Week 1 (14–20 January) - Introduction and first steps together
[If you are just joining us for the first time now, please start with 'While-waiting warm-up' then come back here!]
Welcome to Week 1!
Objectives of the Week
This week's objectives are the following;
- Gaining an overview of this EVO project
- Introducing your teaching context and sharing experiences of teaching with other participants.
- Building a sense of community with other participants
You will also watch and may react to videos of other teachers sharing their experiences of successful teaching in a workshop in Nepal.
Activity 1: You and Your Classroom
Look at these pictures of different classrooms. Think about how similar/different they are to the classrooms you are used to.
Our community comprises teachers from a variety of places and settings around the world. This activity will help you understand others' teaching situations in the EVO community:
Tell others about your classroom and share a photo if you can. (Please ensure you have permission of parents and students to share before posting any photos of students). Do this in the Google + group under 'You and Your Classroom'
Describe:
Tell others about your classroom and share a photo if you can. (Please ensure you have permission of parents and students to share before posting any photos of students). Do this in the Google + group under 'You and Your Classroom'
Describe:
- facilities / resources within your class
- average number of students in the class
- anything else you want to share
Activity 2: Success Stories in Low-resource Classrooms
Together, Amol Padwad and Richard Smith ran a five-day workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal (a British Council / Hornby Trust Regional School) on 'Teaching in the Low-resource classroom', for teachers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.
Please watch some videos / read some stories from this workshop. Then share your own story of a recent success in Activity 3 below.
A) Why success stories?: Watch this clip from a recent webinar - Richard explains why it is valuable to share success stories, based on his and Amol's workshop experience.
B) Success story example: Watch the video here from the 2013 Kathmandu workshop, in which Rupinder from Punjab, India, shares a success story.
(Note: If you click on 'CC' at the foot of the video, you can see closed captions which may help you understand).
Ask yourself these questions as you watch:
1. What challenges did Rupinder face?
2. What solution did Rupinder adopt?
Consider also: Are there similar challenges in your teaching context, or different ones? Have you had any successes in overcoming these challenges?
Please watch some videos / read some stories from this workshop. Then share your own story of a recent success in Activity 3 below.
A) Why success stories?: Watch this clip from a recent webinar - Richard explains why it is valuable to share success stories, based on his and Amol's workshop experience.
B) Success story example: Watch the video here from the 2013 Kathmandu workshop, in which Rupinder from Punjab, India, shares a success story.
(Note: If you click on 'CC' at the foot of the video, you can see closed captions which may help you understand).
Ask yourself these questions as you watch:
1. What challenges did Rupinder face?
2. What solution did Rupinder adopt?
Consider also: Are there similar challenges in your teaching context, or different ones? Have you had any successes in overcoming these challenges?
If you can't watch the video easily don't worry - here you can read the written version which Rupinder produced at the workshop. You might like to read some other written stories - e.g. those by Gulnaz (Pakistan), Krishna (Nepal) and Rejaul (Bangladesh), and you can watch further video-recorded stories by workshop participants here:
Tell others which ones you like best and why in the Facebook group, if you want!
Tell others which ones you like best and why in the Facebook group, if you want!
Activity 3: A Recent Success in Your Teaching
We experience difficulties but we also experience successes in our teaching, and by reflecting on these we can consider both what 'works' in our teaching context and how improvement can come from within ourselves and our experience. We can also learn from colleagues' successes, which can be a valuable source of inspiration.
A) Think of a recent successful teaching experience and share it in the Google + community under 'A Recent Success in Your Teaching'.
You could write about a problem you were facing and what you did to solve it. Consider: how do you know that it worked? (what did you see, hear and feel?). Or you could simply write something that 'felt right'. Again, consider what you saw, heard and felt that made it seem successful.
Try to recreate the experience for others by writing a paragraph or two about it. What told you that it was a success? What did you see, hear and feel?
B) Visit other posts and comment on / respond to other teachers' success stories which make an impression on you.
A) Think of a recent successful teaching experience and share it in the Google + community under 'A Recent Success in Your Teaching'.
You could write about a problem you were facing and what you did to solve it. Consider: how do you know that it worked? (what did you see, hear and feel?). Or you could simply write something that 'felt right'. Again, consider what you saw, heard and felt that made it seem successful.
Try to recreate the experience for others by writing a paragraph or two about it. What told you that it was a success? What did you see, hear and feel?
B) Visit other posts and comment on / respond to other teachers' success stories which make an impression on you.
Summary: hoped-for achievements
By the end of this week (week 1) we hope that you have:
FIRST LIVE SESSION: Click here to join us on Sunday 20th January at 15:00 GMT
(time where you are)
Enter as a 'Guest', writing your full name.
RECORDING of Week 1 Webinar here.
SLIDES:
- established a sense of community with other participants
- shared a recent success story
- begun to see the value of collaboration with colleagues as a source of insight and support for teacher-research (we will take this idea further next week)
FIRST LIVE SESSION: Click here to join us on Sunday 20th January at 15:00 GMT
(time where you are)
Enter as a 'Guest', writing your full name.
RECORDING of Week 1 Webinar here.
SLIDES:
Additional resource
The stories you watched on video have recently been published in a freely downloadable book: Teaching in Low-resource Classrooms: Voices of Experience, edited by Richard Smith, Amol Padwad and Deborah Bullock (British Council, 2017).
Another recent publication addressing relatively 'difficult' circumstances and which adopts a 'success story' approach is Champion Teachers Peru 2016: Stories of Successful Interventions in the EFL Classroom (British Council, 2017)
Another recent publication addressing relatively 'difficult' circumstances and which adopts a 'success story' approach is Champion Teachers Peru 2016: Stories of Successful Interventions in the EFL Classroom (British Council, 2017)