Thursday, December 11, 2014

Wrapping up the course 'Web skills development'


Hello Courtney and course participants,

In fact, the time has passed very fast and we are wrapping up. But the good news is we are leaving the ‘Supermarket WEB SKILLS DEVELOPMENT’ with a lot of baskets full of delicious food. Food for our further teaching ideas and improvements. The course made a revolution in my personal teaching. There were number of interesting and useful topics both theoretical and practical I am going to use in my teaching:
 
-          The ABCD learning objectives framework;

-          Creating an academic blog;

-          Skill building websites for oral/aural skills;

-          Skill-building websites for Reading/writing skills;

-          technology-enhanced lesson plans;

-          Delicious bookmarking system;

-          Padlet wall;

-          Interactive PowerPoint;

-          Teacher resources online;

-          Rubrics.

I do understand that I have a lot to study ahead concerning using technology in the classroom and would appreciate the opportunity to be enrolled in a course “Teaching English language online” if there is any.

I would be happy if my students miss the course they are completing as much as I do!

Hugs and lots of thanks. 

Marina,

Kyrgyzstan

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Week 9: Learning styles - technology connection


Hi again, 

I cannot believe that this is one my final posts for this course. Obviously I have hardly noticed how far these weeks passed. They were full of amazing resources, interesting thoughts, ideas, and reflections, open and thought-provoking questions. Our highly qualified and professional guide Courtney did a wonderful work. 

For the first, she opened the new horizons for Web tools and resources. Having quite extensive work experience I cannot remember a course I have benefitted so much. This course has already changed my teaching style but there is a lot ahead. My students use web resources drilling grammar and vocabulary skills (www.a4esl.org is their favorite now). The ‘Best sites by Larry Ferlazzo’ are fully utilized by them too to improve speaking skills and expand the vocabulary. They are very enthusiastic to work with Padlet wall. Students willingly create the Word searches and crosswords. They find it more interesting than just learning the words by heart. 

This week we were focusing on learning styles and I was specifically interested in the article by
Howard Gardner.  I completely agree with his opinion that ‘human potential lies in the fact that people have a unique blend of capabilities and skills (intelligences)’.  He provides a wonderful example of student mis-labeling because of inappropriate assessment. http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/guide/learning/howard_gardner_theory_multiple_intelligences.pdf. I have to admit that it happens rather often in the classroom because instructors do not consider the variety of learning strategies and styles. There is a helpful chart in the article highlighting the primary seven intelligences with further details on their attributes. Refer to this chart I have easily identified my husband learning style and preferences and my own: my husband - logic and numbers; my personal - words and language.

Summing up I would like to say that this week readings made me rethink my teaching style in terms of addressing to multiple intelligence.

Good bye week 9 for now,

Hugs,

Marina,

Kyrgyzstan