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This was definitely a nice start to this training. Meera Rampersad, our trainer, is quite an engaging person. She patiently answered all our questions and was quite hands on with us.

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It was quite comforting to know that my government school is not the only one that faces many challenges when it comes to Internet access and resources. I must add that the teachers from the schools with better support, seem to be quite understanding of our shortcomings and the challenges we face. The openness and sharing were refreshing.

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From working with my group, it was clear that 'one size fits all' will not work in my school. Due to my school culture, there needs to be some tweaking and there is a need to be very specific in what will be allowed and disallowed.
I particularly am concerned with the 'Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy'.Firstly, I'm not sure that it would be wise to encourage this in my school environment. The students that attend our school are definitely from a broad spectrum of our society. The students whose parents can afford these devices, may indulge in purchasing the fancier ones and that may be tempting for someone from a low income bracket. The safeguarding of such devices may pose a problem for us.
My school, at this point in time, is unable to support such usage on the bandwidth that we presently have. The possibility of hacking the system or separating the system between teachers and students may also be quite challenging to manage. My final concern is how are the students from the low income bracket going to be able to do homework, if given on a online platform, if they have limited or no access to internet?
Many questions have been raised. Will the Ministry of Education be able to address all these issues before implementing such policies?

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There is much to learn when it comes to the apps and websites one can use as an educator, to engage one's students. This was the first time I heard about Padlet or Moxtra. I look forward to learning much more.

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It's no secret that the best teachers are learners. They are always learning to improve on the delivery of the curriculum. This may entail the manner in which the curriculum is delivered to the students. In today's world, where technology plays a vital role in our daily lives, the teacher now has to decide whether didactic instruction or transformational instruction is the way to go or can both types of instruction co-exist side-by-side.

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Didactic instruction in the Trinidadian society is the old chalk and talk or marker and whiteboard, as the case may be, type of instruction. One can even say this is an 'old school' way of teaching. This may be true but it begs the question if teachers in the government schools have the option to change their method of teaching. The landscape of teachers are changing, yet due to limited resources and lack of support, at times, teachers in most government schools do find it hard to move away from didactic instruction. That being said, how is the Ministry of Education going to help teachers to change their style of teaching?
Transformational teaching is the way to go BUT many of our schools, especially government schools are ill-equipped to support this style of teaching. A good example of this is what occurred in our second day of training. Our facilitator requested to use a Form 5 classroom to do our training, as it was outfitted with a smart board. Ms. Rampersad, in her attempt to use this to get our attention, faced some challenges. The internet access was slow and many times, there were lulls because the pages were loading at a slow rate. On the other side, most of us were using our laptops and in addition to the internet being slow on our devices as well, at some point the batteries were wearing down and we needed to charge our devices. There was only one outlet in the classroom and there were twenty something of us  who needed to charge our devices. Eventually an extension cord was located and we continued. These challenges affect the flow of the lesson. I do commend Ms. Rampersad for her efforts in keeping us engaged, however it was frustrating at times even for her. All this occurred in what one would consider a 'prestige' school. How much more the challenges will be in a government school like mine?
It was good to learn the tools that I can use to incorporate Transformational Teaching. I have never created a power point presentation and it's good to know that Microsoft has all types of programs in one website. I had heard about weebly, so it was good to learn more about it. This course continues to be quite informative for me.

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At present didactic still works for us and we do hope that we can incorporate ICT in our teaching. No doubt, ICT-infused learning will make our foreign language classes more lively and fun. We can only hope that eventually we can have the opportunity to become a school that uses both to attract the attention of our students. This will be possible if we are better equipped at school. We can only hope that such upgrades will happen in a timely manner for us.

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Day 3 of ICT workshop

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In recent years, there have been many websites that are created for teachers to use electronic assessment. It is a good way for teachers to interact differently with students, at times being able to give feedback in real time. Most teachers do want to work smart and these assessment tools are a great way to do so. Furthermore, with the fun ways that students may be assessed, there is a possibility that they will be motivated to keep in step with what they are supposed to be learning.

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In recent years, there have been many websites that are created for teachers to use electronic assessment. It is a good way for teachers to interact differently with students, at times being able to give feedback in real time. Most teachers do want to work smart and these assessment tools are a great way to do so. Furthermore, with the fun ways that students may be assessed, there is a possibility that they will be motivated to keep in step with what they are supposed to be learning.

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For example, Kahoot! which we did in our session is a great way to inject some fun while getting some learning done on the students' part and on the teachers' part, it's a good way to assess who may need a little more help. I do think most teens enjoy playing games on their phone or laptop and therefore to turn a topic into a fun game is a great way to catch their attention. For those who may not have access to a smartphone, some of these assessment tools can be accessed on one's computer. If students are unable to download an app, there are other websites which allow for them to do the assessment in another way.

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In other assessment tools, parents can have access to the topic that is being done in class and they too will be able to keep track of their children's progress. This cuts down on a parent having to take time off from work to come to the school to check up on their child's progress. An added bonus is that the parent now has a way to stay in contact with the teacher as well and this is without a teacher having to give out their personal phone number. Edmodo is an example of such an assessment tool.

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As more and more students have access to a smartphone or a laptop, assessment tools will help teachers to work smart. That being said, in my government school, these tools may be better suited for an upper form class. This would be easier managed if devices were to be used in the classroom.

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In this training we are being assessed online to a certain extent. This augurs well for both us and the facilitator even though this week was a challenging one. We had a three day window in which to get our assignments done, which was a bit tough as it was Mother's Day weekend and most errands and chores are done on a weekend. However, since we are able to submit online and there is no deadline, except before the next session, it worked out. It was still a challenge though.

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We were introduced to the SAMR model as we continue our journey of ICT integration in our classrooms. It's a good model that shows how one can incorporate ICT in the classroom and deepen the students' knowledge on a specific topic.
I can see that it would be such an effective way to bring to life many topics that are taught in Foreign Languages. It would definitely transform seemingly boring topics to interesting ones. The students will therefore have a 'hands on' approach as they would be involved in the lesson. The opportunity for the students to have an interactive approach will bode well.

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However, I do doubt that I would be able to implement this model in my government classroom because of our lack of resources. We don't have a language laboratory for the teaching of foreign languages and the thought of setting up equipment to do even the Substitution phase bothers me, as I can see teaching time being lost. Moreover, the guarantee that students will have Internet access at home and at school may pose problems as we seek to go from level to level.

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I do appreciate being taught all these ways to make a lesson more interesting by integrating technology. However, I do wish that government schools will be better outfitted to accommodate this.

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In this week's session, it was all about creating lessons to attract the many needs of students in a given class. One such learning style is VARK. This learning style encompasses Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic learners.This basically covers a typical class. However in a 'typical' class scenario, there are students with special needs. In today's world, there are students with ADHD and on the autism spectrum, to name a few, who are in now part of a typical class. As a result, if teachers were to understand the VARK learning style in the creation of their lesson plans, classes will be more interesting and most students will be engaged, even special needs cases.

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In our government school, we have been able to handle a few special needs cases with great success. In recent years, there was a student who was hearing impaired and he graduated at Form 5 level with a full certificate. He was a student who thrived as a visual and kinesthetic learner. As a result, teachers of that class, had to ensure that there was always an activity to keep him engaged in his learning styles. He loved photography. Therefore any projects or assignments that involved pictures were loved by him. Moreover, teachers had to find ways to keep him engaged whether through a power point or a simple presentation on Bristol Board.

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In our government school we may not be able to meet all our students' needs all of the time, however, we do try our best using what little resources we do have.

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There is an exhaustive list of tools that an educator can use to create digital classrooms and to integrate ICT. As each year goes by, there are more added or others are removed. Such is life in the technology age.

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Edmodo is one such popular tool and who doesn't like Youtube as well. However, using these tools don't come without their disadvantages. I have never used Edmodo myself but my colleagues do and I have heard about the type of conversations that take place between students. They border on being rude and disrespectful. I think students think that because they are relating to each on an online forum, they let their guard down. As a result, it's easy for them to be a little loose with their comments, whether about each other or teachers.

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As for Youtube, sometimes students may post inappropriate content and as such, may open themselves up to cyberbullying. This are just a few challenges that may occur while using these tools. Moreover with Youtube, students have to be careful about incorporating other people's work. For example, music is copyrighted, therefore if they choose to use a song for a presentation, permission must be gained or they must issue a disclaimer about not owning the rights to it.

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These tools are good for engaging students, however the teacher may still have to set ground rules or at least explain the dos and don'ts of being on any platform. These may lessen the potential of cyberbully or the posting of inappropriate content