Friendly Tools to Implement in Class
Created by Licda. Ana Patricia López.
By Licda. Ana Patricia López Quirós.
High School Teacher and University Professor.
Saturday, March 9th , 2019.
Among the vast
variety of tools the teacher can use in class, there are three that are of
great interest for the well-performance of the class and for the great help
they provide the teacher; especially, in the English class. Among many other
things to do, the teacher has to deal with the planning of the class, the
performance of it, and the collection of data considered as evidence to prove
that the student has or has not achieved the objectives or the goals. With an
eye of making the teacher’s work easier, some technological tools have emerged.
These tools are named Feedly, Google Forms and Google Form Graphics to spot.
These tools are to make the teacher’s work easier because they are excellent
ways to implement technology that can be not only student but also
teacher-friendly.
First
of all, Feedly is a website that organizes, reads, and shares what matters to
the teacher. It is great to keep articles that can be used in class or for
personal purposes, as a personal growth. You can follow other people’s articles
and get informed of topics of your interest. By using this tool, the teacher
can search for information through
different websites such as YouTube, Blogs and so on. Once you find an article
you keep it in your account and you can use it as many times as necessary for
the enhancement of your English class.
Besides,
there is another very practical tool which is available for everybody. This
tool is Google Forms. The only thing you need to have is a google account. Then,
you can make use of it for many purposes. One of these purposes is to make
quizzes or exams. By using this tool, the teacher might shorten her time of
constructing and checking evaluations. This tool gives the teacher and students
the grades instantly. As a result, the teacher
will not have to spend hours for their checking and analyses. Instead, she can
spend this time in creating activities to help students learn English
meaningfully. An incredible advantage of this tool is that it has different
forms to grade a student: it could be multiple choice, short answers, or even
paragraphs as a common exam.
Finally,
teachers may use Google Form Graphics as a tool to keep track of students’
performance. By using this tool, the
teacher can know which objectives were
reached and which ones need certain kind of feedback. The teacher can send the
results of the quiz or the exams to the students immediately as a way to
analyze the weaknesses of their own learning process. Even though this tool has many advantages, one
of them is the students can evaluate the reasons that made them have a wrong
answer. In this way, they are able to start using the correct structures
properly. Besides, if this process is
done in class, students will be more responsible of their own learning process.
They can understand their weaknesses and work hard to correct them with the
purpose of speaking English properly.
The
teaching-learning process is so complex that any tool that can help the teacher
to keep tracking of what is happening in class is worthy. The teacher has the responsibility
for providing feedback in a fast, quick and efficient way to the students.
These tools are teacher-friendly because they let the teacher explain not only the
strengths but also the weaknesses of the process that is taking place in the
class. If the results are known quickly, so quick decisions can be made in
order to correct what is being done improperly in class. It is true that students
are the core of education, but if teachers may have use of tools that can
facilitate their work without neglecting the quality of their class, it is
fantastic.
Patricia, I really like that idea of shortening our time in marking papers and exams. That is way too time-consuming. For me it is better to invest time programming the exam than checking every answer with my red pen. In addition, comprehending what students are not learning is great for some spiral learning or review.
ResponderEliminarDear Patricia,
ResponderEliminarI totally agree with you that as educators, it is very important to keep track on students’ performance. Instructors need to be always aware what is working, what needs to be improve, and what students need to reinforce for the welfare of smooth teaching-learning process. The tools you have mentioned are indeed valuable to be apply in the classroom, also are great for saving time that can be use on creating other materials that can greatly help with learning enhancements. I also come to an agreement that teaching is a complex job but when teachers can apply e-learning into daily basis in the classroom, in that way the process can become enjoyable, easier, and accountable.