Thank you!!!

Week 10 is coming to an end, and this mean one thing, the beginning of something greater. The chance to use everything I have learned in my class and share with my colleagues to improve our teaching. What can I say? It was a great experience. I know there is a lot to do and that is exciting!!!

This week we are wrapping things up and I realized where I stand in technology integration in my class. Having read so many posts from so many people around the world motivates me to keep on going and improving. Thank you all for the inspiration!!!!

Week 9

Week 9 is over and that means that this course is coming to an end too. It has been great and I have learned so much. This week we discussed about multiple intelligences, learning styles and technology. Every time I read, listen or talk about his topic, I remember one of my teachers who quoted John Lydgate.

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.

I know there is a more famous adaptation of this quote but I just love this one. It reminds me of the great variety of students that we have and the different ways they learn. It can be difficult at times to teach a big class, but if you take into account their learning styles your students will benefit. I believe it is impossible to address every single learning style in every single class but by making a class dynamic including different activities every lesson you can address the different learning styles in different days. At the end all your students will benefit from your class. Technology has shown us also that it can help us a lot. While in class it is very hard to include different learning styles in a lesson, we may use Internet or similar tools to compliment the learning process.

Jota

Week 8 - more new ideas

Week 8!!!!! I can’t believe it. We are getting to the end and time has flown. This week gave me the opportunity to share some suggestions to help my partners with their project drafts, I found it very rewarding. I think it is very beneficial to have someone to review your report before handing it in, and in my case it is extremely beneficial because I know I count with very talented and experienced partners. I am very grateful for this opportunity.

Besides working on the first draft we also checked some web tools to create online and offline ESL activities. We reviewed ANVILL and it was thrilling. This tool gives so many possibilities to make your students improve their listening and speaking skills. Forum discussion will not be the same now that I know ANVILL. I use this new tool to create a sample course with a forum discussion; it is extremely easy to use! ANVILL also gave me more ideas for my final project so I modified my original plan. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to start my project until next month but I am looking forward to it. However, this project will mean the start of a bigger project for me. I have been designing a website for ESL and exploring these tools gave a lot of new ideas to include.

Jota

Week 7

This week was tough, fun but tough, as a newlywed it is difficult to find enough time to work or study; however i managed to do it. There were two options to choose from, I decided to write about one computer classrooms.

It was nice to find out that many colleagues had similar experiences and similar opinions about ones computer classrooms and computer labs. We all agree that computer labs are very useful but we also know that some times and with some specific activities one computer a projector can be more effective. It is a matter of planning and considering what is better for our students, having the activity in the computer lab or using the projector in the class. The computer lab allows students to work at their own pace and learn from their mistakes but it can also provide distractions such as the Internet or computer games. Using the projector in class gives you the ability to make students focus on one thing only but they may not be able to interact with the activity individually.

To sum up, computer labs and one computer classrooms have their advantages and disadvantages but we as teachers can maximize the benefits of any of them with creativity and good planning.

Jota

Week 6 – PowerPoint

Time is flying and this week we have checked some of the benefits of PowerPoint. As a PowerPoint fan I enjoyed reading about the tips and the different ways of making a class more dynamic with the use of presentations.

I started using PowerPoint as a student and I have also seen a lot of teachers using it. Like most people, I have made some mistakes while using this tool but that helped me improve little by little. I have learned that a PowerPoint presentation can be your best friend or your worst enemy, so you need to use it wisely. Like uncle Ben said, “With great power, comes great responsibility”.

Now I am in charge of the team that designs multimedia activities in the Binational Center where I work. We use a lot of PowerPoint games and they help motivate students in class. Having this team also helps teachers who struggle with technology. Apart from providing them with PPT games we also train them in the use of new technologies such as the interactive board and the like.

All in all, PowerPoint can help us a lot in class and we can help our colleagues to start using it too, so it’s a win-win situation.

Jota

Great news!!

I got married!!!!

An enlightening week 5

Last week we mentioned some of the problems and concerns we had with our classes. This week, however, we took a look at the possible solutions and I learned about WebQuests and PBL (Project-Based Learning). As I was reading about these tools my mind was working at a thousand and hour to plan activities focusing on this approach. I have always wanted to maximize my students talking time and focus on communication and now I have a better ideas on how to do it. I think it is a challenge, but I love challenges so it will be fun.

Another thing that worried me was the difference between exams results and communicative performances of my students. Then, I read about alternative assessment. It made me notice that sometimes traditional evaluation is not focused on communication. This is another thing I would try to include in my classes.

It was a really good week and also the start of a change, a change for good.

Jota

Week 4 - reading, writing and more

Week 4 came with a lot of resources. Teaching reading and writing is not an easy task, and as I found out that is a common issue around the world. Some of the websites provided this week will help me in my lessons when I have to include reading and writing activities.

I have learned that lesson planning is very important and useful and this week we created a technology-enhanced lesson plan so it was nice to work with a new format for a lesson plan and include the technology needed in the class.

Step 3 of my project came with week 4. I found some problems that I want to solve and I hope that technology can help me to do it.

I have learned so much so far and I can’t wait for week 5 to start.

Jota

Week 3 - CALL

I have to admit I loved this week. Reading about CALL (computer assisted language learning) was very exciting. It is just great to see how close technology and teaching have come. I think one of the biggest problems that CALL solves is the reduced amount of time that students have to practice their English in class. Students have access to English 24/7 and that is just amazing.

The obvious application of this technology is grammar practice. Students can get into different websites, solve exercises and get immediate feedback, which is very beneficial. They can even practice by playing some interactive games. There are some other websites that allow students to practice their speaking skills. Currently, the software found in websites does a great job when it comes to pronunciation practice. However, there is still a lot to improve to make a computer able to participate in an active conversation. Hopefully that will never happen and teachers won´t lose their jobs. Just kidding.

Most of my students spend 5 – 6 hours a day online, so why not taking advantage of that? Students love the Internet, games and socializing through the Web, now we can have them learn a language using something they consider fun.

Jota

Week 2 - Objectives and Web Search

Week 2 is coming to an end and one more time, it was great.  The ABCD model and web searches were the topics.

Setting objectives is very important to stay focused in class, not only for students but for teachers too.  That is why learning about the ABCD model was very useful. This model helps stating objectives in an easy and clear way so you know exactly how and what you want your students to do and achieve.

Web searching can be frustrating at times if you don´t know where to search. The problem is that sometimes we limit ourselves to one or maybe two search engines when there are plenty of them on the web. It was very beneficial to try different search engines and compare them in order to be able to see their advantages and disadvantages. Now I have a better idea of what search engine to use depending on the material I need to search for.

Week 1- Getting started

This is my first post of my very first blog. It is ironic that I spend at least 6 hours a day online and I have never had my own blog. After reading the article Blogging for ELT, I can say that weblogs are useful tools to be used by teachers. It is really nice to know that a lot of teachers in the course have already used blogs so I can ask for advice and ideas.

I have also been reading the posts on the discussions and it is nice to know about so many people that share the same passion for teaching. So far, this experience has been very inspiring and motivating and we are only in week 1! I know this is going to be a great journey.