Week Six

“Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time” Chinese Proverb

I chose to add the Chinese Proverb and the You Tube video right at the beginning of my reflection for this week because they clearly show how engaged students are in technology nowadays. The most memorable moments from school were those where my teachers involved me in the learning process using games, activities, songs and so on. After reading through the material for this week’s session, I realized that the purpose is to engage students, but in contrast to the past, today student centered classes are infused with technology tools such as interactive PowerPoint presentations. I can honestly say that I have always used presentations, but when reading through the reading assignments for this week, I felt a small hole in my technology enhanced lessons especially with extremely important advice given by The University of Oregon on “Presenting With PowerPoint” such as using a blank slide, allowing mind processing time and minimizing the number of slides among many other useful advice .

Following the instructions for this week’s session and the articles “How To Create An Interactive Quiz Using PowerPoint Masters." By Simon Slangen, “How to Create and Use an Interactive PowerPoint Quiz Game” by Barbara O’neill, and “Creating Interactive PowerPoint Presentations for Teachers and Students” by Drs. Terry & Cathy Cavanaugh, I began to create my own PowerPoint presentation which includes an interactive quiz consisting of multiple choice questions, a poll and a YouTube video followed by a Think-Pair-Share activity as described by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw in in “Teaching Large Classes II- Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students”. I have never created an interactive quiz one before, so this was an opportunity to learn and make mistakes. It took some time at the start, but once I got used to it, the slides were finished faster. I am very happy with the end product and will certainly be using it as it brings a whole new dimension into the lesson, one where students are mostly involved in the learning process.

 

Upon reading Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw’s advice on enhancing lecture classes in “Teaching Large Classes II- Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students”, I realized that they can be used to enhance any class. Some of the examples I intend to use include giving examples from current events, distributing voting cards, pair work, group work and keeping eye contact.  I once attended an interesting workshop at Google which works on enhancing lecturing skills and one of the most memorable experiences in this workshop was explained the form of an activity which goes as follows: the lecturer (volunteer in this case) throws a ball to a person in the audience who asks any question. The lecturer/speaker is supposed to answer the question while focusing and having direct eye contact with that person for 15 seconds. He/she cannot look at another person. The person with the ball then throws it to another in the crows and the speaker is supposed to speak to him/her for an additional 15 seconds and so on. The idea behind this activity is to practice looking the audience in the eyes and making a connection with them. This way, they will have to automatically listen and focus on what you are saying as a speaker.

I was particularly interested in the idea of Classroom Communication Systems where students purchase remotes with their texts books and can be used for live true/false and multiple choice questions. It does have a few negatives about it, such as having to purchase the remote and the data being saved on the computer class rather on the teachers’ personal laptop, but it is something that is certainly worth thinking about as it is very useful for large classes.

Another task for this week was to begin implementing a technology in our classes, but since I’m not teaching now, I will start working on my plan. In the previous week, I created a WebQuest where teachers work in groups to create a unit of literature while incorporating web tools into that process so I do feel like I have covered the domain of Appreciation of Literature, Culture and Language from the English Curriculum. For this week, I am working on a  Wiki which includes tutorials for all the different tools that the teachers will be using in the WebQuest. I will be adding a tutorial for each tool and then adding an editable page where teachers will be able to post their links.

In addition and after the feedback that I received from my colleagues where they expressed the idea that many web tools might scare some teachers off. I decided to add a discussion board to allow teachers having difficulties to ask questions.

I enjoyed this week very much as it was very informative and practical. I can’t wait for the next. 

Nahla

Sources:

·         Cavanaugh, Terry , and Kathy Cavanaugh. "Creating Interactive PowerPoint Presentations for Teachers and Students." Creating Interactive PowerPoint Presentations for Teachers and Students. Florida Center for Instructional Technology, USF, n.d. Web. <http://www.unf.edu/~tcavanau/publications/necc/Interactive_PowerPoint.htm>.

·         Finnan Rick & Shaw Donna "Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students." University of Oregon,  <http://umbc.uoregon.edu/eteacher/webskills/material/engaging_students_handout.pdf>.

·         O’neill, Barbara. "“How to Create and Use an Interactive PowerPoint Quiz Game.". <http://www.joe.org/joe/2003april/tt2.php>.

·         "Presenting With PowerPoint." Teaching with Technology -. University of Oregon,  <http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/powerpoint/docs/presenting.pdf>.

·         Slangen, Simon. "How To Create An Interactive Quiz Using PowerPoint Masters.", 30 Nov. 2010.. <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-interactive-quiz-powerpoint-masters/>.

Week Five

“Any growth requires a temporary loss of security.” – Madeline Hunter

This quote certainly reflects my feelings at the beginning of this week as I started reading through the reading resources for this week. I had never used, or to be exact, never seen a WebQuest prior to this session. I have always had extreme confidence with every single session until this one. Therefore, I prepared myself for a long day with my laptop and began reading all the articles, searching the internet and looking at sample WebQuests until I had a clear idea of what it is. I compared Zunal and Questgarden and decided to go for Zunal especially after reading through the rather detailed explanation about WebQuests on their website.

The next step for me was to start building my own, which is when I needed to take a break to think about what I should be including in my WebQuest, in addition to making sure it would fit my newly decided upon group of learners who are English Teachers. It was indeed tiring as I would write a plan sketch and think it would be final, but change it a few minutes later. Finally, after going through five different ideas, I decided on creating a Jigsaw group activity where teachers would work together to create a unit of literature. The ultimate aim behind this webQuest is not only to create the unit, but to have teachers experience integrating web tools into their teaching by  providing them with a sample WebQuest and help them experience project based learning. Creating the WebQuest took hours upon hours to complete (and I will continue to work on it), especially when describing the process and creating an explanatory Prezi. Although it is very time consuming, I feel that it is worth every effort as teachers can use WebQuests to create a cooperative and supportive learning experience for his/her students.

One of the reasons I decided to use the Jigsaw method was because I gave extra attention to the articles about Project Based Learning which describe a positive experience for the students (the examples by Susan Gaer). Indeed, I wanted to create a memorable and meaningful experience for teachers while encouraging them to work together towards an ultimate goal. The teacher in this case, would serve only as a guide and observer while students work independently and are responsible for their own learning process. This is, in fact, one of the main ideas in the New English Curriculum in Israel which strongly emphasizes the idea that meaningful learning is based on learning by doing:

An additional task for this week included creating a grading rubric on Rubistar. I felt this was fairly easy to do when using this website as it offers free templates which can be modified and adapted according to the teachers’ needs. When discussing the issue on Nicenet, it was apparent that all participants find rubrics useful and I am sure we will continue to revisit and use the site as it makes our job slightly easier. I have always used rubrics for exams, assessing the four skills and even for peer assessment and I will continue to use them in the future. However, I intend to give self-assessment a try as well in hope of it becoming an integral part of my assessment plans.

When combining alternative assessment, project based learning and rubrics, it is apparent that the goal is create autonomous learners who effectively interact with others, independently analyze information, take responsibility for their own learning and use their skills to create and be creative. All the session tasks and provided readings were of immense importance to me and as I have mentioned before, I am indeed growing as a teacher and becoming more aware of the needs of my students. Every week presents a new concept and the practical applications, I believe, are of great importance because that is how we learn, by experiencing.

I cannot wait for next week’s session as it states that we will be creating an interactive presentation.

Nahla

Gaer, Susan. "Less Teaching and More Learning". FOB, Vol. 2, Issue D, Dec. 1998

Week Four

I had an feeling that  week four would include more postings and homework and I was right. I felt overwhelmed at first, but once I began to work and read through the materials, all became clear.  I read through the articles and chose a favorite as I do each week. This week I preferred Jarek Krajka’s “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction”. The article caught my eye when I realized it would include suggestions in order to enhance writing skills using practical applications such as web pages, e-mail connection and creating class websites. Karjka gives detailed instructions on how to teach writing and I find this useful as writing is an integral part of my students’ matriculation exams at the end of the twelfth grade where they would have to write an essay expressing an opinion, write a letter or write a descriptive essay. Although Krajka might seem in favor of using technology to enhance instruction, the conclusion clearly states that it is preferable to use the technology to enrich the lesson rather than including it just for the sake of using technology, a point that is often stressed in our course. When teaching writing, I cannot agree more with this point. I feel that there should be an introductory lesson to every type of essay as sometimes the internet and technology cannot offer that one on one support for every student. Using technology after the face to face instruction as a means of practice is what I believe Krajka would consider as a good use of technology.

Another required task that was completed this week included writing a technology enhanced lesson plan which I enjoyed as I integrated one of the online quiz tools into my lesson. I've read through the other lesson plans as well and find that the diversity of students in our course just provides us with a range of great activities to think of and possibly adapt with our own classes. I must honestly say that I would have preferred to interact with my classmates and receive feedback from them and from our instructor. I have come to learn what a great asset  collaboration is and on this occasion, I have missed having it available. We have also had to describe a problem which we would solve with our students, and for this task I set my heart to work on a project in which teachers are instructed on integrating ICT into the four domains of the English Curriculum. I’m still going through the planning stage, but hopefully, the picture will become clearer as the course progresses. 

This week I felt like we managed to complete the circle with the rich list of websites that offer reading and writing activities after reading about listening and speaking activities last week (This, of course, was my favorite of them all) . I was, like many others of my peers, impressed by www.breakingnewsenglish.com as I felt it includes everything a teacher could wish for when searching for complete class activities. I will certainly be using it with my students. I have noticed that most of the reading comprehension websites include vocabulary practice. Indeed, vocabulary was always an important part of the English Curriculum in Israel, but when the New English Curriculum was published, it clearly stated the number of lexical items that each student is required to learn which totals up to 5,400 for the foundation, intermediate and proficiency levels combined. I have always stressed vocabulary with my students and find that practicing vocabulary is very beneficial I tend to use Quizlet and Spelling City for that purpose. Please allow me to expand on these two amazing web tools:

1)    Quizlet mainly includes flashcard and games, but what is amazing about it is that you can create your own list, add your own definition and an explanatory image. Sharing your vocabulary list will entitle your students to review each word with its definition and then go on to play games such as scattered words, race, speller and so on. The following image is an activity that I created for the poem The Road Not Taken. You can easily access games by clicking on "Choose a Study Mode" (note that you can embed any activity onto your website):

2)    Spelling City is a website where you can create vocabulary lists. Once completed, you share the link with your students and they can choose from a list of free games (word unscramble, missing letter, quizzes and my favorite- ready to use criss cross puzzles) to practice. Alternatively, you can print out worksheets if you do not wish to spend the lesson explaining how to work around the website and thus save time for reading. (Sample vocabulary list and activities)

http://bit.ly/1n28yCD

      At the end of my post for this week, I would like to say thank you to all those who take the time to comment and give feedback to myself and other participants. It is by supporting each other that we grow as a productive group of teachers. I cannot wait to see what next week will have in store for us, so good luck to everyone.

  Nahla

Sources:

(1)    Krajka, Jarek. "Using the Internet in ESL writing instruction." The Internet TESL Journal 6.11 (2000).

(2)    Ministry of Education. Revised English curriculum: Principles and standards for learning English as an International language for all grades. Jerusalem. 2014

Week Three

I can honestly confess that I tend to log into Nicenet dozens of times each and every day in anticipation of new asks from our instructor and new posts from my classmates in the course. So the minute the third week opened, I was already excitedly scrolling through all tasks to see what we are going to learn this week. 

What caught me eye this week was Delicious, a free social bookmarking tool which enables you to save your favorite links online and even browsing through other users' accounts.  I only came to learn about it when I saw the link posted on our web skills course site, so I began looking into it before it was posted as an assignment. I absolutely love this tool since it also allows me to add tags and even sorts the website according to date added or tags. Indeed, this is a much fresher experience than having to use the regular adding to favorites on browsers. I must confess, however, that I also use Symbaloo, another wonderful bookmarking site which allows you to create a block of websites based on category and discover other people's bookmarks when searching for a specific subject. This is one of my sample Symbaloo Tabs:

The second task for this week included looking through speaking, listening and pronunciation websites and reading the articles. Miller's article "Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials" had the largest impact on me since she provides numerous examples about teaching  listening using authentic materials and dividing the lesson into pre-, while- and post- listening activities. I have always taught listening comprehension, but since I was so focused on having my students practice for their matriculation exams, I almost forgot that there can be an element of fun while teaching listening. I particularly look forward to teaching the example Miller gives on using the news while incorporating internet search and group work for this task. I can certainly see how the students can benefit from a three step process when learning and practicing the skill of listening comprehension and having fun with their peers as they work together toward a common goal. As for Maria Busa's article on "New Perspectives on Teaching Pronunciation", I feel that I need to revisit the article to explore the wide range of pronunciation software mentioned as many of them need to be downloaded to the computer.  

I have added many website links to my favorites. I feel I am getting richer by the day with every website that I add to my list. I am not sure people would want to read a whole list of my favorites, but I have made a Prezi (I love embedding presentations as you have noticed) showing five websites and how I would apply them with my students (although the list of tasks has to be expanded as I will be strictly following the three step method from now on):

As for reading the project task, I felt that the project I chose, written by Zlatka Dyankova is similar to what I have in mind as she teaches the same grade level. I certainly have a better perspective on what is expected of us by the end of the course and I can clearly see that we are working towards this goal while acquiring a vast amount of knowledge and web tools which will enable us to create the project. 

I cannot wait for week four to open as I am already excited because I know we will have to create a technology enhanced lesson. I think this will be our chance to incorporate what we have learned so far in the course and maybe even more. 

Nahla

Week Two

This week, when our instructor, Donna, opened the session, the first task that I was automatically drawn to was the web searching discussion. I can honestly admit that I enthusiastically looked through all the search engines provided on the noodletools website, but a smile always appeared on my face when I saw Google mentioned. I am the biggest fan of Google and am very loyal to that search engine, therefore I shared my presentation regarding Google Search with my fellow participants in the course. I immediately began to get such positive and encouraging feedback from everyone which made my day. This only stresses the idea that “our goal is to help each other” from guidelines and ground rules for discussion from week one.I eagerly went through the search links provided by participants and read their feedback and can say that I have added some of these to my favorite links.

In the second assignment for this week, I described the classes that I teach with great detail. I love teaching and especially the classes that I mentioned as I admire their motivation and their high level of competitiveness. It does require a lot of preparation and I always have to be prepared for changes in my lesson plan, but it is most definitely worth it.

As for the last part of the assignment, I read through the articles and slideshare presentations which provide detailed instructions on how to write the ABCD Objective. What I found particularly useful is the"How to Write Clear Objectives" from Pennsylvania State University's Teaching and Learning office. This website provided clear examples of the ABCD model which made writing the objective much easier.

Since I feel that we are becoming a cooperative and encouraging community, a family, I opened a facebook group for our class (with the permission of our instructor of course). Please feel free to join in.

http://www.third-stone.co.uk/picts/community%20energy.jpg

Nahla

Week One

This would be my first post for the Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web by The University of Oregon. I am quite used to using blogs not only for personal use, but with my students as well. Therefore, creating this blog was done rather quickly. I cannot wait to go through all the course materials and learn new ideas from others as well.

Image: http://cristianmihaid.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/blogging.jpg