learning

A Final Learning Statement at Centro Espiral Mana, SIT TESOL

On Friday, the February 2013 SIT TESOL course at Centro Espiral Mana ended. When a course closes here, participants are asked to create a final learning statement, summarizing what they have learned over the four weeks. Some participants wrote songs, poems, or essays, some created visual representations, and others recorded narratives. Each of these creations highlighted the inspiring process that goes on at Centro. Tony Paredes — a teacher from Tarapato, Peru — created the comic strip below. I asked Tony if I could share his learning statement  because I thought it was a great example of how some experienced teachers feel after taking this course. As Tony shows us, it’s truly transformative.

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PS. Thank you – somewhere in Daegu a teacher trainer is smiling

This arrived in my inbox. I share this message because it warmed my heart.

“PS. I can’t recite exactly what I’ve learned from day 1 till now in your class, but I feel sure that I’ve learned about how to organize the lesson from the students’ perspective and how to build the lesson step by step. even though I have a hard time doing my lesson that way at the moment, it seems I’ve found in which direction to go. That’s a big leap for me. Thank U !”

The semester ends in two weeks.  Knowing that I reached at least one teacher is one of the best New Year’s gifts I could receive.

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The Creative Joy of Final Learning Statements

In three days, our training course will be over. In these final days, it’s time for participants to look back over their four months together and reflect on what’s been meaningful and what they’ve learned. To help them do this, I asked them to respond to a list of questions Mary Scholl (SIT teacher-trainer) created and kindly shared with me. Below are a few examples:

  • If you were to choose 10 words to describe your experience in the course, what would they be?
  • If your experience in the course were like weaving a beautiful cloth, what would be the threads that hold the cloth together?
  • How would you explain your experience in this course to a five year old?
  • What would your ideal motto be in the future?
  • If you had to sell this course, what would your slogan and ad campaign look like?
  • Go through all of your journal entries from the course. Choose the ones that are most meaningful to you. Why are they meaningful?
  • Make a metaphor for how the course has affected you. Be juicy and deep in your description.

With these questions, they created final learning statements that would then become the front cover of  their learning portfolios. They kept this portfolio throughout my writing course.  I encouraged the participants to be as creative as they wanted, and as you’ll see, they didn’t hold back. During our final learning statement gallery walk (gallery walk explanation coming soon), I was inspired at each turn. I hope you feel inspired too.

Please enjoy the artistic exhbilition of learning!

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Privacy tip: Notice the funky, random strips on some of the statements? To keep the anonymity of my participants, I used the smartphone app Labelbox to cover their names.

Celebrating Learning and Teaching

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time. – T.S. Eliot

Through my reflective practice, I become an explorer of learning. By reflecting on my teaching, I discover that I have much more to learn. Teaching and learning are my ouroboros.

This blog itself is a celebration of my ouroboros, and the theme of the final celebration of this three part series. You’ve celebrated teachers and learners, and now it’s time to celebrate the experiences these two create.

For the final round of celebrating, describe what you’ve learned about teaching or learning via your blog, email (josette.leblanc@gmail.com), or Facebook, and I’ll post your stories here to this entry. (scroll down to see entries) Thank you so much to those who have participated, and to those who have expressed interest in this series. It’s been a fun process, and something I hope to try again in the future.

Once again, below you’ll find some learning moments my participants shared in their writing assignments. I feel so happy and proud that they are discovering their own ouroburos.

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Celebrating Learners – The Celebration Challenge Continues

Put on your party hats because today we’re celebrating learners!

This is the second entry of the Celebration Challenge series. In last week’s post, Celebrating Teachers, you shared stories of memorable teachers.

For this round of celebrating, describe a memorable student via your blog, email (josette.leblanc@gmail.com), or Facebook, and I’ll post your stories here! (scroll down to see entries)

Disclaimer 😛 I realize that “memorable” doesn’t imply “good”, but for the sake of this challenge, we’ll veer in a more positive direction. It is a celebration after all 😉

I look forward to your stories! Here are a few from the KIETT participants.

KIETT participants make the switch from teachers to learners

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Celebrating Teachers – A Celebration Challenge

Let’s celebrate teachers, learners, teaching, and learning!

For this semester’s paragraph assignment, I asked my participants to choose one of these topics:

  1. Describe a memorable teacher.
  2. Describe a memorable student.
  3. Describe three characteristics you would like to have as a teacher.
  4. As a teacher, what is your dream?

I was so excited and proud of what they wrote that I wanted to share some of their quotes with you. (scroll down)

And in celebration of their self-exploration, I would like to reflect these topics back to you. Describe any of the above topics via your blog, email (josette.leblanc@gmail.com), or Facebook, and I’ll share them on my blog! It’s time for a celebration and I look forward to celebrating with you 🙂

This will be a three part series: celebrating teachers; celebrating learners; and celebrating learning and teaching. For today’s post, my participants celebrate their teachers:

“It is natural to forget many people as years go by, but the fact that I recall him from time to time proves that he still inspires me with how teachers ought to be.”

“When I was a middle school student, I was too poor at English. Fortunately, I met a kind and considerate English teacher and thanks to her I could get self-confidence and find my potential abilities. I want to be a teacher like her. ”

Primary Color Teachers 🙂

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