Discussions about Open and Distance Language Learning Part 2

June 15, 2021 0 Comments

I think that in this course we tried to improve our digital teaching and I can say that it improved a lot. Before the pandemic and this whole distance learning started, I had no idea how to even listen and react to a distance learning classroom. I had some troubles with it last year but this year with the help of this course, and practicum, of course, I feel like I can make a living out of it. We learned theories, we learned how to give feedback online, we learned materials and tools that will help us in the future. On top of that, reading the chapters and discussing them with our peers before the lessons really helped us out too. It was actually a brilliant idea because, from my personal experience, I had Covid for 1 and a half weeks and couldn’t get myself to read anything for 2 weeks after that too. But with the help of the discussions that we do, I managed to catch up with my friends. As for the digital teacher part of things, weekly readings and discussions with our peers improved a couple of my abilities. One of them is talking non-stop for at least 3 to 4 minutes. I never had that opportunity before in a digital platform and I can say that it helped me out. In the future, it will be crucial for me because I will be talking non-stop. Another one is like I said learning about theories etc. improved my digital teacher identity. I feel like I am a resourceful teacher that can turn around any bad thing that happens in the classroom. Especially in the digital platform because of this course.

First of all, the experience that I gained from discussions, like talking non-stop for 3 to 4 minutes really helped me out in my classes. The first week of my practicums was really harsh and I was anxious about it. But discussions helped me get over it. Tools that we learned during our lessons already helped me out in my practicum lessons. I already used three or four of them if I had time to spare in those lessons. Some students actually came to me for feedback as well because I think I had really good relationships with three students. We talked about a lot of things and giving feedback was one of them. At the end of our last lesson with my favorite classroom, one of the students asked me for websites that can help him improve her English. I gave her the sites that I learned from this lesson.  But on of the most important thing that changed through my practicum lessons were the way I organized my lessons. I can say that with the help of blending and flipped techniques I managed to create a lot of joyful lessons for me and the students too. I think just from this lesson and from the things that we learned, not only my practicums were affected, I can definitely say that it will affect my early teaching career in the future. I always had anxieties about my first year as a teacher, but actually learning something from this lesson, even if it’s mainly about digital teaching, was a great help. I always thought that in this school we were always taught things that we shouldn’t do, not the things that we should do. So, I believe when I say this, this lesson was the most informational lesson for me. Thank you so much.