Week 5

...multitasking...

It is said that women are good at multitasking.... I guess any teacher who has worked long enough, develops these abilities...






I definitely have done lots of multitasking this week: constantly thinking about the class problems, while leading one, searching in one's mind the best solutions and IT tools that could help solve one or another problem... while still correcting the mistakes, checking the works and doing all the ordinary teacher works... in addition to these tasks searching for empty slots in a computer lab classes was added. 
However, as I have noted before, teacher's work can hardly be described a calm one :)

That is why I constantly tell my friends and colleagues that probably no one could find more creative, versatile and imaginative work, than being a teacher.

One example of this is a WebQuest. A great tool of promoting learners' independent or group working skills, expanding critical thinking capacity and ability to surf the net.

Of course it is really time consuming for a teacher to design one -- which would suit the class needs perfectly, however I think that it is one of the best teaching tool. Not is it is on my list of things I should try in my class.... Have I mentioned multitasking?, I think my class will be soon working on several different levels as well.... Probably I should be careful not to overload them too much work...

Alternative assessment is another great thing for multitasking teachers, who constantly have to assess different skills and want to teach their students all the skills possible. This actually helps the teachers to concentrate on what they truly want to assess on a particular lesson/project. Moreover, it is also very beneficial for the students themselves as this keeps them from being overwhelmed by the number of requirements. Thus creating rubrics, is a wonderful idea.

good luck and lots of stamina

for multitasking teachers ;)