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