Dear all,
It's been such a useful week, especially we moved a further step in our project tasks.
Reading about the other skills activities and how enhancing them by adding technology elements was something!!
I found using emails in teaching different genres is very useful and motivating. This generation spends most of his time in front of the computer and the web. Making use of this merit and motivating students to develop their language learning skills will be a success. I liked the sites which refer students and teachers to communicate with other students who share similar needs and aspires add authenticity to learning.
Most suggested activities enables the students to take the driver seat and shift the teaching/learning process into more a more learner-centered one and the teacher's role become more as a counselor rather than the ultimate authority in class. The teacher suggests certain web sites from which students can decide and choose. Adding to that, most activities can be worked on from students' and teachers' homes in case of technology lack or unavailability.
Writing about the lesson plan which incorporates the use of technology reminded me with my first years of teaching when I used to plan each detail in advance. I share Robert his idea in the advantage of preparing our lessons in such a detailed plan every now and then. Jazzchants are my favorites in teaching vocabulary, grammar, stress and intonation. I focused in my plan on how to practice the use of "can" in a motivating way using jazz chants. listening to CD players, downloading the chants and recording new chants all involve the use of technology which is our main interest.
Moving to talk about certain issues we face as teachers in our daily teaching has been very reflective. I had to go back in my thoughts to my teaching class and reflect on the merits, demerits and difficulties. This reflection increased my concentration on the final objectives of my teaching besides focussing on my students' needs and start thinking of ways to tolerate them.
It was amazing when I added the bookmarks to my delicious! Easy, fast and interesting. I'm ..... years old and founded it that interesting and motivating, so what about mu teenage students?
All in all, I can say it's been a fruitful week. I went through various readings and comments while using technology.
Regards
Hala
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
My reflection on week 3
My dear colleagues,
Day by day I get use to the use of technology and find myself more comfortable, confident and relaxed in handling learning through the web. This feeling directed me to think about my students who by their turn and by time and enough instructions will be confident too in learning English through technology. I consider this course is a perfect example to show us how we use the web skills in teaching not just from the readings but from the real experience and trial we are doing everyday (hands on).
This week was full of many theoretical ideas to read about in implementing technology in our teaching classes plus lots and lots of practical tips to be really used in implementing various types of technology.
I started reading Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials
http://www.elthillside.com/up/files/article4.doc and I can say that during my teaching career, I was interested in using authentic materials and this article inspired me with many other techniques in integrating authentic materials in my teaching classes in addition to baring in mind the use of technology which has become one of the necessities in our everyday life. previously, I tend to use CD player to enhance my students' listening skill depending on the same pre/while/post mentioned criteria, but after reading reading about the use of radio, I incline myself more with this techniques because it sounds more realistic and authentic than the pre-designed listening excerpts.
Reading about the advantages and disadvantages of The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills (www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/research/resources/student_res/postscriptfiles/vol3/vol3_1_gong1.p I can say that the advantages are much much more than the disadvantages and teacher should never hesitate ti incorporate technology to their classes, and administers should think seriously about equipping schools with the required equipments. Here I'd like to comment on of the CALL advantages which is the spontanious feedback and self assessment; this is exactly what we need in the coming teaching classes students who are self-motivated and up to take the driver seat. We need to lessen the traditional teacher-centered class which dominates, direct and the only one who assess students' performance.
Moving to talk about the websites that give tips and lesson plans. I read many and stopped to reflect on Randall's Cyber Listening Lab: http://www.esl-lab.com/ which is directed to improve students' listening skill. I searched the site and found it really organized and clear. It depends on the pre/while/post form of presenting the listening activities and it ranges from beginner levels to upper intermediate from which teachers can choose what suit their students' needs.
Coming to what is really delicious and tasty "Creating my delicious"
In the beginning I struggled a bit till I could created my delicious with the help of my colleague Ola . It's a good way to organize my bookmarks under certain tags. I start importing my bookmarks and organize them under specific tags. It needs time till I finish them. I can say that when I was creating my delicious I felt my total privacy in organizing and adding stuff besides, feeling in community when sharing others my bookmarks and vice verse.
Regards
Hala
My dear colleagues,
Day by day I get use to the use of technology and find myself more comfortable, confident and relaxed in handling learning through the web. This feeling directed me to think about my students who by their turn and by time and enough instructions will be confident too in learning English through technology. I consider this course is a perfect example to show us how we use the web skills in teaching not just from the readings but from the real experience and trial we are doing everyday (hands on).
This week was full of many theoretical ideas to read about in implementing technology in our teaching classes plus lots and lots of practical tips to be really used in implementing various types of technology.
I started reading Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials
http://www.elthillside.com/up/files/article4.doc and I can say that during my teaching career, I was interested in using authentic materials and this article inspired me with many other techniques in integrating authentic materials in my teaching classes in addition to baring in mind the use of technology which has become one of the necessities in our everyday life. previously, I tend to use CD player to enhance my students' listening skill depending on the same pre/while/post mentioned criteria, but after reading reading about the use of radio, I incline myself more with this techniques because it sounds more realistic and authentic than the pre-designed listening excerpts.
Reading about the advantages and disadvantages of The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills (www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/research/resources/student_res/postscriptfiles/vol3/vol3_1_gong1.p I can say that the advantages are much much more than the disadvantages and teacher should never hesitate ti incorporate technology to their classes, and administers should think seriously about equipping schools with the required equipments. Here I'd like to comment on of the CALL advantages which is the spontanious feedback and self assessment; this is exactly what we need in the coming teaching classes students who are self-motivated and up to take the driver seat. We need to lessen the traditional teacher-centered class which dominates, direct and the only one who assess students' performance.
Moving to talk about the websites that give tips and lesson plans. I read many and stopped to reflect on Randall's Cyber Listening Lab: http://www.esl-lab.com/ which is directed to improve students' listening skill. I searched the site and found it really organized and clear. It depends on the pre/while/post form of presenting the listening activities and it ranges from beginner levels to upper intermediate from which teachers can choose what suit their students' needs.
Coming to what is really delicious and tasty "Creating my delicious"
In the beginning I struggled a bit till I could created my delicious with the help of my colleague Ola . It's a good way to organize my bookmarks under certain tags. I start importing my bookmarks and organize them under specific tags. It needs time till I finish them. I can say that when I was creating my delicious I felt my total privacy in organizing and adding stuff besides, feeling in community when sharing others my bookmarks and vice verse.
Regards
Hala
Sunday, October 17, 2010
My reflections on the second week
Hi Followers,
The second week is coming to a close end and I've delayed my reflection till the very end to come up with all thoughts and ideas that might encounter me through my readings either to the required readings or to your fruitful comments and reflections.
First of all, I'd like to say that we almost all of us have been depending on yahoo and google search engines, but now (and talking about myself) I'm much more confident to use alternative search engines that are either easier, more to the point or faster than google. Definitely this task couldn't be done individually; i mean if I had to try all the suggested search engines by myself and decide on their advantages and disadvantages, I would definitely quit the course. But being done collaboratively, make it easier for all of us to get benefit and learn about all these various search engines.
The way this task was organized, spread and shared, gave me some useful tips about how I can assign group tasks to my own students online and how I can monitor and assess them.
Second, I'd like to comment on the ABCD learning objectives. Most of us (as many of you have commented) are familiar with lesson planning techniques and already focusing on them on daily basis, but the ABCD tips have enlightened me with the necessity on focusing on the ultimate objective of certain teaching in an organized way. Sometimes I concentrate on my students' behaviour or the objective more than their condition. And other times i don't seriously take into account the degree I want them to reach or I don't specify it exactly. Knowing about the ABCD objectives was of great benefit for me.
That's all for now.
Regards
Hala
The second week is coming to a close end and I've delayed my reflection till the very end to come up with all thoughts and ideas that might encounter me through my readings either to the required readings or to your fruitful comments and reflections.
First of all, I'd like to say that we almost all of us have been depending on yahoo and google search engines, but now (and talking about myself) I'm much more confident to use alternative search engines that are either easier, more to the point or faster than google. Definitely this task couldn't be done individually; i mean if I had to try all the suggested search engines by myself and decide on their advantages and disadvantages, I would definitely quit the course. But being done collaboratively, make it easier for all of us to get benefit and learn about all these various search engines.
The way this task was organized, spread and shared, gave me some useful tips about how I can assign group tasks to my own students online and how I can monitor and assess them.
Second, I'd like to comment on the ABCD learning objectives. Most of us (as many of you have commented) are familiar with lesson planning techniques and already focusing on them on daily basis, but the ABCD tips have enlightened me with the necessity on focusing on the ultimate objective of certain teaching in an organized way. Sometimes I concentrate on my students' behaviour or the objective more than their condition. And other times i don't seriously take into account the degree I want them to reach or I don't specify it exactly. Knowing about the ABCD objectives was of great benefit for me.
That's all for now.
Regards
Hala
Hi Robert, Nada, Rahmat, Margarita and Irina,
I'm really glad to read your comments and I feel like day by day we are coming closer to know each other through our blogs.
Margarita, I liked your solution in assigning on/off line roles to solve the problem.
Rahmat, I'm myself wondering too about the suitable students number in such online sessions. I think Robert may advise us out of his experience.
Irina, thanks I searched the suggested website and it's useful.
The third week is approaching...can't wait till see our new tasks.
Cheers
I'm really glad to read your comments and I feel like day by day we are coming closer to know each other through our blogs.
Margarita, I liked your solution in assigning on/off line roles to solve the problem.
Rahmat, I'm myself wondering too about the suitable students number in such online sessions. I think Robert may advise us out of his experience.
Irina, thanks I searched the suggested website and it's useful.
The third week is approaching...can't wait till see our new tasks.
Cheers
Thursday, October 7, 2010
week 1 Hala's blog
Hi all,
Here I'm posting my first reflection at my first blog. I'm really excited about it and I can tell you that it wasn't that complicated to create following the user friendly manual. Creating a blog has empowered me with the sense of creativity and responsibility and as I was creating it, my students were my major point of interest; I can say that it's really easy to ask them to create their own blogs, post and comment. This is what we need to build on in our coming teaching; connecting learning/teaching English to technology and mainly the web which is by itself our students' main interest nowadays.
Looking forward to seeing your comments.
Hala Moukayed
Here I'm posting my first reflection at my first blog. I'm really excited about it and I can tell you that it wasn't that complicated to create following the user friendly manual. Creating a blog has empowered me with the sense of creativity and responsibility and as I was creating it, my students were my major point of interest; I can say that it's really easy to ask them to create their own blogs, post and comment. This is what we need to build on in our coming teaching; connecting learning/teaching English to technology and mainly the web which is by itself our students' main interest nowadays.
Looking forward to seeing your comments.
Hala Moukayed
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