Week 5

Oh week 5 has been a challenge and a blessing. A challenge because I haven't been well (health wise) and a blessing because as every week I've learned so much.

PBL is a great way to build students independence and it helps them improve their research skills; It also gives them a sense of community, when they work in groups.

Rubrics... As I posted on Nicenet, we (teachers) tend to forget about rubrics, we think because we are experienced we don't need a piece of paper how to assign points and when you think about it, this is not good! Rubrics is an excellent tool to evaluate students, they feel better when they know exactly what they are going to be evaluated on and it makes our job simpler.

Our project tasks... This week we presented a tech oriented solution to the issue we posted on week 4. I still don't picture how my project is going to come out. I hope it all adds up!

Learned a lot... now getting ready for week 6!

Week 4

This week we learned how technology can enhance reading and writing. One thing I loved and had no idea about is the "five fingers rule"; When students have to pick a book to read the should check 2 or 3 pages from the book and on each page the have to count the words they don't know, if they get to 5 then probably that book it would be difficult for them to read.

We've also learned how to make a technology based lesson plan. I have to admit, I feel a little insecure about mine because I had never done one before.

Something else we did was that we share one of the issues we have with our class that might be resolved or addressed with technology. I hope to receive some ideas from my fellow teachers and Robert.

Happy week 4 is over and week 5 is coming! This is so exciting!

Week 3

Week 3 is finally over! But tomorrow comes week 4 and from what I can tell, every week is just a little bit harder. We've got to love this anyway!

This week I learned about CALL (Computered-Assisted Language Learning) and how students feel comfortable learning this way, where they won't get embarrassed and they do it at there own pace. I also refreshed my knowledge when it comes to teaching oral skills; Sometimes we are so caught up in the material we have in hand that we forget to look for other material (authentic material that is) and students really enjoy this in the classroom.

I can't forget about delicious! Great social network where you can save your bookmarks and share with others as well.

This week we also got a peek on how final projects will look like. I must say they look very formal and they seem to have many of the structures we are now learning. I can't imagine when it's our turn to present one!

Well, that's all for now. Have a nice week :)

Week 2

Well I have to start by saying week 2 was a little overwhelming with the ABCD method. I'm still a little hesitant about it. However it is a very appropriate and academic method on writing a class' objectives.

Now I have to admit that Google is not the all mighty search engine hahahaha! There are more websites that helps us to look up information such as iSeek-Education. This is the one I liked the most because it provides great links for things like grammar structure.

I have to admit doing an online course it's not a piece of cake when you have many other things to do. However, it's a great way to learn more and get to now colleges around the world :)

Week 1

I have always found difficult to share my reflections in public but this course requires me to do so. I am familiar with blogs because I read some now and then and I used to have one a few years ago. What makes this a new experience is that I'm sharing my thoughts with you.

I have very high hopes for this Webskills course. We use the internet and technology in our daily lives. However, we don't necessarily use these tools with our classes and I know I will learn a lot on how to use them in my teaching.

So far I've learned how my students feel doing their online course. They may have a busy week (like I did) but they just have to work on their course no matter what and this is something we sometime forget as teachers.

Something else I've learned is how important is to have communication with your students and give instructions clearly as Robert has done with us. I understood all the instructions (they were so clear and to the point) and I felt like Robert was close even though we are worlds apart. Having that type of communication with students is something I hope to learn about more and more.

Well that's all for now. Until week 2!