Week 5: My lesson based on the technology plan

Last week I found out about the technology based lesson plan, and I agree with Hamid that there is a difference between lesson plan and lesson planning: one is the result, the other is the process.

As the unit in my textbook (Upstream Upper Intermediate) deals with environment, I chose and adapted a lesson plan called "Plant Appreciation Day" from http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/04/plant_appreciation_day.html.

I designed my lesson for 50 minutes, I prepared everything in detail, I asked one of my school-mates (thank you, Valentin) to get the camera and film my class, then I spent a couple of hours in front of my computer to process the movie and shorten it: only 12 minutes out of 50.

Unfortunately, as our camera is a HD one, the format was too large, I couldn't upload it here (more than 1 GB) and by converting the movie I lost from its quality. However, you can get a general idea about my lesson. If you are patient enough, you will see my students, my teaching methods, my lesson...

Week 4: Conclusions close to the end

Our week number 4 in this course is soon over. I can't imagine a month has gone by and I have learned so many things... The problem is I want to learn more and more and try not to forget. I wouldn't like to say "confirmed" to the saying "The more I learn, the less I know". One of my mottoes in life goes "I give all I know for half I ignore" - and it proves true every single day. For me, this course is a really great chance to improve myself. I am wondering (already) what shall I do when this course is over? I got used to all this hard work, to reading, and writing, and everything... But, till the end it's a long time, so I'd better concentrate on the conclusions of this week.

I have learned many new things - mainly related to resources I can use to make my lessons more interesting for my students, to motivate them more and more. I have designed my first technology lesson plan: it's not only for the task, but tomorrow I will make a lesson based on this. I will share everything with you, be patient and you will see what I mean. :) As they are environmentally aware and most of them love plants, I will have a lesson about Plants Appreciation Day, based on the lesson plan found on the internet.

I thought it's useful to make a comparison between this lesson plan and the ones I have used so far. Like this, things became clear in my mind and I could see the advantages and disadvantages for each of them. Even if I considered one plan the best, and at first I thought the technology lesson plan lacks some important rubrics, I could make a mixture between them and everything was all right.

Then, I expressed my own opinions about reading and writing, I shared my ideas with my mates and then I identified two issues my students in 9 B have. The main idea is that teenagers read less and less and they are not able to understand what they read. This is the case in Romania, I don't know what exactly happens all around the world, but here things are like that, unfortunately. I haven't thought about the solutions yet, but I have an idea about what I can do to solve this. Later, I still have time.

I am very glad I can share all with my mates all around the world, I like reading their posts on their blogs, I like reading their comments on my blog and at the same time, I got used to commenting. This course enabled me to overcome the "express your thoughts" barrier. For a long time (about 5 yeas or more) I have been reading blogs. But I had never expressed my own ideas in a comment. Now I do it, thanks to this course.

And, of course, I have enriched my bookmarks using Delicious. It's a great resource, it's extremely helpful and I am happy now I know it's there...

Last, but not least, I shared all with my mates at school (teachers of different subjects) and my students.

Week 4: Technology lesson plan?

Well, here we are in the middle of the 4th week of our course. So far, everything is all right. I feel more relaxed, I fell calmer, I have already got used to the course, to your blogs, to your comments on my blog...

Now, I'd like to tell you some words about technology lesson plan. When I first heard about it, I thought it's something related to mechanics, or electricity, or technology in general. What a mistake!

Since I graduated the CELTA course last autumn I have been using their lesson plan template. I thought it's the best as it makes me take into account my students' presumed knowledge, my self-aims, it has a rubric where I can insert my meaning and instruction check questions... shortly, I thought there can't be anything better than it! I was so wrong... The technology lesson plan is far better. Even if at the beginning I was a bit disappointed and I even talked about this in a post on Nicenet, when I actually started designing my own lesson plan using this template, I could find all the rubrics I thought were lost.

There are many things I like about this lesson plan, but two of them are my favorite: the first one is that I have to write clearly where I downloaded my information from - in this way, I am protected, and here I mean the copyright. There are many many teachers who simply copy a page from a book, without mentioning the book, the author, etc. My second favorite thing is that I have to think about a plan B in case things don't work as I planned.

Now, I will use this lesson plan for my future lessons which involve technology. By the way, on Monday I will teach the lesson I described on Nicenet. I will make pictures and share everything with you.

Week 3: The end and a new beginning

This week has been a very busy one: I have read almost all the blogs and comments and many of us complain about the hard work and the lack of time. That's true, this course is quite time consuming but it's worth it. And, even if all of us complain about something at a given moment, there are many of us who keep up with the tasks and discussions.

It was a very interesting week - once again I have learned many new and useful things. What I like most is the fact that I have to discover by myself and I am involved in the learning process - I can't imagine myself reading and learning by heart new things in order to speak about them later. The readings are recommended, not compulsory and this allows me time to read them when I can, and freedom to choose what I read and how much I read.

I said I have read your blogs and comments. This is a very useful activity as I find out lots of things - interesting, shocking, similar, different. In this post (the last one of this week) I would like to tell you what I discovered. Quite new, interesting and not so good. We are all teachers, educators, we are involved in the teaching process. We are up to date regarding the latest technology and we use it for us, for our students... but, unfortunately, many of the teachers in this world do their job in the traditional way, not taking into account what technology means, not being able to use it (not even for personal purposes). I was sad to find out that Juliet was shocked that in her country teachers don't have a CD player to use in class. It's sad, but it's true. Then, Ruslana from Ukraine was sincere to confess that only 20% of the teachers she knows use tape-recorders or CDs in their lessons, while 55% have never used one! Or to mention Garunyawun's statement about teaching English in her country: in Thailand teachers of  English don't use English during their classes, being afraid of making mistakes... Once again, sad but true. All of us mention the traditional methods teachers use: I agree that they are old-fashioned, out-of-date (the methods, not the teachers!). In my country I can find all the examples you mentioned, so Romania is not an exception. When I wrote about  my findings concerning my students' ways of spending their free time, you agreed with me and said that your students too use the internet only for socializing and entertainment.

My question is logical now: what MUST we do? I think we are among the best teachers in our country - that's why we were elected to attend this course. We are interested in improving ourselves, in learning, in sharing experience... but that's not enough. I'd like to become an ambassador. And I started being one - in my field, of course. There is not a single thing I learn here not to be shared with my mates at school and not only. Last week I had the chance of meeting teachers from all over the country when attending a course: teachers of different subjects, teachers of different ages, from different schools. I talked to them about Noodle Tools and having my laptop close to me, I let them see why it's different from Google and why it's better to know it is there... This week I told my mates and my students about Delicious. I let them use it and see its advantages.


If we keep the information we have just for ourselves, things will not improve. Let's share everything we know. Let's make our teachers understand that it's better to take advantage of technology, let's try to motivate them. We can do it! We have the necessary knowledge, so we have power. I'd like to talk to you in 5 years' time and I'd like to find out that things have changed: more teachers use this tool called technology. I never want a teacher to be replaced by a computer. The computer is artificial: it has intelligence, but it doesn't have a soul...

Week 3: Hard work, lack of time...

It's night, actually it's after midnight now when I am writing and trying to explain the new things I have learned this week. I can't actually believe that the end of the third week is so close. So many things happened...not only here (I will tell you about them at the end of this post).

At first, more precisely on Monday evening, when I read for the first time the tasks for this week I said: well, it's simpler than before. Actually, I was wrong. Even if I thought I can solve everything in a couple of hours...it took me more than 5 days...


One of the best things I have learned about this week is Delicious.com - and I explained the advantages and why I like it so much in my previous post.

Then, I started reading about everything related to the aural/oral skills. The idea became very clear in my mind and while thinking about my post related to this, I had to organize my ideas and everything I know about them, in order to present my virtual classmates the advantages technology brings in our classrooms. I am addicted to technology and to the internet - I can't imagine life without it. I have been using the internet for more than 15 years, and with time I learned I can use it for something different, not only for socializing or entertainment. Now, it's my duty to teach my students this, and make them understand that the internet is the wonder of our lives and we must use it in a fruitful way (as I said in one of the comments on one blog, we should be able to make our teaching pleasant and useful). I got help from the internet thanks to the links Deborah provided. Everything is so easy and nice... I am able now to find to best resources I need and to adapt everything to my students needs. Otherwise, I lose their interest and attention and I am quite useless...

Now, I would like to make a confession: I am a little bit sad and disappointed to see that not all my classmates have comments on their blogs. I have been reading and commenting almost on everybody's blog. I didn't do it be named "creative" or "the most active": not at all. I comment on your blogs because I consider that communication is the most important thing in our lives. I can't live without communicating. I like to express my gratitude, my ideas, my dis/agreement and make sure you know that I read what you write. Otherwise, if I don't write, how should you know I read your posts?

Now, I would like to tell you why this week was so special for me. It's quite a personal thing, but I want to share it with you. Those of you who read what I posted last week know that my school got the distinction of European School for the second time. On Thursday I went to Bucharest (our capital city) and the minister of education offered us the title and the certificate. I dedicated it to all my students as a sign of gratitude for their hard work in international project during the last 3 years. Here I have some pictures:

Week 3: Mmmm, DELICIOUS...

When I first accessed this site, www.delicious.com, I was quite surprised. First of all, the name of the site, then the images (all of them related to cooking and eating and I have to agree I am one of the worst cooks ever). I couldn't understand what's the point. I let it go.

But, the 3rd week came, and with it, this task: creating a personal page on www.delicious.com/nnadina. And I got the point: it is extremely helpful for me. It helps me save time and it allows me to be more organized. I am not the only person who uses bookmarks (so many sometimes) and who simply loses them. I can give you lots of examples from my personal experience.  When I created my bookmarks, I was very satisfied with them, but something strange happened (because of a virus I have to reinstall the OS or the browser) and I simply lost them. Or: I had them on my computer at home and I needed them at school, and of course I couldn't have them. It meant spending time almost on nothing, because sometimes I wasn't able to find what I was looking for.

So, when this week started (for me on Monday night), I explored very carefully the site. I read the introduction and I created my first bookmarks. Now, I have them with me wherever I go. I find this site extremely helpful. Why? Just to give a short example. As I have already told you, I created (actually arranged and searched) my first page at home. Today, while at school, I needed the exact address of a website for my projects. Instead of going through the e-mail and trying to search what I needed, I simply went to my page (www.delicious.com/nnadina) and had everything there.

I warmly recommend it to everybody. It is simple to use, its interface is friendly, the instructions, examples and explanations are clear and you save time by having everything organized as you like / need it.

That's all for now. I am eager to read your opinions about it. For me, it is simply DELICIOUS.

Wekk 2: Instead of conclusion

The end of my second week on the course is drawing near. It was a very hectic week for me: I attended a course on life-skills, I had to keep up with my work on this course, I had to deliver lessons at school, I had to learn, I had to... enough.

First of all I would like to start by the ABCD model when speaking about objectives. If exactly one week ago they were totally new for me, now I know about them, I have even tried to write an objective following this model. And I find them extremely useful. As long as an idea is clear in my mind, I can express it very clearly and make my students understand it.  It's very important for me to know my audience, to know their attitude and behavior, and to know the performance I want them to reach. I will use only the ABCD model now on as I have never found anything more useful.

Then, I would like to tell you that something amazed me at the very beginning of the week, when I had to describe not only one class, but also the setting. I kept asking "What's the point?"... later I realized that the setting is also extremely important for the teaching / learning / assessing process. As long as you don't feel very comfortable in one classroom, it mark your teaching, your behavior and your attitude. I chose a class I am very fond of: 26 students from grade 9 B in my school. I described the setting, I described the students and now I am able to let you see them: 

The last point I want to tell you about is related to the search engines. I have often felt that Google was not enough for me, especially when I wanted to search something more specific. Now, thanks to this course, thanks to Deborah and to my classmates, I know about Noodlle Tools first of all and I am very glad I know more.

I am very impressed by my classmates' work. I read their blogs, I read their posts, sometimes I comment and I am very happy we are virtually together and we share our knowledge, our experience and we are able to learn together.

This is all about my second week. I am eager to start the 3rd one.