moodle. Several students (apparently from Section A) have filled it in and their response has been favorable toward an entire period devoted to reading silently. Of course, they struggle with staying alert and they suggested that I should be doing more but for the most part, the feedback was favorable. In the fall, I’m planning on doing it again. This time while students are reading, I’ll try to split my time between reading (they suggested that I read anything-not only Russian) and roaming around. It really bothered some of them that I stayed at my desk…which is a bit funny when you consider that I let them move all around the room and read reclining, sitting and crouching under desks, whatever felt comfortable to them. Then again, I’m the teacher and different standards apply.

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Not long ago, Emily asked me, “What made you decide to start a blogfolio in the first place?”

My teaching portfolio was largely an attempt to fill some work hours in a professionally meaningful manner. In my previous job, it wasn’t uncommon for some teachers to go for long periods of time without any teaching duties. This was my situation when I came across an advertisement for a teaching position with an American university in this country which requested that applicants submit a portfolio. I’d known about portfolios for a long time but this was first time that I’d actually seen one requested. Thinking that I might have been witnessing a new trend in the region and needing something purposeful to do with my time at the office, I put together an e-portfolio.

To be honest, the e-portfolio proved not to be all that useful. No one looked at it but me. I rarely looked at it. The reflection that I engaged in to compile it turned out to be mainly a one-off. It filled my time and I improved upon some technical savvy I had, but it really didn’t do all that much for me as an EFL teacher.

Then I started exploring blogs. A friend of mine who teaches mathematics in the US was blogging and some of my colleagues were experimenting with blogs in the classroom, so my curiosity was peaked. I started out with Blogger and as I was mucking about it occurred to me that the journal was what would make my portfolio useful. I converted my e-portfolio into a blogfolio and began to write reflectively.

The more I became involved in blog culture, I realized that the true utility of the blog was the reader comments. I needed an audience for my reflections. I needed fellow teacher-bloggers to give me their input so that I could reflect upon what they said and see if I could learn anything from them.

Originally, the e-portfolio was a way to fill my time preparing for a request from a potential employer that never came. The beginning of my blogfolio was an experiment. Now, reflective blogging is becoming a habit. I wish that more people would read and comment but I understand that most people are simply readers.

The time may come when I retire the blogfolio, but then again it may not.

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This is the week that our students give their presentations about the contributions of different types of engineers to specific products that we encounter in everyday life. It’s easy to see where our mutual loyalties lie this week.

Section A asked me if I was planning on being in the class for their presentations. They sounded like they wanted me to come so I said yes. Section B did not ask and I did not go. I figured they could do their presentations for me during our only class today. They did but not with much enthusiasm. Basically, I’ve connected with Section A much better than I have with Section B. The reasons are fairly easy to see.

Section A is the top. This means that they generally have a better level of language, which means greater ease of communication. Additionally, the majority of the class is motivated, even if they are not particularly (self-) disciplined. Finally, I’m assigned to them 10 hours per week. Even though I have no input to their grades, this frequency of contact makes me better than a “substitute teacher”.

Conversely, Section B sees me so rarely that I’m more like a “substitute” than a “real” teacher. Furthermore, the majority of the class is not nearly so motivated as Section A and may be even less (self-) disciplined as a group than Section A. Section B also seems to have more students with markedly lower abilities even though Section B is one from the top. In other words, the difference in abilities from Section A to Section B is unexpectedly large.

I felt much more compelled to be present during the regular class time for Section A’s presentations than I did for Section B’s. In fact, I didn’t go to B’s presentations during their scheduled time but rather used our class time for the students to do them again for me.

I think that had I been their lead teacher, shouldering the majority of their instructional hours I would have managed to bond with them much better, even though so many of them lack motivation and maturity.

I’ll be glad to have my own class again in the Fall.

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I think I’m going to give up on my article about the blogfolio. 

I was planning on writing it up and either submitting it to the conference proceedings for TESOL Arabia this year or submitting it elsewhere for publication. Now I’m just so sick of trying to make the pathetic thing readable that I’ve just about decided to pack it in. 

I don’t know why it’s such a difficult topic to write about. The presentation seemed to go well enough although I didn’t get much feedback about it. As I try to organize the article, it just becomes a muddle. Whenever I read it back to myself, it comes across as boring. I find myself asking “So?” If I can’t stay interested in it, I don’t think that I can expect others to either. 

Logically, if I can’t bring myself to bore people (or myself) with an article about the blogfolio, you would think that I wouldn’t propose to do it again at TESOL in the US. However, the proposal is perfunctory. I promised myself that I would submit a proposal and so I’m keeping that promise. It’s a question of self-discipline: I said I would do a thing so I should do it. 

Unfortunately, the deadline for TESOL proposals comes hot on the heels of the conference and (in my opinion) there isn’t adequate time to come up with an idea for the next year. You almost have to be working on multiple ideas at once…and I suppose many folks do. 

Anyway, for the time-being I’m pretty much done writing about the blogfolio. Keeping one is fine but I don’t think there’s enough of interest (mine or others) to warrant writing about it.

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I got this one over at the CELT and I think it was intended to go on this blog so I’m going to post it here and then reply:

Name: Tom
Daniel
Your thoughts are interesting particularly your frustration with the lack of response to your blog. If the bloggers don’t come to you, go forth and multiply – reach out and be in their face. Get a bloggers club and invite, ask friends to comment and once people see that there is a response, then they are more likely to respond.
Ask yourself, despite all the efforts you putting into this blog, do you really care if anyone responds. Any Tom Dick or Harry could – it is the fact that you are thinking aloud and getting it out that matters. You know in your heart that you are trying to connect that in itself is enough.

Yes, in order to be read one has to be out there reading and commenting and I’ve been making more time for that. I’ve had some folks passing through and commenting so the utility of this blog as a sounding board with other professionals is coming along, albeit slowly.

I would disagree that it’s enough to try to connect. Recently someone else made a similar comment: that whether or not his blog is read by anyone else doesn’t matter to him. If I’m not writing to be read then why bother with a blog? If it’s about typing on a computer, I can do that and save to my hard drive. If it’s merely about writing for my own sake then why not have all of my posts categorized as “private” and not visible at all? No, people who get blogs want to be read by others at some level. If we didn’t then we wouldn’t be on something called the WORLD wide web. I’d like my posts to be read. I’d like to be engaged in some thought provoking exchanges that could lead to some imporvements in my teaching. If people don’t read and comment then whether or not I continue to blog will come down to whether or not I think it’s worth my time.

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I got my evaluation back yesterday.

My students asked me today if I got a good evaluation and I could only respond “I guess so.” I got all of the tick marks in the right places so that’s good. The hand-written notes didn’t reflect anything negative about the lesson or my execution of it, so that was good. Yet, I got no usable input. Nothing in the notes pointed to what I could do better in the future. No indication of what I could work on. No praise for anything done well. This is…not good. Maybe it’s even bad.

It’s possible that my coordinator may read this and so I want to be clear: I know the man has a busy schedule. It’s unimaginable that he could observe all of his teachers and then provide any kind of detailed feedback that we could use. I don’t wish to indicate that he’s not doing his job. It’s just unfortunate that the most a teacher can expect from his evaluation is to be determined to be performing well enough as not to warrant further observation…until the next semester.

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I was just visiting Standford’s Center for Teaching and Learning, skimming their back issues of a quarterly newsletter called Speaking of Teaching and found this article from 1996. It’s about teaching portfolios…not blogfolios mind you. Anyway, something that jumped out at me was a box that listed “The Products of Good Teaching”.

Listed in the box are:

student test scores, lab workbooks, creative work and fieldwork reports
records of students who go on to major, do honors work, or do graduate work in the field
documentary evidence of the effects of teaching on students’ career choices

Let’s look at these a minute. Are the items of the first list truly reflective of my work as the teacher or of their work as the student? I suppose that the answer is a bit of both, but I would personally want to point at these things and talk about how they reflect the students’ hard work, diligence and self-discipline.

The next list doesn’t quite apply to ES/FL I think. It’s hard to imagine that there will be many students over the course of career who choose to become English language teachers regardless of my positive influence. That being said, it would be possible to point to students who completed their engineering studies (in English) with distinction, but again how much of their success can I take credit for?

The last list again doesn’t quite apply. I suppose a close corollary would be testimonials of students about the nature of my teaching style and classroom environment. To that end, I have in my possession a letter of recommendation written by a student who was also a sort of superintendent for my host country’s ministry of education. I think having such a letter written by an educator is particularly gratifying because the positive comments mean potentially more than “I like Daniel. He’s a nice person.” which is what so many student evaluations tend to say at their core.

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See it here.

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This post is originally found here.

When I finally make the transition to edublogs.org I’ll stop linking to the old blog host.

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