Week 3 Reflection

   I cannot believe week 3 is over! It has been a great week with tons of information about three different aspects that are forging my academic pyramid and that of my colleagues from all over the world, namely :aural/oral skills,delicious, and sample project reports. Below these lines, I will write a synthesize about each aspect.

   Aural/oral skill-building: My classmates and I were asked to read a lot of interesting articles regarding this topic, and to my surprise I came across a piece of information that was provided by Lindsay Miller´s "Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials". In it, it is mentioned that "more than forty percent of our daily communication is spent on listening".(Burely-Allen 1995). If this is the case, we-as teachers- have to implement more listening activities into our classes. With the help of the websites provided by the articles and suggestions done by colleagues, I tried some sites specialized in the aforesaid skill.. I personally tried the www.bbc.uk. and I got to play with it. However, thanks to Ency from China, I got to know the other website intended for teachers and students. www.bbc.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/) I just loved it! Authentic materials are a must in the classroom.

  Delicious: As I was figuring out how to create a delicious account, I realized that it is pretty much like twitter, but for professionals. It reminds me a lot of Linkedin. Here, what one can do is bookmark , and share interesting websites with colleagues. In fact, I booked marked some, but the one that stands out in my mind now is Randall´s ESL Cyber Listenning Lab at www.esl-lab.com. The listening activities here are aimed for easy, medium and advanced students. I am currently following 11 colleagues on Delicious and I have only 3 followers so far. To top it all, on Delicious one can also save websites by just going to the toolbar and clicking save to delicous. Thumbs up !

  Sample Project Reports: I read Tendouinde Bruno Nikema´s report, from the American Language Center, Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso and I loved it as he had to set two goals first: one broad, and one specific, before working on the project which involved a technological tool in his teaching. He worked on he use of e-mail with his pupils( they were not good at the internet) and writing business letters to invite English-speaking guests to give lectures in the targe language. This report gave me some ideas to work on with my current Introduction to Literary class. It will all depend now on the goals I want to achieve with my students with the help of technology. For the time being, I need to sit down and think about the ABCD Objective for that particular class. I know I have to be careful upon identifying their needs. Let´s hope and wait.

   It has already been my third week of this turning point course. I will make time this weekend to work on my goals for my class integrating technology. I hope my students feel motivated to use www.bbc.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ to catch up with the current events. Needless to say, I will push my students to use Delicious as a way of bookmarking and sharing literary approaches websites as well as EFL/ESL ones. Final project, here I come!

                               

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Week 2 Reflection

  

   Here I am in the second week. I have made it! It has still been very demanding, and challenging in terms of reading assignments and comments to give on www.nicenet.org because of time constraint. However, I feel very joyful and excited about all this as I progress little by little to our final project. The course has been pushing me to my limits and I am glad that I am feeling this way. What is more, the different posts from colleagues on the aforesaid web have been enriching and uplifting to my professional growth. I cannot even state how much I have been learning from my dear friends from all over the world. Below these lines, I am going to mention some of the things I did, and learned.

   WEBSEARCHING: as most people, I thought Google was the only search engine worth trying among our students. I was totally wrong since I came across this tremendous web site that opened my eyes to see new academic horizons. http://www.noodletools.com Here, I tried each and every one of the search engines and portals and; one stood out for me and for my students, namely: http://www.bing.com. Within seconds, it drilled down related topics to that of what I typed. It also showed me the exact number of results on the right. What is more, one can narrow down the topic either by language or by region. Needless to say, its toolbar supplied me with a contextual thesaurus, a translator, and a universal text input. This website is a must! I learned that it is much faster that other search engines and one spends "more time doing and less time researching" for a given topic, which is the slogan of this website. Thumbs -up to it!

   ABCD MODEL: "How to Write Clear Objectives" from Pennsylvania State University's Teaching and Learning office was the corner stone to write my objective on www.nicenet.org. It provided me with the necessary ingredients to spice up my academic goals much better. I learned that (A) stands for audience or students. The (B), on its part, stands up for behavior or skill. The (C) represents the condition or context that is provided by the teacher or the classroom and (D), typifies the degree of accomplishment or mastery one expects the students to possess at the end. (Heinich, et al., 1996). I strongly think that- thanks to the ABCD MODEL- I will have to sit down and re write my syllabus at school. Way to go ABCD Model!

   PROJECT TASK: Here, I described in vivid details my Introduction to Literary Studies class. I also gave the class setting and the type of technology used by my students inside and outside the classroom. The instruction time was also provided and the students’ ages. I am eager and willing to start using a new technology tool among them. It is going to be fantastic. I can´t wait to see my students ´reaction when time comes to try something powerful, different and technological in the classroom.

   It has only been the second week and, I am learning much more that I thought I would. For the time being, I am going to apply the ABCD Model to my syllabus, I am going to push my students to use www.bing.com as a search engine for academic purposes in the classroom, and I am going to apply graded conversations to my students either on Edmodo.com or on Nicenet.org. I feel so fortunate and blessed to belong to this turning point course. It is going to impact, for sure, my class for the better.

 

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Week 1 Reflection

     As I sit down and reflect about what I  have learned so far in this week, two words imediately come to mind : organization and clarity. It is just remarkable how well and clear the directions have to be for a class to work properly like ours is doing now. I'm not going to lie, it has been  a very challenging and tough week, but at the same time I have enjoyed every single moment of it.

     The different websites I have been using and practicing with have been crucial. In the past, I have used blogger with my students but until now I did not understand all of the features that are at my fingertips. For instance I didn´t know how to change the language of my blog. I also didn't know how to include a comment section allowing anyone to comment, not just the registered users but also people that have simply stumbled onto our blogs. To be perfectly clear, I want to express my joy for the newfound tools at my disposal in regards to blogger.

     Another cool website worth trying is www.nicenet.org. Here one can create group discussions about a given topic and students can reply to one another. While using nicenet I feel like I am talking to my colleagues face to face because of it being conducive to a much smoother conversation. The rapport is great. Likewise, Google maps are a must! I was reading the article ¨Using Google My Maps for Classroom Project¨  written by Robert K.Elliot, when a few lines stood out to me. He mentions, once ours students are familiar with google maps, that we can create activities like Talk about your Home. In this example, one goes to his/her  home town on google maps, he/she then clicks on the blue pin and adds a title (his/her name) and a brief description of what his/her city is famous for. I did that for my yellow team and for myself, and I felt very proud of Luque, my town and thought the exercise was worthwhile.

     It has been only the first week and I am learning quite a bit! I have so many things in my mind  that I would really like to apply in my teaching very soon. Needless to say,  the comments and support from colleagues and professors are just magnificent. Little by little, and step at a time I am learning and absorbing everything that is taught to me like I did as a college student 18 years ago. And I just love it!

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