Week 5 Discovery: Making a post with Web Poster Wizard

 It's  00:51 Taiwan time.  All my family have slept for almost 4 hours.  I am so surprisingly sober! Just created an online worksheet using Web Poster Wizard.  

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=155529

I also use Rubistar to create a Rubric.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?ts=1304355408

There are so many links that keep me awake! http://www.4teachers.org/tools/

Yaling, Taiwan

Week 5 Reflection on Technology in Classroom

Even though it's the first day of Week 5, my inner urge to learn flames.  A teacher is a good teacher because he/she never quit learning, with the belief that every student is teachable.  We are now in a digital world where distance is between "clicks of the keys".  If we don't not take it seriously to bring in technology into our classroom, we are standing in the way of our students' future. 

Instead of seeing myself as a teacher, teaching my students, I prefer to see myself as a facilitator to introduce technology to them.  They learn so fast once they are motivated and know the what they are learning for.  The more time I immerse myself in teaching, the more awe I have for the importance of a teacher's responsibility.

There is this website http://4teachers.org/ with DVD about Technology in the classroom that make my heart beat speed up.  It is what is happening now and it is becoming a norm worldwide.  We should think to ourselves whether to use lame excuses such as  short of financial support or parental understanding as ways of delaying our students' learning English through technology.  

These two DVD clips speak a lot to me.
 
Cyber Summit on 21st Century Skills: Kansas Technology Rich Classroom Project      by ptumarkin |   2009-05-14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu99aC8YK4Y&feature=player_embedded#at=110

A Vision of K-12 Students Today   by bjnesbitt  2007-11-28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&NR=1&feature=fvwp     
  
This project was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging their students.

 
I hope they speak to you, too.

Yaling, Taiwan

Change the World in 5 Minutes - Everyday at School

This is a meaningful DVD clip to watch and practical in our classroom. by FILMAUSTRALIA |     2008-03-17

Writing and Reading

Week 4, end week reflections


We are heading towards the beginning of the mid-program.


Writing, according to Chinese saying, last generations.  It is combination of thoughts, culture and spirits.


There are so many forms (types) of writing.  What I can introduce to my students is so limited.  And it is because of realizing this fact, I find the need to introduce to my students great websites to explore for themselves, if not now, can be in the future. 


It is said that the best teachers are usually the best students because they model to be one.  I have met great "students" in this class and believe that they are fantastic teachers. 


What I learned can hardly be put down to words because of the limited time and vocabulary.  Yet, life is a learning journey and it shall last until the last breath I have. 


Yaling, Taiwan

Good to know--Laurie's ESL Website.

Today, I go over again the assigment and hope to find new ideas or thoughts.  My desire is satisfied.  In this websites (Laurie's ESL Website), there are different kinds of exercises for students to practice.  There are five categories: ESL classes, Grammar, Reading, Writing, and Listening.  They are easy to be applied to the class to give students more controlled practice.    I will introduce it to my students and encourage them to use it as much as possible.  Here is the link.

http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/

Yaling

Using E-mails in my English Class

Today, I have a new discovery.   I also find few answers to my questions.

My discovery---  I find someone using e-mails to improve students' writing and typing skills like me.   The difference is that I did it more of between me and my students.  But Ms./Mr. /Mrs. Jarek Krajka have her/his students send words to key pal. 

I believe there have been many teachers asking their students to send them homework through internet, like e-mail or blogger.  This is not common with my students, though.  First, students  in my school  are not encouraged to use computers at home or at school.  In Taiwan,  English is taught by subject teachers like me, not by homeroom teachers, who spend most of the time with students and who have more "control/ authority" over students.  They don't want to give students homework or assignment that relates to computers.  Because if they do, they think they are asking trouble for themselves.   The parents might call them all night to make complaints about students spending too much time playing computer games with the excuse of using it to do homework.  And some students might skip homework because there is no computer or internet at home.

But this also why I find answers to my questions:   

  1. Ms./Mr. /Mrs. Jarek Krajka suggests that in order to prevent class from going disconnected because of the speed of internet, teachers can pre-download the website to be able  to review off-line.  

  2. I was always bothered by not being able to find key pals for students to write.  So one of my colleague and I  invited a class of students from one school that's about 30 kilometers far from my school to join a pen pal project.  That was 5 years ago.  There was a lot of correction needed before the letters were sent so we only did the letter once. At the end of that semester, we managed to help students from both school meet.  We all thought that was quite a successful experience.    Now after few years when I look back, there's great possibility that I can redo that project with the aid of computer.  This is the 2nd answer I found to my question.

  3. The organization "European Schoolnet" is quite a good website for students to know, especially for students in Taiwan.  We spend a lot of money and time on studying and taking tests.  It is really meaningful to me to introduce to my students that they can do great things for others and they have the right to learn how to do it. 

I am really thrilled to read on.   Though I am not finished yet, I will definitely come back to report more. 

Yaling, Taiwan

  

Delicious is so delicious!

This is program is so well-organized.  I am impressed with how it constructed and am expecting the grand outcome in 7 weeks to come.

This week, in class discussion, we read different articles about oral and audio skill building.  Though provided with 3 reports, they lead us to read even more. Articles like How to Teach Aural English More Effectively by Huan Huang provides some suggestions.  Regarding to oral teaching, I also found it interesting how teachers help teachers in the website: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=110123 .  By this week's discussion, more thoughts come into my mind when teaching my students or motivate them.

Delicious is a great tool.  I am so glad to know about and share it with people I know.  With the help of it, not only I bookmark my frequent used websites but also have a chance to surf other's favorite sites.  This is cool!!

Yaling, Taiwan