This week I started my homework on Tuesday as I was not at home on Monday for safety reasons; I was away with the family at my parents' house but unfortunately with no internet connection. I was back to my daily routine on Tuesday and commenced with my tasks.
I started with my readings since I feel that they always give the necessary foundation for the upcoming tasks. Margo Dill's article on "How to Write an Integrated Lesson Plan" was an eye-opener on the elements to consider when technology is augmented in any lesson plan. Jarek Krajka's article on "Using the Internet on ESL Writing" was the highlight of my readings, for teaching writing is my favorite. It included very practical ideas on how to teach different writing genres with the help of technology. It also included very useful references to websites. On the other hand, Mei-Ya Liang's article on "Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books " focused on how to choose books, share and evaluate them while involving the students in the process.
The second task was a website exploration, specifically on reading, writing, and vocabulary skills. My delicious page is growing as a result. I feel overwhelmed with the numerous available choices that leaves the teacher compelled to choose according to the needs of his/her students. The world of technology is vast with its offerings but one has to be cautious not to get too carried away and just skim to get the cream of each site.
Most of my energy got consumed in preparing an integrated lesson plan with a technological component. I looked at samples from the Baltimore County Public Schools as suggested which gave me a number of ideas to emulate.
The last task is to re-visit a class issue or problems that technology might help with, and that made me think of the needs related to my students and myself.
Ironically, working through our tasks in Week 4 involved a lot of reading and writing!
Paula
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Week 3; Rich tasks and a car bomb
The third week was filled with rich tasks and interactive discussions. It commenced by reading articles on listening and speaking that served as a foundation for the exploration of websites. The act of going into websites felt like going through an endless tunnel. The minute I entered one I was introduced to a new world of numerous resources that I could not easily abandon. The most interesting discovery for me was AzarGrammar.com since I used the paperback book many years ago and found that the same author created her own website with its very beneficial features. The creation of a delicious page was another asset in which I put some of my favorites. Finally, reviewing previous students' projects was an eye opener for my/our upcoming projects.
An unfortunate event shook my country this week (a big car bomb exploded in a residential neighborhood of Beirut) which disturbed me and and disturbed my entire family. However, this course was a good way for me to be distracted from all the sad events that followed the explosion. We had to spend the entire weekend at home, but we, as parents, had to function normally in front of our kids, following up on their homework as I had to finish mine too. I successfully met my deadlines despite all!
Here is a photo of the neighborhood that was hit by the explosion.
An unfortunate event shook my country this week (a big car bomb exploded in a residential neighborhood of Beirut) which disturbed me and and disturbed my entire family. However, this course was a good way for me to be distracted from all the sad events that followed the explosion. We had to spend the entire weekend at home, but we, as parents, had to function normally in front of our kids, following up on their homework as I had to finish mine too. I successfully met my deadlines despite all!
Here is a photo of the neighborhood that was hit by the explosion.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Week 2: Reflections
This was a truly busy week full of a variety of tasks. The highlight was the web searching activity that opened my eyes to numerous sites, serach engines, and portals besides Google. I enjoyed the Noodletools way of classifying the sites according to purpose of search. I learned about new ones such as the Glean Comparison Search which I thought was very useful and can be used by students in more than one of the courses I teach. Another successful web search was to Quoteland.com that I couldn't easily leave, for it had many interesting quotations that one can trace by topic or author. The tech tips were straightforward and interestingly put in a lucid process that if any novice follows can succeed in the search. I already shared both with a colleague who teaches research writing.
The readings were good refreshers; it was nostalgic reading about Blooms' taxonomy after many years of having seen it as a student in an Education course. What I enjoyed most was an online taxonomy that did not exist during my days and a modified list by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001), with examples of observable or overt behaviors corresponding to each.
Also, the ABCD approach can be very practical in the quick paced world that we live in. The ABCD reflect the basic necessary ingredients of any objective. Moreover, the naming of the approach using the first four initials of the alphabet is indicative; those components should be the basis of any lesson plan.
The last task this week was mind boggling! It was later productive, for it made me think of how I can use technology to add motivation and stir up my students' reading and writing skills. I hope I can benefit from this course to help me succeed in engaging them in the learning process.
This was a truly busy week full of a variety of tasks. The highlight was the web searching activity that opened my eyes to numerous sites, serach engines, and portals besides Google. I enjoyed the Noodletools way of classifying the sites according to purpose of search. I learned about new ones such as the Glean Comparison Search which I thought was very useful and can be used by students in more than one of the courses I teach. Another successful web search was to Quoteland.com that I couldn't easily leave, for it had many interesting quotations that one can trace by topic or author. The tech tips were straightforward and interestingly put in a lucid process that if any novice follows can succeed in the search. I already shared both with a colleague who teaches research writing.
The readings were good refreshers; it was nostalgic reading about Blooms' taxonomy after many years of having seen it as a student in an Education course. What I enjoyed most was an online taxonomy that did not exist during my days and a modified list by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001), with examples of observable or overt behaviors corresponding to each.
Also, the ABCD approach can be very practical in the quick paced world that we live in. The ABCD reflect the basic necessary ingredients of any objective. Moreover, the naming of the approach using the first four initials of the alphabet is indicative; those components should be the basis of any lesson plan.
The last task this week was mind boggling! It was later productive, for it made me think of how I can use technology to add motivation and stir up my students' reading and writing skills. I hope I can benefit from this course to help me succeed in engaging them in the learning process.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Week 1: My Reflections
Keeping a journal is not only a place to reflect on one's life whether academic or personal, but it can be therapeutic at times. My initial experience with an online course left me with the following thoughts:
Sharing thoughts through discussion can make participants not feel they are the only ones going through the same experience, and it also allows links with others besides the instructor.
Giving students a say in rule formation empowers them as well as gives the instructor further strength for providing this opportunity.These rules will act as a way of unification of our input that is feeding in from different geographical locations, backgrounds and mentalities.
Communicating with students and promptly responding brings vigor to the course; in addition, the audience is not only the instructor but the classmates as well.
Ending with a saying is insightful, so I share this from the O magazine (September 2007) in which Oprah realizes that a mountain is one of the great metaphors for life after setting a goal of reaching a 3,000 feet from her house. She concludes that "It makes no difference how many peaks you reach if there was no pleasure in the climb". I believe we all found pleasure in climbing our first peak: Week 1!
Sharing thoughts through discussion can make participants not feel they are the only ones going through the same experience, and it also allows links with others besides the instructor.
Giving students a say in rule formation empowers them as well as gives the instructor further strength for providing this opportunity.These rules will act as a way of unification of our input that is feeding in from different geographical locations, backgrounds and mentalities.
Communicating with students and promptly responding brings vigor to the course; in addition, the audience is not only the instructor but the classmates as well.
Ending with a saying is insightful, so I share this from the O magazine (September 2007) in which Oprah realizes that a mountain is one of the great metaphors for life after setting a goal of reaching a 3,000 feet from her house. She concludes that "It makes no difference how many peaks you reach if there was no pleasure in the climb". I believe we all found pleasure in climbing our first peak: Week 1!
Week 1: Paula's Blog
It is almost the end of the first week of the online course Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web, and it has been so far a very good learning experience. For one thing, I never thought I will build my own blog! I always thought that this task is beyond my technological skills. However, thanks to the instructions provided by Courtney, it turned out to be quite simple!
Here is a photo of my family. My husband is a professor of mathematics and I have two boys: Nadeem is 16 years old, and Sari is 12.
We live in Beirut (Lebanon), a war-torn city that constantly rises against all odds to remain one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Below is a recent photo of the city.
The weather in Beirut is usually mild, yet it can get really cold in the mountains surrounding it (they are quite visible from the city). Snow blankets the hills in the winter season and the snow covered cedars are a trademark of the country.
I am really enjoying this task....and I look forward to learning how to blog for educational purposes.
Here is a photo of my family. My husband is a professor of mathematics and I have two boys: Nadeem is 16 years old, and Sari is 12.
The weather in Beirut is usually mild, yet it can get really cold in the mountains surrounding it (they are quite visible from the city). Snow blankets the hills in the winter season and the snow covered cedars are a trademark of the country.
I am really enjoying this task....and I look forward to learning how to blog for educational purposes.
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