[etni] Fw: re: A different take on the Matach HOTS course (online)

From: "Ask_Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
To: "ETNI" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:16:43 +0300
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "maxinetz" <maxinetz@xxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: A different take on the Matach HOTS course (online)


Thank you, Judy.    You probably don't know, but I'm an instructor in the
Online course and have found all the negativity about the HOTS program over
the last few days here on ETNI very dispiriting.  I was waiting for some of
you who'd actually participated in the course to give your positive
feedback.

Thanks again.    As David Hyatt so cleverly said, "Adieu to the cantankerous
crew"!

Shabbat Shalom,

Maxine


Judy wrote:
>I have been following all the crtiicism levelled at the various HOTS 
>courses
that have been ongoing this year and have to date refrained from commenting.
>However, I now feel obligated, for the sake fof airness, to add my
two-cents-worth.
>Several of my colleagues and I partook of the Matach online course with two
face 2 face meetings (first and last), consisting of 14 sessions in all.
>Having entered the course with considerable misgivings and a definite bias
as to how I would react to the contents, I finished the course with a
totally different impression.
>First of all, the course was constructed brick by brick in such a way that
each new session was an extension of the previous one. Our instructor worked
24 hours a day and answered our questions and queries by return email. She
also supplied immediate feedback on our forum postings and assignments. Her
incredible dedication definitely eased the passage through the considerable
amount of work involved in this course. Additionally, certain assignments
could be done in pairs or teams of teachers (from the same school). The
forums allowed all the participants in the course to interact, support each
other and provide constructive criticism. Just like any school class, we
were a heterogeneous batch of teachers! Some, I am sure, had never taught
literature before and quite a few found it hard to express themselves in
English. Heterogeneity aside, everyone of us benefited from this course and
the feedback session held last week attested to that. Sure it was a lot of
work, perhaps too much for the amount of "regmulification" we shall receive
but I vow there is not one teacher who has not emerged the richer
intellectually for having partaken.
>I am fully aware of the reservations that have been expressed ad infinitum
on Etni. I too have reservations but feel that this is not the forum to air
them.Every change is hard to accept and suffers inevitable teething
problems. But guys,  let's not throw the teething baby out with the
bathwater! At last literature is back in the curriculum big time and this
can only be positive. So how about checking out the half full glass first?


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[etni] Fw: re: A different take on the Matach HOTS course (online)

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