Week 3 Reflection

The tasks of week three are...

1. Joining Delicious.com and sharing the delicious page.
2. Reading an article about CALL for listening, speaking and pronunciation and share opinions about website to enhance the skills.
3. Describing a project report and discuss thoughts about the report.
4. Writing reflective journal on Blog.com


1.
Before I learned about Delicious.com, I used Google+ to share the websites I used, and Blendspace.com to collect resources for my class. One good thing about Delicious.com is that I can put a small button on my explorer in order to easily add the webpage on Delicious.com. Usually when I used Google+ and Blendspace.com I had to copy the web URL and paste the address on the website, but by using Delicious, I did not have to worry about wasting my time. Also, when I add a website on Delicious, the small message pops up and tells me how many people added this website previously, so I could see that there are many people who found the website interesting. When I click other people who added the webpage, I could also see other resources of people who share the similar preferences. Also, when adding the webpage, Delicious.com suggests possible tags to categorize the webpage. For example, if I add Randall's ESL webpage, a message also pops up and shows some words like ESL, Learning, Language, English, Teaching, etc. I think this is time-saving for saving, using in the future, and browsing the pages. However, I think it would have been better if I could create folders to organize the pages aside from the tags.


2. Secondly, I read an article about CALL and looked through several websites. I could learn many websites that I didn't know, and I would like to use them in my class in the future. A website which interested me most was Winkball.com. People can create and watch video interviews about things they love. If I used this website in my class, I would give students some interview tasks such as interviewing people who have students' dream jobs. Also, students may make a self-videoclip about what they found out about their dream jobs through interviews. Even though teachers may use this website to give students' interview format, I think this website can be useful more for students' actual use rather than preparation of the teacher.I also think that this website could help students to be exposed to realistic English by showing a real-life interview videoclips.

3. I also left some comments on a project report written by previous attendee of this program working in a high school in Bulgaria. The setting and educational background of the school of this report was similar to mine, so I chose to read this report. The course was about using technology while enhancing students' speaking and writing skills, and the content was about Olympic games. By using WebQuest, students were able to ask and answer the question and eventually to write a research paper about the games. Having experienced that teenagers are difficult to motivate in class, I think the content 'Olympic games' was a good topic to use in class. 

Week 2 Reflection

Compared to week 1 assignments, week 2 assignments got a bit more demanding, but more interesting. 

Week 2 assignments are 

1. Describing students 

2. Using different web searching tools

3. Writing classroom objective using ABCD format, and

4. Leaving week 2 reflection on my blog.

First assignment was to describe my students and classroom settings in detail. As I read other teachers' description, I noticed that even though classroom settings and conditions are different from places to places, teachers all over the world are doing their best to educate their students in different ways, and this made me feel very touched. 

The second assignment was using different web searching tools other than Google. Through this assignment, I learned there were so many different useful searching tools available, and I found it useful to make students think more critically and creatively by selecting different kinds of engines and getting various types of results. I searched for some information about tessellation which I taught last year, and found out that each tool provided specific information about the subject in which the tessellation was taught.

Third assignment was the most difficult. Even though I learned about writing objectives in my university days, and I have written objectives since I became a teacher, writing objectives is the most tricky part. Sometimes writing objectives "IN DETAIL", objectives got too long. However, I cannot deny that writing objectives properly is one of the essential parts as a teacher. Hopefully, as I practice more and more, I will be able to write objectives better.

delicious.com

https://delicious.com/

Week 1 Reflection

Task 1: create a blog on Blogger.

Create your own blog at www.blogger.com, following the instructions on the handout. For your first blog post, describe what you learned while creating the blog and your reflection on using a blog for class.

You need to post at least once on your blog each week, describing what you think about the things you are learning in the course. This will be your weekly report. See more information on the Blog Page. 

Task 2: Post your blog's URL on the course wiki.

Please share the URL for your blog with your group on the Blog Roll in your group's wiki! Also, share your thoughts about creating your blog on Nicenet, as well. You'll find a link to your group's wiki on the left side of this course website.

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I have been thinking and interested in using technology in my own classroom, so I took lessons on technology from several teacher training courses. In Korea, where most students have smartphones, and almost every single classroom is equipped with big screens, electricity, RGB and audio cables, and where every teacher is provided with a laptop computer, using technology while teaching is quite easy. However, for some reason, I have not actually use it in my classroom due to lack of time and mostly, effort. 

This is the third blog that I have made so far. Hopefully, I would like to make the best out of this course and eventually benefit my students in my own class.

One thing to consider when putting this into action 

: GIVING CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE GETTING STUDENTS USE(or MAKE) THE BLOG.