MODULE 5: MOODLE QUESTIONS
- Think of a type of help/support/learning you may need at this point in your professional life.
-In my current job I would like to explore ways to make and produce innovative and interesting Professional Development Sessions. I would like to create Professional Development sessions for teachers who are teaching at Primary Schools and High Schools in Tonga. From experience as a high school teacher for 15 years, I realized that this aspect of teachers’ lives was neglected. Only recently, has there been an emphasis on this aspect and therefore brought to the fore. However, the issue that I feel encountered is that teachers do not invest enough value in the importance of professional development. Many teachers saw the professional development sessions as an opportunity to go on personal or family errands and missed out. Some of the teachers would attend for the sake of attending sessions. I think there should be something to do to capture the teachers' interest and attend professional development sessions to grow in their professions professionally.
- Find something that could help you with professional development. It could be a professional association, a MOOC, a forthcoming conference, a webinar, a workshop somewhere in the region etc.
I would like to attend the OCIES 52nd Annual Conference to be held in Melbourne, Australia from the 26th to 29th of November 2024. This conference brings together scholars from across Oceania and discusses, contributes, and suggests ways to improve Oceania Issues.
The conference is structured in different formats of paper delivery including a Roundtable. Through this option, I can access ideas from fellow Oceania participants in the meeting regarding ideas to create and produce innovative and creative professional development. I want to collect valuable information as much as possible from this roundtable to create more appropriate and interesting professional development sessions for schoolteachers in Tonga. I need to use an approach that would make teachers value Professional Development as a way to grow professionally and positively impact other teachers and their students.
IA 2: ORAL PRESENTATION
JOURNAL ENTRY 6: WEEK11-12
The material for these two weeks reminds us of the importance of Reflective Practitioners. Teachers should make time to reflect on their practices and then make improvements for the future. To me, an aspect of reflective practitioners that should be promoted and encouraged is self-reflection and self-review.
An individual teacher should be empowered to add self-reflection to his/her practices. Self-reflection is the opportunity to evaluate one’s own practices. Look deeply at the work done and the parts he/she is involved. For instance, after teaching a topic/lesson, the teacher should allow time to reflect on it using formal or informal guidelines to identify the strengths and weaknesses with identified techniques to use for improvement.
Self-reflection requires honesty and bravery. Pacific Islanders such as the Tongans are not used to self-praise. It is difficult to honestly write down the strengths encountered. Pacific Island teachers should be encouraged through professional development on the importance of accurately conducting a self-reflection. Teachers should also be given opportunities to practice self-reflection with peers in the same school to make them realize that providing genuine and honest comments on self-reflection will contribute to both students’ and teachers’ growth.
Equally important, is the providing of weaknesses based on the practices. It should be made known to teachers the importance of honestly outlining the weaknesses of the practices to find strategies for improvement.
Once, strengths and weaknesses are identified, I think action research is one method to find the right and appropriate strategies for improvement. The connection between self-reflection and action research becomes clear. Without a doubt, self-reflection and action research will help with teaching English literacy more creative and innovative.
DOWNLOADED IMAGE
FINAL JOURNAL ENTRY: OVERALL
The final journal entry for my e-portfolio is titled Reflection. I want to give a final reflection on my journey in LN419: Innovation and Change in English Language Teaching. I started off this journey with a personal reflection on how I started association with modern technologies, almost 20 years ago while doing my first degree at the university in New Zealand. I was shocked and in awe when I was given a desktop laptop in the computer lab or in the library to work on my own. I slowly gotten used to it despite the so many typos even up to now. That is the use of computers only.
Reflecting on this journey, I was exposed to lots of modern and new technologies. Most of them I never knew existed before. This includes Word Processing Applications, Organizing and Brainstorming Software, and Data Collection and Analysis Tools to name a few. Although I was unable to find out how to use these ICT tools in detail during the course LN419, I know these ICT tools are out there. I know these ICT tools will contribute to making the teaching of the English Language innovative and creative for the students to enjoy particularly students with English as a second language.
I want to admit to the fact that I thought this course was going to concentrate on showing me how to use new technologies and ICT to teach English Language. But as the course drew on, I realized the content was more than what I thought. I particularly enjoyed the part on ‘Creating and exploiting resources to their fullest in a resource-deprived environment’. This part reminded me that even though this is the age of new & modern ICT and technologies, textbooks are still useful, especially in areas where new and modern technologies are still scarce. Textbooks can be used in creative and innovative ways to make the teaching of English literacy interesting to students with English as a second language. Activities in textbooks can be adjusted in various ways such as “adding”, “adapting”, and “replacing”. This is a new-found knowledge to me and one I know will work in my classroom when teaching English as a second language.
I think the most outstanding thing about this course is the fact that it doesn’t discourage the usage of textbooks. Textbooks are not new technologies yet still very useful to use in critical ways, particularly in areas or places where new and modern technologies are not available. Even in areas and places with new and modern technologies, textbooks can still be of great use.
I was always fearful to touch and use new technologies in life thinking I would damage or break it. After going through my e-portfolio, I learned to exercise with it and play around with it. That is the one way to be able to navigate around and use new technologies. A best practice I take away from this, is “a teacher must know how to navigate the new technologies with confidence first, before teaching the students”.
Finally, as I reflect on the following items personal expectations that I posted in my first journal entry, I must say that I had gained better and wider understanding of them. I am quite happy looking forward to enjoying more using of new technologies in my career and in life.
- Definition of new technologies.
- Examples of new technologies.
- Ways to use new technologies to support the teaching of English Language to Tongan students.
- Benefits of using new technologies
- Costs and how to minimize costs of using the new technologies
Malo 'Aupito!