WEEK 8 On-Line Tools

Hi, Partners

Definitely another hard week, plenty of good effort and of course, a lot of satisfaction, the first part of our final project has been up in Wiki, also the check list, it`s very important the opinion of our project partner in order to correct, modify, clarify or change some things, a good partner can help you a lot in order to conclude your job.

In order to develop improve a better class environment we can use a lot of internet help pages to create puzzles, quizzes, some tasks for example I use very often PUZZLEMAKER.COM it`s a nice and friendly page in order to do some vocabulary and grammar tasks.

 There are a lot of activities that we can choose from in order to do our class more dynamic and motivating for the students. One of the most impressive tools is VOICEBOARDS. Here students are able to practice their pronunciation at home on their own. There are also other tools which students can keep in touch with their mates and with the teacher such as the forums and chat...

We as teachers have to take advantage of these interesting tools in benefit of our students get the most benefits in order to put in practice oral – aural tasks, the way to involve students into technology in education is so nice and students are ready to use them, the audio, video, images task encourage students to get to practice and we need to be prepared for this challenge and cheer the students motivation up in order to develop and improve our skills by working together as a school team.

WEEK 7 learner Autonomy

Hi, Partners.

definetelly a hard week, but as always full of great things to learn and put in practice in class.

During this week we talked about the use of computer in class and about autonomous learning. The use of computer can make the class more effective considering that we do not lose any time… if the teacher is well prepared … we can use the time to focus on the students performance….

It is important that the students know in advance what they are expected to do … and you’re the goal of the class, or lesson is… In that way they can do their best… of we want autonomous learners we as teacher have to guide them.. Lead them in all the activities we want them to do…

 When we talk about interactive class… we refer to speaking or listening but… using it for writing seems very exciting. and even more when they writing is about something they can relate to. This is a very nice web in order to introduce students to practice skills.

homeworktips.about.com/.../biography/How_to_Write_a_Biography.htm

WEEK 6 POWER POINT

Hi, Partners

A very productive week full of interesting things that we can apply in our daily work inside the academic curriculum, so engaging students and teachers as well, in the use and tech class production, the use of the different kind of tool are so wide, of course all of it in benefit of our students, the use of, Blackboard, anvill, voice boards, power points etc.

this week, we are learning about how the power point can help us in the classroom to show a topic in a very friendly, colorful, nice and attractive way.

Creating presentations in power point is an interactive way of teaching and also of motivating the students. The first benefit is because this program is very easy to use… because it is an application of Microsoft office and almost everybody has access to it. Another benefit is that we can introduce whatever we need in order to create an interesting presentation. In other words in each slide we can include texts, charts, pictures, graphs, animations, sounds. This PPP make it more visual for the students to understand the lesson and for the teachers this kind of presentation saves time in class that could be use for the students to produce the language…

Power Point Presentations also demand time from teachers, because we have to find, analyze and select the materials we are using in advance… this is also an advantage because we are actually planning the lesson.

For students this is another way of studying. During class they will not be worry about copying the class, because they already have the information… during class they will be worry about understanding it…

WEEK 5 Rubrics and PBL

Hi, Partners

A loaded work this week, so much but very interesting and useful, the idea to use technology in class envolving the students in a new way of learning, day by day encourage and cheer them to use their internet knowledge in an academic pourpose for the class, it`s amazing. 

The teachers, students and parents focus the students’ process based on a number. For example in my work we grade our students over 10 and if they have less than 7 they simply fail. And sometimes we do not care about the students’ emotions, or problems they might have gone though at the moment of giving a test, quiz or lesson. We have to remember that assessment of student learning is the process of evaluating the extent to which the students have developed their knowledge, understanding and abilities and a simple score does not give us that. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on a continue assessment; on other words, to assess our students in a daily basis, assess the students in their daily accomplishments, a reading task, a conversation practice, on their communication skills.... Rubrics are also the key for a good performance students have to know exactly what they are going to be graded on so they can do their best on the different tasks they are asked to do.

WEEK 4 READING AND WRITING SKILLS

Hi, partners

Week 4, hard but very interesting week of work, the ideas, the liks posted by our partners are so great in order to have a better idea about the correct use of reading and writing skills, as when we worked on listening and speaking, the study of the second group of the language skills so amazing in order to work with students for example: http://marlothomas.aol.com/category/my-books/  a great page to introduce students to read, because introduce some information that students want to read and then is the best way to encourage them to write.

Talk about the (Laurie’s ESL website) web-site http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/   another fun and friendly page, the students feel very comfortable to use it, because you can practice reading and writing, and learn as well, the possibilities about the internet in the education is no limit , we as a teachers think every moment how we can come students in order to practice (English), the answer is very easy, a mix of education, technology and funny activities, you can cover all the class concerns having a motivated students, in a relax and confident environment.

The class plan using technology made my students and me the real confidence to work with tech, improve our classes, of course it`s a little complicated try to match our program in order to time, but the result at the end of this process will be fantastic, the class motivation is up and we need to take in advance it, to get better.

Work with delicious and listenins speaking skills

Hi, partners

The work assignments for this week were really complex and interesting of course. I have learned a lot, first of all I am very worried and happy too use the delicious tool, my class and I had a discussion about the delicious and in what way we can apply in the current course, because it’s a great tool in order to keep the students very active and be ready to up as many web sites as they can in order to class needs.

I think to talk about skills, we necessarily need to mention listening and speaking in order to develop oral-aural skills, the activities which works best are those where we can use lively activities and some very useful ideas for example the use of the radio, TV, video, songs and games, some repetitions of stories,  tongue twisters, including in the activities the TPR total physical response in order to motivate all the class and obviously create the perfect environment, becoming students self-confident and cheer up their participation.

WEEK 2

Hi, everybody

very happy to end week 2, learning a lot day by day with the help of all your comments and ideas, very hard work also, but so interesting because the use of the tech.

Our first task was creating a blog… I was quiet an experience. I never knew that there were different types of blogs for example Tutor Blog, Class Blog or Learner Blog as we could read on the Blogging for ELF.  We also learned a new method of developing objectives for our classes, in which we have to take into account: the Audience, Behavior, Condition and Degree.  This method is called ABCD. We also learned to use delicious. It was really interesting to know that there is a way you can get your favorite sites any where you are, without using your own computer.

There were also other interesting things, for instance how to help learners develop effective listening skills bringing attention to the methods we use and the type of materials we introduce our learners to. Creating presentations in power point was an interactive way of teaching and also of motivating the students. The first benefit of it is that this program is very easy to use because it is an application of Microsoft office and almost everybody has access to it. Another benefit is that we can introduce whatever we need in order to create an interesting presentation.