Week 4: Reflection

The more I learn about different websites teachers can use in their classrooms, the more excited I become. Is it not incredible that we can access all these materails from our PCs and laptops? This makes teaching such an interesting and creative activity!

This week I discovered BreakingNewsEnglish.com. This website provides so much for an English teacher that it is possible to teach using only the materials of the website. Having followed other links posted on the class website as well as the links shared by my classmates, I found a lot of resources for my future classes. 

The other thing that I want to mention in this reflection is the project task we had to accomplish this week. As I wrote in my post on the class website, the main problem I have to cope with is that there is a lack of up-to-date hard-copy materials for my English Language Teaching Methodology class. Therefore, creating a class website where students will be able to access all the necessary materials as well as links to other Internet resources will be very useful. Besides, participating in on-line discussions, my students will improve their English language skills. 

Anna

Week 3: Reflection

This week I learned how to create my own Delicious site. I was surprised how quick and easy it was. Furthermore, the advantages this tool brings are really impressive. Not only can you access your favorite website links from any computer, but you can also use the bookmarks that other people found and shared. This makes search for necessary resources much easier and faster. 

Another task that I found really useful was looking through some project reports submitted by past Webskills course students. I was impressed by the quality of the projects. Thus, the two projects I studied in detail (Zubel's  and Phyak's) look very professional and provide enough information to have a clear picture of what was done and what the outcome was. Now I have a better understanding of what is expected from us at the end of the course. Also, these projects have given me some ideas about what I could do in my classroom. 

Anna 

Week 2: Reflection

Hello All,

This week was a bit hectic at work. So I am glad I managed to meet the deadlines for the tasks and I really hope that I didn’t miss anything.  

Speaking of what I have learned this week, ABCD learning objectives were not new for me. Last year I took the ESP Best Practices on-line course where we practiced creating ABCD objectives. I remember I had to change my objectives several times before they fitted the ABCD model, but it was worth it. This time I didn’t have problems with formulating my objective. 

I enjoyed the Web searching task. Being a loyal Google user, I have always thought that Google and Google Scholar are the best search engines. Therefore, discovering iSeek Education, Sweet Search and INFOMINE was a pleasant surprise. Also, I really appreciate the links other people posted. Thus, thanks to Dareen, I have found out about Merriam Webster Website. I am going to share the link with my students and sure they will love it. 

Perhaps, the most important task for me this week was Project Task # 1. I have chosen the class I would like to focus on and I have started thinking about the technology tool I would like to integrate into my class. I think I want to create a blog. I haven’t decided yet whether it is going to be the Tutor Blog or the Class Blog. The Tutor Blog will definitely be easier to create, but the Class Blog might be more interesting and useful for students as they will be able to participate in on-line discussions. I think I might start with the Tutor Blog and then see what will happen.

Anna

Week 1 Reflection

Hi everyone! 

Starting a blog was not difficult at all! I spent some time playing with the design applying different templates and trying different colors. It was fun!

When I signed in at blogger.com, I was actually surprised that I had already had one blog. It was the blog I started in 2007 when I took part in an intensive ten-day Hornby summer school in Russia, which was organized by British Council. The school was aimed at learning about different technology tools that can be used in the EFL classroom. Blogging was one of the tools we discussed. I remember reading articles about blogging and doing some activities related to using blogging to teach English; however, I completely forgot that I started a blog during that course. Unfortunately, once the course was over, I never came back to that blog and never posted anything. I think that one of the reasons why it happened was that it was an intensive summer school and we were required only to create a blog. We were never asked to add posts on a regular basis, so I didn't get used to doing it. As the Webskills course I am taking now is going to continue for ten weeks and we are supposed to add posts weekly, I hope I will develop a habit of blogging and it will become part of my teaching repertoire.  

Anna