Week8-Reflections
I feel very happy and excited since I learned so many things .Experience showed me the correct path many a times throughout the week.I explored the the same website several times and learned those facts.From the very beginning of life, I l used to hard things rather than easy things.I believe these hard earned things made me what I am today .The web skills I learned are priceless assets to me.
I found out Nice net,,Blogger ,Google docs very useful tools in creating classes.They each serves different purposes.Nice net is the best for discussion forums.Blogger can be used to comment on work of each other. Google docs is very user friendly method of sending messages and documents to people. Specially, students feel that it is a reason to be proud to use all these methods. They consider themselves autonomous learners.
Exploring Tools for Educators,Lantern fish,Easy Test Makers,Hot Potatoes 'Crossword Puzzle Games are all great learning experiences. Easy Test Makers is the favorite of mine as it saves time. Moreover,it offers various different exercises such as Multiple Choice, True/False,Filling in the Blanks,Matching etc. Cross Word Puzzle Games are really assets to the teachers as well as to the students.
I must appreciate Blogging as it is the method which I was guided on the correct path.When other methods were far reaching goals for me, Bogger showed the way to educate young 30 teenagers in their writing skills. The students who used to write in their exercise books marched a long way with me and today they write on their own Blogs.Oh what an achievement it is.!In this busy fast moving world,they are in the process of creating the History.and we ,teachers should play our part correctly for the betterment of whole mankind.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Week 7 My reflections
I had to start very late due to the fall I had. My right arm was fractured and still I'm not very well fit enough to work. ' Time and Tide waits for no man ' and I started .because I didn't want to be left alone..
The articles on learner autonomy were really interesting. I learned a lot. I understood an autonomous learner can do wonders in the world with the help of an autonomous teacher. I was specially impressed by the article ' Learner Autonomy : Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush '. The author sends us a message to be an autonomous teachers..
Project
Background:
It is a class of 30 boys who sit for the G.C.E. advanced Level Examination.. They are all teenagers of 18 years old. They don't care about their grammar when they speak and their writing skills are low. Because their main aim is getting through the examination and entering the campus, they are not highly motivated to learn English.
Setting :-
The class room and the interactive white board room.
The goals of the course :-
- to develop the grammatical competence to contribute to accuracy and fluency.
- to write precisely connecting all the given ideas.
- to develop capacity to work in groups.
- to develop capacity for analysis and synthesis.
- to develop independent learning making them autonomous learners.
- to develop their critical thinking by commenting on others writing.
Technology related change project goals :-
- to access and write creatively on the blog which the teacher has created for them.
- to create their own blogs according to the instructions given by the teacher.
- to educate them the clear purpose for creating and posting to the blogs.
Needs of the learners ;-
- to develop writing and reading skills to communicate more effectively in English.
- to develop technology skills along with their English language skills.
- to be more resourceful and autonomous learners.
Achievements up to now :-
- They were highly motivated.
- They were able to write precisely, accurately and appropriately.
- The overall ability of critical thinking was fairly good.
I'm proud.myself.Everything was possible .because of you Courtney... Thanks a lot Courtney and all the course mates.
Disna
I had to start very late due to the fall I had. My right arm was fractured and still I'm not very well fit enough to work. ' Time and Tide waits for no man ' and I started .because I didn't want to be left alone..
The articles on learner autonomy were really interesting. I learned a lot. I understood an autonomous learner can do wonders in the world with the help of an autonomous teacher. I was specially impressed by the article ' Learner Autonomy : Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush '. The author sends us a message to be an autonomous teachers..
Project
Background:
It is a class of 30 boys who sit for the G.C.E. advanced Level Examination.. They are all teenagers of 18 years old. They don't care about their grammar when they speak and their writing skills are low. Because their main aim is getting through the examination and entering the campus, they are not highly motivated to learn English.
Setting :-
The class room and the interactive white board room.
The goals of the course :-
- to develop the grammatical competence to contribute to accuracy and fluency.
- to write precisely connecting all the given ideas.
- to develop capacity to work in groups.
- to develop capacity for analysis and synthesis.
- to develop independent learning making them autonomous learners.
- to develop their critical thinking by commenting on others writing.
Technology related change project goals :-
- to access and write creatively on the blog which the teacher has created for them.
- to create their own blogs according to the instructions given by the teacher.
- to educate them the clear purpose for creating and posting to the blogs.
Needs of the learners ;-
- to develop writing and reading skills to communicate more effectively in English.
- to develop technology skills along with their English language skills.
- to be more resourceful and autonomous learners.
Achievements up to now :-
- They were highly motivated.
- They were able to write precisely, accurately and appropriately.
- The overall ability of critical thinking was fairly good.
I'm proud.myself.Everything was possible .because of you Courtney... Thanks a lot Courtney and all the course mates.
Disna
Monday, November 12, 2012
Week6 My reflections
Dear Everyone,
It's indeed a pleasure to finish my assignments on time.I was fascinated by the discussions on engaging students and numerous ways technology can be used to teach large classes. I read the articles carefully and accomplished my tasks very well.Out of all the articles ,I particularly liked the article on Enhancing Learning by Engaging students from Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw .The techniques described there, are forms of alternative assignments.Basically I learned that "learning is a social process that occurs through interpersonal interaction within a cooperative context" as suggested by the given quotations on http:/www.ntlf.com/html/lib/quotes.htm.I was educated about cooperative and collaborative learning experiences ,and small group informal learnjng activities.Specially I like think-pair-share, and concept maps which can be used in both brain storming and feedback sessions
.Creating interactive Power point presentationswas attracted by me a lot.I created my first interactive power point presentation .I felt very excited. It was on summarizing.
The third and last assignment was on the project task.Certainly the whole week was dedicated on this and I had a very tough time.I was encouraged by the problems.Earlier ,I was planning to show a video presentation on edx organized by Harvard university and MIT.But later I had to change the topic and conducted a multimedia presentation on EDEX2012) .This is an annual event organized by the Royal College union(my own school) It is a fantastic source of information on career guidance .Certainly it was an event they all had participated earlier and they wanted to know the details once again.It was a collection of chances they can have after the advanced level Examination.Students were particularly interested in knowing about scholarships by foreign universities.I told them about the discussion forum . Here Courtney , my dear lecturer ,suggested me to use nicenet as a tool.Here I was confronted with some practical problems and I couldn't meet the needs of the students.Ultimately I created another Blog and asked them to write on it about their aspirations of their future career.(based on the information they got from the multimedia presentation)thirty students posted their the reflections on the Blog.on the relevant page and commented on their ideas.The students who commented on the Blog were taken for the project ,though the multimedia presentation was shown to about 75 students.Next I created a power point presentation on summarizing and showed to those 30 students .and instructed them to write a summary on the relevant page of the Class Blog. (They were taken to the Interactive White Boardroom.)They all have done it and I commented on it.I thought of giving them some more texts to be summarized.Meanwhile they would be instructed to create their on blog.sfor future activities.Definitely with loads of difficulties I was able to accomplish my tasks .Hope Courtney would apologize to me for not informing the details beforehand.
I learned a lot through my experiences.!Thank You Courtney and all friends.
Warm regards,
Disna
It's indeed a pleasure to finish my assignments on time.I was fascinated by the discussions on engaging students and numerous ways technology can be used to teach large classes. I read the articles carefully and accomplished my tasks very well.Out of all the articles ,I particularly liked the article on Enhancing Learning by Engaging students from Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw .The techniques described there, are forms of alternative assignments.Basically I learned that "learning is a social process that occurs through interpersonal interaction within a cooperative context" as suggested by the given quotations on http:/www.ntlf.com/html/lib/quotes.htm.I was educated about cooperative and collaborative learning experiences ,and small group informal learnjng activities.Specially I like think-pair-share, and concept maps which can be used in both brain storming and feedback sessions
.Creating interactive Power point presentationswas attracted by me a lot.I created my first interactive power point presentation .I felt very excited. It was on summarizing.
The third and last assignment was on the project task.Certainly the whole week was dedicated on this and I had a very tough time.I was encouraged by the problems.Earlier ,I was planning to show a video presentation on edx organized by Harvard university and MIT.But later I had to change the topic and conducted a multimedia presentation on EDEX2012) .This is an annual event organized by the Royal College union(my own school) It is a fantastic source of information on career guidance .Certainly it was an event they all had participated earlier and they wanted to know the details once again.It was a collection of chances they can have after the advanced level Examination.Students were particularly interested in knowing about scholarships by foreign universities.I told them about the discussion forum . Here Courtney , my dear lecturer ,suggested me to use nicenet as a tool.Here I was confronted with some practical problems and I couldn't meet the needs of the students.Ultimately I created another Blog and asked them to write on it about their aspirations of their future career.(based on the information they got from the multimedia presentation)thirty students posted their the reflections on the Blog.on the relevant page and commented on their ideas.The students who commented on the Blog were taken for the project ,though the multimedia presentation was shown to about 75 students.Next I created a power point presentation on summarizing and showed to those 30 students .and instructed them to write a summary on the relevant page of the Class Blog. (They were taken to the Interactive White Boardroom.)They all have done it and I commented on it.I thought of giving them some more texts to be summarized.Meanwhile they would be instructed to create their on blog.sfor future activities.Definitely with loads of difficulties I was able to accomplish my tasks .Hope Courtney would apologize to me for not informing the details beforehand.
I learned a lot through my experiences.!Thank You Courtney and all friends.
Warm regards,
Disna
Monday, November 5, 2012
Dear Courtney and all,
When things happen in the way we want, we feel happy.I did all the assignments in time.As usual, I learned many things in the 5th week. Creating the rubrics as guided by the Rubystar is the discovery of the week.I learned the Project Based Learning,and Alternative Assessment in depth..To be frank,I had an idea of Project Based Learning earlier.But this time I learned all the aspects of it.I was attracted by the Alternative Assessment too. Communicative Competence is very popular in Sri Lanka and teachers strive hard to get good results.I love all the aspects of it. Sri Lankans never give up things until the expected aims and objectives are achieved.All these things were possible to me because of Courtney and my dear course mates.Thank all of you.
May all of you be blessed by nature !
Bestwishes,
Disna
When things happen in the way we want, we feel happy.I did all the assignments in time.As usual, I learned many things in the 5th week. Creating the rubrics as guided by the Rubystar is the discovery of the week.I learned the Project Based Learning,and Alternative Assessment in depth..To be frank,I had an idea of Project Based Learning earlier.But this time I learned all the aspects of it.I was attracted by the Alternative Assessment too. Communicative Competence is very popular in Sri Lanka and teachers strive hard to get good results.I love all the aspects of it. Sri Lankans never give up things until the expected aims and objectives are achieved.All these things were possible to me because of Courtney and my dear course mates.Thank all of you.
May all of you be blessed by nature !
Bestwishes,
Disna
Monday, October 29, 2012
Hi everyone,
I have come to the end of another marvelous week.Every week, at the beginning I can't start due to lot of responsibilities and commitments in life.But I know I should play my part here, for my own professional development and the betterment of the students and in more general terms to the whole society.However hard thing sare,I'm ready to face the challanges in life .
First let me write down the tasks I have accomplished in this week.
1.Reading and writing skill building.
2.Technogy enhanced lesson plan
3.Some issues/problems of the students whom I intend to do my project.
4.Comment the work of a colleague in the work.
To do the assignment on reading and skill building ,I used following resources.
The article on using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction
by Jarek Krajka.
I explored the sites of
http://www.brekingnews.com
http://fog.ccs.edu/~fried
http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html
This time I ,not only did the assignment very well,but also joined the Discussion Thread. There, I thanked Jasmina who has mentioed a website named "coolstool"Indeed it's a marvelous site ,which offers web tools.
My second achievement was writing a technology enhanced lesson plan .I decided to include a lesson plan from my pet area,that is writing.Here I was influnced by Courtney and Evelyn. As Evelyn I too,permitted my students to use the class Blogger to write their biographical essay and the Delicious page to add their links.When I was able to to upload my file in a Google document, I felt proud of myself.
Next,it was the turn to write some issues/problems of the set of students whom I intend to do my project.There,I mentioned that they are a set of students who do not care about grammar rules when expressing themselves.Moreover,I didn't forget to mention their enthusiasm to learn through technology enhanced lessons.
Finally, I commented on Rustam's blog who accomplished all tasks very successfully.
1.
I have come to the end of another marvelous week.Every week, at the beginning I can't start due to lot of responsibilities and commitments in life.But I know I should play my part here, for my own professional development and the betterment of the students and in more general terms to the whole society.However hard thing sare,I'm ready to face the challanges in life .
First let me write down the tasks I have accomplished in this week.
1.Reading and writing skill building.
2.Technogy enhanced lesson plan
3.Some issues/problems of the students whom I intend to do my project.
4.Comment the work of a colleague in the work.
To do the assignment on reading and skill building ,I used following resources.
The article on using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction
by Jarek Krajka.
I explored the sites of
http://www.brekingnews.com
http://fog.ccs.edu/~fried
http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html
This time I ,not only did the assignment very well,but also joined the Discussion Thread. There, I thanked Jasmina who has mentioed a website named "coolstool"Indeed it's a marvelous site ,which offers web tools.
My second achievement was writing a technology enhanced lesson plan .I decided to include a lesson plan from my pet area,that is writing.Here I was influnced by Courtney and Evelyn. As Evelyn I too,permitted my students to use the class Blogger to write their biographical essay and the Delicious page to add their links.When I was able to to upload my file in a Google document, I felt proud of myself.
Next,it was the turn to write some issues/problems of the set of students whom I intend to do my project.There,I mentioned that they are a set of students who do not care about grammar rules when expressing themselves.Moreover,I didn't forget to mention their enthusiasm to learn through technology enhanced lessons.
Finally, I commented on Rustam's blog who accomplished all tasks very successfully.
1.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Hi everyone,
indeed it was a hard week for me. But finally, I was able to win the battle. I was able to create my "delicious account" and arranged my links. It was a new experience for me and now I know how to share my important links at delicious.com.
Then I got the chance to start again after 3 days. I finished the task on aural skills after reading two articles on aural skills and visiting the relevant websites.Thank you Courtney and all my friends in the team. Because of you, I was further educated on oral skills. Finally I did, the assignment on project successfully. All in all, it was a very challenging week. However, I accomplished my tasks defeating all the obstacles.
indeed it was a hard week for me. But finally, I was able to win the battle. I was able to create my "delicious account" and arranged my links. It was a new experience for me and now I know how to share my important links at delicious.com.
Then I got the chance to start again after 3 days. I finished the task on aural skills after reading two articles on aural skills and visiting the relevant websites.Thank you Courtney and all my friends in the team. Because of you, I was further educated on oral skills. Finally I did, the assignment on project successfully. All in all, it was a very challenging week. However, I accomplished my tasks defeating all the obstacles.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Learning Experience-Week2
Hi Everyone,
Week 2 is an awesome learning experience.Using new web exploring tips paved the way to bring about a new dimension in my teaching career.I tried using Noodle Tools and found it very fruitful. I was amazed by the endless list.However I was attracted especially by two search cites.I love to start with. "sweetsearch" on www.sweetsearch.com and" social issues" on www.multcolib.org/homework/sochc.html.
Using ABCD objectives is another achievement in my teaching career.It provided with me a clear picture how the learning objectives should be written.I think everything depends on the audience.This model will pave the way to me to act with vision.and wisdom.
All these were possible because of Courtney and the teammates.
Let me thank all of you for your support.
Best regards
,Disna
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