Week 5

Week 5

During this week I created a sample rubric on grading my student's oral presentation

Here is a link
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2508601&

The rubric has the following categories: content, fluency and coherence of speech, awareness of audience, language, response to questions, stayed in time limit.

You can also use it for grading your student's final PBL presentations. 

Week 7

Week 7

This week I read some resources related to the topic “Learner Autonomy”.

We also discussed the question “What could a teacher do to encourage greater autonomy in students, with and without technology?”

Finally I created an activity for a one-computer classroom  that promotes learner autonomy. 

Have you heard about Padlet tool that allows people to share information in one location, on a virtual wall?

Go to http://ru.padlet.com/russellmoon/Webskills_W15

It is an example of a pad let wall, a nice tool to engage students in fruitful intellectual activities.

Week 8

Week 8

This week I created a test at http://www.easytestmaker.com

This program “Easy test maker” helped me to create, format and grade tests.

I am planning to use this multiple choice test in the course "Corporate Culture" for my upper-intermediate students.
I think that multiple choice tests are certainly one of the effective and efficient ways to assess learning outcomes.
Here is a link to the test I created
http://www.easytestmaker.com/Test/EBE85BA13E424A11910080B3E53FCF79

Week 9

Week 9

This week I read about learning styles / multiple intelligences and how these can be catered to through technology.

I read the following articles:

1. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence

http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/guide/learning/howard_gardner_theory_multiple_intelligences.pdf

2. Richard M. Felder “Learning Styles and strategies”

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

3. Learning strategies

http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/shaping-way-we-teach-english-successful-practices-around-world#child-298

If you want to know more about your learning style go to

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

One of the tools to enhance students’ abstract vocabulary skills is Wordle. It is a free Web application that allows creating a word cloud based on the frequency of words on a particular text. A teacher may start a lesson with a cloud already created before the lesson.

The following links

http://piktochart.com

http://www.easel.ly

https://www.canva.com

would make an infographic project enjoyable and convenient for the students to create one of their own projects and publish them online. 

Week 10

Week 10

During this week I’ve learned that a teacher passes through different steps while introducing technology into the classroom. If you want to find out what level (tier) of technology integration you belong to, please, follow the links:

The information provided at “State of Washington: Tiers of Technology Integration”

http://www.k12.wa.us/edtech/techliteracy/techinttiers.aspx

and “University of Southern Florida: The Technology Integration Matrix”

http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix.php

This information will help you to learn more about your approach to integrating technology into teaching.

Week 6

Week 6 was focused on how to use technology and other easy-to-use tools to motivate and engage students, especially when classes are large. 

During Week 6 I was asked to read some material on engaging and motivating students especially using technology and other easy-to-use tools.

We should all agree that to motivate students, especially when classes are large, is a challenging problem.

I have read three articles;

1. “Teaching Large Classes-Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students” by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw at

http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/largeclasses/usingtechnology.html

 2. “Beating the numbers game: Effective Teaching in Large Classes” by Richard M. Felder

3. “Destroying the Teacher: the need for Learner centered Teaching” by Alan C. McLean

I would like to highlight some of the brilliant ideas:

 1.                 Give students the opportunity to read one another’s ideas using a blog

http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/engagement/inclassdisc.html

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/using-a-blog-to-enhance-student-participation/

 2.                 use Twitter to facilitate classroom discussions

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/using-twitter-to-facilitate-classroom-discussions/

 3.                 make lectures more interactive by including think-pair-share, demonstrations, role playing

http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/interactive//index.html

I have also learned a new term “flipped classroom”. They say that a model of flipped classroom is already making a difference to students. If you want to know more follow the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQWvc6qhTds&feature=youtu.be

I was also given a task to create an interactive Power Point document including 1-3 interactive elements. These may include a ConcepTest, QuickWrite, hyperlinks/jumps to other sections of the PPT show based on student responses, blank slides to shift attention, etc. I created a power point presentation on Coca-Cola Company. I have a course “Corporate Culture” and I am planning to use this video in the course. I think it will be interesting for students to learn the history of this company. Also it would be nice to ask the students to make interactive presentations on any company they want.

 I added a hyper link, video links.

Week 4: Lesson Plan created at last

During Week 4 I Read about building teaching skills through the interactive web from "Tips and Advice from your Webskills Team: How to Write a Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan" at  https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/lesson-plan

To get an idea of technology integration I also read some sample lesson plans from Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Instructional Technology  at

http://www.bcps.org/apps/CBTIA/

As a result, I created a lesson plan. Here is a link

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WvPRSD9eG3AXwfY5OFhG8eybugbAg22ozY12iAOQUNw/edit#

Do you like my lesson plan?

You are welcome to comment on it.

With best wishes,

Elena Galichkina

Week 3

Week 3

WHAT I READ

- One of the articles I read was Technology Tip of the Month at

http://pages.uoregon.edu/dhealey/techtips/sept2009.html

I learnt how to get started with Delicious and preserve the information I find online.

- I read some articles about CALL for listening, speaking, or pronunciation skills, and studied some lesson plans. One of them “Teaching Pronunciation to Adult English Language Learners” by Kirsten Schaetzel, Georgetown Law Center, Washington, DC seemed particularly useful for me   http://www.cal.org/caelanetwork/resources/pronunciation.html

WHAT I DID

- I  created my own Delicious page at  https://delicious.com/elenagalich

 and added the following links to be used in my classroom teaching:

1. BBC learning English (an archive)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/archive_ent.shtml

2. Blendspace

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons

with my lesson on Corporate Culture

3. Lingq.com

http://www.lingq.com/learn/en/welcome/

with nice material on Countries and Cultures

Week 2

Week 2

WHAT I READ

- I read about the ABCD model. The article "How to Write Clear Objectives" from Pennsylvania State University's Teaching and Learning office was worthwhile reading as it provided a basic overview of the ABCD model. If you are interested in writing clear course objectives and you would like to review some examples of well-written objectives, enjoy reading 

http://archive.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writing.html

WHAT I DID

-          I tried a new web searching tool browsing Noodletools at

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

-        I shared with my colleagues a behavioral objective for my class they teach using the ABCD model.

-        I posted a description of one of the classes I teach.

WHAT I SHOULDN’T FORGET ABOUT and come back again to use it in my classes and research:

- a list of free online articles for teachers of English  as a second language at http://iteslj.org/

- learn English using thousands of the most engaging videos on the web presented at http://www.englishcentral.com/videos

Starting a new 10 week course – UO AEI Webskills Winter 2015

I’ve decided to start the first reflective blog in my life. I hope the course I’ve just joined in will help me to build webskills in English language teaching. Let’s see what will come out of it.