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Forum week 1

Page history last edited by Margarita Kalyuzhna 10 years, 2 months ago Saved with comment

Please, post your comments  on the activities for Week 1 posted in the main wiki and answer any other comment posted by other members of this community

 

You simply write in the comment section below. If you are commenting on anyone's answers, you will find a reply option.

 

 

 

Comments (Show all 44)

KatyMart said

at 10:01 am on Jan 12, 2014

About myself:
I have been teaching English for about 20 years, half of this in a university context, but EFL is my favourite area.
I love reading (nothing original here!), and I actually translate books when I have the time.

About my workplace:
It's a well-known language school in Ukraine, with quite a lot of teachers and students.
It's a very busy and bustling environment, but also friendly.

What could be improved:
it's all pretty well organised here, but I would like to know how to contribute more, both as a junior manager and as a teacher.

khadidjaguerrab said

at 10:17 am on Jan 12, 2014

Hi , I am khadidja from Algeria . I am currently living and working here . I have been teaching for 7 years .
I work in a British algerian language centre here in Algeria . I hold a position of a Training manager .
I am attending this course in order to develop my department and the quality of the training we provide to our clients . Thx

Andy Hockley said

at 10:28 am on Jan 12, 2014

Hi Maria
It works fine for me - what error message do you get?
Andy

koreamaria said

at 4:01 am on Jan 13, 2014

aces. im good now. it musta been something at my end yesterday. thanks for following up!

Lucy said

at 12:43 pm on Jan 17, 2014

Hi, Andy. I cannot access the group. I thing I was accepted last week, I don't know what happened this weekend. Can you, please. add me to the group. Thanks

Lynnie said

at 12:09 am on Jan 13, 2014

Hi everyone! I am Lynnie and I teach in the biggest state funded university in the southern part of the Philippines. I teach both major and basic courses in English in the undergraduate and graduate levels. I have occupied a few managerial positions in the university system. At present, I am the department's graduate program coordinator. We are currently working on a hybrid delivery of our graduate program. There's a lot of room for improvement in my workplace. If there one thing that should change, I think it should begin with me. Hence, this course.

Please post a brief introduction in the Comments Section below telling us 3 things about yourself, 2 things about your workplace and 1 thing you would like to improve there.

Andy Hockley said

at 3:20 am on Jan 13, 2014

Hi everyone. I guess I ought to add my own responses to this question here:
3 things about yourself, 2 things about your workplace and 1 thing you would like to improve there.

3 things about me: I live in Transylvania (really) in a beautiful house in a small village in the middle of the mountains. I have lived in 11 countries (so far), including places as diverse as the Federated States of Micronesia (small islands in the Pacific), and the West Bank (Occupied Palestine). I am currently in the middle of writing a book about managing online education. We're hoping to publish in the next few months.

2 things about my workplace: Hmm, trickier, as I am freelance. I have no colleagues as such and work out of an apartment, mostly doing management training for ELT professionals (face to face and online). My last trip was to Vietnam for 3 weeks in November/December, and my next trip will be to Turkey for two weeks at the very end of this month

1 thing I would like to improve: I'd like to do more teacher training. I used to do quite a bot of TT, but increasingly I find myself doing nearly 100% of my time on management training and writing. I'd like to get back to doing a bit more TT.

Cecilia Fouilliand said

at 4:26 pm on Jan 13, 2014

Hi everyone!

3 things about myself:
I'm from and live in a big house in Buenos Aires, Argentina with 2 other people and 3 cats and a big terrace full of plants where I practice yoga almost every day and work when the weather allows me to do so (no, I don't wear flowers in my head... not yet, at least).
I've been a teacher all my life, even as a child. I love the interaction and the flow of knowledge.
Currently, I'm teaching english for aviation (pilots, ATCos, cabin crew, flight dispatchers and aircraft technicians) and I'm also in charge of the coordination of classes.

2 things about my workplace:
It's only 2 of us working here so, when one is in class, the other deals with more "managerial" tasks. We don't get to see each other much, which implies that most of our exchanges are online or by phone. We're just getting started.

1 thing I'd like to improve: I'd like to get to work as a teacher trainer/mentor. I used to do that in the past and enjoyed it a lot. I haven't done for a while and I'd also like to learn more about it.

Cheers.

Sarah Hillyard said

at 5:15 pm on Jan 13, 2014

Hi!

3 things about myself:
- I was born in Spain, but live in Buenos Aires in Argentina, but I'm British.
- I've just become the mum of a beautiful little boy called Alex (almost 3 months).
- Apart from teaching, I love singing!

2 things about my workplace:
- I coordinate the Kindergarten English department at a school in Buenos Aires where I manage a group of 3 other teachers in our small staff.
- I teach Children's Literature at a teacher training college where I feel like I am free to manage my own lessons as I like.

1 thing I'd like to improve:
- I'd like to learn more about management to feel more confident at this task and probably have the chance to work at another school as coordinator or head of a larger staff.

Best,
Sarah

Margarita Kalyuzhna said

at 6:12 pm on Jan 13, 2014

Hi!
3 things about myself:
I like to learn and teach. I like to surf in the net. I like to sew.
2 things about my work:
It's a secondary school. It's very creative place.
1 thing that could be improved:
To be a trainer.

Bia Hedegaard said

at 6:13 pm on Jan 13, 2014

3 things about myself:
# I am Brazilian and a Gemini. Jokes apart, I seem to follow the stereotype of having difficulties managing time and focusing on one thing at a time. I always seem to be doing way more than the 24 hours in my day allow me to… 
# Teaching/Learning fills most of my time. I teach English and, like Cecilia from Argentina, have been a teacher all my life (since I was 12!). I love to be a student as well, although I haven’t got many opportunities to spend time on that at the moment.
# A friend of my daughter’s has a motto that I think is great! He says we have to increase our discipline or reduce our dreams. Discipline isn’t one of my strengths – yet!
2 things about your workplace
# After being teachers, coordinators and teacher trainers at different language schools for many years, my husband and I have recently opened our own school in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. https://pt-br.facebook.com/EnvisionWorldEnglish We are working a whole lot and there’s still much to do but we are really enjoying it!
# I am a teacher and the coordinator at a Kindergarten where we are implementing a bilingual project, which means that the kids have 10 hours of English per week.
1 thing you would like to improve there
# I would like both of my working places to be better organized. For that to happen I need to be more disciplined and put my ideas into practice before the last minute. That’s where these EVO sessions will hopefully come in very handy.

Margarita Kalyuzhna said

at 6:15 pm on Jan 13, 2014

Sorry, I can't find "comments" and edited Forum week 1.

Souad said

at 7:33 pm on Jan 13, 2014

Hi every body!
3 things about myself/

I'm from Algeria, I was electronic teacher for 9 years in high school then physics teacher for 7 years and now I 'm owner manager of a language school

2 things about my workplace

my school is small and lovely
BRAVO SCHOOL is a language and art school and publishing house as well

1 thing I would like to improve
my way to manage my school and supervising the new project

melody_philip said

at 7:50 pm on Jan 13, 2014

Hi all. I am Melody. I am an ELT professional based in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain.

3 things about myself
I am half Yorkshire, half Scottish and have lived in Barcelona a few months.
I love music and The Arts
My dream is to learn to play the violin

2 things about my workplace
I work in a school and I am a peripatetic Business English teacher so I get the best of both worlds- working autonomously in Spanish industry and in a more "traditional" language school setting. I also work in my own fledgling project where I teach, I run activities in English for learners, and I mentor/manage teachers on an informal basis. I feel I am lucky to benefit from a variety of workplaces.

I work with lovely colleagues

1 thing I would like to improve

Teacher CPD and Training



Elena said

at 2:11 am on Jan 14, 2014

Hello, everyone! My name is Elena. Let me introduce myself:
3 things about me: 1) I am from Russia, Tyumen, which is in Siberia, 2) I have two sons and two grandchildren, 3) I am fond of travelling and ballroom dancing.
2 things about my workplace: I) have been working at Tyumen State University for 30 years, 2) I have been teaching Business English at the Department of Foreign Languages and Cross-Cultural Professional Communication.
1 thing I want to improve: this year I am participating in the international on-line project as an instructor, so I would like to learn more about managing projects.

Andy Hockley said

at 6:30 am on Jan 14, 2014

I've just added this to the course space for "Week 1":
What problem would you like to work on?
In week 2 we'll be starting work with your project, but in advance of that, one question you should start thinking about is what problem or need you would like to work on addressing with your project. At this stage you don;t have to post this up (though you are most welcome to), and it won;t be binding and you can always change as you go through the course, but in general what need would you like your project to address?

Some of you in responding to the introductory task have started to perhaps think about problems that might lend themselves to projects - things like working on CPD and so on. Keep this in mind - what problem do you want to fix? :-)

judellatorre@... said

at 10:40 am on Jan 14, 2014

Hi Andy,
I had problems watching the video posted in week 1.
http://projectmanagementevo2014.pbworks.com/w/page/70324264/Week%201
The video is bigger than the space provided on the wiki. I can only see half of the presentation sheet. There is a button at the top that hides a sidebar and allows a better view, but it doesn't give me full access to the presentation sheet. Is there a way of watching it being able to read the presentation sheet?

Andy Hockley said

at 3:22 am on Jan 15, 2014

Hi Juliana
I'm not sure why that is, it seems to work fine for me in that embedded version. What browser are you using?
Anyway, you can watch it here if that is easier/better: http://www.screencast.com/t/oNKk6ezYaB

Andy

judellatorre@... said

at 10:31 am on Jan 14, 2014

Hello everyone. I'm Juliana. I'm from São Paulo, Brazil.

- about me and my workplace:

I've been a teacher for 14 years. I work as a coordinator in a well-known English school in São Paulo. I left my previous job in 2006 because I was tired of being a coordinator there. I was tired of being responsible for so many things. When I started at my current job I wanted to work as a teacher only, but 4 years later I was invited to become a coordinator again. This is something funny about me: I never thought I was good at managing people and projects, I didn't consider myself a "leader". But people around me believed I would be able to do a good job. Now I enjoy working as a coordinator and I am much more confident. However, I have to develop my ability to delegate, prioritize and focus on one thing at a time.

- what problem do you want to fix?

I feel I need to be able to monitor teachers and help them make their students more successful. I haven't been able to do so as successfully as I think I should. I want to develop a project that will allow me to help teachers monitor and foster their students' progress. It's really important that we find ways of making our students get the most of each class. They don't have much time to study outside the classroom and I want to work together with the teachers to find ways to make students get better results and avoid failure and dropouts

Sanja Bozinovic said

at 9:21 pm on Jan 14, 2014

Hi! My name is Sanja and this is my 3-2-1 Introduction.

3 personal facts:
- I have been a teacher for 23 years.
- I live and teach in Velika Gorica, a small town in the greater area of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
- Professional development courses, especially online courses, are one of my favourite acitivities when I am not in the classroom.

2 things about my workplace:
- I work at a big state primary school.
- The students in my classes are girls and boys aged 10 -14.

1 thing I would like to improve there:
- There are several things I'd like to change or improve. If I had to choose one it would be giving teachers more freedom to make decisions about their teaching and more time to teach than worry about the paperwork.

Sneza Filipovic said

at 8:18 am on Jan 18, 2014

Hello Sanja! Nice to see you here. I am glad we will be sharing learning experience again! Kindest regards, Sneza

Sanja Bozinovic said

at 9:31 pm on Jan 20, 2014

Hi Sneza! Nice to see you, too :) Looking forward to a lot of learning and sharing!

Marina Wynia said

at 12:53 pm on Jan 15, 2014

Hi EVeryone. Here is my 3-2-1 intro
3 personal facts?
I live in Barcelona, Spain and have for quite some time now. I teach English language at a Spanish public university. I just don't have enough time to pursue all my personal interests so let's just say I love learning new things and exploring new ideas. In recent years, my interest has been to be able to link the world of technology with the world of education without it becoming too overwelming for everyone.

2 things about my workplace?
We are being squeezed by the current economic crisis in Spain so things are a bit stressful at times. Everyone is asked to do more for less.
I work with a great bunch of people who would love to do more but have little time.

1 (among the many!) thing I would like to improve at my workplace?
I would like to help everyone make better and more efficient use of the technology available to us at the University (i.e the virtual platform, for example).

That's it for now. Talk to you all soon!

Cristina said

at 12:26 pm on Jan 16, 2014

Hello Everyone,

I´m Cristina Reboredo from Banfield, Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina.I´m very happy to participate in this virtual journey with people from so different corners in the world.

3 things about me:

I´ve been teaching general English courses for more than 20 years to kids and teenagers at different levels;
I´m married, have two daughters, a son and a grandchild;
I love teaching and learning by means of Web tools and my hobby is gardening.

2 things about my workplace:

I´m English Department Coordinator in a private primary school (learners from 6 to 12) with a staff of twelve teachers,
I also teach learners aged 13 to 17 in state secondary schools

1 thing I want to improve:

My organizational and leadership skills.

As regards the problem I want to face during this session, I would like to help improve and update methodologies and materials used by the team I´m currently coordinating (I´ve done so for only one year). Anyway, I´ll be narrowing down my objectives trying to focus on specific priorities at a time.

Hope the best of luck for everybody, we´ll be soon in touch. Cristina

marina gonzalez said

at 2:16 pm on Jan 16, 2014

Hello Cristina! I'm so happy we have a number of argentinians in the group, great sign about our specific location! I do agree that the problem you address is a bit too wide at first sight, but it also a crucial one, of course. Narrowing it down into smaller, easier to handel projects could be a great first step.

Heidi Dawes said

at 12:56 pm on Jan 16, 2014

Hi, everyone! I am tuning in late here (as usual)

3 personal facts:
I live and work in the beautiful Fingerlakes region of New York State.
I have two gorgeous daughters (aged 9 and 15), one adopted from VietNam, and the other homegrown.
I love playing the violin (You can do it, Melody!!!), and the hammered dulcimer. My husband and I play traditional dance music.

2 things about my workplace:
I and my one adjunct are the sum total of our small college ESL department. I am the coordinator/director.
I have a lot of responsibilities, a tremendous amount of freedom, and no bennies.

1 problem:
Our ESL department primarily serves the handful of international students who enter each year. Because of the college admissions protocol, we never see those students who are US or Canadian citizens who are Non-native English Speakers. In addition, once our students "graduate" from ESL to their regular courses, they are basically on their own. I would like to develop a go-to ESL area in our college writing center in order to cast a wider net and assist all our NNSE's. My vision is to train the current writing peer-tutors, as well as faculty members, in ESL techniques. I also want to create an online language lab of sorts, with resources for students and faculty.

marina gonzalez said

at 2:18 pm on Jan 16, 2014

Hello Heidi! Very interesitng point the one you are raising! a project of that kind can be useful to many... read you around!

Liliana Cheneder said

at 2:30 pm on Jan 16, 2014

Hi everybody. Apologies for introducing myself a little bit late but better late than never.
My name is Liliana Cheneder. i am a teacher from Lima, Peru. I have been working in the ELT field for many years and I am very looking forward to sharing and learning from all of you.
At the moment I am working at an ELT Training Company.
Thanks for the opportunity.

Sneza Filipovic said

at 8:49 pm on Jan 16, 2014

Hello! My name is Sneza Filipovic and I am an EFL teacher from Belgrade, Serbia.

Three things about myself:
1. I first joined an EVO session in 2012 because my best friend had finally persuaded me this was the best place to be converted from being a technophobe to being a geek.
2. I stopped being a technophobe but I am far from being a geek. There is still a long way ahead of me.
3. I became an academic manager in September, but I am not sure I am ready for that.

Two things about my workplace
1. The place where I work is called the Kolarac Foundation. It consists of the Centre for foreign languages, the Music centre, the Lecture organising centre
2. Unfortunately, I work in a low-tech environment (no computers with or without internet access). As I work with adults,some of my students are not keen on using the wiki I prepared for them.

One thing I would like to improve
1 In line with my previous statements, I would like to change the situation with technology, ie.to create the environment where people could be educated to use it more for language learning.

marina gonzalez said

at 9:13 pm on Jan 16, 2014

Hello everyone!
I guess that reading anc checking everyone was doing fine made me forget I should also introduce myself ;-)

3 things about myself
I am a creative person, thus I am usually a rebel and age does not seem to help me get any better in the acceptance path, but I feel more artistice every day.
I live with my two sons in a house I love in Buenos Aires, and the best thing about my house is that it doesn't feel it is in the city.
I don't have a driver's license

2 things about my workplace
I teach at two universities, in one of them ESP and in the other ELT management and materials Design. My third job is EFL teacher at a state run primary school, I do this because it is the reality my ELT management students experience and I need to understand this reality better.
The three realities help me think of ways to connect levels of education.

1 thing I would like to improve
Besides eating less, focusing one project at a time.

Lucy said

at 11:28 am on Jan 17, 2014

Hi. My name is Lucy. I am Bulgarian, living and working in the UAE/
Here are my 3 things

2 things about my working place:
1. My working place is multicultural, as we have students and teachers from different countries
2. It is very busy. it is like a language machine and sometimes I feel exhausted, as I have to teach different English classes from Pre-Beginner to Advanced Level, Business English, ESP, English Grammar, Spoken English, IELTS, TOEFL

1 thing I would like to improve:
I would like to improve the evaluation of the teachers which is done by the students.

Anna Bechina said

at 3:44 pm on Jan 19, 2014

Hello everyone!!
My name is Bechina Anna. I've been working as a teacher for two years (after I got my CELTA) and I feel that this is just the time for me to improve and develop my teaching and project management skills and to learn from all of you.I am really happy I've jon this project! My students are hardworking, conscientious, they are trying hard to reach their goals, but the main problem of them (and me) is the lack of practice: they travel really seldom,they rarely have practice at their workplace, so I do my best to introduce them to a new culture. Now I think that I really need to lauch a project that will enable my students to learn to communicate outside the classroom.
here is my 3-2-1 introduction.

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/IT7wr8PS

Thank you.

marina gonzalez said

at 8:04 pm on Jan 19, 2014

Thanks Anna for your intro, very interesting and loving! Read you arond as we move on during the weeks!

Heidi Dawes said

at 11:05 pm on Jan 19, 2014

What a beautiful photo show, Anna! Thank you!

Anna Bechina said

at 5:45 am on Jan 20, 2014

Thank you very much!!

Lada Smirnova said

at 6:03 pm on Jan 20, 2014

Hi all, sorry for being a bit late.
Have read all the intro! So happy to work with you, nice guys :-)
3 things about myself:
I have 3 passions: travelling, teaching English and caring for my family and 2 cats
2 things about my work:
It's a private Centre for Language Education and Research in Moscow, Russia
I'm a teacher, teacher trainer and an owner there
1 thing that could be improved:
To do a PhD in Educational Technology from the scope of the Activity theory

Nora Brussolo said

at 12:13 pm on Jan 21, 2014

Hello everone. Here's my 3-2-1 Introduction

3 things about myself:
I am married and have a son and a daughter, both adolescents which means really hard work
I am always taking courses to improve my skills as a teacher/coordinator
This year I am facing a new challenge at work as I will be coordinating all three levels (kinder, primary and secondary) at the school

2 things about my work:
It's a private school in Buenos Aires
We are undergoing a curriculum change this year and including TICs as an integral part of the classes.

1 thing that could be improve
Improving the curriculum design so that there is a coherent progress from kinder to secondary level. (quite a challenge for my first year in the position)

Maria Belen Fagundez said

at 1:05 am on Jan 23, 2014

Hello everyone, I'm finally here!
My name is Belén Fagúndez and this is my introduction:

3 things about myself:
I come from Uruguay but I've lived in Caracas, Venezuela since I was a child.
My pet is a sweet Rottweiler ;-)
I'm a teacher and a translator

2 things about your workplace
I'm the Head of the English Department of the School of Modern Languages at Universidad Central de Venezuela, the biggest public University of the country.
The School of Modern Languages doesn't have language labs to practice pronunciation or study phonetics and phonology.

1 thing you would like to improve there
I would like to improve laboratory classes

Thais Lobo said

at 7:53 pm on Jan 26, 2014

Hello,

3 - things about myself:
I am Thaís, I live in Brasilia, Brazil, and I have promoted a critical and a digital literacy of my students on human rights during the ICTs projects they have developed for the GISARTE em Movimento project I coordinate, and for the Adobe Youth Voices and Connecting Classrooms programs.

2 - things about my workplace
My students are 15-19 years old, and they study at a public school.

1 - thing I would like to improve
My students do not feel comfortable at their school, because they believe it is not useful for their lives. Their self-steem is not high due to their life experience with youth violence, social prejudice and inequality. In this context I aim to make them think on possible solutions to their high school reality.

Best,
Thaís

marina gonzalez said

at 10:20 pm on Jan 26, 2014

Hope to read more about a project for your students!

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