Implementing GEP project in confinement situation has really been a challenge for me and for the students! But it has also been an opportunity to continue studying English significantly despite the distance. So I can identify some strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths: the difficulties of developing the project in this situation, made me think about how to improve and facilitate some issues. Now I see the solutions I found as fantastic tools to use not only working online from home but even in face-to-face classes in the future!

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• To make all the information very clear and always available, first, I create a shared folder using Google Drive, but I quickly realised creating a website was a better option: easier to access from any device using only a link; an all-in-one space I can edit anytime, adding all the information we need; with a large capacity to add any information or material; useful also to incorporate students’ work and the project results… I used Google Sites tool to create it because my students were already using this app for their portfolios, so they were used to the interface, and I was sure they can surf it autonomously. 

• To replace face-to-face teaching and make the instructions clear, I recorded some tutorial videos. It was not my first time doing it, but I found new tools, created a YouTube channel to share the videos….  I included them in the project website, but also shared them with the students through WhatsApp group or email.

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Weaknesses: despite all the efforts and time spent (much more than working in class), there’re some aspects that didn’t run well, or we couldn’t achieve in our GEP from home.

• Although the proposed way to do teamwork in distance (cooperative reading from home, or the option of work in pairs), we couldn’t do the same work as working together in class.

• Despite all the materials, the web, the tutorial videos, the voice messages… there’re some students who need face-to-face teaching.  Home it’s not always a good place to be concentrated, there’re a lot of distractions. I’m sure some of them would improve their achievement at school.

• Controlling the timing was another difficulty. The “tempo” of the students were very different, some of them worked in the morning, some others in the evening… And although we tried to advance all together (with our periodic meetings online and the scheduled stepping), it has been very difficult! Some students didn’t submit the tasks in the deadlines.

• Even though we had worked for a long time with the ICT tools they need for this project, some of them had difficulties using shareable tools, submitting tasks online… I had to help most of them even using individual video calls.

• And, of course, we couldn’t experience the activities they planned, so the project lost its practical part… perhaps the most interesting! 

 

But, at the end, we did it!

 

Here you can see some evidences and results of our project: