8th week reflections

8^thweek reflections  (My online class) 

In this wonderful week we move ahead to achieve the goals of the course. Creating an online course site or an exercise to use online or offline. I was  enthusiasm about this. I stated creating online class for my grade 11 students (English for Me ) .

Discussion: Online tools for enhancing learning

After exploring ANVILL and some of the different tools and exercises for this week, share your ideas about how using these might change the way you teach and/or the way that your students learn. How could using these tools promote learner autonomy? What are the constraints that would make it difficult to use these tools, and how will you overcome them?

I posted on the topic :

Nowadays we are living in very small world due the technology. Things are being easier for all in small part of a room setting on computer connected to World Wide Web. These tools can be used in education. How do you use technology in your teaching? Why do you use particular technologies?

Thinking about these questions I am struck by the emphasis on technology and teaching as a starting point, whereas I have always thought that learning should be the starting point. What do we hope that learners will learn? As teachers we are first and foremost concerned with learning. So the first question is not 'how' you use technologies, but 'why'.

Nowadays teacher's role is to guide and assist students as they take on more responsibility for their learning moving the focus from teaching to learning. The time and content we as teachers can give to our students can be limited. Following a curriculum or (learning system) also affect the learning process and may not meet the students' needs and abilities. What about learners studying entirely on their own?

Learning autonomy can be the answer for this question. Autonomy is the ability to take charge of one's own learning' by (Henri Holec). It means making use of self/peer assessment. And the role of the teacher as supporting scaffolding and creating room for the development of autonomy is very demanding and very important.
Students can use blogs for example as we do now in the course. They can write reflections of their learning on their blogs and their peer's comments. The internet provides huge recourses for learning and being autonomy. Many educational websites, networks, free courses and even learning chat box.

"I have been browsing through different websites trying to find a link between teaching and autonomous reading. As discussed in the article "What is Autonomous Learning?" (http://prs.heacademy.ac.uk/view.html/PrsDiscourseArticles/113), autonomous learning is not teachless learning, but it is a habit of mind expressed through a range of activities and skills, acquired and developed through practice and teachers have a great role in teaching this habit of mind".
What are the constraints that would make it difficult to use these tools, and
how will you overcome them?

From my point of view the answer for this question is that student's lack of awareness of technology. In many time, I tried to apply the use of such tools in education such issue come up. At this time you need to teach them how to use technology instead of teaching the course. To overcome this we as teacher and facilitators need to simplify the technology use and show them the how of using it. Also, some schools are effectively using technology for teaching and learning while other schools are not due the lock of technology teaching tools. To overcome this you can use you own simple tools personal laptop and projector (one computer lesson).
 

 

Task: Create an online course site or an exercise to use online or offline

Create something that will be useful for your teaching. Use one or more of the sites on our course website to create an exercise, test, flash cards, or other tool. Share with the group: 

I posted on the task : 

I have created a nicenet class for my grade 11 students. the class key : E330Z82E85 (English for Me) because we are starting teaching form the last week. I will start using online tools from now.

Today i will take my students to the computer lab and start with joining the English for Me class. and getting to know each other.

• I believe learners will benefit from such class :
• facilitate the Learning process.
• help the students to be more attentive.
• add more enjoyment.
• add variation.
• get students' interest & add fun to learning.
• help learning vocabulary.
• and most important is to help learners become autonomy.

Nowadays students around the world are offered with so many materials and ways to be more independent in their learning they personalize language learned. Technology can serve learning autonomy a lot in many different ways. It potentially facilitates learner autonomy more efficiently as students make more of the decisions about how to use the tool. Students still need to be helped to understand how a tool might benefit their overall learning. Teachers can encourage learners to think about the choices they are making and reflect on how the program is beneficial.


It has been a great week for me. What about you ?

 

7th week reflections

7^th week reflections (A Key to Motivating Students) 

 

This week had to : 

 

Discussion 1: Read about learner autonomy (Thanasoulas, Sheu, Interconnections). Effective self-directed learning starts with learner autonomy. What could you do to encourage greater autonomy in students, with and without technology? 

 

 Nowadays teacher's role is to guide and assist students as they take on more responsibility for their learning moving the focus from teaching to learning. The time and content we as teachers can give to our students can be limited. Following a curriculum or (learning system) also affect the learning process and may not meet the students' needs and abilities. What about learners studying entirely on their own?

Learning autonomy can be the answer for this question. Autonomy is the ability to take charge of one's own learning' by (Henri Holec). It means making use of self/peer assessment. And the role of the teacher as supporting scaffolding and creating room for the development of autonomy is very demanding and very important.

I remember when I was a student 6 years ago; I started learning English at school and had some difficulties with the English book. So I decided to learn English at home using other materials (newspaper, magazines, movies and books) I like and match my interests. It works and I like the idea of learning by myself. Now I tell my students about my story of learning autonomy trying to help them do so.

Nowadays students around the world are offered with so many materials and ways to be more independent in their learning they personalize language learned. Technology can serve learning autonomy a lot in many different ways. It potentially facilitates learner autonomy more efficiently as students make more of the decisions about how to use the tool. Students still need to be helped to understand how a tool might benefit their overall learning. Teachers can encourage learners to think about the choices they are making and reflect on how the program is beneficial.

Students can you blogs for example as we do now in the course. They can write reflections of their learning on their blogs and their peer's comments. The internet provides huge recourses for learning and being autonomy. Many educational websites, networks, free courses and even learning chat box. 

 

 "I have been browsing through different websites trying to find a link between teaching and autonomous reading. As discussed in the article "What is Autonomous Learning?" (http://prs.heacademy.ac.uk/view.html/PrsDiscourseArticles/113), autonomous learning is not teachless learning, but it is a habit of mind expressed through a range of activities and skills, acquired and developed through practice and teachers have a great role in teaching this habit of mind" .

This text is shared by Mr.Hilal

Creating a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom

 

Most people don't have a computer lab all to themselves, and many do not have a lab in their school at all. A one-computer classroom is a way to start. Read about activities for the one-computer classroom and some strategies and applications. Create a sample activity for a one-computer classroom to share. Make sure you include who the students are, when in the lesson you're using the activity, the behavioral objective (ABCD format), and why technology will make the activity more effective.

i posted in this :

Sample Lesson Plan with one computer classroom

Title: TV Programmes
Learners: A group of students in basic education in grade 4 learning English as foreign language (9-10 years)
Duration: 40 min.

Materials:
•Pictures.
•Power Point Presentation (Microsoft office software )
•Colored flash cards.

Aims/Objectives :
1.Teach the students different kinds of TV Programmes.
2.Teach the students some questions and answers.
(What kind of TV Programmes do you like?) and e.g (I like sport Programmes because they are interesting ).
3. Ask for giving opinions about TV Programmes. Teach the students some adjectives (funny ,boring ,exciting ,scary, interesting)

warming up:
Ask students what programmes they watch in TV ? , Can you name them?
Show them some pictures and ask. What you can see?


Presentation: ( 15 minutes)
1.the teacher present the Power Point to the students for different types of TV Programmes with sample of each one.
2.the teacher show the students some pictures of TV Programmes with the written form .
3.the teacher show the students some pictures of TV Programmes and how to pronounce them correctly .

Practice: (10 minutes)
1.the teacher asks student to recall the name of TV Programmes.
2.give the students an exercise. ( matching)
3.ask the students to work in pairs to practice how to ask and answer about TV Programmes.
4.the teacher asks student to mime some adjective in front of the class.

Production: (5 minutes)
1.The teacher asks the students to recall the names of the TV Programmes.
2.The teacher asks two students to come in front of the class to match the picture with the correct kind of TV Programmes.
3.students work in pairs asking what is your favorite TV programme? why ?

Expected problems:
1.Some students may mime the adjective wrongly.
2.The overhead projector or computer broke down.
Solutions:
•T will try to ask another student or the T will mime himself.
•Use the flash cards of each TV Programmes


ABCD objectives will be :
the grade 4 students in this lesson will be able to identify at least 4 different kinds of TV Programmes and give opinion about them .

6th week reflections

6^th week reflections

This is to be the first week in semester two at our school. Feel happy to continue what I have started this year and trying to make a good use of the things I learned in the course. 

Back to the course in this week we had to: 

Post at least once addressing ONE of the two the following questions: 

1. You can use many of the same techniques to do a better job of teaching small classes as well as large classes. Look at "Teaching Large Classes" and "Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes." Think about project-based learning, WebQuests, and some of the ideas in "Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students" to help in your response. What techniques and technology could you use to make your classes more interactive, and especially if you teach large classes? 

2. PowerPoint is very commonly used in teaching, but it is rarely used interactively. Watching the screen is not interactivity. Read "Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint" from the UO's Teaching Effectiveness Program to find ways to turn a lecture into an interactive experience for students. The sample PowerPoint may also help you in your response. 

I posted about teaching large classes as I experience it 

In this week discussion one important topic for me is introduced, it's about teaching large classes. It's a challenge. I know that because this year I'm facing it. This year I teach 3 classes (35, 31, 26 students). This is seen to be normal in my school. We usually have this number of students in every class. Most of the English teachers in my school look positively and find it a chance for them to improve their interpersonal skills as they try different ways to get to know each student as an individual through their work in class or their lives outside of it.

I believe teaching large classes is a challenge, but it can also offer many opportunities for you to improve your teaching and to make it more enjoyable and rewarding for you and your students.

Your students can also benefit from being in large classes. When there are many students in a class, they can share many different ideas and interesting life experiences. This stimulates the students and enlivens those parts of your lessons where students can discuss and learn from each other. During project work, students can learn to share responsibility and help each other, as well as to listen, to have patience, and to express themselves within a diverse group of people – skills that will be valuable for them throughout their lives. This also brings variety and speeds up the work.

But what is the best way to teach such classes?. There is no “best way” to teach large classes. You must as a teacher develop the approach that works best for you based on your teaching style, the characteristics of your students, and the goals and objectives of your lessons and curriculum.

Making technology work. In the article (Teaching Large Classes) at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/LargeClasses.html. it shows some examples of time-saving, effort-saving technologies proven to be effective in teaching, especially in assessment.

 For me using technology makes me more relax, few effort is done while students enjoy learning. I used to show my students some clips in English about related to their learning. I noticed that the large number class watch with interest to track their understanding I asked them some questions and then they discussed them in groups. By this you make a large class feel small. 

then i posted about 

 

In teaching in general the teacher's role is to guide and assist students as they take on more responsibility for their learning. This is totally true in large classes. Moving responsibility for learning from the teacher to the student is needed. One way to do this is give the students an explicit list of "learning objectives" so they know and keep on truck learning. In my classes which I consider large I do such thing when teaching. Important thing to put in mind is that students need to learn to self-assess their understanding. But how I can help my students to do so?

Are they potentially able to do the learning?

There are many factors effecting here: 

Self-affimation – the learner’s view themselves as effective learners and the teachers provide them with feedback to that effect;

Personal meaning – the learners are able to find personal meaning in the learning. That is, the learning is relevant to them;

Active learning - the learners are active in the learning, whether that activity is physically doing something (as for concrete learners) or intellectually doing something (as for abstract reflective learners).

Collaborative – the learners are able to collaborate with others in the learning process and not to view learning as an isolating experience;

  The teacher needs to give attention to the part of the planning to see that the classroom processes conducive to optimal learning. The classroom and general school climate needs to encourage students to take risk and try out new approaches. This will interact with the student’s willingness to participate or engage in the learning. Among other things, this means that the learners:

• need to feel safe;
• attempts to solve problems need to be respected;
• unconventional approaches will be rewarded;
• will feel confident that the lecturer knows where to pitch the challenge for them – that is not too hard or too easy or too repetitive;
• will work on real problems with personal relevance to them and is therefore relevant; and
• work on challenging problems that provide opportunities for creative thinking.

 Second create interactive PowerPoint :  

Using PowerPoint in teaching as I experience helps the students to be more:

·   attentive

·   add more enjoyment

·   add variation

·   save time

·   get students' interest & add  fun to lessons

I usually use Microsoft PowerPoint in teaching and find it very helpful.  In the show I have created I introduced the story ''The talkative Turtle'' with 9 slides. At first slide, I introduced the picture of turtle then pause (time for students to guess the name) after that the name comes written. At second slide introduced the birds the same as the first slide. After introducing the characters of the story the story begins with the use of pausing and letting students to guess the missing words in the story.