Hello
My Dear Journal,
Week – 8 was the busiest and the most challenging one. We
had to use all the knowledge that we had gained before and at the same to
practice something new.
“I've
worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I
will not let my teammates down and I will not let myself down” -
Mia Hamm
Mia Hamm
The most difficult task was to prepare a Draft Project
Plan. I tried very hard, changed it several times. At first I was a bit
confused: I didn’t know whether to write what I have already done or what I
will do. The solution came itself. I decided to combine both. The first step
was about the things that we have started doing with my students, the second –
which we have never done before and hopefully will do when my students are back
from their autumn holidays. I am not going to post the draft here. I will
hopefully do it when I have the Final Version of it. My partner Avraham was one
of the first to post the draft. So I didn’t want to let him down and posted
mine by the deadline.
Teaching with Online Tools
The real adventures started right after I moved to
another task to do: The Discussion Forum.
We had a guest moderator Jeff Magoto
who seems to know everything about technology and is a real professional. I
admire him. I have never met such a teacher. I wish I could be a student in his
classroom. Ten weeks is not a very long period of time to learn everything. I
am very lucky that I have a chance to be a part of this course. I know that I
wouldn’t be able to learn so much and meet so many bright personalities as I met
here.
The topic that
we have for discussion is very interesting. I spent so much time on exploring
all the tools that ANVILL offers. ANVILL activities are intended mostly for
developing speaking and listening skills. It also offers the tool that would be
applicable in my situation. I am speaking about Forums. Forums are still widely
used. The users find this way of communication very easy and comfortable. The
users post threads to start discussions, ask questions and expect their peers
to comment on the posts. The teacher has to facilitate the discussion asking Socratic
questions, weaving and involving the students in the writing process.
Another option
is creating blogs. Nowadays they have become very popular and easy to create.
We have already created ours and had our students do the same. Blog is the
place where you can post your own thread or discussion topic. It is also the
area where students can upload the videos, pictures and photos. At the same
time each blog is unique, it gives students the feeling of possession and pride
which can foster their interest in using technology and promote students’
independent learning.
Nicenet is a
tool that can be easily created and used. At the same time it the space where
students learn to interact, participate in the discussions, express their
opinions and ideas in the target language. While participating in Nicenet they
will practice and improve their writing and reading skills. Besides, they will become more responsible
while writing their posts as other group members will read and respond on their
writing. Using the manual I will try to create a Nicenet Class as soon as my
students are back to school from their autumn holidays.
As my project is
focused on developing writing skills I would prefer Forums, Blogs and Nicenet.
At
the same time some other tools (Voiceboars, LiveChat)
also
appeal to me as learning the language is impossible without developing speaking
and listening skills.
Create an online course site or an exercise
"If you want to
conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy". Dale Carnegie.
I looked through all the tools that we were offered. To
tell the truth I got lost as I saw the things that I have never seen before. I
just wanted to create everything! It took me very much time to get acquainted
with all of them.
First, I had an
idea of creating my own website, but then I thought of creating something that
will definitely be useful to do with my students as my main aim is to improve
their writing skills and encourage them to write.
I created my class
in Nicenet. (It doesn’t mean that I won’t create my site, I have already
started!)
If you follow the
link, you will find
there the activities that I decided to use with my students as soon as they
come back to school after their autumn holidays.
a)What tool you used (please list the website) and what
you created?
I followed our Nicenet example and updated the topics. I
thought that it would be good to link them with the Web Quest that I created
before so that to have it as a whole topic together.
The first topic is: Welcome on Board!
The second is linked to the topic “Changing Lives”.
b) How you will use it in your teaching - please be
specific?
When the students have learned the topic “A Good Life”
from our textbooks, as follow up activities we’ll discuss and write our
thoughts on the topic. In my opinion, the best way to do it is in Discussion
Forum. The link sharing has the links that the students can follow to get the
materials easily.
The other topic is ”Rainforest”. I have posted only links
in Link Sharing, as we are going to take this topic only in two weeks.
c) The type of students who would use it?
My students are in the 6th grade. I thought of having
something more colourful for them. As soon as I finish creating the site I will
link Nicenet to it.
d) How you will encourage learner autonomy with this
tool?
My students do not like writing using pen-and-paper. It
seems challenging to them. When it comes to typing, everybody is ready. I will you use the tool that we have
practiced here. They will get grades for making posts and adding their
comments.
Webinar
(short for Web-based seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or
seminar that is transmitted over the Web).
I
got so excited when I learned that we were going to have a webinar. I started
my preparation long before it had to start. I checked everything, tried to get
online, but it said that I could do only 10 minutes before it was scheduled. I
couldn’t stand waiting and tried and tried and tried…. But nothing happened. I
don’t know what went wrong. I just remembered Avraham’s “disappointed”. Now it happened to me. As Robert mentioned
the quote “We do not learn so much by our successes as we learn by failures—our
own and others’. It has continuation:
“Especially if we see the failures properly corrected.” -- Frank
Lloyd Wright. Hope next time I will be able to manage it and
improve the situation.
The Course tasks have come to an end, but there is one
more that, in my opinion, needs considering more. I am talking about Peer-reading
and filling in the checklist. I am working on it. By the way, it is not an easy
task to do. I have to read carefully, analyze and then give the feedback so
that my peer (Avraham) could continue working on his project.
My Dear Journal,
Here is the last piece of news for today.
I wish Good Luck to All the Classmates!
Bye,
See you next week.
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