On the Half Way of the End of the Journey

Week 5 is coming..time is surely running faster than I thought..

It's been a hard week..I missed my blog and the board but I couldn't push myself through the real things I have here..Thank you for Robert for his understanding..


What do I have this week? we continue our priceless lesson by making a lesson plan called Technology Enhanced Lesson Plans. It's similar with the common lesson plan but we have to add technology which can help our teaching process. It's quite tough in order to focus in applying this new technique and write it down on a piece of paper although we have done this activity many times. Changing the mindset of the old way of teaching and gradually embrace the new techniques take some times to get used to..when I tried to make one..I wrote with the "old" way I knew. I think this week is more practical and help us to plan the final project step by step. 
This week's materials are about Reading and Writing skills so I think I have already had the whole package in one "bag"  but still I will need more "bags" till the Week 10.  Krajka's article gives a new perspective of teaching writing through 3 basic elements which are web pages, email connection and creating class websites. Robert said that these kinds of methods were something common for teachers who were familiar in teaching with technology but he also said that we lived in different situation. It's a new thing for me as I never taught in a class which provides the internet connection but it is always fun to find new challenge..isn't it?

Liang's article also gives new method in teaching reading..She suggested to use e-books as the main materials for the students and led them to discuss about these on class blogs. Blog will encourage the students to give more comments or opinions without having hesitation feeling because they don't have to face their classmates personally. It will be good for introvert students.


I also found out a new link for speaking class : Free English Now . It provides many free MP3 files to teach specific purpose, for example, Greetings and Introduction.I also have 3 links from Robert as the required websites to explore. I like Lauri's ESL Website because it provides many interesting flashes to be used in listening and reading classes. The other goodies for my bag for sure.

It's almost the half way to the end of this journey but I will enjoy every minute I have to get there .... ^^

Go delicious with Delicious (Week 3)

It's been an interesting week and the good thing is  I can manage my time for this week. I decided to manage my time as Robert's rubric to assess us for this course..Midweek and the end of the week. I tried to do all the tasks before midweek at least one post for every task then spend the weekend to post other entries or comments. It worked for me at the beginning of this week because I have many things to do as I did on previous week and I don't want to feel the intensity which I felt last week. No more!

It is a "delicious week" according to Perizat. We are introduced to Delicious.  It's a web hosting or organizer for saving all the interesting links that we found on the internet so you don't have to save the links on notepad *like Shahnoza and I did* and we can share them with others. It's very interesting for me as a new user..Shahnoza told me about this last week and I decided to make one then I got the email from Robert that we had to make our own Delicious pages. Yay! It took me a while for getting used to it.. everytime I came across good websites, I think about my Delicious page..haha..
It's "delicious" to learn something new and is able to share it with others.

Along with "delicious journey" for this week,we also have 2 discussion threads this week..they are about Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller and The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills by Julia Gong. These articles focus on Listening, Speaking and Pronunciation. It can't be avoided that technology becomes part of our teaching method unconsciously. For example, asking the  students to listen a record of a conversation between a doctor and a patient in the hospital using tape recorder but now we can use mp3 or CD. Reading these articles encourages me to learn more about using authentic materials which I thought they were difficult to find.I will talk about it on my next entry. I am eager to apply  all the things I have learned from this course and share them to my students. Can't wait for that..

 

At the End of the Week (Week 2)

It's Sunday here in my local time..I am preparing for the Week 3.. Yay! Time is running faster then I thought.. I still feel the rush which I had at the beginning of this week..All I can say that I don't want to feel that situation again.. No more.. I agree with Shahnoza that we have to manage our time to do many things at the same time.. will it take our energy to do it? No doubt of it but I think we'll survive *Girls..keep on moving*

As you can read on my header..I put a quote there..I think it suits with us as a teacher..doesn't it? I got it from an adventure game which I have in my computer..Yes..I spend my spare time by reading and sometimes playing some games..ahh..it's only my mumbling story..

Back to the topic...it's the end of the week..Week 3 is coming..our class run smoothly and we have a great time on the board..sharing about everything we know or we haven't known yet..this week has 4 tasks and the reading materials which we should read and discuss it..the first time I got the email from Robert.. I said to myself.."4 tasks..okay..4 tasks.." but I had my time to read and did the task on Wednesday (local time)..Tuesday in Oregon's local time..aarghhh..I even could here the 'tick tock..tick tock' from the clock..haha..
Then I found out that some of my colleagues here felt the same way like me.. It seemed that we were busy at the beginning of the week..


About the tasks.. The search engines that we should search on Noodletools gave me other perspectives of searching the information that I need on the internet..they are all about search engines for academic purpose.. The feeling of being a Google fan just fade away..some of us here feel that there is no other search engines but Google...Now I know for sure that I can rely on these search engines if I need some academic information such as the journals,articles,books, magazines without being frustrated of reading many articles which are not related at all..but for non-academic purpose..Google is still the best one..

I have opened most of the links on NoodleTools..tried to find something and I chose 2 webs which I think they are suitable for me and my students.. They are iSeek Education (http://education.iseek.com) and Sweet Search (http://www.sweetsearch.com/). 
The review of these two :

1. iSeek Education (http://education.iseek.com)
The first impression that caught me was the simplicity, directly to the points and I could find other related links on the right with specific keywords..simple and multifunction

2. Sweet Search (http://www.sweetsearch.com/)
It provides brief summaries from many related links directly next to the main results so it's easier to find some information without taking some time to click on the links 


Based on the board..these two have many good reviews there..I have added them on my lists..
Another tasks is about ABCD Objectives..this is the first time I know about it and after taking a while to understand it..I learn that it is similar with Lesson Plan that I have to make for every lesson I teach..but in simple form..It's more like the main points of teaching-learning process..my "lesson plan" is describing the steps of the process..


It's great to learn new term like this..so I have the guideline of making objectives for the lessons..surely I learn a lot through this course..most of us feel the same..


The last task is about describing a class..I have read my colleagues' posts about their classes..they are interesting..with all the background of the students..class condition..the technology which is being used in the class..even about mannerism.. we have our own problems dealing with many things such as the facilities..the technology and many more but in the end..we all agree that as the teachers..we will do the best for our students..can't agree more than that ..

Try to catch up ( Week 2)

I am a little bit left behind for the second week..I feel a bit disappointed of myself,since I put all of my energy to do the assignments I have at work and of course on this online course but I realize that everything changes in minutes and can a little bit messy. The external things came up but here I am..trying to catch up ..

The Week 1 is closed and the Week 2 has already begun..there are 4 tasks for this week and I am learning what should I do and what should I read.  I learned so much in Week 1. Blogs, techniques of teaching, recognized some students' problems in facing new techniques and many more.. I am amazed that it was still in Week 1. I am so glad that there are many experienced and talented teachers as my classmates.
Since I am eager to try the blog idea as a new technique to teach English.. I learned that there are 3 types of blogs which I can use in class. Tutor blog,Class blog and Learners blog. These three types of blog come along with the strength and the weakness. They are able to be combined in order to find the suitable blog to each class.

Now..It's time to take the challenge a step higher and I am ready to catch up..

Go Dhika go..

In the midweek ( Week 1)

In the middle of the tasks and assignments I have in real life and this online course.. I couldn't help my self not to change the layout of my blog..so here is the new layout with autumn season as the background.. these kinds of things brought back the past time..when I struggled with HTML  and tried to understand all the scripts...
 
Back to the topic..it has been the midweek of the Week 1 and we got the notice about it from Robert along with the Snapgrades link. Midweek already? Time is running faster than I thought. For the past couple days, I had been busy with the assignments handed by my supervisor then I remembered about the article which I should read for this week. It's about using Blog as one of the ways to teach English.


The article was an eye-opening for me because I never thought to use Blog as a technique to teach English although I was fond of blogging.  As I did a self-reflection, I found out that I focused on the real teaching-learning process too much and used real media such as power point presentation, pictures, video etc without applying technology as a daily basis. I asked my students to search articles on the internet then compiled it in a group work. I can say that I am an old-fashioned teacher.

I noticed the lack of students' enthusiasm and gave many reasons in avoiding to complete the task. For example, I taught them about Narrative text. The students were given the title of the story they had to find on the internet and the task didn't run smoothly as I expected.
I learned about being flexible with the plan so they had to do a presentation . Most of them presented the paper in drama performance. They made the dialog,wardrobe,setting etc. The rest of the meetings were fun.

The facilities also took part as an important thing in teaching-learning process. I didn't have the access to use the English lab and there was no internet connection. I have a big hope here for the new English Lab in my new university because it is going to be provided the internet connection and I am managing it. The plan of applying the "blog" as a new technique and can't wait for that. The great expectation is in me now during this online course.

 
 

The class is begun (Week 1)

Finally..the class is begun although it will start tomorrow in my local time..
I am so excited about it because this is my first online course. I had a problem that I found in Orientation week but it had already solved by Robert. Thanks to him.


Actually the blog will be one of the assignment that I have to make in Week 1 but I decided to make one to complete the list that Robert gave us. Blogging is not a new thing for me.. I tried to learn how to create a blog in 2002. My friend introduced me to blogging world because she liked to share her thoughts with me and invited me to do the same.. My first blog used the other site which offered some templates for blogging. 


Blogger has improved many things to make it easier but I missed the old one :D I realized that blogging helped me in sharing my thoughts..from the meaningful thoughts to the silly ones..


When I taught in English department in my former university.. I used email and university's web as a technique to teach English but it didn't work well when I tried to introduce it.The students were lazy to do the assignments which I posted on the web. I think blogging is one of the techniques that I will use to teach English but I love to learn many techniques from all my classmate here ...


can't wait to start the course..

Change the language

 Since the new layout and system on Blogger.. I found out that I had to follow many steps in order to manage the blog :D  for creating the blog was easy..but the steps to manage were quite difficult :D 

It seems that old Blogger was easier hehehe...

Here is the way of changing the language on your blog.. I found that some friends here  had this problem.  I hope this entry will help you guys ^^

First.. if you have already logged in to your account and see your profile.. please look at the right top of your blog..there are some navigation that you can choose..please click on Design..

then you will see the page for changing the layout.. then you have to click a link on the right top of the page once more..there is a link with the name : Dashboard. Click it then you will see another page that you can maintenance the blog..you can choose English for your blog...

Happy trying ^^