Another hectic week! Honestly I did not expect online courses to be this hectic. Anyways, this week the focus of discussion has been on the reading and writing skills and the use of technology in teaching them. We had a discussion based on reading materials on the use of technology in teaching these two skills, wrote a technology-enhanced lesson plan, and were asked to think about issues and concerns that face the integration of technology into our teaching.
The materials were very useful in suggesting some practical tips on how to use technology in teaching reading and writing. There was also reference to online resources and other reading materials on the issue.
Robert made excellent comments on the lesson plans we posted and this made those lesson plans much better.
Many colleagues mentioned other websites on reading and writing, in addition to those suggested by Robert in the beginning of the week.
Overall, we seem to share the same problems, concerns, and situations in English language teaching across the world, although some degree of variation also exists.
Thus, I learned this week how to write a technology-enhanced lesson plan and came to know about many websites to which I can refer for materials and resources especially on reading, vocabulary, and writing. Like in the other previous three weeks, the sharing of ideas and experiences has been invaluable for me, and I am sure for the others, too. Reading and commenting on Faisal's blog was one of the things I did this week.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Week 3: Oral/aural Skills
Week 3: Oral/aural Skills
Another very hectic week for me, having to do three readings, start a delicious page and add favorite web pages on it, visit the websites suggested by Robert on teaching speaking and listening, and participate in the discussion on these websites and oral/aural skills readings.
I found the discussion on the oral/aural skills websites very useful as I came to know about many websites that offer free resources on these two skills. I added, most of, if not all, these websites to my delicious page. I still hope that we will have a comprehensive list of these website on the Wiki Robert created for this purpose. This is an invaluable gain this week no doubt as this list will form a storehouse for me whenever I need to get some teaching materials and to recommend to my students for further practice, interaction, and self-study.
From the discussion sub-threads, I cam to know about many more websites and resources and I learnt about podcasts.
In a nutshell I came to know about the various ways in which the computer and the internet that can be incorporated into language teaching. The question I mentioned in one of my posts remains how can I make the best out of these available resources in my highly restricted environment. Change can be made and being aware of the possible alternatives is the first step towards effecting this change. With more thinking and hard work, I am sure these things can be optimally used in my teaching-learning situation.
I also visited Leena's blog and Aveka, read their reflections and left a comment for them.
Another very hectic week for me, having to do three readings, start a delicious page and add favorite web pages on it, visit the websites suggested by Robert on teaching speaking and listening, and participate in the discussion on these websites and oral/aural skills readings.
I found the discussion on the oral/aural skills websites very useful as I came to know about many websites that offer free resources on these two skills. I added, most of, if not all, these websites to my delicious page. I still hope that we will have a comprehensive list of these website on the Wiki Robert created for this purpose. This is an invaluable gain this week no doubt as this list will form a storehouse for me whenever I need to get some teaching materials and to recommend to my students for further practice, interaction, and self-study.
From the discussion sub-threads, I cam to know about many more websites and resources and I learnt about podcasts.
In a nutshell I came to know about the various ways in which the computer and the internet that can be incorporated into language teaching. The question I mentioned in one of my posts remains how can I make the best out of these available resources in my highly restricted environment. Change can be made and being aware of the possible alternatives is the first step towards effecting this change. With more thinking and hard work, I am sure these things can be optimally used in my teaching-learning situation.
I also visited Leena's blog and Aveka, read their reflections and left a comment for them.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Week - 2: What a hectic week it's been!!!
Week two of the web skills course has been really hectic for me. For this week we had to post on three different things and keep up with the discussion in each. Overall, I found the experience very rewarding and educative.
For starters, the discussion on web search has been extremely useful and loaded with lots of new information for me. I learned about many new web search engines and also learned that there are websites that list web search engines for different fields: Metacrawler mentioned by Mbarek and http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/ suggested by Khoin Mai. The learning was not only beneficial for me. My daughters found the askkids.com suggested by Leena very interesting and educative. To keep the wealth that resulted from this discussion, I kept a record of all the websites that figured out in the discussion and a short description of what each website is about against each one.
I also found the discussion on ABCD objectives very useful. It reminded me of how important to be clear about one's objective in every session of teaching and the importance of letting the students know about the objective(s) they have to achieve. This is an invaluable teaching-learning concept/tool. Formualting an ABCD objective for every session, topic, task …etc. is very important and useful for both the teacher and the learners. It does not only guarantee the desired result of the learning-teaching process but also guides the teacher and the learners throughout the process, saves them time and effort, and gives them a feedback eventually about how successful they have been in achieving what they are supposed to do.
Finally, posting on the "Project-step 1" was quite uncomfortable for me as it reminded me of the harsh reality I have to face every time I think of incorporating technology into my teaching. However, I was comforted by Angela and Palwasha who mentioned that they have a similar situation. Together we can think of how to make the best of a given situation. This is really the topic that has been occupying my mind for a long time. What we need as teachers of English as a foreign/second language is to think about teaching methods and techniques that work for us in our situations, not the ones developed by people in the west whose situation is quite different from ours. The thing I find surprising is that most of the theoretical literature on English language teaching methods and techniques is written by people from Britain or America based on their experiences in their own countries. What we need is to think about English language teaching within our contexts and try to think of solutions that work for us in our situations.
It was also very interesting for me to read about the various teaching-learning situations of the participants in this course. The situations seemed very diverse on the surface but, underlyingly, I found that we face more or less the same problems, that we teach more or less similar age groups, and that we are all working towards achieving the same objectives.
To sum up, it's been a very hectic week but a very informative one. Thank you every body for making this learning experience very special.
For starters, the discussion on web search has been extremely useful and loaded with lots of new information for me. I learned about many new web search engines and also learned that there are websites that list web search engines for different fields: Metacrawler mentioned by Mbarek and http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/ suggested by Khoin Mai. The learning was not only beneficial for me. My daughters found the askkids.com suggested by Leena very interesting and educative. To keep the wealth that resulted from this discussion, I kept a record of all the websites that figured out in the discussion and a short description of what each website is about against each one.
I also found the discussion on ABCD objectives very useful. It reminded me of how important to be clear about one's objective in every session of teaching and the importance of letting the students know about the objective(s) they have to achieve. This is an invaluable teaching-learning concept/tool. Formualting an ABCD objective for every session, topic, task …etc. is very important and useful for both the teacher and the learners. It does not only guarantee the desired result of the learning-teaching process but also guides the teacher and the learners throughout the process, saves them time and effort, and gives them a feedback eventually about how successful they have been in achieving what they are supposed to do.
Finally, posting on the "Project-step 1" was quite uncomfortable for me as it reminded me of the harsh reality I have to face every time I think of incorporating technology into my teaching. However, I was comforted by Angela and Palwasha who mentioned that they have a similar situation. Together we can think of how to make the best of a given situation. This is really the topic that has been occupying my mind for a long time. What we need as teachers of English as a foreign/second language is to think about teaching methods and techniques that work for us in our situations, not the ones developed by people in the west whose situation is quite different from ours. The thing I find surprising is that most of the theoretical literature on English language teaching methods and techniques is written by people from Britain or America based on their experiences in their own countries. What we need is to think about English language teaching within our contexts and try to think of solutions that work for us in our situations.
It was also very interesting for me to read about the various teaching-learning situations of the participants in this course. The situations seemed very diverse on the surface but, underlyingly, I found that we face more or less the same problems, that we teach more or less similar age groups, and that we are all working towards achieving the same objectives.
To sum up, it's been a very hectic week but a very informative one. Thank you every body for making this learning experience very special.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Week 1 - A week in Retrospect!!
As the first week of the "Building Teachers Skills through the Interactive Web" course comes to an end, I find that I have already started getting a lot from this course.
First, I learned about new internet tools that could help me in my teaching. I never knew before about Nicenet. I also came to know what a class Wiki is, the guidelines for the online discussions we will have, and the rubrics by which our discussion and work in this course will be evaluated. But probably, the most interesting thing I have learned so far is using Blogging for language teaching purposes. A word of credit is due to the people of Google who have made lots of amazing and useful internet services, in almost every aspect of life one can think of, available to the public for free. A very big thank you Google!
As I mentioned in my comment on the Class discussion board on Nicenet, when I started my personal blog around a year and a half ago, I was thinking of it more of a personal space where I can express my thoughts (political ones!!!) and share them with others. Ever since I created the Blog, I never really used it.
When Robert asked us to start a blog, I remembered I had one already. I looked it up and started using it again, but this time as a reflective page on my learning in this course and on my job as a language teacher-learner.
Second, at the social level, this course, during its first week, has introduced me to people from almost all over the World. I have already started having personal contact with some of them through visiting their blogs and commenting on their posts. Umesha, Aysel, and Faisal were my first hosts. I plan to do more of this in the coming weeks. I believe, being part of this amazingly diverse group, both in culture and in teaching experience, will benefit me a lot. I love learning from others' experience and , for me, experience is the best teacher, rather than "a hard teacher" as Tharanga Weerasooriya, one of the members of this Class, believes. I came to know a Yemeni participant through this course, whom I might have never known hadn't I been in this course.
I have already started thinking of starting a special blog for my class, like that of 'Bee Online' http://beeonline.blogspot.com/, mentioned in one of the documents of this Class "Blogging for ELT". Unfortunately, the fist semester final exams are starting in a week's time and the students will be very busy with that. Therefore, I have to postpone the actual inauguration of the "Class Blog" till beginning of March when my students join their second semester. I am sure this will be the buzz of the college as things like these are not known in our setting here. The students will like it very much because this tool will give them the chance to keep in touch with me even after the class and it will be a change for them. I am sure in the next few weeks I will learn even more about the potentials of using blogging in language teaching.
Thank you very much Robert, our wonderful course instructor, for the great start. You have been very friendly, helpful, and patient with us. It's an honor to have a teacher like you. Thank you also dear classmates for the enthusiastic start and the wonderful ideas you have been sharing with me and the rest of the class.
I can't wait to start the second week of the course, knowing that it will bring many new and useful things with it!
See you Monday, everyone. Till then, have a wonderful time.
First, I learned about new internet tools that could help me in my teaching. I never knew before about Nicenet. I also came to know what a class Wiki is, the guidelines for the online discussions we will have, and the rubrics by which our discussion and work in this course will be evaluated. But probably, the most interesting thing I have learned so far is using Blogging for language teaching purposes. A word of credit is due to the people of Google who have made lots of amazing and useful internet services, in almost every aspect of life one can think of, available to the public for free. A very big thank you Google!
As I mentioned in my comment on the Class discussion board on Nicenet, when I started my personal blog around a year and a half ago, I was thinking of it more of a personal space where I can express my thoughts (political ones!!!) and share them with others. Ever since I created the Blog, I never really used it.
When Robert asked us to start a blog, I remembered I had one already. I looked it up and started using it again, but this time as a reflective page on my learning in this course and on my job as a language teacher-learner.
Second, at the social level, this course, during its first week, has introduced me to people from almost all over the World. I have already started having personal contact with some of them through visiting their blogs and commenting on their posts. Umesha, Aysel, and Faisal were my first hosts. I plan to do more of this in the coming weeks. I believe, being part of this amazingly diverse group, both in culture and in teaching experience, will benefit me a lot. I love learning from others' experience and , for me, experience is the best teacher, rather than "a hard teacher" as Tharanga Weerasooriya, one of the members of this Class, believes. I came to know a Yemeni participant through this course, whom I might have never known hadn't I been in this course.
I have already started thinking of starting a special blog for my class, like that of 'Bee Online' http://beeonline.blogspot.com/, mentioned in one of the documents of this Class "Blogging for ELT". Unfortunately, the fist semester final exams are starting in a week's time and the students will be very busy with that. Therefore, I have to postpone the actual inauguration of the "Class Blog" till beginning of March when my students join their second semester. I am sure this will be the buzz of the college as things like these are not known in our setting here. The students will like it very much because this tool will give them the chance to keep in touch with me even after the class and it will be a change for them. I am sure in the next few weeks I will learn even more about the potentials of using blogging in language teaching.
Thank you very much Robert, our wonderful course instructor, for the great start. You have been very friendly, helpful, and patient with us. It's an honor to have a teacher like you. Thank you also dear classmates for the enthusiastic start and the wonderful ideas you have been sharing with me and the rest of the class.
I can't wait to start the second week of the course, knowing that it will bring many new and useful things with it!
See you Monday, everyone. Till then, have a wonderful time.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Blogging as a complementary tool to the Traditional Class
I like the idea of the Blog being complementary to the traditional class. I have felt the need for such a tool many times. After getting to know more about how we can use Blogging as language teachers, I felt this is exactly what I needed; a tool that can get me connected with my students outside the four walls of the classroom. Many a times I felt, after leaving the class, I wanted to teach my students more and discuss this point or that point in more details with the students. But time was never enough. I had to cover a certain amount of teaching materials to keep up with the syllabus plan. Here is now a chance for me to spend more time with my students and discuss more things in detail. I feel lucky to have been born into this age when things are getting easier thanks to advancements in technology.
Let's make the best out of this fantastic technological tool.
Let's make the best out of this fantastic technological tool.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
A Warm welcome to the Webskills Winter 2011 Class
Dear All
let me welcome you all to my language teaching reflective blog. Please feel free to leave your comments and ideas. Very glad to be with you in this course.
let me welcome you all to my language teaching reflective blog. Please feel free to leave your comments and ideas. Very glad to be with you in this course.
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