Reflections of Week 8

This week was full of action .I submitted my first draft of project report to my partners Ina and Mary for peer evaluation.I have received valuable comments from Mary.While waiting for Ina's comments I could not stop myself from thinking that there is so much to learn.We have been really fortunate to join a course where our value for time has increased and we are getting more and more than we can take in a short span of time.But the course has given our teaching a new direction and dimension which is a big reward.Moreover this is a learning for a lifetime.We will keep on improving our skills while revisiting these resources time and again.





This week I  also created a Survey as an assignment," Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web - A Survey" https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArIkbFQUSxtldEFOUjB0Q3FqTzgxZ3hDeFJtRGZLTnc#gid=0

I also created a class on Nicenet by the name of Winners.My students can join this class by using this link- http://www.nicenet.org

Students can follow this link and create a new account by using a unique user name and password.This class creation reminded me of my opening a new account of Nicenet for this course.

We got  a lot of resources to make exercises online :

• Tools for educators - word search, bingo, crossword puzzles, and board games: http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
• Lanternfish - flash cards, bingo games, matching, multiple choice exercises to print out: http://bogglesworldesl.com/
• Easy Test Maker (paper tests):http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx

• Hot Potatoes - http://hotpot.uvic.ca/  It's easy to use and lets you create matching, cloze, scrambled sentence, and multiple choice exercises and crossword puzzles. 
•  Some interesting exercises at http://eolf.univ-fcomte.fr/index.php?page=technically-interesting-hot-potatoes-pages
• Crossword Puzzle Games - Which can create crosswords to save and use on a computer or print out: http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/create.html

• Web Poster Wizard - free website for teachers and students to use as part of a course. It uses a very plain format, but it's very easy to create something with text, one graphic, and links on each of 4 pages:http://wizard.4teachers.org/
• SMILE- a variety of web-based activity generators. Requires a free registration. Click on "I am a new user" on the opening page in order to register. The applications here are quite interesting, but they take more time to learn to do'
• http://clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/mimea/smile/v2/index.php

I opened all these links  which was difficult for me to handle in one go but I used Hot Potatoes and Google  docs to make online surveys.I will revisit these resources again to make their best use.

But the best resource and the find of the week has been ANVILL .

ANVILL stands forA National Virtual Language Lab.It's a modern web-­‐based replacement

for the old language lab with new features useful for giving learner autonomy.It replaces old language lab in a true sense.The best thing is that it can be accessed from any where.With the tools like Voiceboards,TCasts (teacher broadcasting),Livechat,Forums,Quizzes and Surveys,Practice Recorder ,Lesson Planning &

Course Management it covers most of the aspects of a good virtual language lab.

I liked the feature in which a teacher who registers for ANVILL, gets the ability to create courses (and the tools do so).As per the information provided," A course consists of lessons, voiceboards, etc. Teachers add their own students to courses. Once added students can see class lessons, links, and files. They can also make forum posts, use the voiceboard, livechat, etc."
If we as a teacher can not create an interesting interactive virtual class after having facility like ANVILL,there is no one else to blame.
It is full of possibilities which can be explored with careful detailed planning.

Webinars offered by ANVILL seems to be great.I would like to join next Webinar if I am permitted to do so.
ANVILL has given me one more strong reason to feel good as a teacher.Now moving towards the final phase of this course .............

Regards

Raj 

Reflections of Week-7,Learner Autonomy& One Computer Classroom

This week we covered the topics of Learner Autonomy and One computer Classroom.Both these topics are very important for English Language Teachers.I read Learner autonomy: drawing together the threadsof self-assessment,  goal-setting and reflection http://up.wallwisher.net/20121112/2c28808faf59a6b8495d7038bcbdae85.pd by David Little,Learner Autonomy:Bird in thehand orBird in the bush by Samual P H Sheu

• http://coyote.miyazaki-mu.ac.jp/learnerdev/LLE/8.1/sheuE.html
• What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html  by Dimitrios Thanasoulas.
• All these articles covered different aspects of learner autonomy.I strongly feel that language learning can not take place unless learning is autonomous.
• I recommend and follow Task Based Teaching In the model of task-based learning described by Jane Willis, the traditional PPP (presentation, practice, production) lesson is reversed. The students start with the task. When they have completed it, the teacher draws attention to the language used, making corrections and adjustments to the students' performance. In A Framework for Task-Based Learning, Jane Willis presents a three stage process:
  ·         Pre-task - Introduction to the topic and task.
  ·         Task cycle - Task planning and report
      Language focus - Analysis and practice which gives a lot of autonomy to learners.

We in India usually have one Computer Classroom I used computer for showing PPT,Video and pronunciation but now I can think of using it in many other ways  after reading these articles on One Computer Classroom-

• ESL Activities for the One Computer Classroom (S.Gaer): Word-Processing Ideas:http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/wordprocessing.html
  Internet ideas:http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/internet.html
  
• Strategies and applications for the one-computer classroomhttp://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm A list of ideas with a US school focus, but most ideas are relevant to any setting.

• 7 Categories for Classroom Computer Use http://www.seirtec.org/present/onecomptr.html

This week Nicenet did not work properly.This happens in classroom teaching also.Technology is very supportive and helpful when it is working.We should always have a back up plan ready  when there is a sudden break in the class. 

Mary and Ina has become my project partners and we will exchange our first draft in three days.

Best Regards

Raj

Reflections of week 6

“ Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.”
Chinese proverb

This Chinese proverb quoted by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw in their  scholarly article on ' Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students'  set the tone of the week.Fortunately writer of this article Donna Shaw was one of the guest moderator for the course.

While writing about engaging students her comments on my Nicenet post gave me a new approach to involve students.


 I  converted my old presentation it into a new interactive ppt.All the articles gave valuable inputs but it was difficult for me to assimilate because I am not a techie but   the real reward lies in learning these new things.

How to turn a PPT into an interactive video and How to convert a Power Point into a Prezi-Frame:ology
helped me a lot to complete my task. Prezi was certainly the find of the week for me.I am planning to use it after taking tutorials and practicing it.

  Jeopardy https://jeopardylabs.com/play/wis-100-quiz-2-review was also a good learning experience but I could not use it because of the paucity of time.I have planned to use it in my class with more practice.


Courtney instructed us to continue with our Final Project, Step #5  and suggested us 
 to *implement* our planned technology change into our classes. I can only plan for these changes because our end term examinations are in  progress and the students will re join classes by 15th December.We will begin the report write up in week 8.

We have  crossed the mid way mark of a very rewarding journey.Now the time has come to deliver.

Regards

Raj

Reflections of week 5

Hi Everyone

I could not actively participate in this weeks activity due to my grandmother's illness.Now She is well and I have decided to go through all the views given by my colleagues and Courtney  to recover from the loss and restart everything.

I started the week by addressing to the problems of the last week by identifying technology related changes to improve my students.The main problems were

1.Lack of Motivation and seriousness
2.Strong Mother Tongue Influence on spoken English
 &

3..Fear of failure

The changes I would like to bring are related to these problems.First of all I would like to use a language lab with internet facility where students could use following websites related to pronunciation.-

1)Phonetics: The sounds of American English
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html


2)BBC Learning English | Pronunciation Tips
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/

Apart from this I would like to use recently found
website of 
Toastmasters International - Home

The site is related to interview preparation ,leadership development & public speaking.Use of material from this and similar site will improve their confidence.

I have decided to start recording of group discussion and interviews followed by peer assessment and teacher feedback.

I am hopeful that these changes will bring positive results.

I have created a rubric on Group Presentation for my students who give a presentation in corporate selection process.My ID is : 2250036

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=CustomizeTemplateSaveDatabase&debug=&save_user_rubric=yes& 

The rubric covers all important aspects of Group Presentation like content,collaboration,pitch ,time management and describes evaluation parameters.

New concepts of Project based learning along with rubrics,alternative assessment opens new possibilities in the classroom.

At the end what I feel that it is just the tip of the iceberg.We have been provided with so much material and links coupled with new learning and knowledge,it seems to me that this is the brave new world before my eyes which is full of possibilities and excitment.

Regards

Raj