Week 8: New Journey

Hello,

The great journey we had during this week showed us how powerful are tech-tools in teaching and learning as well.

I had a very fascinating exploration with ANVILL it's a very powerful lab and I am sure all my students will love using it as a new way of learning English. I have never heard about it but I found it great.

The task were asked to do was creating a course site or exercise pushed me do something with Wikispace which I found years ago too helpful in collecting and sharing different resources in teaching English language.

I feel that week8 run too quickly to the end because it was the start for the end of our lovely and effective course.  I noticed also that we had great exchange of the draft which really helped us have great feedback on what we are working on and it gave us the experience of other teachers.

I 'm looking forward for week 9 and we will be asked to do.

Mariah

My Wiki

Hello all,
Visit my wiki here:
http://mariahalansari.wikispaces.com/

Mariah

Week 7: How to use your opportunities and your classroom environment as teaching tools effectively

Dear Teachers,

During this week we had simple and effective experience in analyzing our learners' autonomy and our one-computer lessons. Not to forget the great guest we had in discussion 1 ( Melissa Mendelson ) who presented her experience in teaching round the world.

First of all, I had a good experience in revising what the course members mentioned in the previous weeks to Find a Partner.

As a requirement for joining the discussions we had to read some articles which I found too useful. First, I couldn't believe that the simple readings we had about Learner Autonomy help us guide our students accurately to discover their personality and learners style. Moreover, those readings lead us as teacher to the strategies of preparing our students to be independence and have strong personality.

The second discussion was about one-computer lesson. The articles we read show us the effective strategies in using one computer class effectively. Finally, I found creating  a one computer lesson too interesting because it lead us to discover our classes, teaching tools we had and the opportunities we can utilize to make our lessons students-centered in simple ways.

I look forward to the following weeks.

Thanks,

Mariah

Week 6: New tools and techniques!

Hi everybody,           

During this week we had a variety of techniques and tools of teaching. First, we had great opportunity to meet the Editors who are spending their time creating a new world of valuable pages (English Teaching FORUM) .

There were great reading and discussion on Engaging Students especially in large classes and the new and effective techniques are used for teaching them.

Next there was a very helpful article on creating Interactive PPT show and different techniques were explained on enhancing an Interactive class.

 Of course, after observing the information and techniques we read and discussed, we have to practice them all by creating an interactive PowerPoint show.

I found this week more effective than before. Frankly, each week become more useful than the former week. I felt too relaxed in doing the required task because it is more related to the student- centered more and more.

Thanks for making our lesson interactive and let us understand using technology as tool of letting the audience interact and learn.

Mariah

Week5: Rubistar!!! Great ! I can't believe it!

Hi teachers,
 

Wow! Great tool , great details about different skills. I found Rubistar a valuable website to create Rubrics easily.

The most important reason I will start using it that it saves my time and energy. Thus, starting from know I will not think a lot about the details I have to consider in creating a rubric. In addition, it saves my energy and let me think more in other creative methods of teaching and preparing visual aids or activities for my students.

GREAT TECHNOLOGY!  I won't go back to the old ways of setting rubrics.

Love,

Mariah

  

Week 5: PBL ??? What and How?

Hi all,

I have never heard about this strategy before, but I applied it a lot during the previous years. The reason lead me to apply it was that my students have the enthusiasm to do a project rather than write an assignment so that I asked them to prepare projects on the global issues or what interest them of the issues mentioned in their text books.

After reading the article titled " Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer about Project-based Learning I understood the method I used and become more aware of the principles and procedures of this Strategy.

PBL is the powerful method of involving students in learning new visions more than set and listen to their teachers.

Finally one of the largest and influential website that apply PBL effectively is iEARN :  http://www.iearn.org/    visit it once and you will discover the importance of PBL in learning and improving student- centered environment.

Love,

Mariah

Week5: Still Correct Papers!!!

Hello everybody,


What is the acurrate tool you use to assess your students' performance?
Do they have to asnwer questions to pass the course or graduate?
After reading the article about Alternative Assessment I found that we can invoke real world applications to provide self assessment opportunities for students.


Students can show their real personality and experience through their performance. Teachers must judge the students' performance in different ways and don't believe in the answers on papers. Everybody can memorise and write down what he/ she studied but it is difficult to apply what you studied in the real performance.


I read about the experience of Telok Kurau Primary School in Singapore on using Alternative Assessment in assessing Math Test and Science Test and found it a remarkable experience that must be applied in our schools.
The website of the school is :  http://www.telokkuraupri.moe.edu.sg
follow the followings: (School programmes, Alternative Assessment Mode)

Best,
Mariah