In week 5 I wrote here a mid-evaluation of the course. I wrote then about all the tools which amazed me and changed my teaching styles: Zunal and the webquests, Noodle Tools as alternative to the ever present Google, my first technology lesson plan... I forgot to write about Delicious, maybe because I got so used to it that I fel I have known it for ages. There are so many things I learned about and articles I read that I feel almost impossible to write about them all here. Some of them became part of my teaching style and it would be impossible now to give them up. I started using the blog with my students, then, I created the wiki related to it, then I created the class site. If I give them up, I will disappoint my students, and that's the last thing I want. I could make interactive power-point presentations, I created online and offline exercises. I created a Nicenet class for my 12th graders - a real help for them, even if I created it just a day before their final exam.
I will continue all these and I will continue reading and maybe, even began writing: I have the idea of gathering all my experience and share it with my colleagues in school, as a book, e-book or traditional one. I will continue keeping this blog alive and when the course is over, I will promote it among my colleagues - teachers of English. I will continue reading your blogs, hoping you will not let them die... Like this, we can share great things, experience and best practices.
In autumn, I hope I will start the two projects I have discussed about with Zully and Ruslana. What a great chance for me and my students!
In the meantime, this week, I worked on the final project. Shujuan, Kheri and Ruslana helped me with their objective comments. I hope the final version is a valuable one, although I am not 100% satisfied with it. Then, I worked on the class website. At fisrt, I thought things are easy, but things are not what they seem to be. Even if I worked with a template and I have some html knwowledge, it's was quite time and effort demanding. Then, for my 12th graders, I created a Nicenet class which they could access just in the nick of time: I created it last Sunday, they had their first exam on Monday. Everything went as it should, and the results were very good (most of my students got B2 as grade, the highest grade which they could get). Then, I designed a phrasal verb exercise with the help of Hot Potatoes. And, because some of you recommended Tools for Educators, I designed three offline exercices - a great tool to be kept in Delicious.
I have a strange feeling now, at the end of this course, but I raise my head and I keep walking. Thanks for reading me and thanks for commenting on my (poor) blog.
All the best,
Nadina
Dear Nadina,
ReplyDeleteI do veberate your ideas sharing in our course and your diligence to be active learner and teacher all the time! You know the reason why I took this course even I am not much good at technology. I think I will get new experience and gain more knowledge about it. How lucky I am to have chance to learn from our excellent classmates and our professor. Everthing we have learned from this course since the first week until now week 9(almost end). Everything is new and really useful for my language teaching. I was thinking about sharing the knowledge from this course to my colleagues at the school and other teachers of English in my area. Webquests, Noodle, delicious, blogger, interactive power point and all useful websites for English teachers are avialable on the Internet which we can apply and choose the appropriate ones to our lessons. It is easy and very convenient to integrate technology into classroom. Deborah provided many wonderful links and things for us here. I am really happy being one of the students here and hopefully our blogs will not die too.
Regrads.
Garunyawun
Dear Garunyawun,
ReplyDeletedon't imagine, please, I am the guru of technology, 'cause I am not. I simply learned and I had the courage to try out many things, to see what happens. As long as nothing is destroyed, there is no problem, I simply try over and over again. I hope our blogs will be alive and we'll read our posts and comments.
Hello, NAdina!
ReplyDeleteAs always your post is very sensitive and full of my own thoughts and opinions! I think it is because we live in the similar countries.
You know, I even had to change the template of my class site in Google, because it was the same as yours - is it telepathy?
As for our course - it is really great, I want the continuation, we all understand that Internet is like the ocean of the great oppotunities, and we have to explore it more and more....
I'll miss all our friends, bit I hope for the new meeting soon!!!
Ruslana
Dear Nadina
ReplyDeleteYour opening paragraph touched my heart positively. We have been working together for 9 weeks (one more week is there). I feel as if we are physically together. The course has created a family where all members share their happiness and sadness, pain and pleasure, success and failure, and gain and loss. I am also sad to say good bye formally to Deborah and all friends formally. But I am happy that I have learned so many things that I will be using in my career.
Thank you for sharing exercises you have designed. I liked them. They are useful for teaching young learners in fact.
I agree with you that you keep on reading and writing, and encourage colleagues to do the same. This idea is wonderful for our professional development. To share my own experience, I learned English and learning it not because some one taught or teaching me but because I am reading different texts in English and writing in my own ways. I believe that most people learn English by reading and writing. I bet those who do not read much cannot write better.
However, whether your colleagues are motivated to do what you are doing is largely a socio-cultural thing. In my culture, normally senior teachers do not take positively when you say that you have been doing or reading new things. They think as if you are showing your immaturity. They feel insulted with such behaviour. They always think that you are not able to do the things that your seniors have not done yet. Even if you do it they do not believe. This is also applicable in the case of using technology. Majority of senior teachers, in my context, do not believe in the use of technology in teaching English. They still rely only on textbooks and lecture method of teaching.
Thank you once again.
Cheers
Prem
Dear Prem,
ReplyDeleteyour presentation of senior teachers doesn't apply only in your school or country. I face the same problem. In their opinion, the teacher is the supreme master, and only by using the chalk and the board, they can work wonders. But, later, they are upset and they don't understand why their students' results are so poor... then, they blame students, they are too stupid to be able to learn. Unfortunately, they don't blame themselves and their out-of-date and old fashioned methods. I know one flower doesn't make spring, but I hope and hope that one day everybody will share our opinion about reading and searching and finding the best method to be applied in classes.
Best,
Nadina
Dear Nadinne,
ReplyDeleteI think we all have matured as teachers and you are a prove of that!
Your online activities seem to be excellent and I am completely sure your students will have lots of benefits from your new way of teaching.
I also think of keep on reading about ICT. Now that I know there are thousands of tools outside that can be used for pedagogical purposes, I truly beleive we should take advantage of them and have techology as a friend in the classroom not as a stranger.
Thanks for sharing!
Eve
Hi There,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your blog, I realize that I forget to mention about things that I have learned and experienced a lot from trying to create the teaching tools in Tools for educators. It is worth to experience this website.
I bet my friends and colleagues at my school would be surprise about the great contribution of this web on making printable games. I may ask me how I can do that.
As you show obviously in your blog some of the game sheets. I think that you mean what you wrote. I love it too.
Of course, since I used Hot potatoes, I spent less time on this tool. I actually made one game and it is printable but I have no ideas of how to save it as a webpage or an online exercise. I should better do more on this.
Thank you very much for reminding me that I need to focus on more things!
Khang
KGCC
Dear Khang,
ReplyDeletethe exercises I created and that you can see here, are printable, offered by Tools for Educators, www.toolsforeducators.com. They are only for offline, not for online. In order to save them as .png or .jpg (that is the file extension for pictures), I used screenshot, on option from Mozilla Firefox (my favorite browser) - Video downloader toolbar. In this way, after saving them as pictures, you can upload them in your webpage. They cannot be made interactive. For these, Hot Potatoes rules :)
Hoping I was helpful,
Nadina
dear Nadina,
ReplyDeleteYes. It's the end of the course, but it's the begining of a new teaching. The course has brought plenty of interesting things and it has for sure empowered us with more effective teaching skills.
the exercises you created are great. Let me tell you nadinna that I've always been interested to read your posts. It's clear that you have invested a lot of effort in the course and this is clear from the good quality of your work, ideas and dicussions.
Keep the good work.
Yours,
Hamid.
Dear Hamid,
ReplyDeletereading your thoughts in this comments, and I feel overwhelmed. Thanks for this appreciation. I have tried to do my best, and now it's up to me to practice everything I learned here in my classes.
Hope we'll keep in touch and share everything we do and learn.
Cheers,
Nadina
Dear Nadinna,
ReplyDeleteYou work has always been outstanding. I envy you for the time you invested in the course. You have devoted enough. I am also looking forward to staying in contact after the course, collaborate and exchange thoughts and experiences.
Keep the good work.
Hamid
Dear Hamid,
ReplyDeleteyour words are very nice and I thank you. Yes, I want to stay in touch. It's a must. Only in this way we can improve ourselves.
Cheers,
Nadina