WEEK 10 REFLECTIONS

Dear All.

When something you enjoy very much finishes, there is a sensation that you need more and more of that. This is happening with me tonight. I have a sensation that I need more. More because I learned so many things that I want to have more classes and discussions. I need to read more, because every article here is so useful that I have created a necessity to open this course and read the articles, browsing the URL that were presented. And of course I really need more of writing in this space.

Of course, this Webskills course has to finish, but the way to get more of this is to apply all the new concepts that I acquired in practice with my students. To have more of this I have to share with my colleagues and co - workers at the university all the things I can do now using technology and I get more of this course when I keep in touch with all of you.

That is what I want. I want to now about you, what are you doing, where are you working, if you have applied your project or how was your plan. This is the way this course will not finish tonight, but it will stat again in each one of us.

Donna my endless gratitude for your effort, guidance and example of how to be a good teacher.

William Arthur Ward said "the great teacher inspires". All of you, dear teachers inspire.

Gabriela

WEEK 9 REFLECTIONS

We are almost finishing our course and I cannot explain how I feel.

I feel happy and quite sad. I feel so enthusiastic and I look forward the things I want to do in my classroom after all of the new concepts I learned.

I feel quite sad because I am sure I am going to miss this. The oportunity to share experiences with all of you wonderful people from whom I learned a lot.

During this week we have discussed about how technology can enhance different students' learning styles and I cannot see a better way to do this task. However the importance using technology for our students styles, the first step that we have to take into account is the recognition of the learning styles. In the past I was just focused in three styles: visual, auditive and kinesthetic; what a misconception!!!. We have to think about social relationships, environment, colors and sounds, global o particular facts, and more to determine in what way our students learn better. Then we have to determine what is the learning style of the majority students and with this we can apply different strategies and techniques to create and environment in class where everybody has the same opportunity to learn.

I cannot wait for the beginning of the new semester in my university to apply the project I elaborated here. I plan a completely new way to practice English outside classroom using technology for my students. In my class, because of its size, one of the problems I face with is the lack of opportunities for oral practice, for this reason I developed a project where my students can interact with other English students using Skype as a tool of learning. I think my students will love it, they really like technology, they have good Internet and especially they really want to improve their oral skills as prove of their progress.

In conclusion this was very productive week, the next one, I really believe, is going to be even better.

WEEK 8 REFLECTIONS

Dear Webmates

Week 8 is over and I start feeling homesick. Each day I am totally surprised even I do not see you I really feel that we more than just classmate are becoming friends for this reason, the end of this course, which is getting closer make me feel little sad.

During this week I learned a lot about ANVILL that is one of the most complete web English lab that I have ever seen. The versatility of this tool engages inmediately both teachers and students and permits that students have the interaction they need to build up their confidence at using their English. A great development of the Yamada Language Center of the University of Oregon that is being used by many TEFL centers all over the world.

In this sense, the use of Internet educational tools was the purpose of this week. From Nicenet to Hot Potatoes, and www.wizard.4 teachers.org. Internet offers great learning oportunities, but the idea is the change of teacher's attitude towards his own way of teaching. The tools are ready to be used, the teacher have the responsibility to take them to enhance their teaching practice.

Finally this week, we have to present the first draft of the final project plan and even more complicate we have to give to our peers the feedback they deserve to work on their own project. This is complicate when we have to check other's works and we are not very sure what it expected for this works. Even there were very clear parameters to be focused on sometimes we could make mistakes in this kind of assignments. I hope my peer evaluation was useful enough to provoke the change my peer needed to have a better job.

Gabriela

WEEK 7 REFLECTIONS

Dear All

Time flies!!!! we are just finishing week 7. I have learned a lot and I think I will continue learning.
During this week I have been thinking about how I could make my students more autonomous learners.

After reading the articles proposed for this topic I truly believe that the best way to create autonomous learners is by being autonomous teachers. If it is my way of thinking in autonomous learning how can I be an autonomous teacher????.

The answer is not simple, it is much more complicate because it is not always simple to be autonomous as teachers. Some of us (if not most of us) have to complete objectives, lesson plans, a class book, a certain of number of hours for teaching. These institution's requirements are generally developed by the authorities and the "group of experts", the ones who master the curriculum and syllabus design, but who generally ore far from the real situation of the classroom.

WEEK 6 REFLECTIONS

Hi Everybody

During more than I decade I have been using PowerPoint as a essential tool in my classes. I used contrasting colors, not many movements (to avoid distract the audience), an appropriate font size as well as its type. Clear enough pictures for balancing the visual with auditive learning styles. And I had the conception that it was a good presentation and I thought it was interactive too. I was far way of the correct path to have a REAL interactive presentation.

During this week I have learned how to develop interactive PowerPoint presentations through the reading Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint - from the UO's Teaching Effectiveness Program and the reading Interactive PowerPoint by Deborah Healey. In these reading I realize what is and not an Interactive PowerPoint presentation that could be useful especially for giving lectures to large classes.

In addition to these presentation this week has been really productive to discuss teaching large classes that it is a common problem all over the world.

I teach large classes and semester after semester I feel that I need more ideas to teach to these groups. Professor Eric Mazur has developed the ConcepTest that mixed with PowerPoint make the classes interactive. Deborah Healey proposes the use of black or white slides to promote interaction in class after a topic or to change the the theme of the lecture. Games, contests, questions are ways to intact with students in a lecture, all of this with PowerPoint help.

WEEK 5 REFLECTIONS

Non - Traditional Learning methods to Form Autonomous Learners.

During this week we read about project - based learning, alternative assessing methods and WebQuests. These methods increase student’s participation and the communicative environment is provoked to get confident students at their learning process.

In addition to these features of these educational tools, the main question during this week was the manner they transform students into autonomous learners. All the readings give us clues to determine the reasons for this occurs and the purpose of this week reflections is to recognize how they work to make autonomous learners.

Project - based learning is an approach that is focused in the interaction, participation, collaboration and cooperation among each member of the group. Each member has a part to work on during developing a certain task. If one fails, the whole group will fail too. This is one way it makes autonomous learners. The same happens when students prepare a WebQuest with is a strategy which needs to be developed by every member in the group. Facts as responsibility, intrinsic motivation, and independent work are enhanced. The result is obvious, the students take their learning process as their own and they become more independent at studying.

The way that rubrics can generate autonomous learners is well established. With a rubric, students are very conscious about how are they going to be evaluated, they exactly know the points they can pay attention to make changes to have a better work. With a rubric students can construct their own assessment and their peers' one. This is the way this alternative assessment can make students to become autonomous learners.

However this discussion, why is it important to have autonomous learners? The answer, more than obvious, is that autonomous learners are the ones with a high level of confidence, intrinsic motivation and they are proud of their learning process without any doubt autonomous learners are the ones who will not fail and this is my personal goal at my teaching practice.

WEEK 4 REFLECTIONS

On this week we are faced to the use of Internet to reinforce students' skills on reading, writing and vocabulary. We read about the influence of the Web on learning English as foreign language and for me the article "Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction"of Jarek Kraika gave me a lot of new ideas to develop with my students through Internet. Here the author proposed, supported by serious research, that one of the best current tendencies in developing and improving reading and writing skills (here vocabulary is included) is the Internet. The possibilities to work with those skills and Internet go beyond multiple choice activities. Pen- pals, collaborative writing proyects, descriptions, essays and some other communicative writings are the current activities to be developed through Internet. Despite of this advantages, we have to be very careful and select appropriate web pages for our students.

In Addition, this web - course applies different techniques and strategies than the ones we use for our teaching practice. The lesson plan that we developed during this week challenged our usual way of planning. Planning every lesson is the step 1 in any teaching method, independently of the methodology we are appliying in our classes. I consider there is no teaching when we don have a lesson plan. Now I know another way to plan my classes and I am looking forward to apply it.