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