Our first meeting was on 19th June 2019 and its purpose was essentially to define the action plan of the study group. I gave the teachers important information about the pilot and the course to take, how to register and enrol, defined dates to start the course – we decided the best option was to do it in June/July as the beginning of the school year usually means a lot of work -, created a learning diary using Padlet and explained how to use this tool, clarified the data I wanted to collect – the teachers’ opinions about the course and the TA platform (positive aspects and aspects that need improvement) -, and created a dissemination strategy of the activity among AECS teachers and possibly teachers from other school clusters: a short accredited session in the 1st term of the 2019/2020 school year.
My approach was the following: do the different modules of the course more or less at the same time – some face-to-face in school and others at home, which allowed participants to experience different situations. Some times we were working together at school, which allowed for a closer support on my part, while other times we worked at home where each one had to take decisions on their own and only in urgent situations did they contact me. My goal was to make them more autonomous and confident to feel that even if they didn’t master the language, for example, they could still do the module/course. I always did the modules beforehand, in order to act as the facilitator, and would add my comments to the different activities in my Learning Diary, so teachers could have a model. We shared the links to our learning diaries so we could follow everybody’s work. This meant we created a network that scaffolded the teachers’ work.
We had 5 meetings altogether – 19th and 25th June, 2nd, 18th and 25th July 2019 – during which I acted as the facilitator, assisting whoever needed my help doing the activities for the PBL course, understanding the English texts and videos or just using the TA platform or Padlet.
Creation of a STUDY GROUP
The meetings were always a moment to learn but also to enjoy being with colleagues and friends, which definitely helped the working process.
As a way to monitor the work and understand my colleagues’ difficulties and how they overcame them I created a Feedback Form, which they started to fill in during the 1st Study Group meeting.
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