Hello, I’m Italian, since 1988, I’ve been teaching
English at the I.T.E. “ VittorioVeneto-Salvemini” a business school in
Latina,  a small town located 60km from
Rome.  I love teaching for lots of
reasons, mainly because I can be in touch with teenagers, secondly I love
travelling, so speaking English and
other languages allow me to meet different people with different backgrounds. I
decided to take this course because I think that new technologies can make
teachers ‘approach with students much easier, it’s not only a question of
acquiring new  technical skills but it enhances the relationiship between
teachers and students, it favours the peer to peer methodology, among students
and teachers.  On the one end It teaches
to plan, to share and to teamwork and on the other to be respectful, tolerant
and transparent.

I firmly believe in Europe!!!.

In fact I’m responsible of European projects. In my school students have the chance
to travel all over Europe, exchange different experiences, meet  and make new friends and  speak foreign languages, by doing it they
can  see how important is to be a
European citizen today !!!. I’ve also taken study visits with other European
teachers at Stamford and Cardiff where  I
have exchanged teaching experiences and methods, by observing and comparing different education systems !!!!!
very exciting!!!

Why it is necessary to use tablet and new
technologies

I think that it
is necessary to use tablets and new technologies, because students are digital
people, in other words they are born with technology, so teachers should be
able to use them as best as they can to better approach students and guide them
in their learning process in order to be successful. In my school we have labs,
computers, Lim, but apart from technical
problems, we have unluckily still teachers who are reluctant to use them, they
are convinced that it is a waste of time, the reason is the lack of knowledge,
they are scared of not being able to use these new devices, because of
their lack of methodology. We teach computer studies, but the technical devices
are old and only few teachers can use them regularly, finally there is a
problem of connecting lines, they don’t often work, so we waste a lot of time, to
solve technical problems. Hoping in the future things get better I’ve decide to
do this course to get the rightest skills to use the tablet as best as
possible.

1.What whole-school challenges do I already face
or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

At the
moment, in my school, we are not using tablets yet, but we’re going to do it
pretty soon, the main problems  are
technical, we don’t have a connecting line that can support us!!! But we are
trying to solve these problems, that’s why I’m taking this course and I’m
learning so may interesting things!!!:)

1.What classroom challenges do I already face or
do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

In my classes I’m trying to use new technologies,
but it’s not easy!! Students are very interested in learning with them but it’s
so hard because the technical devices don’t work very well!! But we are taking
this challenge too!!!.We don’t give in !!!

I usually let my
students choose the students they want to work with, afterwards I mix them in
terms of skills and motivation. It quite often works, because students feel
free to work with the ones they best get along with.it doesn’t work when I form
groups there are new for me both as people and skills.

1. How do you keep your students focused and on
   track during collaborative projects? How do you ensure all students contribute
   to the task?

   I try to give suggestions to enhance their
   curiosity and to raise their imagination and creativity I like them when they
   ask me to deepen their research.

2. What strategies have you used to assess group
   work? What are the main challenges for you when it comes to assessing group
   work? 

   I use a grid
   and I let students evaluate themselves and afterwards we compare them.