WORKING IN A TEAMWORK!
Hmm! I have heard that word since I was a kid (many years ago…)! And being sincere I had never liked this kind of learning technique. In my last TKT class, which was the last March 31, Saturday, Ellen let us to organize in teamworks and she asked each group to work in a specific topic, my team’s topic was “The Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition”. What was it? Now I was dealing with a new topic which I had no idea what it was for and as a group we had to divide the information, organize what each of us would search for, when we would add the information without any contact during holydays, organize the introduction and conclusion plus the bibliography among the three of us …Oh! It was horrible!
Moreover, sometimes teamwork doesn’t result as most of us hope! For example, some classmates used to spend less than five minutes searching for the information just cutting and pasting it without reading it, or worst there is always someone who doesn’t care about the work and prefer to pass with a great grade without collaborating! Unbelievable!
I have to admit it, it was frustrating it! But finally, after “five hours” (it was just like thirty minutes) of complete pressure Ellen told us that the teamwork wasn’t real! So, we wouldn’t have to search anything in group, or at least work like that. Awesome! I was so relieved! Oh, I almost forget what I’m telling you that I was so happy, plus the frustration of working in teams we had to work with the Google Docs, something that was horrible for me. Some weeks before Ellen provided us a new way to practice the IPA, which would have to be practiced with Google docs, but I had a problem with my computer or with the program (I don’t know) and I could never open it! I felt so frustrated and disappointed because I couldn’t work with it, the worst for me was that I spent more than three days trying to open it, wouldn’t it make you feel exasperated? So, there was again the way to practice and do homework using it.
Nevertheless, Ellen just wanted us to feel the same pressure that students feel when they have to work in this way without any teacher’s instructions or teacher’s help to develop the developing of the work!
She loves to pressure us! Ha!
That was so horrible but understandable!
Yesy´s space... 
I can do this
18/04/2012 at 4:53 pm
Yesy,
I felt terrible about your past experience and out of everyone, I know you realy felt stress during the activity, perhaps more than the others. It is important to understand how students feel in and out of the classroom, and most times, we don’t really understand how they feel unless we put on their shoes.
Ellen