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

Week-June 30- writing ABCD learning objectives

ABCD learing objectives writing was not an easy task for me. To tell you the truth, I very seldom write my lesson objectives but I keep them in my head when getting ready for the lesson. Although as a teacher I do realize how important it is to have very clear objectives of the lesson and that the effectiveness of the latter and its success totally depends on its objectives. Thus, when I was aked to write the one, I found it really difficult. Something that I've been always doing subconsciously and that has never caused me any problem turned out so puzzling and confusing. I think from now on I will do it more often in writing!