It is time to start writing again but I had to focus on more issues in the last months: family issues and also the Lockdown.
Since May Italy has started to live again but the pandemic situation needs to rely on people and their behaviour. We are not safe.
Meanwhile I have been working online and I have also done a lot of courses to work on myself, my self-development and my CPD.
Hopefully many courses are free and I can take them.
I am worried about September because things might get worse. Working in schools might require a new school planning, fewer students in classes and a lot of people who are working from home.
Meanwhile I have been experimenting and reflecting by using Bookcreator.
This year I am going to work on Romanticism and the Victorian Age mainly.
Starting from January I will work on poetry and the English Romantic Poets.
My teaching unit is about Romanticism and I will work on it with my 4th year class students in a Liceo Artistico in Reggio Emilia.
My students do Art and Art related subjects at school but they are also involved in studying Italian Literature, French Literature, History and Philosopy. I would like them to find connections with the context of the European Romanticism, starting from the Pre-romantics and the Sturm und Drang.
I have collected the main texts and visuals online by using a WAKELET which I am going to share with my students.
We are going to use materials taken from our English Literature Book but we will also use free online materials to exploit the world of Romanticism.
The Learning path starts with the students viewing a film - this is homework for them- and it is freely accessible from our RAI portal- Bright Star.
This film is a focussed on the life of a young poet who died in Italy - Keats- and belongs to the second generation of the English Romanticism.
The next step will be on learning about new feelings and ideas in the late XVIII century by reading and viewing some videos.
Since Art and the Natural Landscapes are important I would like my students to focus on the works by some painters who are associated to Romanticism- this implies that the Teacher of Art will be asked to focus on the themes too. I do really hope that this will help my learners to understand the age of feelings and Romanticism.
The focus on the unit is on poetry and we will deal with some poets of the first generation of Romanticism and the key words like feelings, Nature, the role of the poet in writing poems.
The poems will be Daffodils and some extracts taken from the ballad " The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner".
English poets shared different views about Art and I would like my students to read and reflect on the poems by Keats " Ode to a Grecian Urn" and " Bright Star" .
Here is the Wakelet which I am going to share with my learners.
Evaluation and Tasks related to the unit about Romanticism
The activities done in class will be mainly based on a spoken interaction, this implies that I will check the students' understanding and their reading competences.
What I would like them to be able to do:
- to find connections with the time in which the poets lived and find the main key ideas and differences with the past
- to be able to describe a painting and the emotions we can share while thinking about the landscape and the main characters in the painting
- to be able to express themselves by replying to questions in English both in writing and in speaking tasks
- to use the language and the lexis related to literature and art correctly.
We are approaching the end of a year which has seen many changes. I feel that the greatest and most important change should involve education- we do need to care and provide education for all the children in the world.
Their voices can help us work on a better world where they can achieve whatever they want to.
Education has been neglected in many regions and areas of this world but it can support the development of individuals and help countries grow.
Let's hope that 2020 will bring new hopes for children!
Last July I left for Dublin and spent two weeks in the beautiful capital city of Ireland .
I chose Alpha College in Dublin where I had already studied in 2014 . The course was focussed on the use of technology in education- most of the apps were free and we worked on many Google apps. The tutors were great and I really appreciated the workshops. In the afternoons we were free or on some days we were guided to discover some cultural institutions and related to the past history of Ireland.
I must say that I was already familiar with many tools before I did the coursee but what I wanted to do when I chose the course was to work in English and to reflect on my teaching experience. I worked in a small group and I really liked trying new tools or rather learn more about them.
We could also reflect on our school systems and we learnt about other countries and teaching experiences. I worked with educators from Spain and Eastern Europe. Everybody was kind and worked well.
Since I had already worked on European projects I was ready to continue my CPD. I started many years ago with Leonardo projects and then I won a scholarship for Comenius. I was lucky but I had also taken advantage of what Europe is doing for education and students. The money spent on such projects should have an impact on our life and also our systems of education.
My school is part of a European Project - Erasmus + which we won last year and which is going to finish next year, in 2020. The name of the project for Liceo Chierici is Reach, which implies that our school wants to improve the language competences of the educators and to provide new learning environments for our students. Educators have been involved in attending courses abroad in order to better the language competences and ICT while others chose some job shadowing experiences.
We want our school to have a European vision and to help our learners to get access to new learning scenarios both at school and abroad. When Reach finishes more educators will have learnt about Europe and the many projects we can work on, but what really matters is that our school has a new horizon. Educators will be involved in sharing and maybe cooperating with other schools.
Learning languages, working and studying abroad are a priority for many schools in Italy now. Educators started travelling with the first European projects and some are still developing. My school is working now to better what we have been doing so far.
Some educators went to Scotland and England, others chose Dublin and Spain- Barcelona. Some will leave in some months and will go to Dublin and also to France. We are becoming an international school thanks to this project.
Here is my reflection in Italian which I have shared with the other educators in my school and which I hope will help other educators to develop new learning paths.
I cannot but say that Europe is helping me as an educator and that I will try to develop new skills among my students, supporting their learning experiences.
Europe is also supporting people who are unemployed and financing many projects that are aimed at promoting life long learning.
I cannot understand why people are against Europe. Europe needs to improve the life of its citizens and education and work are crucial for today and also for the future. Education and better education are our aim.
Erasmus+ is a great opportunity, we cannot but say " Thank you Europe! "
The event took place on 25th September and the presenter was Bethany Winslow who ran a tour starting from the Kitely Welcome Center to the Hypergrid Resource Library on the Cookie II region.
I was not online and watched the recording only this month.
I learnded about Hypergrid Library and also the space station where you can jump to other worlds.
The focus of the presentation was on crowdsourcing, webpages, people who can learn by doing, the way people can socialize in a community of practice and also digital skills.
When I watched the video I realized that this new world offered interesting opportunities for exploring new worlds and that it would support learners working on their own.
Since I am not a member of Kitely I will have to learn more about it. For sure there are resources and plenty of learning tools I am not familiar with. The learning process is complex but today we have new planets where learning can happen too.
Education is undergoing changes and perhaps also secondary school students should take advantage of these virtual worlds.
The event took place on 20th September and the speaker was Yvonne DeBandi in real life and whose avatar is EvieMarie3D .
I watched the recording online today as I was not able to attend the event live on SL. However, I wish I could have visited it. You can see the webinar online by following this link : The webinar online The presentation was clear and really engaging: 3DWebWorldz approaches online education using all the tools available - virtual spaces not pages, websites, videos and application scripting. No download required, works in your web browser.
The virtual world is online https://3dwebworldz.com/, the speaker talked about the advantages of creating such learning environments and classes online. It is simple to work online as you do not need to have any special grid, you just work in your browser.
What did I think when I entered the class? Well, it was engaging and if I could work online in this way I might have more resources for my learners and get them more engaged.
Here is the link to the classroom which was presented online by the presenter
I think that this could be a simple but really interesting way for working with my learners in English and on projects.
What thougths came to my mind when I saw the recording? Well, first of all give this a try! Secondly don't give up!You must try it! It can enhance your learners' progress in learning!
Once more I must say I am sorry I was not online!
I tried to enter the world again and here is my short video- I must confess that I do need to learn more about how to move, but hopefully there's good information online!
The Presentation online Integrating VR into a 100% Online Education Graduate Program I watched the recording today. The event took place on 12 September and the speaker was Dr. Eileen O'Connor working at the State University of New York - SUNY. You can get access to the recording online https://youtu.be/nyosxwlgrCU The speaker presented an online Education Graduate Program in Emerging Technologies. I had alredy learnt about some educators experimenting online and I really appreciated what she described and what learners had done. Learners can work in virtual worlds, work together and share what they have been working on. She talked about a VR residency and also about students creating their own islands. The virtual word was in Kitely: hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Marian%20Island/126/111/22 When I listened to the presentation I thought that I would really like to work for my CP with other teachers and working in a similar virtual world. However, I do not know if in Italy we have such educators experimenting at university. An interesting feature could be also to work with secondary school students and working on projects . I have already entered the grid and honestly I can say that it is an interesting new world for learning. How did I feel when I saw what's going on in this program? I was surprised and got interested. I thought that perhaps we could try to work in a learning environment which is not the traditional one. I do teach in a secondary school, as a result I teach younger learners. Working with university students and older learners must be less demanding. I do hope to learn more about new learning environments and perhaps I will try to work in some. Meanwhile I will check what Kitely can offer in terms of learning opportunities. Link to Kitely
