Reflections: Week 3

This week's tasks included...

• Discussion: Aural/Oral Skill Building Websites

I enjoyed going through Lindsey Miller's ::"Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials". As I went through the document, I could almost visualize my class and our teaching culture in India. So little time is devoted to developing of Listening skills. I liked the way, the author divided the daily communication into the 4 skills and how listening takes up the major part of our daily lives. We are so unaware of it!! Her format of Pre-/ While- and Post- listening will be so useful to my learners. Whatever I go through here, I want to implement in my class, I'm so eager to do so, but I know that there is so much to learn...and I should wait till the end of this course. Ms. Miller has given authentic materials through the use of Technology. While I may not be able to use all of them, but its amazing, what we, today's teachers can do for our students.

• Project task 2: Read and Analyze one sample project and post on Nicenet.

 Out of all the projects, the one that I liked most and could identify with was by Tendouinde Bruno Nikiema. Here, Mr. Nikiema has described a large class of 80, and his target is to teach them Letter Writing through the use of emails. I could identify with this for a number of reasons - I have a large class, I teach them letter Writing, I do face many of the problems listed by the author. However, the way Mr. Nikiema has implemented his technique might differ from mine, if I carry out the same project. But, its definitely an eye opener for me, as I never thought that Letter Writing could be taught in this innovative manner.

• Task: Creating a page in Delicious.com and storing useful links.

Using the specific steps provided, I have created a page in Delicious .com. What an amazing web it is! I had no idea the such an easy method is there storing my useful links. So far, I've always searched the Google for any information and never thought of saving it anywhere....naturally my task every time would seem very difficult. Now I have my own page and have started storing important and useful links, some from my course mates and some from our instructor Courtney. Here is the URL of my delicious page:

            https://delicious.com/paramita1964

Waiting eagerly to learn and share more with all my friends.......

You don't have to be an Einstein.....

I fully agree with Baraat and Dyana on the availability of information on the web, in fact at times we are spoilt for choice. With one click of the mouse, the world is in front of you. Do we need more?

I've already shared the link to RAFT, which I use quite extensively in class besides Concept Mapping. Where search engine is concerned, my all time favourite so far has been Google.com. But now with the plethora of web engines shared in this course, I'm surely going to upgrade my knowledge to benefit my students. Baraat's 'Audioboo.com' is wonderful...I need to see how I can integrate it in the syllabus. I'm going through the web engines at my disposal to see which ones suit my needs and the needs of my students.

In another task this week we had to specify our Learning Objectives using the ABCD module. This I found to be easy and comprehensible. Like Dyana, even I blend skill and task based objectives in class.... that what pertains to the syllabus.

Finally, I feel that all teachers need to remember that, technology and information should go to the students through proper guidance. We need to always act as facilitators, when the young learners research through the web, for a certain topic.

I'm sure all will agree that: " Every tool placed in proper hands can create a masterpiece."

The Classroom - A Global Village

Teaching today is no longer confined to a particular type of student genre, the textbooks or the system. With the use of technology, the world is becoming smaller, close at hand and easily accessible. So, we may say that, the classroom is a 'Global Village'.

Emails, blogs, Facebook, wiki, twitter....there are many more which provide us access to various teaching tools. A good teacher always try to find ways and means to make the class interesting, knowledgeable, effective and task based. Keeping so many things in mind, the teacher need to be constantly using technology in class.

My knowledge in this area is limited, but I have immense enthusiasm to learn and make use of them in my classrooms. I believe that "Education made us what we are" - so I keep learning...and learning...

 

Using Technology in Classroom

Using Technology in the classroom can be challenging for some of us. Yet we keep on trying, as our end goal is to give the best to our young learners.

Keeping this in mind, and the fact that for second language users, the understanding of the 3 'R's', is very important. In spite of my limited understanding of the web, there are two tools that I use in my class quite often - 'Concept Mapping' and 'RAFT Assignment'. These are extremely interactive and creative tools, which allows the students to take an active part in the class, and the teacher becomes a facilitator. These allow the young learner, a scientific approach to the language, at the same time fosters independent thinking. Students can use these two tools not only for English, but for the study of any subject. However, using them in my class has been quite effective, and made my classes interesting.

Many may have used these web tools, however, I would like to share them in my blog. Friends, in case you have not tried them yet, please do it and see the result in the class. These are the links:

Testing ‘Classroom Resources’- www.docsouth.unc.edu/classroom/lesson plans/RAFT.html ,                                ‘Using RAFT’- www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-raft-writing-strategy-30625.html

(‘Teaching and Learning with Concept Maps- www.inspiration.com/visual-learning/concept-mapping,                              ‘Concept Maps-Classroom Strategies’- www.readingrockets.org/strategies/concept-maps/

"IF A JOB'S WORTH DOING, IT'S WORTH GOING WELL"

First post

My first post in a blog...excited and at the same time worried. Will I be able to understand the instructions for the web skills? My ultimate goal is to learn in such a manner that I can teach my students and give the young learners what they need in todays technology filled world.

Web is not a common platform for teaching in my school, so I would like to change that. I would like to bring much more to the students, than what is there in their textbooks. Teaching, I feel should not remain confined to the books.....we need to go 'beyond classrooms'. For that it is the need of the hour to learn better techniques of web skills.

Let me wait and see what lies in store for me.....