Maria Luísa's learning diary by Maria

Hello everyone

luisad741 — 2017-10-16 18:27:12 UTC

I am a Portuguese teacher from a small town in the south of Portugal - called Portimão in the region of Algarve. I 've been teaching for the last 25 years. I teach Portuguese to pupils of 12 to 15 year old.

Why you think PBL is not used more widely in our education systems?What are the biggest challenges we as educators face and who is stopping us from adopting the PBL approach in our classrooms?

luisad741 — 2017-10-23 21:46:10 UTC

I believe that what is stopping us from adopting PBL is ourselves
first we are afraid of failing, because we have to take steps into the unknown (ICT, group work, new ways of assessement...);
second we need time to work in different ways and our squedules aren't prepare to give us the time to do it;
third we aren't prepared to work in groups to prepare materials, to exchange our experiences, to show our weak spots and mistakes and learn from them.

Reflection on my own teaching strategies, classroom setup, students' needs, etc.

luisad741 — 2017-10-23 22:04:44 UTC

My classroom balances between a traditional class and a (trial) PBL classroom. Last year I made this course and I was thrilled to engage in the PBL method, so I worked hard with my two classes of 8th graders. They made some projects based on PBL - a newspaper, a webquest, a theater and they participated in a etwinning project all through the year.
My biggest fear was: are they really learning with all these activities?
So this year, because they will have a final exam at the end of the school year, I began with the traditional classroom set up - me lecturing - And surprinsigly they came up to me and said "Hey teacher, this is boring, aren't we going to work like last year?" And I asked "Did you like it?" "Yes, it was much more interesting." And I asked "Did you learn? and they answered "Of course".
So next month I will go back to my work with PBL and start working with my students from the 9th grade a portuguese play from our first playwriter Gil Vicente and my driving question will be: HOW DO WE, AS STAGE DIRECTORS, WOULD DIRECT THIS PLAY?

Components of Good PBLShare your view on which of the 5 components (or keys as they are called in the video) you feel will be the most challenging for you to realize and why.

luisad741 — 2017-10-23 22:47:09 UTC

All five components are challenging but the most challenging is finding a way to get the pupils envolved and collaborate with each other. And then there is the assessement.
The five components are:

THE DRIVING - QUESTION Is the question open-ended? It will allow students to develop more than one reasonable answer.Do you feel the question will spark curiosity and engage the students? (remember this might be dependent on the local contexts of the students)Is it aligned to the learning goals identified? To answer it students will need to gain the intended knowledge, understanding, and skills.Is it difficult to answer by using Google?

luisad741 — 2017-10-27 22:59:52 UTC

HOW DO WE, AS STAGE DIRECTORS, WOULD DIRECT NOWADAY THE PLAY "AUTO DA BARCA DO INFERNO" BY GIL VICENTE? Gil Vicente is a portuguese playwriter from the xvi century who is studied in the 9th grade and later on in the 10th grade. The play talks about the xvith century society and all its sins and takes place after the death of all the characters. The characters parade in front of two judges - an angle and a devil - who expose their sins and wrong doing in life and sentence them to hell (or to paradise). The aims are to understand the play's and the author's messages and its cultural and social importance for us; it also helps us to take a glimpse of how the xvi th century MAN understood life and death; and in the process show us how the portuguese language evolved.
My driving question will be presented to my students next month. They have worked with me in two or three projects using PBL method last year and they are looking forward to work again with this method. They are from 9th grade (14-15 years), the all class has 20 students and they will be working in the Portuguese classroom - 3 times a week. In my school those times are divided in: 1 time of 90 minutes with the entire class (with a break of 10 minutes in between), another time of 50 minutes with the entire class and another time of 50 minutes with half the class and then the other half (this time is to work more closely with the students and try to overcome their difficulties).

3. Developing student-driven activities for PBL Briefly describe a situation in your professional or personal life where you were first unsuccessful but because you stuck with it you succeeded in the end. Finish by identifying why you stuck with the problem/task and did not give up.

luisad741 — 2017-11-05 00:34:00 UTC

When I first apply for university I didn't enter so I decided to try again working by myself as I was repeating the all programme and the teachers were the same. At the end of the year I apply to make the exams and I improved in all of them and then I entered to the university which had the higgest grade. I was so proud.
I didn't give up because it was a personnel challenge and I knew I could do it.

3.2 Developing Student Resilience Identify how we as teachers can weaken our student's confidence and independence. Use your own and others' reflections to help you create a classroom environment that supports students to become confident and independent learners.

luisad741 — 2017-11-05 01:00:55 UTC

The best way to weaken our students confidence is to create such a distance and such a serious face that students fear the teacher and the classes. Liking the teacher is half way to success.

My work has been assessed

luisad741 — 2017-11-09 13:47:45 UTC

by Iskra Nedelcheva I like your padlet very much - you have photos, minds and thoughts that presents you interely.
Your learning design is very detailed and ballanced - you have all kinds of activities.
I think you are innovative and motivating teacher, so ENJOY YOUR JOB

by María Isabel León
I think this is an activity that you have done before. Am I wrong? Because it is well structured and really clear. Students know what they have to do and all the different components in the Learning Designer are included. I think it is alright.

by Nicoleta Sarbu

Dear Maria, I congratulate you on how you approached your initial question(driving question)

by Thomas Boulieris
Your learning design is an exceptional work!!! Really inspiring and the introductory activity is really inspiring (I plan to use it as well aometime-hope it's ok!!!). Your 1000-minute project is really nice and interesting about the Trobadoure! Well designed activities that escalate and raise the students' interest capturing their attention! It reflects most part of the four points mentioned above: students are encouraged to work independantly and reflect upon their work, work in pairs and teams and they can identify with the driving question!