Course reflection

As time passed these 10 weeks were very special one. I wish I could have taken part earlier on such courses.

First of all I would like to thanks Courtney and all the participants who created a great learning atmosphere. Before it all started I was not quite sure how will it all work but thanks to clear instructions of Courtney I managed to complete the tasks. The topics that this course covered were up to date and hosts together with other more skilled participants shared many useful ways and experience with web tools. I have also shared some but to be honest I got more from this course than I planned to receive.
If I have to choose a tool that I like the most it would be the wiki site. I have created a class wiki and I feel that it is useful to my students not just one time but as I keep updating it with files, posts and other information it always attracts visitors (students).
I feel that taking part in this course made me more confident and not that much worried about the technology. I have experienced that it is designed to be used by anyone even by someone like me whose computer skills are not that great.

To sum up I wish all our blogs stay alive and updated.

Matej

Learning styles learnig intelligences and technology

This week was mostly about finishing up our projects and working on the final reports. Meanwhile I got a chance to learn more about the topic of multiple intelligences and how to support learners with technology. We teachers have to bear in mind that if we want to be effective in teaching we have to be prepared to accept the learning styles of our audience. As I have learned more about the effective teaching in larger classes a couple of weeks ago this week I found out more about how can I strengthen my teaching. After taking an online quiz on learning styles I have found out what kind of learner am I.
I realized that how I teach is affected by my learning styles and is not suitable for every learner. After discussing own experience on Nicenet forum I found out that we are not always aware of what kind of learners we teach. Even though I teach two classes the same subject the topic discussed has to be presented according to the students I have in my classroom. Using technology can help. It can stimulate learning process e.g. PBL or WebQuests can stimuli active learners with problem solving activities in a group work as well as reflective learners can plan well the steps to success. Teacher should support all learners with his work in the class and students should also strengthen their weaker learning styles because we are both e.g. active and reflective learn but we have to use these styles wisely.     

Online resources part 2

Hi everybody,

This week was more about exploring new tools that enhance language learning and learner autonomy. After my wife has seen the website for learning languages she decided to start to learn another foreign language online.

Here is how I see some of them.
I have tried and created some material for my next week classes. A first I have created a wordsearch exercise - topic Money on http://www.toolsforeducators.com - I recommend it to everyone who has students in their classes that want to participate and prepare some activities. I sometimes allow students to prepare such exercises as revision of vocabulary or warm ups. The one I have created can be found under Courtney's class Wiki / week 8 resources.

Hotpotaoes application is a good one, too. I used it a couple times with my students. I did not like it at all and my students did not enjoy doing the exercises I have prepared.  This does not mean I will give up working with Hotpotatoes. I think this week I saw many different ways of how to use this tool and this will inspire me in my future work. Good thing about Hotpotatoes is that students get instant feedback.

I have also checked ANVILL tool. It is very modern tool and thanks to Mr. Jeff Magoto I could have a closer look at it. It allows teachers to listen, watch and assess students responses. It allows users to create a forum and much more. I find it quite challenging to use though.

Right now I use our school's e-learning tool for online assessments and simple exercises, but it does not allow me to listen to students' answers and upload video files which ANVILL supports.

Tolls such as ANVILL can have a great effect on students learning and their autonomy. I teach students who are not able to visit school either because they are pro-sport players or have health problems and this would be a way how to teach them and check their progress.

Matej

Online resources

Web Poster Wizard

Hi readers,
This week was a tough one because of project draft and thousands of online resources I had to check and try. One of the website I really liked was Web Poster Wizard - it is really easy to create worksheets here. These worksheets are easy to read and there is not much place to be very creative with pictures. However, the ability to add links that students can use to complete the exercises are priceless. Another good thing was that I can tell my whole class to visit worksheets I create and they can work on them and then upload them so I can check them but not only I can see their work also others (parents and their mates as well).




Thanks to Courtney and her valuable suggestion about texting and the way it can be applied in classroom I am pretty sure this week classes will be a lot of fun for my class.

Matej

The One-computer Classroom

The One-computer Classroom 

Its is not possible and always necessary to go to a computer lab to support language teaching with the modern technology. In the second part of the week I have read and discovered innovative ways of using computer in class. I found it interesting reading other teachers experiences in one-computer classroom. I highly appreciate the idea and suggestions of Natalia about "Self access center". I will establish my own resource center for my classes to visit and use anytime they want to.  

Learner Autonomy

Learner Autonomy - a long way to go

As every week this week contained another interesting topic. This week's articles about autonomy and how should students take charge of their learning with the help of their teachers were inspiring. Ideas presented on the group Nicenet forum only confirmed that so far there some pioneers who have changed their teacher's methods and started to work their way towards autonomy.

After reading some comments of other participants I have discovered that I am probably more lucky than they are because the environment I work in allows me to support my students' autonomy and lifelong learning. Just the way I am learning now about the web applications where my councilors are my colleagues and course instructor, students at school should get the same chance to experience this way of learning.

I personally think that it takes long time for students to become autonomous. Nevertheless, modern technology can only support student's learning and the great thing about technology is that it allows teachers to move from a role of models, controller and organizer to roles of facilitator or councilor. Just as this week I could learn more about the topic of "Learner Autonomy" with the help of Wallwisher/Padlet. Is is an interactive tool which allows students to upload texts, videos and pictures on a wall where everyone can see and read them and this is one way of how to support learner's autonomy.

      

Teaching large classes / PowerPoint Presentations

Presentations

To tell the truth I was not a real fan of PP Presentations. Do you ask why? Well, so far I had some possibilities to see PP Presentations done without any interactive tools and I got bored watching them and listening to the presenter. However, this week has changed my relationship towards presentations. New ideas of how to use presentations, tips and tricks, interactive games and quizzes have shown me new ways of how to use presentations. Quizzes and interactive language games are my plans for the future. I have already created a presentation and presented it to my students. I think all the articles with tips and helpful ideas which were presented this week like Garr Reynolds Presentation and Make Use of Powerpoint are useful websites which helped me to prepare my slides.

Thank you colleagues for mentioning Prezi, Sliderocket or Zoho . They all seem to be useful for me and my students because on our school's computers we do not have Microsoft Office software installed and they might be a solution of how to present.

Teaching large classes

This week was also about using technology tools in large classes. Because I am a high school teacher I do not get a chance to teach more than 25 students. I know it is also hard to get smaller class engaged in listening, reacting and working on what teacher tells but teaching a class of 40 teenagers and more that is a real challenge some teachers have to face. I can tell I am the lucky one but also would like to use tech tools like Moodle, Blackboard and the one we have at school. Because I have used our school's e-learning version for testing students' knowledge and skills I know how to create a simple test but this week I have learned more about how to create a good quiz question and learned about pros and cons of using online assessment tools. At the beginning I kind of liked our school's e-learning tool but soon found out that I cannot upload audio files to test listening comprehension and also the amount of questions was limited.

This week I have enjoyed quite a lot even though there was a lot of reading but quality of the articles was very high. The articles about how to get students engaged were inspiring. I will use the ideas mentioned there to get my students motivated for class. Article about Just in Time Teaching inspired me and I see it as a new way of how to present homework or self study to students. Despite it was originally developed for use in physics education I see some possibilities in teaching English when doing some conversation to certain topic. This way students prepare for the next lesson review the previous one and do some research which they would not do.

Week 5 - Webquest and PBL

This week had moved me another step forward to become a modern teacher. 

After reading articles about Project Based Learning and Webquests I thought to myself, I can do the same and will try it in my classes. My students also need reasons to learn English.

With the help of technology and modern ways of teaching like Webquest I have prepared an interactive PBL with the help of Zunal Webquest maker. It has opened new horizons to me and I think Webquests will become part of my teaching. However, to become a premium user of Zunal Webquest maker is not for free and only a very basic options are for free. Because I am just beginning using Webquest it is enough.

Finding out about how others deal with their problems in using technology in their classes made me think of my problems. Some solutions to my classroom problem were discussed in the week 4 so I went back and have read it thoughtfully. I have decided to support my students writing skills with the use of Pen Pals and e-mail exchanges.

I have visited some sites like The Teachers Corner, International Pen Friends and ePals.
I found them quite useful and will use these sites as a support for teaching writing skills to my students.

I hope next week will be as fruitful as this one.

Matej

Week 5 - Alternative assessment

Rubrics

Thanks to Rubistar I have been able to create my first multitrait rubric. I have used a very simple form of rubric for assessing writing of my students. They knew beforehand what I was assessing (Grammar, Content, Vocabulary, Layout). Maximum points 5 minimum 0. But they did not know what were the points equal to.

However, after creating a rubric on Rubistar they will be able to see exactly what are 3 points in Vocabulary trait equal to and so on. Later they will be able to give similar feedback to their classmates. I think that it will soon become a feedback students will be getting from most of the teachers at our school.

Week 4 - Lesson plans and much more

Reading and writing skills websites

This week was dedicated to websites which I did not use very often in my classroom. It was because I did not know about websites like Breaking News English or Write or Die.

I can see my students more motivated in doing these writing exercises than before and this is why I always wanted to this course. I can feel it that I am improving in my ICT skills and new technology which I use in my teaching is used more effectively. Thanks to my colleagues I have learned again about new websites, applications and have read useful articles and comments. 

My week was not an ordinary one because I was accompanying students and colleagues from our German partner school on a skiing course. However, I got a chance to discuss the topic of web skills with them and compare my knowledge and use with theirs. I can say that this course is helping me a lot and things learned in the course are necessary for my future teaching. 

I really like that I could create a Google Document thanks to Courtney's instructions. I have never done it but will use it and mention it to my students and colleagues. Because the course has to have an outcome this week I focused on my Final Project and identification of possible issues in my class.

I feel more confident about using ICT in my class and I am looking forward to the week 5.

  

Week 3 - DELICIOUS bookmarking and aural/oral skills

Strengthening my web skills

 

Discussions that open your mind

This week has Courtney prepared another portion of interesting ingredients. At first, the portion of ingredients in my head caused a dizziness and on Monday I felt like a fruit salad. However, the next day I have overcome this condition of mind and started working on my first task.

I have created a delicious account in order to save my favorite websites. I like the idea that I can store and have access to my bookmarks anywhere in the world. I also like that I can make some bookmarks public and private. That helps because I have already informed my students about Delicious website and I would like to keep my private life private. I know that I can organize these websites but I am not that kind of guy. You should see my desktop, documents and folders everywhere.

I am starting to like the Nicenet discussions. It is a place where I have shared my opinion and experiences about my use of technology in my classes and learned that there are other teachers who have done similar things in their classes to motivate students. Their suggestions and experiences which they share on the Nicenet is a precious gift I received this week. Thank you Hector Alvarado, Mukti, Sharmila and Krishna.
Sharing information about the websites my classmates use in their classes and how they use them impressed me and helped me to extend my website directory for English classes. I have used some of the websites in the classroom and the students feedback was very positive.

The last thing I would like to mention are the project reports of former course participants. I have read some of them and they were very inspiring. Most of all I liked Zlatka Dyankova's project report about the way she used WebQuest in her class. I feel the same way as she did, I am not decided what kind of project I would like to do in my class. I am looking forward to another week of this seminar.

   

Second week of the course

WEB SEARCH

This week was a web searching week. 

I do not remember when I have spent such a long time searching the Net and using different search engines. However, what I value the most were the articles about the ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives.

I have read about the ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives for the first time. With the help of the articles which Courtney sent us this week I have managed to create objectives for my lessons according to this model this week. This way I will be able to think about the lesson objectives more accurately.

This week´s task was also to learn more about the web searching and try out more search engines and evaluate some of them. Thanks to Courtney and the Noodletools I will be able to search more effectively. So far I have been using mainly Google, Bing, Ask, Youtube, Yahoo, but in the future when I need to look for specific academic materials and articles I will use more appropriate search engines where results are finer. Some tips on how to use search engines more effectively were new for me but I have already used most of them. New things I have learned so far about search engines I will share with my colleagues at school and with my students. 

This week was also a week where I got a chance to think about the final project and my class. I know that most of them is very strong in using ICT outside of the school. This course should help me to introduce ICT to my English education and that with the help of ICT my students language output would not be limited only to the schools topics and on the schools ground but would make a step further and would enter their lives, families and homes.

First day in winter paradise

The first day was great. The weather was awesome and the students behaved. Their behaviour is always an issue but so far it was all good. I am looking forward to another day.

Skiing and Snowboarding in Tatras

After another year Lubo and I are going on a School skiing and snowboarding course with some of our students. I am really looking forward to it but am also a bit worried that I will not be able to go online every day. 

1st week of the Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web

 My 1st blog post. -

I have been reading many blogs recently and admired the people who were able to present their thoughts online this way. I would also like to be a part of this world. Computers were and are part of my daily life and sharing new ideas, opinions and thoughts online is a great thing. What I am most worried about is that it will take me ages to learn how to keep my blog up to date and attractive. If I have to describe the process of creating the blog - it was easy to start it but now it is the time to fill it up with thoughts and other things.

I personally have a Facebook account but I have it and only use it only because in our school I am so far the only one who participates on international students projects and when I want to get together with some  students and plan or organize a meeting it is easier for me to send invitations and other facts and info to them of the FB group. I am also responsible for international students and for students who would like to study abroad. With the help of my blog I would be able to inform students about latest grants, scholarships, deadlines, chatting club sessions or other attractive activities for my students and not only for this closed group of people but for every one who goes online.

Because this is the first time I am using a blog application I am going to publish it and see how it looks like.