MIEE 22-23 LIST

 The MIEE list for 22-23 has just been released. This year, there are 53 MIEE's in Hong Kong. 

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AL9xXbQeJNj3CAw&id=91F4E618548FC604%2111185&cid=91F4E618548FC604&parId=root&parQt=sharedby&parCid=E837B342D1C436C8&o=OneUp

Travel safe vs Travel safely

 Every time when I'm standing on an MTR escalator, I keep being bombarded by the announcement 'Stand firm, hold the handrail, and travel safely.'

Now, because I've been contemplating whether I should think big, start small, work smarter and not harder, and eat healthy, so that I can live simple but happy, I can't help starting to 'feel' that it's perhaps 'more correct', or 'better', for MTR to say 'Travel safe.' I'm even starting to form a visual representation in my mind of someone who travels safe as opposed to someone who travels safely (though I can't verbalise the difference). 

But what if an ESL teacher confronts me with the question: "Shouldn't we use an adverb after a verb?"

My first 2 split worksheets under the Bookwidgets Teacher plan

 As Bookwidgets has won back my affection, I have purchased a subscription to the app. The Teacher plan costs HKD33 per month, which is good value for money given the large variety of interactive tasks that one can create with Bookwidgets. 

Below are the first 2 artifacts I have created under the Teacher Plan. Can't wait to use them in the first week of September: 

(1) A split worksheet with a scrollable webpage on the left half of the page, and some blank-filling questions on the right (remember there are 36 question types to choose from for a worksheet!!)

https://www.bookwidgets.com/play/mQsB5rTC-iQAEHRSbwgAAA/FDLHGF5/4-approaches-me?teacher_id=5683224028119040

(2) A split worksheet with a Youtube video on the left, and an open-ended question on the right:😄

https://www.bookwidgets.com/play/GZ4QHMXI-iQAERO-cIgAAA/6DLPG6H/your-teaching-p?teacher_id=5683224028119040

Bookwidgets revisited

 Bookwidgets was one of the early apps which I explored for creating interactive tasks. But at that time, the dashboard for creating new tasks was not that intuitive, so that it would take quite a while to figure out how to create a 'widget'. After a while, I turned my affection to other apps such as Educaplay, Wordwall, Learningapps.org, Bitsboard, and puzzel.org, for creating interactive tasks. 

But recently when I visited Bookwidgets again, I found that the app has made huge improvement. The dashboard is more user-friendly, though still not intuitive enough. There is a large variety of task formats which are not found in other apps. The app now integrates with Google Classroom. But personally the functionality I like the most is its capacity for creating quizzes and worksheets: a sequence of interactive tasks within a single quiz/worksheet. And there are as many as 36 task types to choose from when creating a quiz/worksheet. This functionality is not found in other apps, most of which can only create standalone interactive tasks (e.g., MC; matching; sequencing). 

In other words, Bookwidgets has succeeded in winning back my affection. 

Self-directed Teachers and Self-directed Learners

今早浸信會沙田圍呂明才小學的兩位老師Fanfan Cheung 和Ka Chun CHIU分享該校推行自主教學的經驗時，我立刻想起他們的教師真正做到，甚至超越,由the sage on the stage, 轉化成a guide on the side的角色。

From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side, 是美國學者Alison King 在90年代提出的觀點。正如Fanfan所問，今天的小學生到18歲時面對一個怎樣的世界?我們如果真的為學生將來着想，光是把課程甚或只是書本的內容硬塞給學生，這不是令學生最得益的做法，最令學生受益的方法，就是培養學生自主學習的精神和方法。

自主學習今天已經成為時興術語，但真正要做到有效全面和深入，而不是流於片面和形式，就需要全校老師都要有這共同的信念，持久的探索，願意從sage on the stage (其實把書本內容轉成chalk and talk 最容易不過)，化身成guide on the side (如何有效地引導和支援學生學習，這才是最考功夫的地方)，這過程中，老師也要成為self-directed learner 。聽他們分享時，我想到他們的老師這些年來，專業能力一定愈來愈高，一定為眼見學生愈來愈會自主學習而自豪，教學的passion一定一天熾熱過一天。(還記得2月11日時我參加他們透過Zoom舉行的校本專業發展日，他們的老師如何專業地分享教學策略。)

一班self-directed learning 的老師，培養出一班self-directed learning 的學生，這是一幅何等美麗的圖畫！ 

Apple Summer Learning Academy 2022

 Having some professional development for myself in the run-up to the new academic year: Attending the Apple Summer Learning Academy 2022. 

聽完Fanfan Cheung, Ka Chun CHIU, Jasmine Pun, 和Leslie Leung 的分享後，令我更興奮地為新學年備課。

還意外地收到Apple贈送 的紀念品。

Woolcap

 Checked out Woolcap just now. 

It's an app for conducting polls and quizzes. 

The free plan allows for 2 questions only in an 'event'. 

What distinguishes Woolcap from other polling and quizzing apps is the variety of questions, including labelling a picture, word cloud, etc. 

Participants respond by scanning the QR code, or going to the event link.