Professional Development Program - Meeting 6th May, 2010

Today we had our introductory meeting and it was great to meet Everyone. It is amazing how much we covered within the 2 hours.

1. First Carolyn introduced everyone to everyone. The introductions revealed the group as rich in experience, not only in teaching, but also in other areas of academic, community and business life. Teachers also expressed interest in learning about language-learning games, some formal aspects of meaning (Anna Wierzbicka was mentioned here), pronunciation and current state of language teaching methods. Carolyn introduced everyone to the structure of the program and shared her expectation that the exact steps of the Program will be negotiated between teachers' needs and the expertise that the program will bring together.

2. Next, Ania demonstrated examples by which the group could consolidate its community and collaboration spirit. She introduced two websites, which would help to store information relevant to the program. The websites are:

http://sites.google.com/site/nihaohigh/home AND

http://sites.google.com/site/nihaohigh/home

The sites will help teachers:

·         Share information about themselves and about the program

·         Offer links to teachers’ individual e-Portfolios

·         Store links to important cultural and language resources

·         Store links to examples of lessons in intercultural learning

·         And anything else that may emerge in the course of the program.

3.  We watched examples of cultural behavior and discussed our beliefs about the behaviours that were displayed. On one occasion, we concluded that the reports were over-stereotyping Chinese culture which is undergoing change. Behaviours, possibly Ok in small and closed villages of the past, give way to behaviours typical of big cities and large communities.

Homework for Ania - On the basis of the videos we saw today, I expect to create examples of the following lessons in intercultural learning:

·         Comparing business-like types of behaviours (or faces) in Australia and China

·         Examples of Dos and Donts in Chinese culture.

·         Using matching characters games to learn writing.

If you have any ideas, make suggestions in your comments on this blog. All will be read and taken into consideration.

The PowerPoint that we started discussing in class will be followed in the weeks to come. You can watch it on our LOTE website or using special link

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/profandrewlian-385595-intercultural-learning-technology-interc-lote-2010-education-ppt-powerpoint/

Check also the Calendar on the LOTE website for details of the next session.

Nice to meet you all,

Ania Lian, Carolyn Broadbent and Anne Jackson