Blog can help
teachers to develop their own professional teaching methods through communicating
and sharing their ideas with other teachers and students. From my experiences,
when I have taught high school student for a year in Korea, I used to post some
opinion about previous lesson and share it with my students and other English
teachers. They were pleased to give me useful opinions for problems, lesson
plan and classroom managements. If there were not blog, as teachers and
students both don’t have enough time to meet after school, we could have not
share opinions for lessons. With this process, I could fix some wrong part of
my lesson and improve my lesson to be better.
Blog also can
provide EFL students a good opportunity to express their opinion about previous
lessons and their own interests, too. For instance, in EFL classes in Korea,
there are a lot of students who don’t their opinions well because of their
shyness. Teachers never know their students’ opinions, thought or interest
unless students express themselves. In this point, blog is a good way to write
freely without feeling uncomfortable. Through students’ blog postings, teachers
can recognize each student’s interest and opinions. In addition, students can
do their assignment with easy access to the Internet. As they can finish their homework
regardless of time and space, so it could be very convenient. And as they can
keep their own record for one subject or course, they can open their ‘data’
anytime, anywhere and so do teachers. Teachers also can feel comfortable to
give feedback to their students for their assignments.
Performance Indicator - ESL.C.9-12.1.1.1:
Students identify and use reading and listening strategies to make text
comprehensible and meaningful.
Thanks for sharing your personal experience as a teacher in Korea. Reflection of lessons and collaboration among teachers must have been quite useful.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, student blogging can also provide a good record of student progress. Sometimes students don't realize how much they have learned, but by comparing blog posts from the beginning of the year to those at the end of the year, students would be able to see how the writing has improved.
I think because of the similar cultural backgound, Chinese students have a lot in common with Korean students. In my class, my students are also very shy to ask questions and share their ideas. You cannot understand them in the class. Blog serves a bridge which accelerates the communication between students and teachers. Knowing the opinions of the students can help teachers design better teaching plan in thier class in turn.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience. It helps me better visualize my future teaching with blogs. And I agree with your point about comfort. Blog really can help students, especially shy ones, to talk freely without pressure.
ReplyDelete