Week 10

Hi my dear web mate,

It's very sad to write the last post and it's very sad to say good bye to all of you and to Sean. I would like to express my deep gratitude to all of you. I was happy to be in this community within these ten weeks. This course gave me more than I expected: new friends, new knowledge, new impressions and openings…

In the very beginning of the course it was very hard for me to manage my time properly. Sometimes I spent on doing the assignments long hours and even several days. Sometimes I even wanted to give up… Fortunately, I managed to allocate my time properly and all the readings and assignments were so interesting and useful, so I decided to go to the end.

I will definitely use lots of thing from this course: ABCD objective, blogs, interactive PPPs, PBL and others. As for the Web quest and pad let –they are my favourite ones.

I don’t think it’s necessary to list all the wonderful websites shared by Sean and my dear mates! They are all in my Delicious page, so I can refer them any time I need.

Now I feel satisfied, I did my best to do all the assignments in time, I tried to be a good student.

And I am thinking about my web mates and Sean. All of you were so helpful; every time I needed assistance you were ready to help me. Thank you!

Best,

Samarat

Week 8

Hi dear webmate,

This week was wonderful for me and my students, since we had an unusual lesson, full of new and exciting activities. My students started to use the Webquest  http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=230216 designed by me and put their drafts to the class padlet http://ru.padlet.com/wall/fextil0vye . I was excited to observe my students working on their pictures. First, they have gone through the exercises on the Webquest, then they chose a partner to work with. The most interesting thing was selecting a picture in pairs. They were excited and argued with each other (sometimes in Russian and Kyrgyz). Unfortunately, we didn't have much time for finishing the task, so I asked my students to put their drafs on the Padlet to demonstrate them how it should be done. They are to finish their description of a chosen picture by 10 March. 

Concerning the peer review of a partner's project, I felt a little confused, since I think that Manda managed to cope very well with this task. Nevertheless, I tried to comments on some weaker (in my opinion) points.

I would like to list the "discoveries of the week" here:

http://www.mywordsearchmaker.com/

http://www.toolsforeducators.com/

http://uk3.hotpotatoes.net/

http://ru.padlet.com/

http://www.easytestmaker.com/

Best,

Samarat

Week 7

Hi,
Time by time we have more readings and discussions each week. Fortunately, we can take part in only one of them, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to   read all the articles provided by Sean, in spite of that they are all interesting and useful. This week I have chosen articles related to having one computer in the classroom, since it’s my situation. I hoped to find a lot of interesting strategies and activities which I could use in my teaching. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. Although the article Microsoft Word and PowerPoint in the Classroom (http://www.deborahhealey.com/techtips/may2009.html) was very interesting. Concerning my web mates’ posts, they were very interesting and full of ideas! I think effective use of  computer in the classroom depends on the creativity of a teacher.
This week was also special with choosing project partners. It was quite interesting and may be difficult for somebody, but not for me, since I was interested in Manda’s web quest from the beginning. So I didn’t have any doubts in choosing my partner. And fortunately Manda agreed to work with me.

As for Padlet task, i am still working on it, I am in the process of searching. Hopefully, I have one more day.

That is all for this week, and I hope to finish my draft project on time by the end the next week. 

Best,

Samarat

Week 6

WEEK 6 Interactive Power Point

Hi everyone,

To be honest, this week was the most exciting for me, since I had an opportunity to open Power Point from the different perspective. Certainly, I have used this tool before, even my students used PP for their presentations, but I have never thought that it is possible to insert a film, a hyperlink etc into it. I have never heard of Interactive PowerPoint, creating   one was a pleasure for me even it took about 5-6 hours, because I couldn’t find the action buttons and then how to make them work, etc. I still have lots of questions regarding creating Interactive PowerPoint, but I think gradually I will manage it, since I am going to make lots of Interactive PPPs for my portfolio. As for Jeopardy games, I have created lots of them on different topics and my students love this game. One more thing that I would like to learn is the interactive game “Who wants to be a millionaire”. (Thanks to Sean for sharing a link http://teach.fcps.net/trt2/links/powerpointgames.htm)

I have downloaded some of my web mates IPPPs with the aim of further using them in my teaching. I consider they will be appropriate and interesting for my students.

During this week I worked on developing my Web Quest. It is still raw and still requires a lot of work. I hope it will be ready by the next week.

The articles of this week were quite interesting. The number of students in my classes is different, from 6 to 22 students in one group. As a rule, the number of teenage students is prevailing in comparison with adult groups. Well, I think, I can successfully apply Think-pair- share and IPPPs to small groups, either. 

Week 5

This week started with reading an extremely interesting article by Susan Gaer on PBL. Although the article was written in far 1998 it is still actual these days. May be we, as teachers, underestimate PBL. I liked that it motivates students and gives them opportunity to learn the language for a purpose. Also the article states that PBL contributes to collaborative work. My question is- what about the passive students? How can a teacher be sure that every student participated in the process of developing a project? I suppose I will be able to answer this question upon implementing at least one project into my course. Anyway, I will be glad to read my web mates opinion on these questions.

Creating my own rubric was exciting and at the same time quite challenging task for me, since I used to applying the readymade rubrics for assessment. RubiStar is a great tool which I’m definitely going to use and recommend my colleagues for creating rubrics. I was impressed to find there any kinds of rubrics. Moreover one can change the separate parts or use the suggested versions of the rubrics.

As for the project task for this week, I think Web Quest might be an efficient tool for improving my students’ listening comprehension skills in case if I choose appropriate and interesting for my students tasks.

Week 4

Hi,

All the assignments are done, I hope successfully, and it’s high time for the reflections.  I consider if I start every blog post with “this week was full of wonderful discoveries”, I will not be mistaken. I am learning so many useful things and I am eager to apply all of them in my teaching! So many wonderful websites which I believe will help me to suggest my students unforgettable lessons. While drawing up my technology enhanced lesson plan I thought how fantastic opportunities I would be able to give my students if I used technology more frequently. And I am happy that the list in my Delicious page is being enriched with lots of amazing websites.

 I was excited to read my web mates’ posts concerning the classroom problems. Different countries, different problems… Although in almost every post I could see the similar problems that I have. For example, Lupita is bound to syllabus, Salah’s students speak their native language, Annusha’s problem with time management… . It will be more interesting to read about the solutions of the problems in the coming weeks.

In general, I can say that I am satisfied having done everything for this week. And now I am enjoying my time with exploring the websites and making use of what I find out from my web mates.

Best,

Samarat

Week 3

 Hi,

One more exciting week with a lot of new eye-opening discoveries is coming to end. I am glad I could manage my time to fulfill all the assignments in time.

I would like to thank all  my dear group mates for sharing their ideas, opinions and links. It takes a lot of time to explore all the links in a short period of time , so I think I will do it gradually and add links to my Delicious time by time. This week gave me one more opportunity to find a great deal of fantastic links which I am going to use in my teaching! Another thing that made this week fruitful is reading the final reports. At last, I have a whole picture of what is going to be the result of the course (besides all the other beautiful things that we are getting during the course) . I see, it is going to be a hard work, but it‘s worth it!

Along with the Delicious and final reports I read two articles with a great pleasure this week .They are Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller and The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills by Julia Gong. These articles focus on Listening, Speaking and Pronunciation. Moreover, I was happy to see my mates’ opinions on these articles. Yes, it is inevitable that technology comes to our every day lessons. It is a demand of time. And I hope, I will be able to update my knowledge on using technology upon completion of the course! 

Best,

Samarat

Week 2

Huraah! At last I could attach photos of my students!