SWBAT, COW, ....

You learn something new each day. While I will never be able to "speak" texting, I feel somewhat in control of the acronyms used in my field. From AAAL to ZOPD I am covered. But once in a while I encounter another one. At a workshop I was leading I learned that the teachers were hesitant to implement technology because of a lack of cows. After 4 hours of such argumentations, I had to finally ask, what these milk-makers had to do with CALL. Turns out, COWs are Computers On Wheels. Since then I like using "COW." Well, today I learned a new one!!! I am grading Plan T's first annotated activities. Many of the MATESOL students kept writing SWBAT. Of course I read it as SWAT for the first few times, and really did not see a connection between SWAT and learning goals for a lesson on Valentine's Day. By the third student I had discovered the additional "B" and had figured out that I must be missing some crucial point that appears to be universal to my students. Dazed and confused I asked my colleague, a MATESOL Alumna, and in a split second she said "Students will be able to." I am glad it wasn't another age thing, but rather, being trained at a different institution. Now TWBAT understand students' assignments much better.