Week three - New resources, new ideas

During this week of the course, we concentrated on Teaching Aural/Oral Skills, but not only.

We started the week with a great tool I had never heard of. I am a person that likes to collect things, therefore, I am constantly bookmarking pages which I visit or use later. And every time I switched computers, I would always copy the bookmarks to my new browser or write them down in a piece of paper for later use. So, finding out that there is a way to save bookmarks online was very interesting. Through social bookmarking, you can save all the links online, share them with others and see what the others have saved and shared. Delicious offers the possibility to do this and you can use the bookmarks from any computer. Until now, whenever I wanted to use a link with my students I would send it to my e-mail, however since the beginning of this week I have started using Delicious and it is much easier and convenient. 

The next topic we worked on was Teaching Aural/Oral Skills and the articles that we read offered insights as to why teaching pronunciation is important and we were also introduced to different ideas on how to plan a teaching lesson. The following websites offer great resources which can be easily modified to suit our and our learners' needs. I was able to prepare a very interesting lesson on Halloween using resources from the first two websites. 

One Stop English               

http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/speaking/teaching-ideas/

The Internet TESL Journal for Teachers of English as a Second Language 

http://iteslj.org/

American English - a website for Teachers and Learners of English as a Foreign Language

http://americanenglish.state.gov/search/solrf%5B0%5D=bundle%3Aresource&f%5B1%5D=im_field_resource_pedagogy_categ%3A88

As we have to write a project for finding and trying a new technological tool or technique to address specific problems in our classrooms, this week we had to read previous participants' projects. I had the chance to read a very interesting project written by a teacher in Burkina Faso, who was working at that time with a class of 80 students, coming from different backgrounds. It really made an impression on me how the teacher took the courage to improve students' writing skills through technology and e-mail correspondence, in an environment where the majority of students didn't even have the acquired knowledge to use computers or  the internet. This teacher found a way to boost the students confidence  and curiosity and trained them to use computers first and then helped them improve their writing skills. 

Until next time!

Krenare

Week two - New tools to work with

Week two of the course unfolded interesting topics to work with. During this week I read about, researched and reflected on mainly two key topics, Web Searching and the ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives.

I believe that the first topic, Web Searching, has a significant importance for me since it raised my awareness towards a tool that I have been using forever and it made me realize that I knew little about it or its endless possibilities. Until know, I thought that searching the internet for information on a search engine was a job done fairly easy as long as you wrote down the key words of the topic you were searching for. I also had some general information about the rules that you can apply when trying to specify the search or to do a more advanced one, for instance using quotation marks when searching for phrases instead of single words or adding filetype:pdf to get hits* accordingly to the file type specified, in this case PDF files (filetype:doc for hits including files in Microsoft Office Word, or filetype:ppt for Microsoft Power Point, etc). During this week’s exploration I came across numerous techniques which helped me do better searches and therefore find better results. By trying out different tips and rules to apply when searching for information on the internet will help me master this skill which in turn will save me time and will not only help me find other technological tools that can be used to facilitate learning, but it will also aide me in my work and daily life, it will help me find the right information, materials and answers.

Reading and reflecting about learning objectives reminded me of their importance, equipped me with further information about them and triggered me to research more in relation to this topic. The article on Writing Objectives by the Pennsylvania State University’s Teaching and Learning Office points out that writing a clear objective is important because it defines what the students will do and it provides a link between expectations, teaching and grading. Setting clear objectives facilitates learning since they help in organizing a lesson and the activities carried out which in turn contribute to students being more active and informed in regards to what they are expected to know and to what degree. As it is true that everytime a topic is tackled from a different perspective something new comes up, I received new information on how to write objectives using a very simple but well structured model, known as the ABCD method. (see below for more information on how this method works). I will start using this method because it is simple but well structured and it includes every important element of a clear, well written objective.

This week’s material has prompted me to look more into these topics and use the ideas for my daily work, and it has aroused my curiousity about the tools that we will work with during next week.

*hit: the result on the search engine that fit the criteria given 

You can find more information on Web Searching and Behavioral Learning Objectives on the following links:

Web Searching: http://pages.uoregon.edu/dhealey/techtips/june2009.html, Technology Tip of the Month by Deborah Healey.

Writing Objectives: http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/, by the Pennsylvania State University’s Teaching and Learning Office.

Until next time

Krenare

Week one - Familiarizing with the course, content and participants

I heard of blogs and their purpose a few years back and just recently I have been encountering them more and more, and so I have noticed that most of them are a great source of information and ideas. Being accepted in the e-teacher scholarship program, provided by the U.S. Department of State, for the course “Building Teaching Skills through the Interactive Web (Web Skills)”, offered through the American English Institute at the University of Oregon, Department of Linguistics, I hope that I will be able to master the necessary skills to become a resourceful and regular blogger. 
Technology has become a great part of our lives and even though it takes some courage, patience and time to familiarize with and use various tools, by incorporating it in teaching facilitates the process of teaching and learning, and contributes in achieving greater outcomes. My goal for this course is to find and use suitable tools to incorporate in my work, which in turn will give me a chance to develop professionally and will facilitate my daily work.

During this first week of the course, I have been able to read through the instructions and guidelines which set the ground rules and the expectations for this course.  Setting a positive working atmosphere has been achieved by involving us, as participants, in discussing and finalizing the Ground Rules for Discussions and the rubrics for the evaluation of discussion posts.

Reading the articles on using blogs in the classrooms gave me some insights on the various ways how blogs can be a great source to facilitate learning .  I had the chance to better understand the different elements that distinguish the Tutor Blog, the Learner Blog and the Class Blog and my curiosity has already been triggered to find ways to use blogs in my work with my students.

It is also a great pleasure to read and get to know the other participants who enrich this course with their experience and individuality.

Have fun blogging!

Krenare