Week 6 - July 30- My reflections

This week’s topic for discussion Interactive Learning and Teaching Large Classes is the most interesting and exciting for me personally. Interactive Learning is the issue I am very interested in and the more I learn, the more I want to know and to try. Sometimes I feel lack of IT skills or terminology knowledge and experience, which upsets me a lot, but I think all these obstacles are surmountable. I can handle them!

This week our task was to create an interactive PowerPoint presentation. The task was amazing. It took me much time to read all the materials on different issues as well as how to make the PowerPoint presentation interactive. The main problem was that my PowerPoint program is different from those in the teaching video guides and there were a lot of discrepancy, which puzzled me! I tried to include different interactive tools, such as Action buttons, hyperlinks, and the best was Jeopardy game. I was extremely excited about creating my own game. At first it seemed imposible. I couldn’t get the main idea how to arrange all that, but finally it turned out a very easy thing to do. “All the great things are simple”))

Teaching large classes is very challenging. Many of my colleagues, and I am not the exception, have had in their teaching career lecture-style lessons and all we know what problems a teahcer may have. The most difficult thing is to keep students’ attention and get them engaged. Large class teaching diminishes personal contact with students, interaction and cooperation, students’ speaking time. We have learned this week how to involve the students and make them more interested. Any lecture-type class can have some breaks for group or pair activities, for reflection on the issues, for cooperation and discussions. We’ve learned about Think-Pair-Share or Think-Square-Share activities, ConcepTest, Quick-thinks activities, etc and all of them are just perfect for teaching large classes. These activities are very easy to arrange, they don’t need time for extra preparation; they don’t need extra skills or knowledge to fulfil them. On the other hand, they promote cooperation, discussions, critical thinking, develop students ability to express their ideas and thought and prove them.

One more amazing thing of this week is our guest Jesse. I want to thank her for her enthusiasm and interst in our discussions. It was extremely interesting to read her posts and to think on the questions she asked. She has a real talent to boost discussions)

Week 6 -July 30- Begin the change

We have been doing this course for 6 weeks so far. The more we learn and discover, the more plans I have to introduce into my classroom. This course inspires me for innovations and gives a flow to my imagination. I want to try everything and get as much from it as possible but for my final project I still have to narrow my choice.
As I've already mentioned, I want to build my project around Listening and Speaking. These skills are the most problematic for my students. I want to introduce listening to authentic materials and to teach my students to listen for details. As to speaking, my goal is to encourage my students to speak and to break the language barrier.
Before I start to implement my project I want to conduct an online survey which I created with the help of Google
link to my survey.

This survey will help understand my students better and see what they like and interested in.
Then I want to introduce the Webquests. The one that I created for the week 5 task corresponds to one of the Unit topics in our syllabus. This webquest includes many Listening materials, as wel as reading and writing tasks. All the materials are up-to-date and cover the latest news and events. Some of the materials are written and presented by teenagers which I think will be very interesting and informative for my students to learn what their peers think about the global issues in different corners of the world. This Webquest contains written tasks, such as “leave comment”, “take part in the discussions”, etc. It also has individual work- to do the research and make a presentation in the classroom which will help develop speaking and public speaking skills as well. For my listening materials I used
youtube, news, forum , teens' artcles, articles for reading, and some other resources. I want also include Speaking online technologies. It can be www.voxopop.com. So some resources will be updated or added. For more details you can visit my Webquest.
Another thing I want to start with my class is using class blog or website.  I am planning to create a class blog (or website) where my students will find many links to sites with authentic materials as for listening, so as for reading, writing, speaking. I want to include there some learning online resources (puzzles, quizes,games), different music, photos which can promote discussions. So the website or blog will be used for exchange of information and ideas and also for posting some homework atsks. First it will be aimed at our class usage only but later I want to broaden the borders and to involve some outsiders to take part (native speakers or people from different parts of the world would be perfect). At the first stage I want to engage my students into expressing their thought and ideas whithout fear of being laughed at or criticized. There are many different ways described in the article of Jarek Krajka, for example, writing letters to e-pals. The author suggests visiting the site www.eun.org for collaboration with TESLCA, online newspapers notices and ads, which can be also discussed, etc
So the primary thing to do is to get my students familiar with the Webquest.The class website is the subsequent tool which is going to be created simultaneously.
One more thing to do is the assessment. Some of the tasks, for example, oral presentation and discussion will be assessed with the help of the Rubrics (it is uploaded in the webquest. As to the other tasks, I am still thinking what will be the best ways to do the assessment.

Week 5-July 24-Amazing week

This week we’ve been discussing PBL , Webquests and alternative assessment. The topic of our discussion is very interesting and exciting!
I consider PBL one of the best ways of motivating students and developing their language skills along with their personalities and vision of the world. PBL teaches students to work in groups and collaborate with each other, to think critically and reflect on the global problems and issues.
I liked Susan Gaer’s articles the most. The author is full of interesting ideas and enthusiasm of their realization. She mentioned in her article the main elements of PBL and possible obstacles of this method implementation. The main thing when introducing PBL is taking into account students’ interests, needs and abilities. Any project should meet purposeful and have target readers which will help students feel their project significance.
Another article that I liked was Project-Based ESL Education: Promoting Language and Content Learning by Yan Guo, Ph.D., University of Calgary. I liked the 10 steps of real-world project carrying out. According to these steps the teacher and students work collaboratively almost all the way. The teacher plays a very crucial role in project implementation. The teacher not only helps with the theme and organization process but “…prepares students for the demands of information gathering,… prepares students for the demands of compiling and analyzing data,… prepares students for the language demands of conducting the activity,…” Thus, preparing project will not be stressful and very demanding for students.
After discussing PBL and WebQuests another important issue arises- the issue of assessment. The rubric is a very good way to assess speaking and writing skills of students. This week I’ve learned about different types of rubrics and how to create them. Rubrics can be used as online so as printed variants. The teacher outlines as many criteria as he/she want his/her students to meet by the end of the project or any other task. Along with the list of criteria students can see the gradation system and the description of the aspects that should be fulfilled to gain this or that point/grade.
The main advantage of the rubrics usage is that they don’t make focus on students’ weaknesses but highlight their strengths.
The most amazing thing I've done this week is my first WebQuest!!! I know, that it is far from being perfect but still these are my first steps and I will continue making progress in this field))
Here is the link of my first WebQuest:
http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=108758

Week 4-July 16- My reflections

This week was devoted to Teaching Reading, Writing and Vocabulary Skills. This topic is also very significant in teaching process. Developing vocabulary skills helps better reading and comprehension as well as promotes fluent and accurate speaking. Students will feel more confident when they are able to express their thoughts and ideas easier, and if it doesn’t take much time to think for the appropriate word or phrase. They will take risks talking to native speakers and people they don’t know.
I’ve read several articles on the issue and all of them I find very helpful and interesting. I like the ideas of Jared Krajka and there are many interesting tools to use in my classroom!
Another good article is Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension by Andreea I. Constantinescu. Sometimes it is so difficult to help students develop and activate their passive vocabulary (to make it active), that the teacher gets confused and frustrated, and feels that there is no way to do it. Technology is a very good way out! The author mentions a lot of computer programs and multimedia tools which can promote Reading and Comprehension and develop Vocabulary skills.
We are getting closer and closer to our final point- technology-enhanced project! This week we’ve discribed our class problems and the issues technology might help us with. Having read the descriptions of other participant, I realized that the main students’problems were similar from class to class, regardless what country they were from. So I think our projects will be helpful for many of us!
Creating technology-enhanced lesson plan first seemed a difficult task to me. I couldn’t make myself get down to writing the plan and I was thinking over it again and again. When I finally began doing my task, I understood that it was something I actually did every time before my lessons. The only difference was that I didn’t follow any templates and I did it for my purpose and use only, so the template was something that confused me. All in all everything was alright and I hope that my lesson plan is well-done
P.S. Today is my son's third birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my little angel!


Friends18.com Happy Birthday Scraps

Week 3- July 9- My reflections

          This week has been very thought provoking. I was extremely busy with readings, sites investigations and learning! I am overwhelmed with new information and knowledge I've  gained this week. It really excites and motivates. Doing this course and carrying out different tasks we have, I can see how interesting and motivating it can be for my students, if I apply all these in my lessons in the future.
           This week I've learned how to upload and add videos and pictures to my blog as well as how modify it. It's not very difficult, but, of course, it takes time to learn all the tools and see how they work. I am thinking about my future project and blog implementation. I have too many ideas and trying to see the way how to combine all of them effectively.
            This week I've created my Delicious page and I was astonished with the opportunities it opened to me. I always had problems with storing my bookmarks since I often have to work out of my home and, consequently I can't use the links I need. I like the thing of sharing links with others and that I can add some which seem interesting to me.
Another task was to read some articles about aural/oral teaching strategies and CALL perspectives. There was a lot of interesting and useful information. I learned about new tendencies in this sphere. A number of computer programs and online resources were introduced as well. So there is still much to think about and try with students.
            This week we had to read some past Project Reports and leave our comments. I think this task was very helpful in terms of my future project preparations. It gave me a chance to see how it should look like and established some examples to follow. I liked many projects and I liked the past participants’ ideas. So I’ll try to combine mine with already tested ones.

The weeks are getting busier and busier but I like it!:)

"I like a teacher who gives you something

to take home to think about besides homework."

~Lily Tomlin

Pronunciation Lessons

This is one of the video lessons on Pronunciation.



This is the link to the site where you can find more lessons
http://funeasyenglish.com/english-video-lessons.htm

Week 2- My reflections

This week has been really busy with tasks and readings but at the same time it's been really exciting and informative. I liked searching the web and learning about new sites and opportunities which they open for teachers and students. I have never had an idea that there are so many search engines and that I have so much to learn about the Internet resources!
Another thing I want to mention is ABCD method. I have already said that it was not an easy task for me to write ABCD learning objectives because I had no idea about this method before the course. I never practised writing my lesson objectives (syllabus doesn't count ) before this task (I always did it subconsciously in my head when planning a lesson) and when I did, I found it really effective and helpful, especially in terms of assessing students. I decided to search for more information about this method and I found some very helpful sites!
This week I also continue examining my blog and trying to make more friends here. When we began the course and I understood how it would work, I realized that it would be great idea to use blogging with my student. I was really amazed how effective and motivating it could be for my students to start their own blogs and share their thoughts, ideas, news, links with each other. It would give them more autonomy in learning and feeling of confidence, especially if to take into account the fact that they are all familiar with social nets and actively communicate their with their friends. I was really inspired!
So, I am on my way to turning my ideas to life!

ABCD method links

http://www.naacls.org/docs/announcement/writing-objectives.pdf - you can find a list of verbs catagorised in accordance with the taxonomic level to use when writing objectives
http://itc.utk.edu/~bobannon/writing_objectives.html - good practical exercises to train objective writing