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.