The district I work at is very diverse. There are students and parents from all over the world so the school values global connections and thinks it is important for the community. We are a community who understands the importance of differentiation and we know that every individual learns differently from others.
I really like the picture below because it shows exactly what teachers used to do in the past by not considering the differences.
On our institute day on September 23rd I had to present two sessions of two hours each so for one of the sessions I invited my friend and former co-worker from Brazil, Ana Maria Menezes.
BIO: Ana Maria Menezes
EFL teacher and teacher trainer in Brazil. Head of the EDtech department at Cultura Inglesa Uberlândia. Helps teachers integrate technology with their classes by facilitating two online courses: “Cultura EDtech” and “Moving Beyond”. Writer of two books dedicated to language teachers: “Webtools applied to teaching” and “Developing the 4 Skills using Webtools”.
Ana Maria presented about Global Connections: Homework Assignments using Web 2.0. We had decided that for a lot of reasons we would be using WiZiQ to present but were prepared to use Skype as a backup in case things went wrong with the platform!
The presentation went very smoothly and the teachers in my school really enjoyed it. It was the first time that they had experienced an online presentation in this format. I had my computer set up facing them so Ana Maria could see the teachers and I had her presentation and her video projected to a big screen in the room.
Every time teachers wanted to talk to each other they would do it quietly, I think that they thought that Ana Maria could hear them, but the microfone was muted for most of the time that she was presenting and was given to us when we had group discussions or questions to ask.
I saw a lot of teacher with their iPads taking pictures of the screen that was projecting the presentation because they wanted to "save the slides" even though I told them that I would share the recording with them later. I also experienced a lot of shy teachers when they saw themselves on the camera.
The feedback of the presentation was very positive and I already have some teachers e-mailing me to send them the link to the recording, even though it is not available yet.
Let's put our hands together one more time to Ana Maria on the great job she did presenting to us! Thank you again Aninha.
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