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
