Week 10: Final Reflection (The door is open)

Greetings to all dedicated educators,

 The webskills class may end so soon but with a fresh new beginning and with an effect that will last forever.

So much has happened since I started the course on the first of October 2012.

Many & useful are the learning stations I've gone through and successful are the teaching practices and the technology tools I've tried.


* Week 1 set the stage for a smooth transition through the course: getting personal, ground rules for discussion & fair rubrics for posting.

The best was creating my own blog, the fostering self-expression, self-reflection and cross-cultural and awareness technology tool through the course.


* Week 2 put many and useful "Search Engines" and their effective use in my own classes into my consideration.

NOODLETOOLS

 

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html 

 

made it easy for me to choose the best search for my information need: INFOMINE, WIKIPEDIA, GOOGLE, INFOTOPIA, Virtual LRC, MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY and THESAURUS and many others. 

 

Though for 20 years, I've been using the SMART Model for behavioural objectives, I've found the ABCD Model quite easy to follow with Robert's support and refining. It's a must to link the objectives to the assessment and to promote students' "HOTS":

 

 

 

 

 

 

The online slide show at http://www.slideshare.net/ashleytan/writing-specific-instructionallearning-objectives-presentation was a very helpful starting point in planning a technology-based lesson for my project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Week 3 websites strongly built the Aural / Oral Skill. My favourites are One Stop English, Esl.about, ESL-galaxy, esl-lab, and EnglishBaby.

 

Delicious.com was delicious in storing useful links and in sharing with colleagues, stakeholders and students. Having many followers to my DELICIOUS page

http://www.delicious.com/serenityprof 

 

has increased my motivation. Through the course, I added and in the future, I will add more and more to the list.

 

Reading and analyzing past sample project reports

 

https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/home/assignments/week-3-1

 

 gave me insight into the details of my final project.
 

 

 * Week 4 websites integrated the Reading / Writing Skill. Breaking News English and its partner sites work best in my context. There's no internet access. So I download the authentic materials and use them not only for integrating the 4 language skills in each lesson, but also for exam purposes.

My students also find interest in 

 

 http://a4esl.org/,

 

  http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/ 

 

  and

 

http://www.manythings.org/.

 

Reading e-how's article "How to write a technology enhanced lesson plan" and sample lesson plans from Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Instructional Technology paved the way for creating a technology-enhanced lesson plan using Google Docs and for describing the issues in my class that technology might help with (taking notes & conveying messages).

 

 

* Week 5 was fair enough with rubrics, the alternative assessment tool and with http://rubistar.4teachers.org/, I could create a story writing rubric for my students

 

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2248689&

 

 





Robert's feedback about the rubric was always there to help me improve.

 

The readings and Nicenet empowering discussions about PBL and WebQuests have deepened my understanding of how these can be of great help for students to collaborate and move toward their autonomy.
 

 

 

 

 

Alas! I couldn't take time from my busy schedule to create a WebQuest. But I made use of two WebQuests serving in teaching my second year secondary students Shakespeare' Macbeth. One was created at http://questgarden.com/151/37/2/121114083403/ and shared by my partner in the course, Rajindeer and the other I found at Zunal. I'll give WebQuests a try next term. I don't like to be missed out.  

 

Popplet, the brainstorming technology tool  was a blessing to meet my students' needs.

 

 

* Week 6 was my station to learn more about interactive classes and interactive PPT. I've done a superb job as my dear inspiring instructor, Robert entered his comment in Jupiter Grade about my creating an animal idioms interactive PPT.

 

The phase 1 implementation of my mini project started with my first year secondary, 40 mixed-ability girls' class in M.L.S. That was the time when my students walked the walk of implementing a technology-related change. 
 

 

* Week 7 I learned and shared with my e-classmates what I could do to encourage greater learner autonomy in students, with and without technology.

 

I posted to WallWisher a PPT link about "Approaches to learner autonomy in language learning":

 

 

http://www.slideshare.net/irwyn12/approaches-to-learner-autonomy-in-language-learning-presentation-786825

 

the Language Learning Express software at

 

http://www.learnware.se/index.htm

 

 

and the roles of the teacher poster.

 

I continued phase 2 implementation of my mini project. I shared and uploaded my students' final products to my blog: "Connection to the Outside World"

 

http://serenitywebskillsreflection.blogspot.com/
 

 

* Week 8 came with a lot of exploration to the teacher resources that enhance students' learning.

 

I've decided to use Google Docs to create a Traffic Survey for class use:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dC1GRDh6RGo0UFJxbW85MWxIdl9oTXc6MQ

 

my own Inspiration Software to create a book discussion guide and multiple resources on my blog.  

 

As usual, Robert is there with his encouraging words and constructive feedback.

 

Thank you so much Rajindeer for being my peer and for reviewing my project first draft.
 

 

 

* Week 9 has come with a lot of connections between learning styles 

and technology which facilitates learning, differentiates, raises motivation, creates student-centered learning and adds fun.

My partner's comments helped me to improve my draft before submitting the final version of my project on November 30, 2012.

I did the course evaluations.

 

 * Week 10 brought the Self-Evaluation with the Levels of Technology Integration, LoTI Framework tool to my attention. The survey questions helped me become self-directed and improve pedagogically in the future. Student learning and creativity will be my high priority:

The readings made me full, the discussions made me empowered, the writings made me exact and the practices made me perfect.

So "Building Teacher Skills Through The Interactive Web" is not just a course to take, it is the course to be taken.

Let me finish my final reflection with Louis Pasteur quote: " Science knows no country because knowledge belongs to humanity and is the torch which illuminates the world".

Many thanks to the University of Oregon, E-Teacher Team, to dear instructor, colleagues, e-classmates, and students.  

Safaa