WEEK 10

Well, the end came and I feel very happy because I have gained new knowledge about the use of technology in my classes. It is incredible to know that I can use many of the tools suggested in this course and there are others that I am planning to use.

First, I remember the first time I used nicenet in this course and to tell the truth I was very nerveous because I wanted to do the right thing. But I noticed that everybody felt the same. Nicenet give me the opportunity of sharing opinions with my colleges and make me feel that I was not alone. We helped and learned each other with the weekly comments, blog posting, sharing useful links in Delicious.

Second, the readings give me the opportunity of reviewing and reflecting about some topics that I have read before, but they also let me know new things that can help me to be a better teacher.

Third, the use of ABCD to set the objectives was great because in that way we can center what we want from our students.

 Fourth, the Technology tools for creating Students-Centered classes took me to another level of creativity. I did my first Interactive power point and Jeopardy. That was great !!! I have also used the teacher resources to create some material, like handouts, etc.

These are some of the good experiences that this course have allowed me  and make me think in this song: OVER THE RAINBOW

"Somewhere over the rainbow ,   Blue birds fly
And the dreams that you dreamed of ,   Dreams really do come true "

Finally, We all know that technology surrounds us so, we have to take advantage of this in order to use it in our classes.

Thanks to the Embassy of my country, thanks to Jody and Celeste for all the support and finally, thanks to all of you for sharing .

Good luck !!!

WEEK  9

This week was related to Learning styles and Technology tools for Multiple intelligences. Some years ago, I heard about Gardner’s Theory about Multiple Intelligences and I started to consider in planning my classes. But now, after reading these interesting articles about it, I asked myself if I am doing the right thing . I know that I have tried…but from now on I will do the best for my students.

I like technology but even though I am not so skillful, I have tried to apply the basic tools I knew in my classes ( videos, power point, multimedia, whiteboard, internet links, youtube, softwares,etc). Now, after reading the articles about technology and multiple intelligences ,I realized that I did not know many things related to that . So, this is a good beginning in searching for information and became interested in this amazing topic.  

I took the Learning styles quiz and it showed that I am more Social emotional (4) , Auditory (3.5), kinaesthetic and visual (3 each one) and Metacognitive (2.5) .

Other reading that open my mind was  “Sailing the 5C’s learning strategies”.This reading is very complete and  instructive ..  I’ve learned about the importance in teaching the students learning strategies and how they can help our students to be autonomous. From here I have taken some examples to use in my classes.

The last task but not the least was to finish the Final Project. I have to improve my draft report , and write the final version of my project ( a blog where my students are going to practice their written skill) It was a hard work , but lastly I finish .

WEEK 8

WEEK 8

This week I have learned more tools and that makes me feel very happy and motivated in keep on going with this amazing Interactive Web World .I think the most important of that I am going to be able to create different materials according to the necessities of my students.

Some of the explorations I did were the following :

- Making exercise online to print out : I did some activities from “Tools for educators ( animal spelling and reading , word search and puzzles)

I have done animal spelling and reading, animal CROSWORD AND WORDSEARCH

I have also did and animal test  from “easy test maker”.

I have made an exercise online to use it online  from SMILE . It is a QUIZBREAK for my 2^nd grade students

After applying all of them to my students, I could proved that they really work . My students were motivated and asked me for more activities. That is great, isn’t it?

Another interesting tool is  ANVILL. I started exploring  and asked myself in what way I could use those excellent activities ( voiceboards ,Tcast, lesson planning ,quizzes and surveys,etc) primary students. I am sure they will work with secondary students…but ,what about primary?. This made me ask to Jeff Magoto the  about it and the answer was that I could use woicetreat, so I am working on it and I hope I can use it.

The last task and the hardest was to prepare the draft of our final project and then check our peer’s project. This is the first time I do this kind of project following step by step all the topics asked . It was a good experience to check Justin’s project and as I told him…”We are learning and we are doing our best. Let’s keep on going !!!!

WEEK 7

This is my reflection in this week.

1) LEARNER AUTINOMY:This is a list of some important ideas about it.

-Autonomy is the ability to take charge of one’s learning and we have to consider that his is a process and not a product .

- We have to let them understand the WHY, the WHAT and the HOW of their learning . Students have to understand their own strength and weaknesses and accumulate the resources that will let them improve in their language skills.

-Learners take their first step towards autonomy when they recognize that they are responsible for their own learning.



-We have to consider the  learning strategies, cognitive strategies, learning attitude and motivation.



Here are my students working in groups to make a picture for their oral  presentation



The attributes of learner autonomy are outlined in this figure:

2) ONE COMPUTER :The tips given about Strategies and Applications for the One Compute Classroom   help me to know other activities to be applied in class. They are  great !!!

3)LESSON : My Sample lesson for one-computer only was about Clothes. I made it for my 6 year old students. They are going to listen and watch a VIDEO from youtube about Clothes and they have to recognize and say the different clothes that are presented. They are going to do some activities that include a game and a worksheet.

4)PARTNER: I am happy because my partner for peer review is Jenda .She also teaches young  learners , so I am sure we are going to help each other and do a great work !!!

 5) LAST PROJECT : I am working in my last project. It is going to be for 8-9 year old students. I am going to create a blog where they are going to have some activities to be developed ( songs, crosswords, ppt quizzes , worksheets, hyperlinks, etc)



WEEK 6

This week was very interesting for me because I’ve read and learn more new things related to Creating Students-centered Classes and Interactive PowerPoint.

The discussion part was about Technology tools for creating Student- centered classes Including large classes. It was good to know some new tips to apply in our daily teaching.

What I like among others were the 36 formats for Interactive Summaries where I find new activities like the  Flow, Dyads and Triads (I can do it with basic questions for my primary students ),Glossary (I can do this for specific definitions like for example zoo animals, Family members, Weather, etc), Team quiz, Team work and  true or false . These are ideal for my students but in a basic way … I want to try them in my next classes!!!!

Another very helpful   reading with excellent links is “Improving Lectures with technology” . Here I could learn how to be successful giving lectures with computer projection, how can I solve some common problems in my presentation and a new one that I have never heard “ using clickers”.

The idea of looking through other examples as it is showed in “The Anatomy of a Course Site” give as a wide view of the things I have to consider .

 The last but not least were the readings related to Interactive PowerPoint. They  help me a lot to know new ways of creating interactive materials like quizzes, games, Jeopardy, etc.  So from now one I am going to include this kind of materials. It is a promise !!!

On the other hand, the task of the week was to create an Interactive PowerPoint.. Let me tell you that I have been using PowerPoint  for many years, but they were showed  in a basic way (pictures, videos, links ,etc ). They included tasks to be solved  in a worksheet. Buuuu!!! .  I also used to download some ppt games from internet  and used them in class….But now, I have learned an interactive way to create them !!!!!! That is amazing !!!!!  I have created  my first interactive PowerPoint (an “..ing quiz”  for my 7 year old students)  and to tell the truth, it was  hard but cool at the same time. I am sure they will like it and they want more activities like that.

Talking about PowerPoint , I have done some  PREZI  activities . I saw prezi around 5 months ago and immediately I saw its potential within education for creating interactive content. This is the one I did for my secondary students on February :  VOLCANOES

This is the information about Project Task 5. I am planning to create a Blog for my 8 -9 year old students .It will have songs, some tasks to do , interactive PowerPoints, links to videos  and games. Some activities will be done in class and others at home. I have seen some examples of blogs, and they have some links to do some games like puzzles ,crosswords  with pictures, etc.

Now, welcome week 7 !!!!!

I want to share these sites

TEACHING LARGE CLASSES   

FREE PRESENTATION IN PPT

ESL PPT GAMES  

WEEK 5

This week was dedicated to Project-based Learning, Webquests ,and Rubrics.

I like the reading about “Less teaching and More learning” because it takes me to a reflection about the way I am using project –based learning . It is true that this kind of approach motivate students to learn language for a specific purpose. I use it in my classes but not very often. My students do a project after finishing each Unit (3 -4 weeks). They can do it individually or in groups.

The Webquest is a good tool to guide students through a process .Students are assigned tasks that take them to a result. The idea is not looking for information but using it. I would like to try it with my students now, but I have to prepare them first.

If you want to know more about it .Take a look at  THE WEBQUEST PLACE  or read these TIPS

Assessing alternatives was the other topic that let us know what students can do with the language considering their strengths .One of them is Rubrics that are used with benchmarks that judge the student’s oral or written performance . The one I posted was made to assess  students Reading aloud. I did it on Rubistar4teachers !!!!!  Great tool !!!!!

The last task was to talk about the way I am going to solve the problem of my students (writing-speaking). I have many ideas , but I have to choose some of them. I don’t know if they are the right ones, but I am thinking in using a Blog that will have some activities related to writing and speaking. The good thing about this task was the possibility of sharing and suggesting ideas of our peers .

A lot to learn and to work... but it is good !!!!

Week 4     

This week was related to Reading and Writing skills . I’ve learned some important ideas to take them into account when preparing a class.

The readings were very interesting. The first one was about Using internet in ESL writing instructions. This reflects on the incorporation of online lesson into the curriculum and how to use in the classroom. I took some ideas to consider if we want enhance learning.

The second tells us about how to use authentic e-text to improve reading, writing and thinking skills outside the classroom. It is important to know that we have to take into account three activities that students have to do: Choosing the books, Reading and sharing and evaluating the books.

Then we have to create a technology-enhanced lesson plan. This was a good experience because I have to think carefully what should I do, step by step. First, I had to choose the group, the unit, the  lesson unit and the minutes of the lesson. Then, I had to think of the right ABCD objectives…It took me a long time. Another thing I had to do was searching for the appropriate material ( ppt, video and online activities ). There were many online materials related to the topic but I had to choose the correct ones. After this, I had to think about the procedure, learning styles, homework and extra activities. It was really great!!!

The last task I had to do was to think of a problem with my students .I know that my students have problems with Writing and Speaking. They have errors when they have a dictation (They write the same way they listen to). I think that lack of practice is the reason. I don’t understand why is this…They have the book, Workbook and cd to practice at home…but they do not do it.

Speaking is other problem my students face with because they do not feel secure when they have to talk. I am sure that the use of the correct technology will help them a lot.

It was a really good week !!!!

Watch this interesting Video about  How technology can benefit classroom writing  .

I want to share these very interesting links with you.

Reading and writing strategies using technology

Successful uses of Computer Technology for reading Instruction

And this news from BBC about How children who uses technology are “ better writers”.

What do you think about this picture ?

Do you take them into account in your everyday lesson ?

WEEK 3

This week was full of new things to know after reading and searching on the web…What amazing websites I have found and share with the rest of the class. They are great !!!!
It was interesting to read what Burely-Allen says : "More than forty percent of our daily communication time is spent on listening, thirty-five percent on speaking, sixteen percent on reading, and only nine percent on writing ". It is true that during years, the research on listening skills did not have the enough importance as the other skills when learning a language but luckely ,now ,it is changing.

First,the readings suggested this week were related to aural/oral skill building .I am going to reflect on some of them.
 -The reading “Developing listening skills with authentic materials” make up my mind that I am doing the right thing in my daily classes.
-“New perspectives in Teaching pronunciation” makes me reflect on how CALL can be use to enhance second language teaching and learning. This research about using a speech analysis software as an aid in a pronunciation teaching class is very valuable.
 -“CALL in Teaching” is another reading that let us know how useful is CALL in language teaching as well as the advantages and disadvantages it has.
Video CALL

Second, the use of Delicious ( a social bookmarking site) allows me to save the websites I like and share them with other people.
Third, reading and answer other people’s posts makes me feel that I am not alone in the way of using technology.
Finally, we had to analyze one sample project from a group . It was really interesting to read those demanding projects that consider the situation and limitations of the group and school technical environment. The one I’ve chosen is done by Camelia Pagila. This Rumanian teacher did a project using a class blog for Teens at School .I would also like to use a “blog” for my 8-9 year old primary students.
 Marlene.

WEEK 2

The second week is finishing and it has been a week of hard work but with the taste of refreshing and knowing more.
The readings were really interesting .The ones related to Bloom remind me some theory I studied some years ago but they are updated even now. The modifications made by specialists are valuable so, we have to consider them and not leave them aside.
It was interesting to read the related to taxonomy for the technology domain. It’s amazing to know its new perspective so, we have to take it into account if we are going to start working with technology in class.
Technology Tip of the Mouth is really awesome because of the suggestions given to find the sources effectively.
The ABCD method takes me to the correct path in thinking and writing objectives. At the beginning it was difficult to understand, but after reading for the second time I could write some of them and I posted them on nicenet…I hope they are correct.
It’s good to know we are doing our best. I’ve read the posts on nicenet and I notice that even though we have different realities, we are learning and sharing for our aim that is to be good at teaching with technology . I am happy about that.

I want you to watch this video:

HOW SEARCH WORKS

WEEK 1

Hello everyone,
My name is Marlene and this blog has been created to post all my personal experience in this interesting Course : E-teacher Building Teaching Skills Trough the Interactive Web .
During this first week we did some task that were very interesting. We have to use nicest as a tool, then we have to read about rubrics and Ground rules for discussion and finally, we have to start working in our own blog.
The reading “Blogging for ELT” have helped me to open the idea of using blogs in class in an appropriate way. First, I have to be careful with the group it is going to be directed to. In my case, I would use the Tutor blog with my 6 to 8 year old students and the mix of Class blog and Learner blog with my 21 to 24 year old students at the Institute. Using the Tutor blog, I can post things related to the week’s class for example pictures, videos , games , homework, etc and also I could show some projects done by them in class .On the other hand, the mix blog will give my other group of students the facility of express their ideas in a reflective personal or collaborative way.
Second , as teachers , we have to take into consideration to keep the interest using the blog in our students .This is, answering their post with a commentary. I think it is crucial because in that way they are going to see that their work have a relevance that could be excellent, good or poor.
Finally, I want to share a video and some links that will help you to know more about blogs.
Watch this video BLOGS IN PLAIN ENGLISH
RULES FOR BLOGGING
BLOGGING OPTIONS FOR EDUCATORS
Well, I know I am just starting , but I am sure that during the following weeks I will learn new tools to use them in my English classes .

Marlene