Week 6: Technology tools for creating student-centered classes

Hi bloggers!

This week's main topic was the use of  technology tools for creating student-centered classes and engaging students especially in large classrooms.

Among the many tools I found interesting and useful, I'd like to point out the following:

- Todays Meet, a chat platform which facilitates interactive participation among teachers and learners.

- Blogs, which give students the opportunity to read one another's ideas. And responding to one another engages them in the creation of knowledge.

- Voki, which gives teachers and students the possibility of creating customized speaking characters.

Whatever the tool or resource we choose to engage our students, it should be one that encourages them to participate actively in their learning experiences.

All the best,
Lore from Argentina

Week 5: Rubrics and Alternative Assessment

During this week we also worked with rubrics and alternative assessment tools.

According to Heidi Andrade, a rubric is a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria, or what counts, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor. Rubrics are often used to grade student work but they can serve another, more important, role as well: Rubrics can teach as well as evaluate. When used as part of a formative, student-centered approach to assessment, rubrics have the potential to help students develop understanding and skill, as well as make dependable judgments about the quality of their own work. 

Here's my first rubric, which I created using Rubistar:

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2487091&

Lore from Argentina

Week 5: PBL and WebQuests

Another week has gone by and the course experience keeps getting better and better.

During this week, we analyzed Project-Based Learning and WebQuests. I had never heard about these approaches before, and I must admit I fell in love with both of them. They're such powerful tools for effective meaningful learning!

A characteristic of these resources that I'd like to point out here is the fact that they emphasize deep thinking on the part of the students, such as analysis, creativity and criticism, rather than just acquiring information.

I can't wait to put into practice both PBL and WebQuests in my classes!

Have a nice week!
Lore from Argentina

Week 4: Websites for Reading/Writing Skills and Technology-enhanced Lesson Plans

Hello!

This week was another week full of great experiences and useful resources.

First, I discovered a lot of websites to build reading and writing skills in students, which I had never heard about or visited before. I was very excited at the variety and amount of resources available on the web. And I feel lucky to have the possibiliy of knowing about them.

Then, I prepared a technology-enhanced lesson plan for a group of my students. This was very helpful for me to "see the whole picture" of lesson planning organization.

Finally, I described the main issues which affect my student's learning of English. I'm really hoping I can help my students to overcome those issues with the use of technology.

All the best,
Lore from Argentina

Week 3: Aural/Oral Skill-Building Websites and Delicious

Hi again!

I'm posting this message a few hours before close of week 3. I decided to leave this activity (the blog) for the end so that I could give a more general appreciation of this week. The course is still less than half way for the final project, however I feel I have learnt so much already!

As for the Aural/Oral Skill-Building Websites, I found out about many great online resources to teach pronunciation and to help students develop their speaking and listening skills. Two of my favorite:

- http://www.pronuncian.com/, which offers hundreds of pronunciation lessons with options of tests, quizzes, audios, videos and progress tracking.

- http://lyricstraining.com/, where students practice their listening skills by watching music videos. They also learn vocabulary and spelling because they have to type the words missing from the lyrics. Educational and fun, all in one!

Then, I created an account at http://delicious.com. I was fascinated by this tool. It's very useful and user friendly. I'm adding new sites every day!

Finally, I read and analized a sample project which was an important step in the way to creating my own. I liked how it was organized and how the situation was presented and approached. This reading gave me a very good overview of how I should do mine when the time comes.

Lore from Argentina

Week 2: web searching and ABCD objectives

Hi everyone,

During this second week of the course, I had the opportunity to discover many interesting and useful search engines in www.noodletools.com. Some of them were completely new for me (e.g.: www.teachertube.com) and others rung the bell but I had never used them before (e.g.: www.quotes.net). It was a great experience to go through all those sites and see that the web has so much more to offer than we can imagine.

Apart from the web searching experience, I read about the ABCD objectives for the first time. It's very important to have our objectives clear before we start a new lesson because both students and teacher benefit from this method.

Lore from Argentina

Week 1: A few words

Well, I'm new at this. Even though I have visited and read tons of blogs, I had never created a blog before (or posted in one). So it's a completely new experience to me. And I love it! It's easy, it's simple and user-friendly, and it can be very useful. I feel very excited about posting in this blog each week. I know already it will enhance my learning experience.

I think blogs are very powerful tools for teaching. They are the perfect environment to make students participate and engage in a topic. Plus, they come handy to assess a student's writing skills as well.

Blogs are an invitation to express opinions and points of view. Furthermore, a blog is capable of triggering new ideas among its particiant bloggers.

I'm really looking forward to applying this online resource to my own classes!