WEEK 10: REFLECTIONS

This is the final week: Week 10. I take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to our encouraging and inspiring instructor Donna Shaw, who left no stone unturned in sailing us through the exciting journey of WebSkills. I am equally thankful to the US Department of State for the opportunity to enhance my learning horizons and come closer to wonderful learning community (Yellow Group: 2014).

This journey has been quite insightful learning experience for a teacher like me willing to bring more effectiveness in traditional teaching learning classroom contexts. I have really learnt a lot of things. The different reading materials and discussion topics are worthy to mention. I have learnt a lot from the brilliant ideas discussed in the Nicenet from my colleagues and I am thankful to them.

Every week has left a memorable impression in me. I learnt different useful technological tools like Nicenet, BlackBoard, Wiki, Blogs, Padlet, Delicious and ANVILL. I have been able to learn different effective and useful websites. One of the most important websites I would like to mention is www.noodletools.org . Frankly speaking almost all the tools and websites were new to me and I really worked hard to learn them.

I have started following ABCD model in order to plan and present my lessons. I have used blog to ask my students’ homework. Now I invite my students at audio visual hall to make INTERACTIVE PowerPoint presentations. I am planning to use Padlet to enhance all the skills of language learning. My school management and the parents are positively taking my endeavors and I am with a belief that my colleagues will definitely start using technological tools in the class in near future. Lack of resources and willing hearts are challenges. I am optimistic that time will heal them.

Looking forward to learning from my instructor and colleagues and expecting more opportunities in the future,

Kiran

Nepal  

WEEK 9: REFLECTION

We are left with few days in this course but we have “miles to go”. The course has been truly insightful in my case and I have learnt various useful technological tools from our instructor Donna and the wonderful learning community in Yellow Group.

Week 9 remained another milestone in our learning experience. After going through the articles “Learning styles and strategies” by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman at http://www4.ncsu.edu/  I learnt that it is a must to know different learning styles of our students At traditional classrooms like mine, many of the classes go through lecture methods with an emphasis on rote learning and memorization only. So it’s an urgent to think what as teachers we are doing and failing to do. It is a must to identify individual differences, put ourselves in students’ places and plan our instruction, choose the materials and tools in the way our students learn.

One of the most important and interesting tools I am getting familiar with is ANVILL.  It’s a “container” where you can store all other technological tools. I created a teacher's account at ANVILL and wish to use it for effective teaching/learning. Unfortunately, I couldn’t join the webinar at 8:00 pm Saturday (Oregon time) due to load shedding problem in my area because of thunder and heavy rain. I am planning to watch the recorded one. I heartily thank Jeff for making us realise the importance of ANVILL for effective learning experience.

Another very important task we had this week was to submit our final project report. I submitted it on time. I would like to thank my partner Loma for his suggestions to improve my project report and I am equally grateful to our respected instructor Donna Shaw.

Last not but the least, joining Facebook group (WEBSKILLS – Yellow Group) is another great opportunity to get to know the colleagues. We are keeping in touch and shall continue ever.

Kiran

Nepal

WEEK 8: REFLECTION

Week 8 has been another milestone for learning experience. I went through quite a busy schedule this week. Preparing a draft project report on the basis of project template obtained from https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/home/projectsand sharing it with my partner Loma from Cote d’Ivoire was another wonderful learning experience. I am eagerly waiting for the comments and suggestion in my project report draft from my colleague Loma which I’ll incorporate in my final report. I also made my sincerest efforts to go through my colleague Loma’s project report draft and made comments and suggestions to the best of my knowledge. I have emailed the checklist to Loma and our instructor Donna as well.

Going through different technological tools like Nicenet, Blog, Padlet, Google etc., I realized that how wonderful these tools are to enhance real learning environment promoting learner autonomy. I created Padlethttp://padlet.com/kiransapkota197 and uploaded a paragraph about Hugh Lewin and his poem “Touch!” which is included in our Grade IX English textbook.I am planning to use it for my students to submit their homework and ask for their creative writings with a view to publishing school’s annual magazine. It is a “paperless wall’ and a platform for promoting all kinds of learning skills.

I am working over my final project report with fullest sincerity and hope to submit it on time.

I am truly enjoying the course and wish for the further opportunities!

Kiran

Nepal