Week 10

This course week is the last one and the shortest as well. I need more time to finish all tasks this week even though they are just reflections.

I have been very busy this week, finalizing my “other studies“  to create a short educational film in Windows Live Movie Maker. I spent my “course“  time working on the final presentation so I have not had enough time for my posts. So I am posting now to meet the requirements, but I am going to update this post later to make it clearer. 

There have been several topics during our course I find very successful, but personally I enjoyed ABCD model for objectives, Autonomous Learner, Project-based learning, social bookmarking or Assessment Rubrics.  The most useful for me were the rubrics.

I am convinced I would use all of the tools, however  different ones in different classes matching the needs  and solving issues of students.

Now, I cannot think of anything irrelevant we learned in this course, but I am quite under time pressure now so I will write about it later.

Tools that might have been introduced are Moodle or  Edmodo. There are definitely more tools out there but it is impossible to explore them all.

Week 9 - Project

So finally, a couple of hours ago I submitted my project by uploading it on our course wiki. I could have done it on Monday, but due to much work before me from Tuesday to Thursday I decided to it on Friday morning. Fortunately, I knew in advance that I would be free then.

From one point of view, I am relieved to have finished it, but on the other hand, I am thrilled to continue working on it. Even though I went through difficult times to manage it from home because of no personal touch with my students, it has turned out to be a very successful approach which enables my students to become responsible for their knowledge as well as to reflect on their work later on.

The group involved in the project is small, but very challenging. They were asked to write their diary posts - see Week 6 - Project Task #5, but they got bored so early! They started asking to write about things they want and in the third "diary post" some of them did not write what they did in English, but about the music they like, about the book they read or about films they watched. The most positive thing about it is that nobody refused to write their posts, they just wanted to change the topic. I consider this very encouraging.

We were supposed to use no more than 2 tools in the project but I had to use a bit more due to my absence from work. We have encountered so many tools I enjoyed that I have started implementing them when needed. I have already started contemplating what tools I might use and with what groups, but I am convinced that I am going to improve my teaching with the use of technology.

Thanks to this course I have got the opportunity to open new horizons and enrich methods I have used.

Week 9 - Learning Styles

This week started quite well because I had finished my project before it and just waited to upload it to our wiki. I needed some break so did not do my task about learning styles on Monday but left it for Wednesday night. 

I started with testing myself on edutopia to find out what my learning style is. Obviously, we studied learning styles before, but the distinction was a bit different. The styles were divided according to „senses“ to types of learners whose „senses“ prevail while acquiring knowledge, such as  visual, aural, kinesthetic or verbal. I always thought I was a visual type of a learner since I could remember things easier when I read them, colour-coded them, saw pictures or diagrams – all connected with my visual „photographic“ memory. However, when it came to the process of moving words from my passive to active vocabulary, it often happened that when I talked to a person in English, I realized that I had known the word before and when I liked it, I started using it.

After taking the test about my learning style I realized that I am „smart“ enough :-) to learn new things. Being a „victim“ of multiple intelligence with  5 out of 7 styles ranging from 58 to 75 also increases various inputs I use while teaching since subconsciously I have been trying to help students to find the easiest way for them to learn the language so that they can enjoy the whole process and are satisfied with their knowledge, skills and abilities. 

(From now on it is an updated copy of my Nicenet post so if you have read it, you may stop reading:-) 

Having learnt about my learning style and reading about different styles on that website,  I read the compulsory articles and learnt a bit more.  Then I went online to read what my colleagues wrote in discussion on Nicenet and realized that almost everything had been mentioned. I did not know how to write my post and contribute to the discussion so I commented on my colleagues's posts and expressed my opinion or feeling about them. 

I really liked Maria´s post which is very thorough and if I had not read the compulsory reading, after having read Maria´s post I would be able to understand everything. I absolutely agree with the quote by Felder „professors should strive for a balance of instructional methods...". 

Shuangru cited  "what educators do is to use a variety of teaching styles in class teaching," and I cannot agree more.

Margarita pointed out "It is quite imposible to get all your students pleased by the strategy which they learn more"“  This is something each teacher should be aware of.

Tuula wrote "to get the students' emotions involved in addition to their rational thinking."  Very important!

Rosmery mentioned 5Cs - "Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities"  

What is the learning of a foreign language about if not this?

Being aware of all mentioned above makes the use of technology crucial.  Involving emotions both positive and negative – by using videos, news, films, pictures, songs, musis online or offline – combination of visual, aural, verbal and to some extent kinesthetic if you let students move, dance or just simply move the mouse, helps students  remember, analyse, evaluate and create. 

What technology would work best? It depends on the students as well as the teacher. Mutual co-operation, sharing ideas and feelings, involving students´ interests and sparking intrinsinc motivation contributes to creating a positive atmosphere in which the students are not afraid of expressing their own opinion, making mistakes, but also they are able to ask for and demand the approach they feel might work for them. It is also interconnected with the interests and a personality of the teacher to enhance the quality of the teaching-learning process.

Knowing what learning styles prevail in the classroom will definitely help the teacher  focus on the majority and choose the most appropriate technology that appeals to most of the students. The change is life and the life is a change. 

Week 8 - Project Report Finished

I am proud to announce that I have just finished my project report. Earlier this week, on Monday particularly, I uploaded my project draft on Donna's wiki to have it assessed by my partners Tuula from Finland and Rosmery from Bolivia.

After having my project evaluated by Tuula, Rosmery might not have found the time to do it yet, I finished the project and its report. If Rosmery sends me something more to amend, I may do it tomorrow. I expect Donna to send us the template for the final report, I am going to copy and paste it!!!

Tuula's project is great in terms of its immediate preparedness to use in any classroom. Rosmery's project plan is very ambitious and useful for her and her colleagues.

I am really delighted to work with such experienced and skilled teachers like Tuula and Rosmery and their projects have open new horizons for my career. Thank you.

Week 8 - Project Draft + Online and Offline Tools

Unfortunately, this week has been quite busy and due to a project draft to be finished by Wednesday, there has not been enough time to explore all the different tools and exercises in details.

Pretty luckily, I was able to finish my draft on Monday and also check Tuula’s project and send her feedback so I could concentrate on this week task.

On Thursday I had some time to explore some of the tools and was amazed how many of them we were introduced to. They are all great but having registered to so many websites and keeping records of usernames and passwords has become too tiring. I have to admit that if I do not save it somewhere on my PC soon, I will forget all of them.

As for tools, I have already been familiar with, my number one is Hot Potatoes. I came across Hot Potatoes about 10 years ago and since then I would say that this software is one of the most advantageous tools a teacher can use because it may be used both online and offline so the Internet connection is not always necessary. I used to save the .htm files on my USB and before the lesson, I copied the files into each computer or the network administrator created a special drive for students, I copied it there and the students accessed it from each computer.  In addition, a teacher can create tailor-made lessons reflecting grammar and vocabulary of the course book. I have uploaded some Hot Potatoes files I made a couple of years ago for you to see on Donna’s wiki into Week 8 resources.

Another tool worth mentioning are Google Documents. Creating a Google Form has never been so easy. I enjoyed creating the forms so much that I am going to use them quite often when I feel that something should be improved or get some feedback on activities at school.  I also used Google Doc to prepare a record book of mistakes that my students made in their posts. The task was to go through the lines with mistakes and correct them. When they did it at home, it was quite ok, however, when I introduced it at the lesson – checking their “corrections”, my students realized that they might “tease” the others by deleting their corrections, making mistakes in others’ lines etc. so I was forced to threaten them by leaving the document as it was, without checking their corrections and explaining what mistakes they had made and of course, starting to assess their posts full of mistakes and give them appropriate mark.

After checking our Week 8 Resource Page on Donna’s wiki, I found out that William used Quizlet so I checked it. I was nicely surprised because it was the tool I had seen before in an English course of Masaryk’s University in Brno, The Faculty of the Arts. So I logged in and created flash cards for my students to prepare for the test on Gerund and Infinitive and sent the link to the exercise to them.

While going through various tools, I decided to improve my skills at managing an LMS Moodle I have at my disposal on our school server. I had created several courses for students to promote their autonomy, but mostly used the “passive” part of it – posting links to interesting articles, online dictionaries or online exercises.  I did not have enough time and strength to learn how to create tests there because it seemed too complicated. I am not saying that is not difficult, but it gives you opportunity to prepare questions and then you may create various test and set marking and a penalty mark and after the student takes the test, the result of it is sent to the marking book so the teacher does not have to evaluate it.  What teacher would not want a tool that evaluates prepared tests?

Finally, our Nicenet discussion about the use of these tools and exercises and their influence on promoting Learner Autonomy was due today. My colleagues expressed their opinion on the different tools and what constraints might be expected and how they might be overcome. Nobody has mentioned that Learner Autonomy happens mostly outside the classroom and therefore the need for a computer for each student in the class is not the issue to be solved. However, overuse of the tools might result in students’ indifference towards them and their purpose. So even though, I am IT positive and a one-computer teacher and a computer geek and an enthusiast of technology-related tools, I have to admit that the tools should be used wisely and to such an extent so that they fulfill their role and help both the students and the teacher to create a positive learning atmosphere, to learn with fun and to enjoy the use of language itself.

Now, I am pretty tired so I am going to sleep, but I am also looking forward to evaluating Rosmery’s project plan and making amendments on my own project.

Week 7 - Learner's Autonomy

Learner's Autonomy is the concept I came across in 2000 and since then I have been trying to use it in my teaching. Even though the articles of our compulsory reading were a bit too academic, I found what I was looking for in them. The most appealing idea of Autonomous Learner is 

"autonomy – "feeling free and volitional in one's actions" (Deci 1995, p.2) – is a basic human need. It is nourished by, and in turn nourishes, our intrinsic motivation, our proactive interest in the world around us"

http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/Elp_tt/Results/DM_layout/00_10/06/06%20Supplementary%20text.pdf

Unfortunately, in my opinion, in our country, regardless some of our educators, the Autonomy Learner is an idea of future. Even though teachers probably know what it is about, they have no power or willingness to  proceed with it. Moreover, our traditional classes are teacher-centred and the move towards student-centred ones is almost impossible. Teachers, parents and students are used to parroting, memorizing without understanding and they are not used to giving, contradicting or sharing their opinions. Apparently, this might have been caused by the previous regime in which nobody should step out of the line. 

Nevertheless, being a teacher who supports the Autonomous Learner is a challenging issue. There have been parents and students who have complained about my approach in terms of the requirements and assessment. They have not been able to understand that providing materials - with or without the use of technology, explaining grammar rules, setting vocabulary, giving hints or provoking discussions have been techniques used to encourage students to think. In addition, they have always waited to be told what to memorize, what to think, what opinions to present not to contradict those of the teacher and  when they have not been "satisfied", they have complained. You, as a teacher, have to explain and explain and withstand such protests and resistance.

Sparking attractiveness in language learning through the interests of learners seems to be one of the most effective way how to nourish our intrinsic motivation. As it has been mentioned in my previous posts, teachers should find out what their students like and  learn something about their interests themselves to understand what might help their students be involved. Most of my students are teenagers so I do read books they read, I watch films and series they watch, I try to listen to music they do. On the other hand, adults have either professional interests or hobbies to talk about so I have learnt about snowboarding, radioactive waste disposal or assembly of RC planes. Accepting such an approach leads us to our proactive interest in the world around us so we are not frozen in time and we are exposed to new challenges to improve our education. Everybody knows that the education does not end with a diploma.

Being responsible for your knowledge is the most important issue teachers should teach students. The pyramid below shows how I explain to my students that it depends on them what they will learn and how.

Week 6 - PowerPoint and Project Task #5

So this week it has been about making an interactive PowerPoint presentations and starting to implement a new technology-related tool.

Both topics seemed quite easy to me since I have used PowerPoint for several years and always tried to make it interactive. At about 4 years ago I moved to the interactive whiteboard software and almost gave up PowerPoint.  If I need to make some subject matters easier to understand for my students I always contemplate the advantages and disadvantages of PowerPoint and ActivInspire software and choose the one I find more beneficial for the purpose.

However, I uploaded one of my old „interactive“ PowerPoint presentations and made a new „interactive“ one. As for the process of making it, it was not difficult. Nevertheless, I had problems to choose the topic I would like to make it for not to do it just because I had to, but because I wanted to use it later. Since I made a lot of PowerPoint presentations for grammar rules, I chose to make 1 for the topic Crime and Punishment. I used recommended interactive tools, Jeopardy game, BlankPage, QuickWrite, Think-Pair-Share, ConcepTest, links to the Internet as well as a link to a document.

As for the project task#5, fortunately, I started implementing the technology-related tool as soon as I learnt about blogs. 2 weeks ago, I set the main and pernament task for my students to keep a diary of their work or „touch“ with English.  Their tasks looks as follows:

Dear students,

your MAIN and PERNAMENT task is to record your progress in English and the use of English in your daily life.

You are going to write at least 1 post on your blog a week to summarise 

• what you have done in English, 
• how much time you have spent doing sth in English,
• what you have learnt,
• if you have enjoyed what you have done or been doing,
• what you have not liked and why,
• what you think we should be doing.

The post is due every Sunday by 2 pm. Word limit is no less than 100 words.

The most important thing about the task is that I set it via the Internet, on our class wiki, and informed the students via email because I started my sick leave then. I was very surprised when I realised that almost half of them did their task. I commented on their posts and sent email to all of them with the names of those who had not done their work. I praised those who had. I gave them another deadline to finish their main task. Except 3 students out of 12, everybody else did it.

What I find challenging is that I have a student in this group, she is a model, and she is out of school for 2 months. I also sent her email and asked her to do the main task and she did! So this is another chance for students (and teachers!) who cannot be present at school to participate in classroom tasks.

This is the second week I have not been at school, still on a sick leave, but if possible, I check on my students and their work.  Only 4 people out of 11 (1 students asked to be moved to a „weaker“ group) have done their main task so far. I am going to send them email to remind them what their duties are and see how it works. However, it might be difficult for them to finish it today because in a half an hour our ice-hockey team is playing against Russia in the World Ice-Hockey Championship.

The most important issue I am facing is that I have to create a rubric for assessing their posts. I should think of deadlines, content, grammar and vocabulary but not to discourage them. I mean if the main purpose of the tool is make students do their homework and preparations regularly, I should focus on deadlines first and a content. Then when they are used to working, I may proceed to being a bit strict about grammar and vocabulary. I would like to discuss their mistakes at school, by displaying them via OHP and encouraging them to correct their posts or to keep a record of their mistakes in order to avoid them later.

WOW! I have just created a rubric for blog posts - every week diary posts. Huraaaaa.

Week 5 - WebQuest - Extra Credit

What did I get myself into again?  This week enables us to improve our grades and be awarded an extra credit if we try to create some kind of project on WebQuest.

Some of the teachers, the tutor Donna inclusive, 'have sung a beautiful song' about WebQuest so I have thought that I might improve my grades by having done it because I lost some points 2 weeks ago due to my comment on another discussion post missing.

Now, I am frustrated since I could have spent much more enjoyable time working on my final project rather than wait for ages for a Zunal time response and then to get the message 'User zunalco_mysql already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections.' Unbelievable! And I have not mentioned formatting which becomes a nightmare!

NEVER SAY NEVER! Although I understand this  saying, I dare to say I will never use Zunal again. 

To begin with, according to a WebQuest main website http://www.webquest.org/ 'a WebQuesst is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web.'  This even collaborative environment designed for teachers to provide students with step by step instructions and online resources as well as an evaluation rubric of the results of the project is a  designed website prepared for teachers with precise instructions what to do and how to do it and with a variety of 'templates' offered. Moreover, it contains evaluation rubric and other tools for assessment with clear instructions why it is necessary and what should be accomplished. Further information about advantages of using a WebQuest you can find here.

On the other hand, a WebQuest is compared to a lesson prepared with the use of  a piece of paper and pencil. I would recommend to stick to them instead of using web sites like Zunal.

As a notion behind WebQuest is a great idea of creating some kind of a lesson plan for a project-based learning which not a lot of teachers have idea what it should be like. WebQuest uses a simple structured lesson plan with clear divisions of its parts that guided both teachers and students.

My attempt to create a WebQuest is here http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=195705

I have to admit that it took me so much time to do this that if I were not on a sick leave, I would not have been able to do it due to a lack of time.

Week 5 - Still Not Over

The only thing I would like to mention is that the time is passing so quickly and we are being introduced to so many things, some new, some familiar that I feel this course should be longer than 10 weeks in order to learn and remember everything.

I would rename this course to the "prodigy course" or "course for geniuses" since we really must be geniuses to understand, learn and produce at the same time in such a short time. I am not complaining. I am enjoying regardless obstacles to overcome.  

I wish the course lasted longer because everything we have been offered so far is really invaluable. While reading about an alternative assessment, I got carried away by information provided on the website that I need more time to revise what I was taught while studying to become a teacher. I am particularly interested in teaching grammar since I teach it as a part of  the subject Language Skills so I need more time to go through it thoroughly. I am really looking forward to it as well as through teaching other skills and other teaching essentials.  

Week5 / Week 4 - Reading/Vocabulary and Mutli-skill Websites

Do not get confused, week 5 is an earlier post so if you want to read it, scroll down.

Even though, week 5 is now in progress, I can recall what I did at the beginning of week 4.

We were recommended some websites to browse dealing with reading, vocabulary or other skills. I was very pleased we were recommended websites I had known and used before since it means that what I have been doing so far is valuable and right. 

I have used BreakingNewsEnglish website before and was very satisfied with the outcomes of the lessons. As the task for week 4, I used the website again and I tried it immediately the next day with a real success. My "post-state examination" class got immersed in vocabulary and guessing exercises as well as listening to the news in both British and American English. They also enjoyed discussions about pass-thoughts replacing passwords and unanimously disagreed with the notion.

Not to bother you a lot, I enjoyed browsing the other websites, some of them familiar some of them not, and stored a lot of them in my delicious pages for further use.

Week 5 - Project-based Learning (PBL), assessment, rubrics

This week we were supposed to read an interesting article by Susan Gaer "Less Teaching, More Learning"  and best practises about how to implement PBL into our teaching. The projects described are not exactly useful in non-English speaking countries, but might be used as an idea what to do and how to do it.

A project is a "swear" word  among many teachers and parents in Slovakia. From my personal observation, teachers in our country have been forced to implement PBL into their teaching without proper knowledge, training or support. In many cases it has ended up as follows:

Case #1  primary school, age group 8-12, the topic and the outcome (usually poster with photos or pictures) is set without any guidelines what to follow, pupils "run wild" with the topic, parents are involved  - usually parents do the project, pupils read it

Case #2 primary school, age group 12-15, the topic and the outcome ( usually IT-based, MS PowerPoint most favourable), no guidelines, just the topic. Pupils go to wikipedia and copy and paste anything concerning the topic, then they read it in front of the class. MS PP is done as a "book" - everything is written there, pupils read it from the screen or directly from the display of OHP. No sources are provided - pupils are taught to plagiarise without any consequencies, they are even praised for the "copy and paste" job.

Case #3 secondary school, only enthusiastic teachers dare to ask students to do any projects :-)

On the other hand, there are many international and intercultural projects running in Europe that are founded by the European Union to unite member countries, to overcome predjudices, to become tolerant towards differences and odds and to keep nation's cultural diversity.

The one EU project, I was involved in in my previous school, was Electronic Curriculum - New Ways of Teaching and Speaking Foreign Languages. We enjoyed working on this project, even though the tool eJournal we used seemed too difficult for teachers to learn that it caused some delays and not exactly the appropriate use of the tool. It was much easier to make an MS PowerPoint presentation and upload it there than to "write an article" so most materials and projects must be downloaded if you want to see them. 

http://ejournal.eduprojects.net/linz2/index.php?output=FrontPage() 

I am amazed that the link functions :-) I have just checked if we used any kind of rubrics but realised that the article is not published. I even remember the password so I have logged in and found out that some websites that have been recommended to us in this course, we used 8 years ago and there are also some more. 

What we struggled with was a clear assessment of the project work. If we had had some knowledge of rubrics then, it would have been much easier. Using the rubric tool at http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ enables us to start and improve our assessment and implement an alternative assessment involving students as well. 

I have tried to create a general rubric for an oral examination of presenting certain topic (talk about....) and I am not sure if I succeeded. I need some training and perhaps a tutor. It is much simplier when I do it in my head, announce it to students and evaluate their performance. I always highlight a variety of grammar structures, the use of new recently acquired grammar structures and vocabulary, also the wide use of vocabulary and linking devices at an appropriate level (CEFR) in advance. Even though some students talk a lot, they tend to stick to their "safe" structures and vocabulary since they can express everything they want. This is a common problem that after reaching the certain level of understanding in L2 and basic communication, students are not willing to improve more because they are satisfied with what they know and do not understand our persistence to force them. Although we try to introduce something new to motivate them, they are usually so indifferent or they see "so much" effort behind it.

As the other tool we have been exposed to is WebQuest. I need a little time to explore what it offers, however, I am contemplating now what I may prepare for my conversation lessons next school year to integrate it and make students do their assignments. To be honest, even though I have been using LMS Moodle with all possible sources for  them to be prepared for our lessons, I failed this year. The students are not mature enough to become autonomous learners and I did not find the right tool to encourage them to understand, to observe, to think critically,  to analyse, to create their own opinions and views and express them. So they came to lessons unprepared, with no knowledge of the world around them, no opinions, no vocabulary, awful grammar. They expected me to "explain" the topic to them, perhaps provide them with some handouts to memorise and parrot the next lesson. They are not used to thinking! 

Week 5 - The Sunrise

The week 5 has already started, however, I promised myself to finish correcting all matricular and state exam  writing assignments  that were due today and tomorrow. "Fortunately," since I am on a sick leave, I could somehow manage and now I can focus on tasks of this week.

The Sunrise

The weather is improving, so is my health thanks to some medicaments :-) The sun was shining today and it is going to be 29 degrees Celsius in Bratislava tomorrow! The summer has just arrived.

Even though I promised myself not to look at Nicenet or course website, I could not help it and of course, I did. Donna has posted some posts so I was curious who has had time to do some tasks today. You may guess :-)  Marga, Khadija and Tuula :-) Great job, girls! I am going to join you either tomorrow or on Wednesday. 

After having read the post about extra credit, I am convinced I cannot stand behind and as soon as it is possible I am going to go for it. I love this kind of competition that increases my internal motivation to become a better teacher. 

The dawn above the Hot Water Beach, Whitianga, New Zealand

Week 4 - Reflections

This week has been focused on reading and writing skills. Since I knew I would not have enough time for doing tasks this week, I tried to do all necessary on Monday.

Now, everything I remember is that I was eager to browse recommended websites and read articles because they were about using ebooks and I am a real bookworm. The other issue I usually face are writing assignments and that is why I found the article about how to use web sources to teach writing very useful.

The second part of this week to do the project task#3 and lesson plan was a real challenge due to my worse health condition. I am on a sick leave and cannot concentrate on doing anything owing to being stuck to bed, treated by heavy analgetics to reduce the pain caused by a disc bulge in my neck spine. I hardly move and suffer from such a pain that I could not enjoy the assignments for this week.

I do not remember what I have done this week :-(

A couple of minutes ago, I collected myself and created a lesson plan on word formation with the use of IWB, online resources and own exercise created in Hot Potatoes. 

The problem I would like to solve within the Project task #3 I already described in my reflections of week 2 and it is to teach my students to prepare for lessons regularly to be able to participate in the lesson and speak. They are very nice students, but very lazy. Using blogs as their "online" diary and exercise books seems a great choice. They have already started and of course, it takes time to change their habits. 

I will write more when I feel better. Hopefully, I have done all that was required.

Monika

Week 3 - Feelings

Working and studying have always been somehow interconnected and we, teachers from all around the world, are now trying to do our best to manage our time to fulfil all the tasks given by our tutor in this course "Building Teaching Skills through the Interactive Web.

This weekend is going to be tough for me. Except some of health problems I have to deal with and they have quite a huge influence on my mood and opinions, I have to correct writing assignments for Matricular as well as State language examinations. Needless to say that I have a family who would like me to involve in our mutual activities.

As for commenting on blogs of our fellow teachers I find it a bit difficult in terms of time management. There are some of us who have time to update their blogs at the beginning of the week, but most of us have time only before the deadline. Then it happens that one tends to comment on the same blogs all the time due to a lack of new posts on others' blogs. I would like to comment on others' blogs as well but since I am asleep when they update them or have to go to work in the morning, I would not meet the criteria for the week.

Fortunately, there is quite a huge time difference between our time zones and Oregon's one so we can make it on time. 

I was a little bit disappointed by readings this week since there was almost no new information I have not come across before except the one about software monitoring your speech which I personally, in my humble opinion, find useless.

On the other hand, I am more and more delighted about recommended websites or those shared by my colleagues. Hopefully, the websites I uploaded on my delicious might be helpful to other teachers.

Talking about focusing on listening and speaking skills is very important. These two skills are more difficult - listening comprehension is more difficult than other receptive skill - reading and speaking also causes learners more difficulties than other productive skill - writing. Both more demanding skills require immediate actions so there is no time to think or look up words in a dictionary to be sure which one is appropriate. These two skills (listening and speaking} are essential for any oral communication and that is the reason why learners should be exposed to them even more often. If the teacher uses L2 in lessons, learners get used to understanding the meaning and it happens when the teacher switches into L1, sometimes learners are not aware of it. This happened to me a couple of years ago, with a very ambitious group of 16-year-olds, when I was trying to give them a lecture about a certain topic, providing examples and giving illustrations from a real life when suddenly I stopped and thought what language,  L1 or L2,  I had talked in. So I asked  my students what language I had used and they got dumbstruck because they were not sure.

What I love about technology is that it is fast. In the past, I did not attend any of my lessons without a dictionary among my materials. Now I do not bother by thinking of taking a dictionary because all classrooms I teach in are equipped with a PC, OHP and the Internet access. So if I am not exactly sure what the meaning of a particular word is or how the word should be pronounced, I just go to Oxford online dictionary {see My favourite links} and check it there.

In addition to what has already been mentioned above, the issue I am personally facing now is that my English is a mixture of British and American English. How come? At the secondary school we were taught British English and I have to confess that in Central Europe British English is preferred to be taught. However, when I took English classes at the university  I was taught by American teachers - and there are still more American teachers teaching in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, then I used to teach with an American colleauge and of course, films and series I watch are in American English. So what happens to me is that part of my speaking is in British English with an American accent and part of it is in American English.  Would using the technology tools available for pronunciation and intonation help "comb" my English?

Week 3 - Delicious and Non-Delicious

Delicious, mhmm! Yammy! Not having heard of it before? Neither have I. 

Yammy: Delicious pages are social bookmarking website on which you may store all interesting or important web links you have come across or you visit regularly. It is easy to sign in, add links and follow other´s delicious websites.

Good: The materials needed to be read this week were quite extensive dealing with CALL (computer assisted language learning), providing information about tools used to teach listening skills, pronunciation and intonation. According to Lindsay Miller (Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials, ESL Magazine article), listening skills are not intentionally focused on while acquiring L2 (the second or foreign language) even though almost listening skills are most often used (about 40 %) in a real life. Miller suggests several tools to use authentic materials in language learning, the radio, videos, films, CDs or DVDs inclusive with the emphasis on pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening tasks.

Non-delicious: Another paper by Maria Busa (New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation) was difficult to read since it was too theoretical and the research conducted seemed inappropriate for use in primary or secondary schools owing to the fact that language learners might see the picture of their intonation and pronunciation but it was not stated how to improve these two aspects of the language to be similar to those of native speakers´ except repetition. No such techniques were mentioned. This paper took too much time to comprehend. On the other hand, quite a lot of colleagues of mine appreciated the approach presented in the paper and expressed their interest to try it with their learners.

Tasty: Julia Gong´s paper The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills is more practical than theoretical so it is worth reading it again to contemplate pros and cons of CALL use.

ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS: Browsing through recommended websites proved and showed enthusiasm of teachers in need for new, more interesting, authentic and ready-to-use materials.  Some of the websites I have been familiar with, but they were either lost or forgotten. With the help of delicious.com all interesting and important websites will never be forgotten. In addition, peeking into my colleagues delicious pages has enriched my list of useful links.

Teaching pronunciation is so easy with the tool below.

Week 2 - Assessment of Project Phase #1 Objectives

Continuing...   "Week 2 - Project Phase #1"

Sunday evening

Yesterday I checked my students' blogs and realised that only 4 (all girls) out of 10 had posted their assignment and 3 out of 10 also commented on other student's blog. All students were sent some feedback together with the reminder of commenting on their classmates' blogs.  1 student (a boy) was late with his post, but posted it by Saturday night. Another student (a boy) contacted the teacher via email apologising for not posting owing to him being away with no access to the Internet, promising to post the assignment as soon as possible.

To make things clear, students were given homework - objectives Task 1 for Thursday, on Thursday they were assisted to create their blogs and by Saturday they were supposed to post what they had prepared for Task 1. According to the outcomes, it is believed that 6 out of 10 students were not prepared for Thursday  lesson because they were not able to rewrite their preparation by Saturday. Moreover, the same happened on Sunday so the first attempt has shown that there is still a lot of work to be done to force the students to do their homework.

Regarding them not doing their homework, the students were informed via email about lowering their percentage -5%  from homework assignments each day their homework is not done. 

Having read all posted assignment I decided not to comment on them yet due to the fact that one of the objectives is to post comments by students. I am going to make the students to finish Task 1 and Task 2 first. As for the assessment, I am thinking of praising hard-working students to motivate them but ask them to correct their mistakes in grammar and vocabulary in order them to learn and be more precise next time. They are going to be told at the lesson and be given time to update their posts so that  the teacher's comment will be positive. 

The aim is to teach them to be aware of their mistakes so they can learn what they do not know and be sure that they have made some progress. 

Tomorrow (Monday) the students are going to be examined orally from task 1 and be assessed according to Matricular Oral Examination rubric - see Nicenet.org discussion about ABCD Model for Behavioural Objectives.

Tuula has asked how blogs are going to be used later on and if the students are going to be instructed what to write there.

I find it very challenging to use blogs as some kind of their virtual exercise book or diary. I am thinking of encouraging them to write their diary - what they have done "with English" each week so they are going to say how much time they have devoted and what they have done, e.g. I watched 1 film "....." in English with Slovak subtitles, and give a short description of their feelings - if they have understood anything or just read subtitles......  

The other "sustainable" task is going to be their online homework - preparations for speaking and writing lessons. Since they are not used to work regularly, this seems to be a great way how to check on them.

Week 2 - Project Phase #1

I spent 5 hours on Wednesday by trying to meet the requirements which were due by that midnight. I do not regret any minute of them because  I learnt so much about websearch and enjoyed "playing" with it and was amazed by the simple tips that had been given to us to improve our searching skills and accomplish our search.

Providing materials of such value enable us to contemplate and compare our experience with others. I was considering a very ambitious group of students to involve in my project we are supposed to do, but after having read the article Improving Teacher-Student Interaction by Jonathan Snell http://iteslj.org/Articles/Snell-Interaction.htm, I decided to choose the laziest group of students I teach. 

Revising objectives following the ABCD Model for  Behavioural Objectives, I will attempt to implement them into IT related project which will enable me to check on the student´s progress.

Moreover, reading the guidelines and going through the project templates I decided to pursue the project as soon as possible starting today. Trying hard to work with google sites to achieve the template and layout of the class wiki, not satisfied with the outcomes of the website I contacted Donna - our tutor for help. Even though the help was at the almost immediate hand, the project had been started earlier to accomplish objectives.

Step 1: the chosen group - following ABCD Model for Behavioural Objectives:
 (A) 16-17 years old students (B) will be able to create a blog (C) with the teacher's instructions and assistance at the lesson and (D) post their first assignment no more than 3 days later.

Step 2:

Task 1
After (C) having read an article about teenage nightmares and being given vocabulary regarding human relationships (A) the student (B) will be able to describe and illustrate teenage problems with peers at school, their appearance and the role of parents, teachers or a life coach to help them, (D) providing 2 examples and expressing their own opinions accurately, fluently and with the use of appropriate grammar and vocabulary with the score of at least 79%

Task 2
(C) Having finished their task 1 (A) the students (B) will post their own assignments by Saturday 10 am (GMT1+), read and comment on at least 2 assignments of their classmates by Sunday 2pm,  (D) following the "netiquette", politely, with minor mistakes in grammar and vocabulary with the score of at least 60% according to Matricular Written Exam rubric. 


Observation:
The students were delighted the lesson took place in a computer room, each student had a laptop computer connected to the Internet. 2 out of 10 present students had to create their Google account, others started creating their own blogs, following the teacher's instructions. When necessary, personal help was provided resulting in successful creations of English blogs. The whole activity took about 40 minutes, the computer aid inclusive.

The atmosphere in the classroom was very positive and the students seemed eager to face the challenge. The lesson was held in their mother tongue, although the blog is required to be kept in English so they had to switch languages. In addition, they sent the link of their blogs to the teacher.

As for the deadlines, only 1 student expressed his doubts about meeting this criterium  since he had other after-school activities so he was not sure if he would be able to do it. He was encouraged to find certain time to devote to the task.

Now I am really impatient to see if it works. I hope ...

Week 1 - Personal Reflections

This week has been very fruitful since I started my first online course and had to adjust my schedule to be able to meet the requirements.

First of all, I was very curious what to do and scanned the information sent by email. I took it step by step, following the instructions but without reading guideline first. I had my hands on my keyboard and eyes glued to the screen. Of course, I experienced some pitfalls resulting from my eagerness rather than my neatness as you may read in my posts “What did I get myself into?”.

Having read recommended materials I realized that I actually used a blog as a teaching tool, but was not very successful with it due to a lack of rubrics for assessment and need for certain rules, especially the one about the demand of regular posting. Consequently, I have decided to start a new blog with my 15-year-old students who study at German bilingual class but their level of English is between B1 and B2 levels (CEFR) so now I am thinking of setting up the rules and rubrics on my own that might be part of the project we are supposed to do.

I spent so much time reading posts on Nicenet, getting frustrated what else I may contribute with when everything had been said. Then I collected myself and started reading them over and over to get to know people involved. I am amazed how different and similar we are and regardless the various cultural backround, the feeling of being the teacher is the same everywhere. It is so obvious from the posts my colleagues post there, however rubric for our assessment forces us to be very professional, perhaps more than be “human”. I love discussions with colleagues to share experience and experiences because they help us to be aware of problems we all face and teach us to resolve and overcome them.

Even though nobody wants to admit it, behind the evaluation rubrics a “competition” is hidden - who the best is, who can express their thoughts in the most academic way in as brief post as possible. Nevertheless, this is not the case but it must be pointed out that some people find it challenging to improve their writing skills – to be more considerate, to use wide range of vocabulary and grammar structures and enjoy pursuing their careers through their own personal development. On the contrary, this way of assessment might deter people who regardless their education, skills and abilities do not find it easy to face such a challenge.

In spite of my not having so much time, I devoted many hours to the beginning of this course and doing my tasks and got immersed in it. Finally, I started enjoying the course reaping the benefits from it and I look forward to practising newly acquired tools in my teaching profession.

Last, but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to all my colleagues who found the time to read my posts and comment on them. I really appreciate it because if you do something to share, there is no a better feeling than to know that somebody at least has read the message you want to deliver.

Week 1 - Reflections (Ambitious)

This week my first online course commenced and adjusting my schedule to meet the requirements became one of the challenges I had to face. Anxiety prevailed in the first part of the week, retreating as the course proceeded and tasks were fulfilled.

Creating a blog did not seem as easy as everybody in the course stated, having been confused by the creation of an account which had not been desired. However, in the end, it proved to be as easy as a pie.

Logging into Nicenet, an online discussion environment for teachers, was even much easier than the blog. Commenting on other’s posts was easy in terms of technology, but more difficult in terms of content. 

The most interesting part of the course is to read recommended sources to create and compare ideas about using blogs as a teaching tool and what the pros and cons are. Contemplating information provided and analyzing our possibilities, abilities, skills and willingness to implement such a tool into our teaching results in challenges we are eager to deal with.

Being required to use Academic English is another challenge we welcome owing to a lack of opportunities to use it in teaching at the secondary school.

Quotes the participants of this course enjoy

Discussions on Nicenet are enlightening us and we were supposed to start off with our introduction informing others about our courses and types of students that we teach, how long we have been teaching, and our favourite saying or short quotation in English.

Reading quotes in the discussion, idea came out to write them in one place. Quotations are written in an order I collected them.   

Enjoy what we enjoy!

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke    

Donna from University of Oregon

"No child left behind"  

Laileng from

'Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world. ' Nelson Mandela     

Elias from Senegal

"You teach me & I will forget - You show me & I will remember - You involve me & I will learn"         

Rosmery from Bolivia

"There is time for everything."  Thomas A. Edison
"Work is more fun than fun" Noel Coward
Gulnar from Azerbaijan

"Learning is a continuous journey & I am a tireless learner to learn the lees!"

Mukta from Bangladesh

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge" Albert Einstein        

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It is what sunflowers do..."  Helen Keller

Khadija from Sudan

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever" Mahatma Gandhi
Roberto from Salvador

"Sincerity is the best policy"  

Nasir from Pakistan

"That being kind is more important than being right".    

Shuqing from China

To err is human, but to really mess things up you need a computer.   

Anna from Kyrgyzstan

"Never lose hope in ALLAH"  

Darren from Lebanon

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre."  Gail Godwin    

Jules from Senegal

"Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you."
Sawako from China

"They are able who think they are able"  Virgil
Maria from Mexico 


My favourite quotation is displayed in the top right hand corner of my blog :-)

Monika

Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web

This 10-week online training course for English Language Teachers (ELTs) is offered through the American English Institute at the University of Oregon, Department of Linguistics. This course is one of nine courses funded through the E-Teacher Scholarship Program, provided by the U.S. Department of State (DOS).

Our tutor Donna Shaw is a professional and experienced teacher trainer who is willing to give you credit for your work and encourage you to carry on.

This blog has been set up as one of the required assignments to reflect our experience and share best practices. Hopefully, my blog will be at least a small contribution to our mutual co-operation.

Monika

What did I get myself into? Part II

Encouraged by my successful and easy attempt to comment on Donna’s post, I decided to set up my blog as well because I was not exactly sure when I would have time to do it and to be honest, as a teacher I always want to have my work done properly and on time.

First of all, I read on our Wiki to create a blog on www.blogger.com using  the instructions provided by UO course (University of Oregon). Well, I typed the address into my browser and got surprised by the redirection of the browser to accounts.google . . .   and the need to sign up as if going to my google account which I had open.  “There’s something fishy about this”, I thought and started to read the instructions. I realised that “google” was involved.

As a result, I thought “ok”, so I signed in and …. a screen  appeared asking to choose from  options which I was not sure which to choose.  The first one talked about something I did not pay attention to and the second one talked about something with restrictions….. You know,  it was 11:15 pm for me, being exhausted and confused I did not read with comprehension J or I just did not understand even though it was written in my mother tongue, so I clicked the first option.

As a consequence of having chosen the option on the left (the first offered), the screen opened and “Oh, no! NO! NO! NO!”, I started crying. “It looks like Facebook and I hate Facebook….. I have never wanted to set up an account similar to this one and now… I AM IN! What am I going to do? What course have I chosen?”, thoughts were rushing through my head and I started panicking. “What did I get myself into? Me, stupid one.  I do not want to read any posts posted by people I have never met, seen or heard of…… Oh, no!”, I could not calm myself down. “Where is that blog?”, I was frantically trying to find where to set it up but regardless the instructions provided, I could not find it.

Finally, after  a while the panic attack started retreating and oxygen got back to my head, I collected myself and started reading and thinking.  I used my “talent” and finally found where to set up the blog. Then it was as easy as a pie. 

Last, but not least, I am convinced that despite the problems I faced due to my fatigue and a lack of attention, I am going to enjoy this course and I look forward to dealing with other challenges.

What did I get myself into? Part I

Approximately a year ago, I decided to search the Internet and look for some courses for English teachers. While I was browsing, I found a website with the offer of a scholarship for teachers from the U.S. Embassy. I was pleased to be eligible for it and eager to apply. Having been imagining to have the opportunity to study via the Internet with no need for travel expanses, taking any days off or leaving my family for a long time seemed to be one of the greatest opportunities I had ever come across.

To begin with, I checked all 10 available courses in the offer and after having considered my interests, skills and abilities, I made a decision to submit my application for „Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web“. Some people would think that when anyone has been teaching English as a foreign language for over 20 years, they should be able to understand what they read. However, what one can imagine what interactive means might differ.

In terms of improving my knowledge and skills through the Internet, I thought the course would provide useful links, teachers involved would share their best practices and of course, inevitably, we would be taught how to use distant learning. As the beginning of the course was about to start, other issues should be solved and finished by then because I intended to commence the course with the clean desk. I made my own countdown with quite a few problems with the conversion of time, but finally I succeeded.

At last, the course opening started on 1 April, Monday, right after I had filed my tax return and felt exhausted. Moreover, the next day was a day-off for school teachers thus I hoped I would savour the course from its right beginning. Nevertheless, I was confounded. I woke up dizzy, lacking the energy, suffering from pain in my neck so most of the day I spent sleeping and doing nothing. Despite my being overworked, I collected myself and kicked off with the course at 10 pm.

To check my email instructions, I joined the Nicenet and found out that lots of posts had been posted and the people commented on each other´s posts which I did not understand because there was little to comment on. I started reading and it seemed to be endless and I felt confusion sweeping over me. What did I get myself into? My head started running wild, fingers beat keys, eyes hurting, PC at the verge of collaps – too many opened tabs... I posted my introduction which I had planned to be very brief, but ended up pretty long. Then I went back to reading and realised that commenting on posts was required and assessed – well, no problem, I responded to our teacher Donna and felt relieved. The life was just fine.

To be continued...

Are You IT Positive?

Have you ever been asked such a question? If not, would you guess what it might mean?

Well, when you work with a computer, you need to have at least some skills to turn it on and start software you need. I remember when my mum bought a new computer for her work a couple of years ago in order to write some invoices. I visited her in her office and she wanted to show me how she could do it. She opened her notebook (that paper one) and started reading instructions – #1 turn on the computer – so she pressed the button, #2 press F1 – she pressed F1, #3 …... #7 … then she looked at the screen for the first time (!) and got shocked when she did not find what she had expected. She got confused and almost freaked out. I calmed her down and recommended her to read not only her instructions but also what was written on the screen. Since then when anybody has a problem with any functions of software, the only advice I always give – read properly and carefully, it must be written somewhere there.

So operating any software is connected with reading comprehension and also installing new programmes, applications etc. and requires us to read. Since I am a great reader, I consider myself to be a “dumb-user” because I know that good software or hardware must be legible and understandable for the masses. Following this only rule, people will get on well with technology.

Consequently, being able to read what is written on the screen, enhances your skills and abilities when  working with PC.  As I have already mentioned above, I am a „dumb user“ and I do everything to reap the benefits of any software or hardware and do it as easy as possible. A couple of years ago, we had a very ambitious, kind and skillful school network administrator  in my former school.  He was always helpful and willing to do what needed to be done.  Once, we got a printer so he came to our office to install it in order for us to be able to use it within the network.  After he had been unsuccessfully trying for 2 hours, I asked if I could try it my own humble way. I made it in two minutes and he swore to me that he had been following the same steps and it did not work.  He said that if he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would not have believed it. Since then something similar has been happening to me all the time and I have ended up as a "friend on the phone" help or rather said "helpline call centre".

The expression “IT positive” comes from my colleagues who could not find the right word to express the way I deal with any computer-related problems. I would say that I am a natural, however I am into technology up to some point. I am eager to use new gadgets, new programmes, new technology unless it is anything else but time-consuming without any additional value to my life. Then I start rejecting it purposefully regardless my skills.