Week 10

Week 10

We have come to the end of this very important and useful course in our career. Ten weeks and it went so fast.
We have learned a lot indeed : so many tools, so many theories about learner autonomy, learning styles, multilple intelligences. What I liked most about the course is how an e-learning course could be conducted with such an easy-to-use platform as google sites and wikis,
I feel like a new teacher, impatient to implement all those tools I have been introduced throughout the course.
In fact I can't say that one tools is most useful than another because I found that we always need an array of tools to enhance teaching and learning. I need time to  experiment each one of these wonderful tools.
It looks as if the journey has just begun

Week 9

Week 9

This week’s focus was on Multiple Intellgences and Learning Styles

Technology tools, because of their multimedia character are  appropriate to support  different learning styles. Twenty-first century teachers and students are lucky to have a wide variety of these tools. We must admit however that catering to our students’ different learning styles is not an overnight process: through using different strategies, trying to take into account learners’ learning styles is a daily quest.

This week also is the moment when  we have to submit our final plan. "Light at the end of the tunnel"? , as our great instructor, Donna said. This is one of the rare moment when I do not agree with her : it has been light all through these weeks. The amount of knowledge and resources we have acquired is huge. It is not really going to be the end but just the beginning ; as many of you dear classmates I will go through all the weeks again, read all those resources and try and implement what I have learnt. Even teachers of other subjects will benefit from what the webskills course has given us. Teachers of English at the vanguard of the teaching profession...

How can we then save all these resources for future use : just one suggestion concerning the course website : I have used  HTTrack Website Copier to copy it. Delicious is great for keeping all the links. I am expecting other suggestions from you dear classmates.

Another great week starts and a new journey towards "Building Skills Through The Interactive Web

Week 8

Week 8

This week has been a busy week as we had to submit our draft plan or project. I like the interaction : we had to submit our draft to a partner and before that we had to choose a partner. In fact with these technology tools it may happen that we do things better than we usually do in real classes. I was saying that we had formed a real professional learning community at the very first week of the course... Week 8 made me discover that we can have a very learner-centered, communicative classroom through the web.

This week has been a week of more discoveries : the various tools to enhance and teaching learning. You know what, I wish I were a student in  one of these 25 teachers of English after this course. In terms of professional growth, I'm sure they -we- have grown a lot. Usually  after a professional development workshops or seminar, I feel like a new teacher, ready to go back to my students an implement all I had learned. This is the feeling I have after week 8....

Week 7

Week 7 has not been as busy as the previous week...
We dealt with learner autonomy and the one-computer classroom. The articles about learner autonomy helped me have a better understanding of this concept. Even if it takes place in a very learner-centered environment, it does not mean that the teacher's role is less important.
Choosing a partner for our Project / Plan was part of fostering learner autonomy.
Week 7 made me discover another great tool : Padlet. I think that from now on I have adopted Padlet and will adapt it to my own needs. This tool that allows both teacher an students to post various multimedia element to a wall can be used for many  purposes : posting class assignments, discussion board, hall of fame, etc. Depending on the teacher's imagination, Padlet can be a very useful technology tool.

I have already had a partner for my plan report (as I am not currently teaching) and I am working  on creating a wiki

Week 6

This week we explored technology tools for creating student-centered class, especially large classes. It is great that I have been provided with tools and strategies to deal with large classes. In my country most teachers encounter this problem of large classes.
Using Interactive Powerpoint is another great resource. I realized that with Powerpoint, especially Interactive Powerpoint,  the teacher can design very good resources to enhance teaching and learning.

We have had another step further with the project / plan and I must admit that time is flying as Donna is keeping us all busy through the weeks.

I haven't had time to go through all the optional reading but I will surely devote some time at the tbeginning of Week 7 to read more of that

Week 5

As expected, Week 5 has been another great week in terms of tasks and assignmemts and especially in terms of knowledge gained. As an English teacher who has taught for 18 years, I feel like going back to the classes and implememting all those techniques, tools and technologies i have learny in this course.

First of all, we have learnt about alternative assessmemt which is a good way to save time and and provide fairness in the classroom but most of all, the students themselves will know where to go and what is expected of them.
Project-based learning and webquests which I discovered are great tools to enhance language learning also

Week 4

Week 4 has been a very busy and fruitful week.

We started with exploring websites but the main focus was on reading and writing and building a technology lesson plan.

We took a step further in our final plan/project by just describing what might be an issue that technology could help to solve.

Look forward to another busy week

Week 3

Another very rich week in terms of readings and assignments. The readings on "Teaching Aural/oral Skills", especially the article by Lindsey Miller, Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials   showed us that listening is still a neglected skill even though  it is beginning to receive more attention.   Though listening is a skill that could easily be developed in our classrooms, I sometimes wonder why some of my colleagues almost never try it in their classes. Nowadays with all these  technology devices, listening should occur as frequently as possible. I used to have a five-minute listening activity as a warm-up almost every time I stepped in a classroom. Something I still remember and that makes me laugh is about my first teacher of English. She used to carry a heavy tape recorder in class for her listening lessons. Of course that was more than 30 years ago. Nowadays with mobile devices and software, the teacher can design his own listening material very easily. By the way, I would recommend this very easy-to-use open source audio editing software : "Audacity".

Teaching pronunciation is another skill to be developed. My question is whether we have to teach the phonetic symbols...

This week, we have been introduced social bookmarking. Though I am not knew to social bookmarking (I have been using Diigo), I do like Delicious.
Using Delicious is much more user-friendly and I think this is the social bookmarking tool I will be using

I devoted much time reading the sample reports in the course website. We have made another step further in our projects. Going through these sample projects was really a good thing, it gave me a clear idea of what is expected as far as the final project is concerned.

Week 3 is almost finished and I am looking forward to spending another great week with all my classmates and of course, Donna our great instructor.

Week 2

Expectations met

This second week of this course allowed to discover that Google is not the ... Bible of search engines. Variety is the spice of life as the saying goes. I've tried some other search engines before but "noodle tolls" made me discover that there is a lot we can retrieve from the web without  ... "bothering" to use complicated boolean operators. I couldn't wait to share noodle toolsls with other colleagues through a social bookmarking site, Diigo.
The second discovery of this week is the ABCD objective. From now on I think I have adopted this way of defining objectives, because if one understands how it works, there is a great chance that one comes up with well-defined objectives.
One step forward has been made to writing our project. I'm still undecided about what technology tool I will have to implement, but I'm sure week 3 will help...

Looking forward to another great week .

Week 1

I would like, first of all, to thank all those who have contributed to  make my participation in this e-teacher course possible.

We have just started this course and despite  our cultural differences, we are  about twenty-five teachers from different parts of the world, I feel I already belong to a professional learning community (PLC).  

This week is mainly orientation week : getting to know one another and becoming familiar with a few of the different platforms we will be using all through this ten-week "journey".
With clear instructions, Donna was like someone who was spoonfeeding us to break the ice, especially for those who might be reluctant to use technology tools. I have noticed that many of us have realized that "technology doesn't bite".
There have been very fruitful discussions on the Nicenet, a great tool among others. I'm not familiar with Wikis, and I was a bit confused when Donna told us to  add our blog's URL to the Blog Roll page our our course wiki. With Donna's help again I managed to get into the Wiki...
Those great tools made me discover that there is a lot more we can achieve as far as teaching and learning is concerned even if we live very far from each other.
I really think that the objectives for this week have been achieved and I am looking forward to another fruitful week in terms of discussions, reading assigments...

Many thanks to all of you and I look  forward to reading your comments on my blog.