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))))

 

Week 3!!!

So week 3 is coming to an end and I had barely had enough time to do all the tasks.
But first things first! I started with Delicious site and created my own account with it https://delicious.com/pcv2002. I would like to say that it was like an eye opener for me as I have often thought that it would be great to be able to do bookmarking which I could use on any computer but somehow I 've never heard about special sites for social bookmarking which could be virtually always with you provided you have the Internet access))) So I am really grateful for the enlightening me in this aspect))) Now I will never lose or forget the useful site address. Moreover, I like the fact that you can follow and share the sites bookmarked by others which means you can always learn something new!!!!

Now, speaking about aural/oral skills. I enjoyed reading the articles. For me they were especially interesting as one of my methodological problems I worked on for about 4-5 years was "Using authentic audio and video materials at the lessons". So it was interesting to compare what I already new with what I learned in this course. I found a lot of helpful and interesting sites. The one I liked in particlar is http://www.esl-lab.com/.  It provides pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening activities and as well as listening tasks for all levels. I have alreay tried some of them with my students and they liked them so I am going to incorporate more of them in my lessons. I guess  it will take weeks to browse through all the sites and interesting links in detail but I am going to savour every moment of it))))

Reading of the sample projects also proved very interesting and educational. First of all, now I at least have some idea what we will have to write at the end of the course. Besides, I guess, it was my pure luck again))) I chose to read the sample project written by Camelia Pagila from the School with Classes I-VIII, Academician Marin Voiculescu in Giurgiu, Romania. In her project she was uses interactive web for developing multiple intelligences. I also worked with this theme after I returned from my internship with MSU but I never thought that I could combine the theory of multiple intelligences by Gardner with technology so I got a lot of new ideas for myself from this project. 

Now it's the end of the week and I must admit that I feel a bit tired but nontheless, I am looking forward to week for and more discoveries)))))

Week 2 is nearly over))

So week 2 is coming to the end and I can already share some ideas and emotions I had during this week. First of all I should say that I ABSOLUTELY loved the tasks!!! At first glance it looked like a huge amount of work but what I like about this course is that all the tasks are here for you to see and to plan your schedule accordingly. This really helps with time managing and I would like to thank Donna for that!
I enjoyed reading all the materials and was especially interested in the revised version of Bloom's taxonomy. I downloaded a lot of materials in PDF format from one of the additional resources sites provided on the course tasks page( http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy ) and I hope to use some of the ideas in my classes.
Another source of constant pleasure and interest was the "search engines quest")))))I had no idea that there could be so many useful and specialized websearching engines and at first I felt like a child in a candy shop)))) I didn't know what to download first and what to look for in the first place. I have already been asked by my colleagues at school to share the information I am getting in this course with them and I am sure that not only me and my students will benefit from this knowledge and information I am getting but much more people will be able to use it all.
I also would like to comment on writing ABCD objectives task. Frankly speaking, before I read this material and tried to write my own objective I had a very vague idea about writing lesson objectives in general. We have quite different system in our institutions so it took some time to adopt out tasks to this matrix. But I just loved the methos as it really helps to make a clear, precise and concise objective. By the way, after reading objectives written by my coursemates, I also got a lot of useful ideas so I think it's a great way to learn as much as possible from such sharing.
Project task was also interesing. It gave the possibility to compare classes and systems around the world and it was quite educational. There are some problems which we all have in common like lack of facilities, but at the same time I am impressed and even a bit envious that so many schools have the possibility to teach English 5-6 times a week. That's really great.
I can't wait for the next week as I am sure that we'll learn even more exciting things about the ways of using web interactively!!!!

Week 1. Introduction
I should say that participating in this course and learning how to do all this, trying to figure out how the website works and how to create my own first blog is both exciting and fun. At first I was a bit worried that it can be difficult, but now I can see that I can manage, at least so far the tasks are not that difficult. Though I still find some things confusing, I hope that by the end of the week I will feel more confident and by the end of the course I will be able not only operate with all web tools but also will integrate them into my everyday teaching.

The first week is coming to the end. I feel that the "wheels" of our course are "gaining momentum". It's still a bit confusing in spite of all the detailed instructions kindly provided by Donna, but I am becoming more and more confident in what I am doing on the websites of the course and I see the opportunities they can offer to the students in the classroom.