Week8: create an exercise

Hi all,

This week I have learned about different websites resources that teachers can use to create activities for their students such as

 Hotpotatoes

 It is a very fascination tool for teachers. Hot potatotes lets teachers create interactive exercises that students can do on the web or from a diskette. It has five options which are JClose, JCross, JQuiz, JMatch andJMix. They are very interesting tools.

Tools for Educators

It is a very interesting website which allows teachers to create many worksheets for their students. Some of these worksheets are related to vocabulary, spelling, certificates and so on. This is the link to the website:

http://www.toolsforeducators.com 

week7: Learners Autonomy

Through the reading that I did in this week, I learned a lot of information about learners autonomy. What is learner autonomy? Learner autonomy according to Dimitrios is "the ability to take charge of one's learning". Henri Holec is the "father" of learner autonomy. He believes that learner autonomy means that the learners are responsible of their own learning, study at their own pace and use their own strategies and learning styles to gain certain skills.

Another definition for learner autonomy is "a process that enables learners to recognize and assess their own needs, to choose and apply their own learning strategies or styles eventually leading to the effective management of learning" (Penaflorida 2002, p.346). These two definitions are similar in term of defining learner autonomy.

There are many synonyms to the term learner autonomy such as learner independence, self-access learning, self-paced learning and distant learning.

There are seven main attributes of autonomous learners which are:
1. Autonomous learners have insights into their learning styles and strategies
2. Take an active approach to the learning task at hand
3. Are willing to take risks
4. Are good guessers
5. Attend to form as well as to content, that is, place importance on accuracy as well as appropriacy
6. Develop the target language into a separate reference system and are willing to revise and reject hypotheses and rules that do not apply
7. Have a tolerant and outgoing approach to the target language

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Learner_autonomy

From my experience some of the students are dependent on teachers on everything. They do not like to go and search or monitor their learnering. As I remember there is a section in the course book called self study. It contains many activities to be done by students individuals as self study but about 80% of them do not even look at it. They tend to copy answers from their classmate or ask teachers for answers. We need to foster learner autonomy more in our school.

Week 7: Padlet

Hi,


This week I have learned about new tool which I think it is a fascinating one. It is "padlet/ wallwisher". It is a very interesting tool where the teacher and his students can download some links and upload some resources about any topic. I have created my own padlet for the project that I am doing with my students. This is a link to my padlet:

http://padlet.com/wall/33ea519w47

Week6: Interactive powerpoint

Hi,

This week I learned a lot and read some articles which I found them very useful. I like to use PowerPoint in my teaching but I have never thought of using it as a tool for doing a quiz or a game. I know hoe to create a game or a quiz by PowerPoint because I took a training course. It was good for me to refresh my knowledge. Through this week also I read some articles about teaching large classes. I have learned new ideas that I might apply when I have a large class in the future. I found some interesting website that I would like to share them with you:

 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/LargeClasses.html

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/Largeclasses.htm

http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/posting.php?ID=1020

Week5: Webquest, Rubric and PBL

Hi all,

This week I learned a lot of things about WebQuest. I have looked at some WebQuest before but this is the first time I know how to make one. I am planning to make a WebQuest for my students. That is why I add the link to my delicious list. Here is the link for WebQuest:

 http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=195401

I also learned about how to write rubrics to assess or evaluate Students in certain skills or tasks or project. This website help teachers to create a rubric by their own:

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php


You can have a look at the rubric that I create by clicking the following link:


http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2318740

week 4: Websites that I liked

Hi everyone,

This week I knew some websites that I believe that I can use them with my students. These websites are mentioned in the list under the multi -skills websites.

The websites are:

http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/grammar/grammar.html

Teachers can find different grammar quizzes in this websites

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http://web.hku.hk/~sbapro/website.html

Teachers can find different resources for extensive reading in this website

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http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/

Teachers can find different activities for different language skills in this website

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http://www.manythings.org/

Teachers can find different resources in this website about anything related to language teaching

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http://legacy.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html

Teachers can find different resources for their teachers and for their own professional development

Week 4: Five finger method

Hi everybody,

I found five finger method a very interesting method for teaching reading. I tried to search for more information about this method and I found this website but I am not sure if it is the same method?

If anyone has any information about this method , please share it with us.

The website address for the information that I found about this method:

http://agusr-educationasthelastdefence.blogspot.com/2010/10/five-fingers-method.html

week3: Delicious.com

Woooooow

I found delicious .com  very useful for me because I tended to save my favourite websites using the list "My Favourite " in Internet Explorer in window in my own laptop . Sometime I need to use some of these websites inside the school or anywhere else without caring my own laptop with me all the time. Delicious .com solve all my problems. You can add as many as can without any worries of losing them or any limitation.


Zainab

Project-step 1

CLASS BACKGROUND INFORMATION.

I am teaching only one class, grade 8. They are all girls. They are about 24 students in the class. They are 14 years old. It is a mixed ability class. There are students with different level inside the class which is a challenging task for me. I have 4 outstanding students, 14 average students and 6 underachievement students. They also have different learning strategies which I should but in my consideration when I sit to plan for my lessons.


PHYSICAL CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

The classroom is too small so students are sitting in groups of 4. There is not any electronic devices inside the classroom. We have to go down stairs to the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) or computer lab if we went to use any of the electronic devices like overhead projects, proxima, smart board, computers, CDs rooms and so on. There is wireless internet connection in the class but students do not have laptops and they are not allowed to bring them to the school. When they need to use the internet they should move to the computer lab or LRC.


CURRICULUM: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The students have to study 2 books, Classbook and Skillsbook. They are called "English for Me". They are provided by the Ministry of Education in our country. The number of the units differ according to the grade. For grade 8, students have to study only 4 units. The title of the units in semester one are totally different from units in semester two. Each unit deals with different language skills such as reading, speaking, listening, writing , grammar and vocabulary. The main aims of Oman's curriculum is to help students master the language effectively so that they will be able to communicate with the speakers of the language. Students start to learn English from grade 1 gradually till the finish high school. For cycle 1 (1-4) the most focus is on reading and speaking and a little bit of writing skill beside vocabulary and basic grammatical rules. In cycle2 the focus is on the 4 skills as well as vocabulary and grammar.

However, the objective of "English for Me" grade 8 are:
Speaking

- to be able to understand daily spoken language
- to be able to give a presentation
- to be able to interact with others and take part in different kinds of interactions in a variety of contexts.

Reading
- to be able to understand different types of written texts
- to be able to understand the four general categories of a text: interactive, informative, narrative and evaluative
- to be able to read independently and to carry out post reading tasks relating to these texts.

Writing
to be able to write and respond to letters and e-mails
- to be able to write texts with the purpose of providing information
- to be able to write stories and narrate events in the past
- to be able to write texts which express and justify opinions.

Grammar and vocabulary
- to be able to understand and use grammar and vocabulary in speaking, and writing


INTERESTS/ABILITIES

My students are interested in technology and they are able to use some of the electronic devices inside the school. They do not have time to use all of them or even to log in to different websites. They have only one or two lessons in the computer lab where they learn about certain programs which is part of their curriculum. I try my best to give them the chance to log in to some blogs or website for learning the basic skills of English language. I also provide them with some websites to log to in their homes but not all students have computers or internet connection. Some of them have e-mails accounts and others not. Some of them do not know how to browse the net. I try my best to teach them how to browse the net in the break .

Week 2: Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need

Hi everybody,

 I am fond of google search engine. My students are familiar with google as the only search engine in the world.  It is our favorite search engine. I was amazed to see the list of search engines mentioned in "choose the best search for your information need". They are very interesting and useful for both teachers and students. Here is a list of my favourite websites from the list mentioned:


iseek-Education:
It is a useful websites if your are looking for any educational topics related to your teaching or classroms. It will direct you to other links to your topic or some topic are presented in the form of PDF so you can read them , or print them. Go for it by clicking the following website:

http://education.iseek.com/iseek/search.html?l=en&query=classroom+management&sbl=1&bk=&spc=&as=0Y5CYLqgQQgtjKjZhqX1oUP%2B6BkXNJ8w

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WiKipedia:
It is a useful websites for both teachers and students. It directs you immediately to your topic and provides you with many information. It also provides you with other links for furthur information as well as subtopics.  Here is the link to the website:

http://www.wikipedia.org/

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Doaj website:

 If you are thinking about conducting an action research or looking for journals , please visit the following website:

http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=search&uiLanguage=en

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Youtube:

You can watch a lot of TV shows, clips, movies and other videos by visiting the following website:

http://www.youtube.com/

Week 2: The ABCD method

Hi everybody,

This is the first time I heard of the ABCD method in writing objective. I already know the characteristics of objectives. They have to be: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, describe a behaviour within or under certain circumstances. However, I went through the reading assignment the "ABCD method", It was clear and understandable. I learned a lot about writing effective objectives. I have never though of including C which stands for "Condition" and D which stands for "Degree" in writing my objectives but after taking this topic I will do it for sure The examples provided with the topic were very useful and understandable. I am planning of conducting a workshop about the"ABCD method" for my teacher because they are having problems in writing the aims or objectives for their lessons.

Week1: My experience

Hi everybody,

I was very happy when I heard that I was nominated to take this online course. I am fond of online courses. I joined alot of online courses. I gained a lot of knowledge and skills which help my in my teaching. There are many institutions that offer online courses, I did not know that at the beginning of my career. I took me two years to know that. I mean I have never thought that our ministry is taken part in developing teachers professional by supporting them financially to join some courses. I took many courses in the expanse of the ministry. This is the first time I took a course from UO. I have never heard about it before. That's why I was surprised at first. I logged in to it's website to find more about it. I like the first week assignments. There were easy and understandable. I liked that the idea that they provide us with the ground rules about the nicenet discussions. It was helpful. After reading the ground rules, I have a clear idea about how they are going to assess us as well as how they are going to deduct marks. Moreover, I liked the idea that they provide us with the course schedule so that we will know the topic of each week and when it is going to start. I hope that we are going to get the benefits from this course.

All the best
Zainab

Week 1: Introduction

Hello again,

I forgot to attach some pictures of my students. These are some pictures for my students while they are using the blog to practice their language skills. They are in the computer lab.

Week 1: Introduction

Hello everybody,

My name is Zainab Al Yahmedi. You can call me Zainab. I come from Oman. It is in the middle East. It is ruled by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos for mare than 41 years. The capital city is Muscat. I am an English Senior teacher. I am a newly assigned senior teacher. This is my first year in this position. I have been a teacher for 4 years. I was teaching grade 12. But Now as a senior teacher, I am responsible of 12 teachers. They need supervision and guidance. It is a great job. I like it. I am teaching grade8. They are about 14 years old. I love teaching specially young children. My students do not know a lot about technology. Most of them, they do not know even how to log in to any website or write an email. This year I established for them a blog where they can find any materials or videos to practice the language. I hope that they are going to get the benefits at the end. I am trying my best to use technology inside the classroom to make they fond of it. I hope they will improve their webskills in the coming years.

All the best
Zainab