Week 10 - the final week!!!!

So our final week has come! I still can't believe that there will be no more readings or interesting tasks to fulfil. But on the other hand I have a HUGE number of webpages with resources to check in store so my further exploration of the interactive web won't stop with the end of the course)))))

My students have already placed their powerpoint presentations with the complete project tasks on our classroom padlet http://ru.padlet.com/wall/shevchenkogymnasia and I am happy that the have chosen to make presentation instead of the regular written biography, it made their work more interesting, exciting and challenging. Nearly all of them tried to make interactive powerpoints with hyperlinks to websites, to other slides, with music and even video clips. Unfortunately, some of the presentations had so much technology in them that it proved to be a problem to download them to the padlet with all the effects!

I have so many plans for the future after completing this course and reading our discussions on the nicenet. I can't beleive how lucky I was to have such resourseful and smart coursemates as I borrowed a lot of ideas which I am going to use in my classroom. 

I am going to miss you all, guys, and I do hope we will keep in touch and cooperate in future!!!!

Week 9!!!

Wow, I can't believe we are nearly there!!! This week was difficult and easy at the same time. We didn't have as much reading as usual, but it was, nontheless, interesting and educational. I compared learning technologies I use in the classroom with other which exist and made some interesting conclusions. Besides, it was interesting to read the discussion and learn what techniques my colleagues from other countries use. As always, I borrowed a lot of wonderful ideas. Besides, I joined Eteacher site this week, and I hope to be able to learn more and more each week. 

Another thing I was busy with was the project. I had to revise the time limit as there were some factors which I coudn't predict or prevent. We had the flu quarantine and the kids had to stay at home. THough one of the ideas of the project was to develop autonomous learning skills, still some said that they were too ill or too busy to finish the task on time. But there is already one completed task on the class padlet and I am quite satisfied with the result. THe students presented the information she has researched in interactive PowerPoint presentation. So, I hope by monday I'll see the rest of the works. It was slower that I expected but it works, that's the main thing. Hope next project will be more successful and easier))))
So, let's wait for week 10 and see what it holds in store for us))))))

Week 8

The end of the course is coming closer and to some extent I feel sad that soon it will be over. But on the other hand, I am happy to have met so many interesting and inspiring teachers from all over the world. This week, just like all previous week, was full of exciting discoveries. I explored the whole new world of online tools for creating tests, quizes, exercises, word searches, webposters etc. I created my own padlet for our English class and my kids already started using it http://ru.padlet.com/wall/shevchenkogymnasia

Besides, this week I finally finished creating WebQuest with podcasts for my class project and published it on our class padlet. My students have already started doing it and I hope to see the results in a week. I found such sites as http://www.toolsforeducators.com/ and http://www.easytestmaker.com/ especially interesting as they provide the whole range of activities which you can create and use in your classroom both online and offline. 

I read the project draft by my partner Carlos and I liked the idea of using Google map in the class. I guess I will also try to do something similar when we learn about travelling around the world or cultures of other countries.So far, that's it for this week. 

Week 7!!!

So here I am again! THis week was especially difficult for many reasons. Maybe the main one was what was going on in my country Ukraine. Frankly speaking it was hard to concentrate on work when peaceful citizens were shot by snipers in Kyiv. Luckily, things are looking up and now I can go back to work. 
So, as for one-computer classroom and usage of the mobile devices in the classroom. As I wrote in the discussion, I use one computer in my classrrom mostly for PowerPoint presentations, listening activities, watching movies in English and working with multimedia CDroms to our coursebooks. Also I organize all my work (like write lesson plans, compile tests, use and print out different coursebooks and grammar reference books for the lessons, etc) But after reading the articles, I understood that I can use my computer even more for developing different skills. I made a couple of successful Internet projects with my students and partners from other countries. I hope to continue work in this direction as it motivates students to read and write in English. 
I registered on http://ru.padlet.com/ and I am going to create such wall with important information, competitions announcements etc. 
And the most time-consuming and difficult task is project draft. I started doing it, but so far haven't found the partner to share it with. Hope that as soon as nicenet.org starts working again I'll find the partner))
So far that's all this week)))

Interactive week 6!!!!

This week was one of the most interactive so far. I had a lot of fun doing interactive PowerPoint presentation. You won't believe it but the most difficult part was not even acually doing hyperlinks but locating action buttons in Microsoft Office 2013 Power Point!!!!))))) After TWO days of searching and comparing menus of 2010 and 2013 offices they were finally found in auto figures menu))))) But that was fun))) After reading the articles about teaching big classes I used the opportunity to combine using interactive PowerPoints with teaching a big class this week, when I had to substitute for another teacher It was interesting but I wonder how to do it in a one-computer classroom.

 Now, as for the project draft. Frankly speaking, I am starting to panic as I seem to have too many ideas and now I understand why Donna suggested concentrating on one tool. At the moment I am trying to narrow the area I would like to change and composing the webquest with the tasks. I have already decided what class to use for the project and described the idea to my kids. THey are eager to try. Hope everything works out well)))))

week 5- the equator

I can't believe that half of the course is nearly over!!! Congratulate everyone on passing the Equator!!!! 

Ok, this week was a real challenge for me as we had an extra credit task to make own Webquest and it was unbelievably interesting but difficult at first. I tried to use Kompozer HTML text editor at first but it was too complicated so I felt relief when I found out that you can make your own webquest from the scratch on on www.zunal.com. It was tricky at first but I managed. Of course it's quite simple as it's only first attempt but at least now I have some idea on how to do it so I'm thinking of making it a part of my final project.

Another fascinating thing I did this week was doing my own assessment rubric on ttp://rubistar.4teachers.org/. I used some ready-made rubrics before, of course. but to prepare one by myself is quite something!!!

Reading about PBL and alternative assessment was also very enriching. It provided me with a number of excellent ideas which I am trying out in my classroom now. I was particularly impressed by the article Practical Ideas On Alternative Assessmenf For ELS Students (http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/tannen01.html). 

I would like to thank Donna and other instructors working with us once again and say again how lucky I was to get on this course as I am learning SO MUCH here  and I am sure my students will benefit greatly from all these new ideas)))))

Week 4!!!!

I can't believe that week 4 is nearly over. It was quite a difficult week. The tasks are getting more and more complicated but at the same time more and more exciting. At the beginning of the week we ad to read and analize some articles on using interactive web for teaching reading and writing. I especially liked "Using the Internet for ESL writing instructions" by Jarek Krajka. It is very helpful as he suggests a lot of interesting ideas on using technology for developing different kinds of writing. Another inetersting article with a lot of useful weblinks and ideas was "Using Internet-based children's literature to teach EFL" by Larry Mikulecky.

 I also browsed the suggested sites and http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ was a real discovery for me. Now it is one of my most favourite sites. I have already tried some of the activities offered there in my classes and they worked quite well))

I liked the task with the technology-enhanced lesson plan. The template is a bit different from the one we use in Ukraine so at first it was a bit tricky but then I understood how to fill it.)) Especially difficult was to figure out how to download mp3 tracks with listening tasks so I had to skip it.  By the way my vice-principal was present at this lesson and she liked it)))
As for the problem for the project task, I guess all of us will have more or less similar problems. One is lack of computers in class and another is similar students' skills in need of development. I am really looking forward to the acual writing of the project))))