In teaching others we teach ourselves.

Week 5! Days are flying by!

So much has been done this week. I completely forgot about my foot. Examinations have already started at school and we are correcting scripts. So much has been done!

‘In teaching others we teach ourselves’. We are learning so many things to teach our students; to make teaching more interactive and more amusing. In so doing, we are arming ourselves with so many useful tools which we were never aware of or were not making use of. I feel really privilege to form part of this course. Thank you so much Donna for making our lives. 

I started reading on Assessment through which I started pondering on the mode of assessment that we use in class. I must admit that I used most of the time the traditional method of assessment. They are convenient methods and it suits our students. But, while reading the positive aspects of PBL and WebQuests, I felt really guilty and will surely bring about changes in my ways of assessing my students. I will also encourage my colleagues to adopt other measures for assessments. When our students are with their groups of friends they are more comfortable to work. Peer teaching, Group work and other collaborative ways of working will produce good outcome. Assessment in this way becomes easier. The teaching and learning atmosphere is different and less rigid.

Rubrics are really importance aspect in the teaching and learning process. Very often we do not find the need to give students rubrics as it should be. Rather, we briefly explain what we want them to do. Rubrics are the criteria that students will need to enhance their performance as a whole. Rubrics are here to guide them and also make them conscious about what they need to do or on what to improve. Appropriate rubrics are needed to guide students throughout. As teachers we won’t be biased in giving marks and it will be fair to all students. When we are correcting their mistakes, they know why we are doing so.

Also, we have been given so many helpful and interesting links. It really facilitates our task; creating a Rubric or creating a Webquests; has become part of the game now. I am really eager to share zunal.com with my students. Webquests appeared really time-consuming before, but, now with zunal, it is easier and more user-friendly. I tried creating a Webquest though not a perfect one but felt really satisfied and will be doing some more in the near future. 

About the change we had to bring in the class, I chose Nicenet and other useful links. When we think of change, then we realize that we have to change a whole system. Here, in my country there are signs of change but they are rather slow. Adopting and using this aspect of change will be difficult but not impossible. Slowly but surely, this change has to be made for the betterment of our students.

We hope for the best. 

Regards

Shavila

Intensive Week 4!

I started week 4 with a very determined spirit. I was curious of what I was supposed to do this week. Unfortunately, on Monday I got my left foot plastered for two weeks. I was in terrible pain but I tried to meet the deadlines and complete my assignments.

I enjoyed reading the articles posted to us. It really changed my views on teaching methods. I was very impressed by the use of Multimedia in teaching. It’s a really new device for us. We can come out of the bookish world and lay emphasis on more technological aspect of teaching. The importance of visuals in teaching is really important. Students must no longer be treated as passive receptacles. We should give learners their autonomy and give them the chance to learn better and faster through the use of computers. 

The article on writing was really enriching. The author has devised many teaching strategies for various components of teaching. So much information has been given. I am going to use them in my class that is for sure. It was so detailed and informative that one can easily adopt them in class. 

The sample of the lesson plan was really helpful. By creating our own technologically based lesson plan, made me think of my project which I am supposed to do. We do many things and use devices or additional materials unconsciously in our teaching but when it comes to lesson planning it really helps. We are giving our lessons a right path and there is no overlapping

I sincerely hope that I will be able to change my way of teaching and bring about the newness in English language teaching through technology. I am sure that this course will eventually help me and my colleagues in creating interest and passion for the language in our students. 

Shavila

How To Make Teaching Fun!

Indeed it has been a week where so much has been said and done.

Firstly, CALL has been a very good way of allowing us to ponder on the fact that, while teaching we do not really focus on the  listening or oral skills as we should have been doing. In my country we normally have examinations for oral English but we do not give importance to listening which is a very important aspect in second language acquisition. Through CALL, we could get relevant information and also many strategies and ways by which listening can be introduced and enhanced in the teaching and learning process. 

Delicious!!, as the word itself says!Delicious was the page where we could learn so much. In the beginning, I was scared of how to save a link, create a stack, tags etc..Gradually it became like playing and I was really satisfied of myself. I was learning something which I never heard of and which I never came across. I was thrilled when I was able to save my links which I tend to write in my diary or simply forget about them. It is really a very useful tool for us. We can use it daily when we are searching for notes, creating lesson plans or web quest. Also, we can easily mail the addresses to students or make them create their own Delicious page.

Now, I am spending more and more of my time ,searching and searching.

The last but important aspect of this week 3 was reading about the project report. It was of great help to me. 

Now, I feel more confident about the project plan that we have to make. I read two of the project reports and I realised that I didn't think about certain things. It gave me an insight of what I was supposed to do. Each of them had a different way of proceeding and having different cultural background, it was interesting to note the learner's attitude towards technology. 

We have learn so much in the past three weeks. Hope it remains an everlasting process. 

Shavila

Week 2

The pace of life in which we are living is too fast. We have so many things to do in so less time. Week 2 has elapsed and am still wondering what have i missed ?

This week, has again been a very enriching week. I am learning many things and am still thinking that I really do not know many things. I must admit that I am spending much time on the Internet and on my laptop since I have joined this course. Usually it was for research work and also for social networking.But now, I have an additional responsibility.I feel that making use of the Internet is being done in a different way and I perceive it with different eyes also.

Through search tools everyone has shared his views on different sites that they use for their research. Its really good that we are in a platform where we can share so much information. I have learned and am learning from so many experienced teachers from the whole world, which is really amazing. Search tools helped me a lot. I visited the sites which some colleagues have posted and it really helped me. The Noodle tools are just great. 

Creating objectives was the part which I found really interesting as I never used the ABCD method. It was a new experience and was simpler and easier to understand as compared to those we were taught about. I was able to find my way again and I think I was successful. I tried to give an overview how things are in my country. I have second language learners and sometimes its really difficult for students to learn and master the language.

My first step in the final project made me realise that I do not have so much time in front of me for the final project to start. Also, it was a wise step from Donna to make us think in that direction. I tried to describe the lesson and the technological aspect that I would try to use in my project. Maybe, I would try to build on the idea and make the most the technology that I will learn in the future. 

I hope that we all, are going to have more and more to learn.  I shall end with this quot

Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it.
- Max Frisch

 Regards
Shavila 

Enriching Week 1 !

My first week in the course was a real great experience. To start with, a great thanks to, Donna for giving us instructions step by step and for having so much patience for us. 

Education, in general is a very important thing to care about. It is one of the most important means to reach our goals in life and realize our ambitions. For us, we have our students and for them we have to be well-prepared for the future. 

Effective teachers can motivate and inspire children to reach their potential even when, they don't want to or feel that they can. I feel that we can achieve many things through this course. 

I was really scared in the beginning of how to use all these new technologies, for,I was not used to them. Now I am familiar with them and I am trying to use them and personalise them in my own way. I am really excited to use blogging in my teaching. I was discussing this course with the Rector of my college and he was really eager to learn about blogging. He is really keen to implement all that I am learning in our college. 

Education is thus the starting point of every human activity. We must always seek knowledge and be ever willing to learn. I had some apprehensions but now I very much at ease with all what we are learning. I am looking forward for next week's tasks. 

Our students will never care how much we know, until they know how much we care for them. I want to share this with you;

"Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives." -- Richard Vaca, author of Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum

So,if we start using technology now, we can readily become one of the advocates who aids in getting the reforms to education that we need to teach these technologies to our students.