Week 10

I can't believe it is the last week in the online training course.I am so happy as I learned a lot from this course.I knew new technology tools and how they can be incorporated into the teaching and learning process such as padlet,blogs,Delicious.This has in fact enhanced my student's motivation and promotes their autonomy.In a nutshell, it has been great experience and I feel I am fully inspired with techniques and ideas that can be implemented in the years to come.

I can't forget my colleagues' comments and my instructors' feedback and valuable tips.A teacher should always change his teaching ways as we are surrounded with technology which can serve cooperative learning.

Many thanks.

Keep in touch

Regards

Makram(Tunisia)

Week 9

It is week 9 and the training course is about coming to an end. This week has been so busy as I was keen on rectifying my project work before being submitted. As for this week’s assignments, I learned a lot on students’ learning styles. Some techniques have been new to me which gave me more insight into students’ strengths for better use in class.

Since we are different and so are our students. Indeed, we need to analyze learners’ strong points in order to enhance the learning and teaching environment and therefore engage students in this process. Personally, I conducted a class activity trying to emphasize the different learners’ styles and it really worked.

In the future, I am going to take into account this factor before tackling and tailoring tasks for my students.

I would like to thank my classmates for their valuable comments and feedback which helped me a lot inspire new teaching ideas and strategies.

Finally, I would like to share an interesting video on the learning styles.Enjoy watching!

Regards

Makram (Tunisia)

Week 8

Week 8 has been very fruitful. What I was asked to do was to create an online activity.Personally, I created a vocabulary game (a word search) uploaded from a website called Lakeshore where I integrated a set of marketing words already seen in class. 

I meant to allow students to write sentences using these words. In addition, it was very motivating to engage students through games .The technology tool used was padlet on which I decided to post this task. By creating a class padlet, this device seems to be very efficient since it enhances learner autonomy and promotes independent learning. I am thinking of assigning more tasks on the class padlet in the near future.

The draft project took me a lot of time to work on .However, I enjoyed working together with my class colleagues Hanan and Iman. We exchanged comments on our reports .I would like to thank them very much for their help.

I hope everything is going well in the next 2weeks to come. I really felt how much I learned from this training.

Regards

Makram (Tunisia)

Week 7

Dear all:

The project work is ahead and I am short of time.I need to organize my thoughts in a coherent way.Maybe,this difficulty springs from the fact that teachers always ask students to write but rarely do they put themselves into learners' shoes!

Moreover, Week7 shed the light on learner autonomy and how to enhance and promote this concept.Lots of readings and suggested tasks helped me implement some technology tools in class either for my project ( class blog) or to test the degree of efficiency.Anyway, this week I worked a lot on telephone devices in class.I carried out tasks and games based on this tool.Really,it worked a lot and many students talked to me after class saying  they enjoyed the lesson despite the noise made while working in groups!


This week, I also  discovered a new tool that can be used to get feedback from students.It is about Class Padlet.It is amazing and it serves teachers to interact with students and enhance cooperative learning.From now on,I will adopt it as a device to encourage students to have a say in the learning process.What do you think ?What about you dear colleagues?

As usual, I would like to share an interesting document about some ways of using mobile phones in the classroom and a video on learner autonomy.

Regards

Makram(Tunisia)

Week 6

During this week ,I had to make an interactive Powerpoint .This was not easy at all as it is the first time I've ever used interactive tools in presentation.At the end,I learned new tools of how to make it interactive,which would be very promising for the teaching environment by engaging students and making learning fun.Yet,there are other techniques I need to practice in the future.

Engaging students into the learning process and enhancing their skills could be more practical by adopting tasks, activities as well as strategies.I read an article about this from which I learnet how to do activities through circling and to make the class cooperative.

Week 6 is also the right time to think about the project.Personally ,I have created a teaching blog  for my marketing class which is still under construction.To enhance students' motivation,it will be a meeting place where they post and leave comments outside the classromm walls.I know it is not easy at all to engage them but I think things are going for the better.I have to keep trying and struggling for that goal. 

You can have a look at the class blog ( under constuction) and some photos of the my class.

I am looking forward to your feedback and suggestions.

Regards

Makram
(Tunisia)

Week 5

Time is running.We are in week 5 !I can't believe it.
Brifely speaking, week 5 has been beneficial as I have learnt new things .First,I enjoyed knowing more about how to create a rubric which will hopefully help me a lot assess students' performance.

Students are the key factor to success in teaching .Consequently,by adopting the big load of technology, we -as teachers- can enhance our performance,too.Along with rubrics,webquests and project based learning(PBL) are attempts to get a move from the traditional way of teaching since students will be more and more independent,creative and productive .However,the biggest challanege is how to incorporate and implement these new teaching tools to your classromm environment.How can I motivate students ?That 's the crux of the matter !How to adapt and adjust these assessment tools to the benefit of students ?All these questions need urgent answers.As earlier discussed in my previous reflections, motivation is a key concern for most -if not- all teachers.

As a part of my project, I am thinking of  creating a blog gathering all students where they can post, make comments and write so as to encourage them to love English !That's not easy at all but I have to endevour to overcome this challenge.

Finallly, I would like you to watch this video on PBL.I think it is interesting,isn' it ?

Regards

Makram( Tunisia)

Week 4

We come to the fourth week which was full of tasks and new things learnt.I have to admit that the greatest challenge facing a teacher is how to motivate students to learn English especially in my classes' case where there are few occasions on which they can practise the language.Integrating technology is a key factor that can enhance teaching ways.Personally, thanks to my classmates posts, I have discovered a lot of interesting websites that can be used both by teachers and students.

Another point to raise here is the importance of lesson plans to ameliorate teaching performance.This could be strengthened by the implmentation of the rising technological developments such as the internet and multimedia tools.In my point of view,I think we should be selective-as teachers- in using these technologies since they are in fact a means to improve teaching and learning and not an end in itself.

Finally , I would like to share this video on Integrating Technology In The Classroom.

Enjoy!

Regards 

Makram,Tunisia

 

Week 3

To be brief and concise,week 3 has also been beneficial and productive for me as well as for my students.The idea was to create a Delicious link in which I have posted my favourite sites. I have encouraged students to refer to these sites so as to enhance their language skills and  improve sefl-study work.Moreover, I read some articles about conducting listening activities.One of my tasks was to work on a listening website .I chose Randall's Cyber Listening Lab which is a great website loaded with listening activities that can be used in class .Actually,I carried out a task with fitted my marketing students Telemarketing .I liked this site and told my students to use it outside class.

The last task was in fact to read a project developed by Teacher Joanna Zubel, Poland. The teacher created an online Blackboard where the students can enrol for the course. At first, it started as a forum where students can express their opinions on the concept on studying online. This was done mainly outside school hours in order to encourage student autonomy. As a further step in the project, the teacher decided to add another component; she started exchanging emails with her students. In fact, exchanging emails was conditioned by the exclusive use of English. Added to creating an online on Blackboard, the teacher a class Wiki using google sites.

There are three qualities that I liked most in this project. First of all, the teacher missed no occasions to encourage student autonomy; a highly regarded soft skill in contemporary teaching context. Second, I found the exclusive use of English very rewarding. Under the pressure to perform, students start using English inaccurately at first, then with practice they would imporove. Third, there is a departure from the old teaching practices in which the teacher is the sole source of information. In the project in hand, the teacher retreated to manage and monitor things behind the picture.
This project would pave the way for what I am going to do by the end of the 10-week training sessions.
Looking forward to your replies.

Makram,Tunisia

week 2

Thoughts on week 2 webskills learning experience 

Week 2 in web skills learning has been very fruitful for me .Actually, I have learnt a lot on web searching and ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives.

To begin with, web searching is of paramount importance for teachers to design their lessons. The huge number of search engines is a double –edged weapon .Despite making the teacher’s task easier to find information and resources on the topic he or she wishes to tackle, I found it hard to select what I need due to the load of information.

I have also learned that web searching does not mean Google! I have actually discovered other search engines such as Bing and Ask thanks to the task assigned during week 2.

Secondly, week 2 has been beneficial in my teaching skills. The ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives has enabled to have a clear objective and to be selective especially in the choice of verbs. I discovered some new strategies on how to set objectives .This is not as easy as I thought before!

Finally, the class atmosphere is very friendly .Comments from classmates and their feedback helped me a lot inspire new teaching ideas.

I would like to thank all of you .Week 2 has been great! What about you?

PS: I have found a handy video on YouTube on The ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives. I liked it so much; that’s why I would like to share it on my blog. Enjoy!