As a language teacher who must
capture the students' imagination on a daily basis, I am constantly seeking
professional development workshops to improve my teaching skills and become
better connected to my students' ever-growing interests. Throughout my teaching
career, I have attended an incredible amount of teacher workshops and seminars
that have certainly helped me achieve this goal. Nevertheless, it has been a
year-long teachers' English program that I recently took at the University of
Puerto Rico in the Teacher's Summer Institute that has finally transformed my
English classes from what I like to call a “teacher-driven class” to a
“student-driven class.”
The program was taught by university
professors and it was held at the University of Puerto Rico from June/2013 to
May/2014. The program consisted of twenty-nine teacher workshops for public and
private schoolteachers. It is a federally-funded grant titled Professional
Development for Teachers of English to Diverse Learners: Integration of Art and Technology in the
English Classroom.
The teacher workshops
were held during three sessions: the summer session, the first semester of
2013-2014 and follow-up visits to the schools during the second semester
2013-2014. All the work produced by the teachers will be published by the
program at the end of May, 2014.
Some of the
workshops that were offered during the all-day summer sessions included the following topics: Movies a Source
of Idiomatic Expressions for English Language Enhancement, Using Music for
Creative Writing, The Museum as a Visual Cue for Speaking and Writing
Production, Visits to the Art Museum of Puerto Rico, Enjoying Poetry Through
Figurative Writing and Using the Radio for Listening Comprehension. During the
first semester of the 2013-2014 academic year, the following workshops were
offered during the half-day classes held on Saturdays: Drama for the Enhancement
of Oral Communication, the Application of Technology to the Production of
Digital Stories, Innovative Strategies to Develop Speaking Skills, and Language
Teaching Through Strategic Planning, among others. Once we started the
semester, the strategies learned in the workshops were immediately put into use
. This catapulted us into stardom. There has been an explosive change in my
classes at my school.
These strategies which
I put into practice every single day have revolutionized our classes.
Students cannot wait to begin new projects, movies, oral presentations or
anything that I or they suggest. All activities are strategically planned. The
principal and the school administration have strongly supported our efforts.
The questionnaires sent out to parents and students are all brimming with
positive comments and feedback. Colleagues from the English Department have
started using art and technology as a driving force in their own classrooms, as
well, when they see the startling results that come with integration.
The most
important project which the seventh graders accomplished was the Selfielm@nvargas, a
term taken from “selfie” and “film.” This project consists of an I-movie filmed
by each individual student with an I-phone. By writing a storyboard and a
script, the student, filmed scenes from her daily routine. With the help of the
Technology Department at our school , a collection of short one-minute video shots developed into a
10 -minute film based on the student’ s daily activities that were most
meaningful to her. Some of the interests showed on film were Family, Friends,
What I’m most proud of, Sports, Hobbies, and Community service. This project
captured on film the essence of being a twelve –year- old girl. The student has
to narrate a short description of the scene in a voice-over. One of the things
that the students most loved about this project was the possibility of adding
more interests as they went on the next grade and adding movie shots related to
their new experiences as an 8th grader and so on until they reach
their senior year. The 10- minute Selfielm@
was scored and used as a test grade which consists of 45% of the class
grade for the first semester.
During
the second semester the students are developing the concept of “ Usies.” This
is also a 10 minute film where two friends can choose from different themes the
story that they will develop in their film. Among them are the following topics
: “A User’s Manual for My Best Friend: What Makes Her Tick?,” “ A Talk Show:
Interview With My Best Friend” and “ Behind the Scenes With My Favorite Star
Impersonations.” This film will also count as a test grade.
Using these techniques inspires students to try out new things and convinces them that in spite of the complexity of the project, they can accomplish anything they set themselves to do.
