WEEK 7: REFLECTION

Hello Everyone,

This week I learnt about learner autonomy, it is again a new concept in my context. I read two articles “What Is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered” by Dimitrious Thanasoulas and EduTech Wiki. According to Henri Holec learner autonomy is “the ability to take charge of one’s learning”. It maximizes learner’s choices and they have self- responsibility towards their learning. What I realized is that the teachers are not the center of everything. Their roles get changed into a ‘helping hand” or a facilitator who has to monitor students’ learning. It really enhances “learning to learn” and explores learner’s capacities and the field of interest. It guarantees learner’s freedom of choice and fosters the self-esteem of learners. 

I’m using a technological tool i.e. class blog in order to solve an issue or problem “My students are not interested or motivated in doing their homework assignment.” Dear colleague Liat from Israel has invited me to be his partner but I’m confused as I haven’t used the technological tool that he is using to solve his issue. I hope, our teacher Donna will find the solution and we could help each other.

Another interesting thing that I learnt this week is Padlet.  It’s completely new for me but it is quite easy to handle. It’s a wall where students can display their creative works. Similarly, it can be used for posting homework assignment and to upload large content materials including videos. I posted “Helping Students Become Autonomous Learners: Can Technology Help? by Rubena St. Louis, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela. I smiled at the wonderful wall of our teacher Donna. Thank you Donna for introducing this wonderful tool.

As for the implementation of technology tool, my students are enjoying doing their homework assignment in our class blog. This time they were asked to write a letter. They have done excellent job with the homework assignment. I have good news to share. After I started using technological tool in classroom teaching, my school Principal really appreciated and encouraged me to go on. My school is planning to manage internet access in the departments and school audio visual hall. Isn't it a good gesture? The credit must go to this course.

I look forward to learning more!

Kiran

Nepal

WEEK 6: Reflection

“Where there is a will, there is a way”

The large number of students has been an easy excuse for many of the “teachers” in my context when they fail to show desired performance and bring expected outcomes in the teaching learning process. 

Week 6 is another milestone in my learning and has been indeed insightful. I’m feeling blessed and renewed. There are tools, there are technologies to help you combat with all the frustrations you have been living with what we call “Chalk and Talk” methods. After reading “Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students “ by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw, (http://oregonstate.edu/dept/eli/osu-hedp/large-classes-engaging-students.html  I have been familiar with Think-Pair-Share, Concep Test, Quick- thinks, Minute paper, Scripted Cooperative Learning and Concept Maps  and will certainly experiment them in my classes for students’ motivation and critical thinking as I do believe and agree “The more you vary your methods, the more interesting the class tends to be” (Beating the Numbers Game: Effective Teaching in Large Classes by Richard M. Felder). I know I will be learning with my students side by side.

Something unexpected has happened this week! I had never thought of INTERACTIVE PowerPoint presentation. I really worked harder going through the articles and finally I was able to make interactive PowerPoint slides for the lesson “Arati and Neelalm’s Plans” from Grade IX textbook. I have used brainstorming activity, Think – Pair- Share to get the students involved. These are my first PowerPoint slides where students not only listen and read but also involve themselves more. The use of hyperlinks and the actions buttons to make quizzes based on the text was an amazing experience for me to enhance real learning.  I really liked it and wish to learn more in the days to come.

So far the implementation of the technology is concerned, after the introductory sessions and discussions with Grade IX students, I have created a blog learnenglishsos.blogspot.com and my students have started submitting their homework assignments through the comments and some of them have been doing wonderful jobs with great excitement.  I have been continuously encouraging them and convincing some the parents as well. It has brought a wave at my school and my colleagues have started talking about the pros and cons of using blogs for the homework assignments. I strongly hope that I will be able to convince them all.

Looking forward to experiencing more learning next week,

Kiran

Nepal

Week 5: Reflection

PBL: A Ray of Hope for Meaningful Learning

Every learning this week has been an exciting and eye opening experience for me.  I have found PBL. Alternative Assessment, Rubrics and WebQuests to be insightful and appropriate tools to enhance students’ creativity, critical thinking to problem solving skills. I suppose them elixir for learning to life. I mean real learning for the real world. However, they are quite demanding as the “teachers”   working for more than two decades in traditional classroom contexts and going for the retirement in the near future resist for change.

I strongly believe on appreciative inquiry approach. I liked the way alternative assessment enhances students’ “strengths” for language learning. Creating a learner centered classroom, it encourages independent learning as the performance tasks are “built around topics or issues of interest to the students”. It demonstrates learners’ abilitiesand encourages them with ample opportunities for integration.

I found Susan Gaer’s article Less Teaching and More Learning quite convincing and motivating. I’d like to reflect the following points in order to achieve quality product or performance in PBL:

1.       The instructor should explain the rationale and convince the students to start a PBL.

2.      Selection of meaningful topic or issue that interests the learners and it is agreed upon.

3.      PBL is encouraged not imposed.

4.      The instructor requires a complete understanding of learners’ skills and abilities.

5.      The learners make continuous practice for meaningful language development.

6.      Learners’ self- esteem gets enhanced.

7.      Active and positive participation of all the stakeholders ; instructors, learners, administrators etc. is required.

8.      It enhances group activity and motivates learners.

9.      It changes the traditional teacher student relationship etc.

 I feel that the point no 7 is more challenging in my case. Hopefully, I will be able to convince them and work for the change because we are simply killing our students’ creativity with traditional teaching practices.

Creating a Rubric in Rubistar has been a quite new and exciting experience to me. Rubric provides guidelines to both the teachers and students. I created story writing rubric for the first time. The URL is rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?/screen=show Rubric&module = Rubistar& rubric-id = 2439308

Moreover, I’m planning to use a class blog to motivate my students in doing their home assignments.

Due to busy schedule I couldn’t earn extra points by creating WebQuest page. However, I read the article and explored it and enjoyed reading Ency and Wadha’sWebQuests. They are wonderful.

Every week’s journey is exciting and challenging for me. I eagerly wait for our instructor Donna’s next mail for sixth week!

Thank you wonderful learning community in yellow group.

Kiran

Nepal

WEEK 4: REFLECTION

 Hello Everyone,

I started week 4 with reading. Jarek Krajka's article "Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction" really encouraged me to use the internet to develop students' writing skills.  Writing students’ description and ABCD objective with technological tool was less challenging this time. I found www.manythings.org and the specific URL www.biographyonline.net/humanitarian/florence-nightingale.html quite beneficial for teaching the biography of Florence Nightingale, which is included in Grade IX English textbook.

I went through Ying Qui’s suggested webpage http://a4esl.org and found it beneficial for building vocabulary and grammar skills through interesting activities like quizzes, crosswords. I am going to recommend it to intermediate level of students at my school.

 As a part of project report, I selected one of the issues or problems with Grade IX students at my school i.e. “My students are not motivated or interested in doing their home assignments.” It may be because we have quite a traditional practice on assigning homework and correction.  I am looking for the way out!

Creating a lesson plan using technological tool was my first experience.  It was one of the challenging activities I felt this week. However, with the help of tips and advice, I have been able to complete it successfully.

Finally, I have learnt a lot from the interactive learning community and their experience.

Looking forward to learning more!

Kiran

Nepal