Week 10: Reflections on what I did & what I learned throughout the course

*What topics were most successful and most useful for me?

1- Creating an academic web blog
2- The ABCD learning objectives
3- Effective web searches
4- Bookmarking with Delicious
5- Creating rubrics for alternative assessment
6- Preparing interactive powerpoint presentation by using prezi
7- Excellent readings about learner autonomy
8- Opening a Nicenet class for my course
9- Writing an observation form as a googledoc
10- Thinking about learning styles and technology connections
11- Writing up a project that I apply in my teaching context (teaching implication)

*Which tools will I use in my classes?

1- Web blogs (www.blogger.com)
2- Bookmarks (www.delicious.net)
3- Rubric (www.rubistar.com)
4- Interactive ppt presentation (www.prezi.com)
5- NiceNet Class (www.nicenet.org)
6- Classroom Observation Form (googledoc)

*Which do you think were not relevant to what I do or will do?
Anvill, one-computer classroom (In that week, I couldn't join the discussions on the NiceNet. For this reason, the topic is not clear to me. I need to search more on that.)

*What other tools should be taught in the course?
Designing a personal website could have been taught in the course. Bookmarking each other's websites on Delicious would enhance sharing more ideas and experience.

WEEK 9: FINAL PROJECT REPORT

This week, actually less than 24 hours, I am going to post my final project plan on the wiki. I have been working on this project for 8 weeks. I have been building up pieces one by one each week. At the moment, I am in the process of finalizing the weekly  course time line.

Looking behind, I have noticed that I feel more competent and confident in using technology in my teaching. So this is not the end but just the beginning ...

Last but not the least, sincerely dedicated to our kind teacher Sean, all guest teachers and classmates,
please click on the following link to listen to the song "Beginning not the end" by Chris Sligh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X4ygPFuJ5c

Week 9: Learning Styles and Technology Connections

Technology can help provide a range of learning styles in the classroom. Therefore, 'learning styles and technology connections' is the topic of my blog this week. Below I share specific examples of how I used technology to address different learning styles in my taught module 'Teaching English to Young Learners' this semester:

1- Active Learners: They apply the theories about teaching English to young learners into practice during their microteaching sessions.

2- Reflective Learners: They create reflective web blogs and write about their self-reflections regularly on the web blogs.

3- Sensing Learners: They do hands-on work (preparing teaching materials) before their microteaching session.

4- Intuitive Learners: They interpret how theories about teaching link the facts (classroom practice).

5- Visual Learners: They observe an English lesson at the kindergarten. They see visual representations of course materials.

6- Verbal Learners: They work in groups. They write reflections and make lesson plans.

7- Sequential Learners: They first observe an English lesson at the kindergarten and write reflections about their observation. They then carry out micro-teaching sessions and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses in teaching.

8- Global Learners: During their observation of an English lesson, they see the big picture and grasp the teaching action as a profession.

WEEK 8: TEACHER RESOURCES ONLINE

This week I have made use of two online teacher resources.

1- Using Google Forms to Make a Survey

I have made an observation sheet as a googledoc.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KeJH63T7hIUKe3b-usNLZW0vRHydngldvQP6UnE-Pyk/viewform

As my trainees are observing the lessons at the kindergarten, I ask them to fill in the observation sheet, which they can access online. The observation sheet makes the goals of observation clear and meaningful.

2- Creating a Nicenet Class

I  have created an online course at Nicenet:
www.nicenet.org

The name of my online course is Teaching English to Young Learners. As I'm approaching the end of the fall semester, my trainees are going to use the link for next (spring) semester. The course lasts for two semesters (one academic year).

Next semester, I am going to ask a question about each week's lecture and/or practicum by using the link 'conferencing'. I am also planning to share websites by using 'link sharing'. I am going to add lecture handouts under the link 'documents'.

I am sure that teacher resources online will make my life easier in teaching : ))

WEEK 7: LEARNER AUTONOMY

This week's topics are learner autonomy, the one-computer classroom, and mobile devices. I have been reading and researching in the field of learner autonomy in EFL for many years. However, I am new to the idea of 'one-computer classroom' and 'learner autonomy by using mobile devices'. Thanks to the reading resources provided by the web skills assignments website, I feel motivated enough to search more on the topic by myself. It is obvious that my trainee teachers and their 'future' students are native digitals. That means that they are equipped with digital skills from birth. On the contrary, I am still struggling to use mobile devices even for the simplest reasons : )

Another thing I have learned from this week's topic is how to publish something on the padlet. I wasn't aware of the existence of padlet (wishwall). I am surprised with the ease of use and the idea of collaborative publishing. I would definetely use it for my kindergarten project (in the second semester).
I published my joint research article about "e-portfolio assessment" on the padlet. If you are interested, please have a look at the pdf article. I'd be more than happy if you share your thoughts with me.

Good luck with your draft project ; )

WEEK 6: Project Task 5: Begin to Implement the Change

I am teaching the course "Teaching English to Young Learners" this term. I begin to implement the technology-related change this week. My trainees have created their blogs at www.blogger.com In the last weeks, they have been observing English lessons at the kindergarten. I asked them to narrate a classroom event which they find amusing, exciting or scary and reflect on their feelings about that event. My trainees have started to write about classroom events on their blogs. This is is the initial (observation) step of my project. The next step is reflecting on their "anticipated" strengths and weaknesses about their teaching practice. After their micro-teaching sessions, my trainees will reflect upon their "actual" strengths and weaknesses about their classroom practices. They are also encouraged to read and make a comment on each other's blog. I look forward to reading their blogs : ))

WEEK 6: Creating an INTERACTIVE PowerPoint document

This week I have prepared an interactive powerpoint document at www.prezi.com Unfortunately, I had a problem in downloading the free trial version to my computer. One of my colleagues helped me to do it on his laptop. So I published my presentation on his account. Anyhow, I really enjoyed the experience to prepare an interactive story by using texts, different backgrounds, hyperlinks, and graphic images. I designed an interactive story activity in the form of questions which are related to classroom events. The topic of my presentation is about classroom management skills at the young learners classroom. For this purpose, I included three reflective questions related to classroom management skills. The activity is to be done individually by English language teacher trainees and collaboratively in small groups.

The link of my prezi presentation is:

http://prezi.com/vvvzxuvlecyv/the-interactive-story-task-on-classroom-management-skills/

WEEK 5: Rubrics

You can have an access to my rubric from the following link:
 http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2379332&

Please take a look at my rubric and share your thoughts about it.

WEEK 5: My WebQuest

http://questgarden.com/164/26/4/131110053808/ Please have a look at my WebQuest. I look forward to reading your comments on my research project : ))

WEEK 5: Project-Based Learning, WebQuests, and Rubrics

As we are at Week 5, we are in the midway towards the final projects. This week we completed the project Task 4 which required us to describe a technology-related change that we will implement for the first time. I described how I can use blogs to help my trainees both to reflect individually on their strengths and weaknesses in their teaching and reflect on their peers' strengths and weaknesses by adding comments on each other's blogs. Using blogs are less threatening than face-to-face interaction. Therefore, I think my trainees will like the idea of writing on blogs in order to share ideas and feelings.

This week I also did something new. For the first time I created a rubric to assess my trainees' blogs through RubiStar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org). There are some sample templates on the website. I picked the one about project writing but I added a column titled "Comment" according to the purpose of my research. Using sample templates was easier than starting from scratch. I will use this website to assess my students' other works as well.

Time is running and what I want to do as a final project is becoming clear. I look forward to reading and assessing my trainees' posts on www.blogger.com      

WEEK 4: Writing a Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan

Hello Everyone,

This week I have written a technology enhanced lesson plan. For this purpose, I asked my trainees to create academic blogs for themselves in order to write about a classroom event which they find amusing, exciting, scary, etc. I instructed them on how to create an academic blog on www.blogger.com as Sean told us in Week 1. I noticed that none of my trainees has created a blog before. So that's new experience for them as well as for me!

As a part of my taught module "Teaching English to Young Learners", my trainees are required to observe an English lesson at the kindergarten level. On their blogs, I asked them to think of a classroom event which they find amusing, exciting, scary, etc. during their observation. I then asked them to narrate that event and reflect on why they feel so on their blogs. As a follow-up task, I require them to visit at least 3 blogs to read and add comments on classroom events that are narrated by their classmates.

My trainees publish their blog addresses on my facebook account so that all trainees and I have access to the blogs. My first impression is that they are eager to create academic blogs. They find this means more appealing than writing up on a piece of paper. I should admit that my trainees are more tech-friendly than I am. I find it amusing to see how quick they manage to create their academic blogs. Actually in less than 10 minutes!!!

Once they get used to writing, reflecting and commenting on blogs, I am sure that my trainees will use blogs to teach English when they become 'real' English language teachers. They will then live happily ever after : ))

WEEK 3 : Experimenting with some websites for oral/aural skills and the bookmarking site 'Delicious'

Hello Everyone,

This week I feel like I'm climbing up the ladder of 'technology'. As a part of the discussion task, I read 3 research papers and visited some web sites for training listening and speaking skills of English as a foreign language learners. The discussion in the nicenet turns out to be a wealthy pool of ideas and recommendations. I really enjoy reading the posts of others and following their recommendations.

This week I also learned how to save bookmarks with 'Delicious'. I haven't heard of that web site before enrolling this course. Delicious is a very useful site to save your favourite web links in order to have access to them whereever you are. So you don't need to worry about carrying your tablet to anywhere you go. What you need is only an internet access!

In order to carry out the second project task, I skimmed through the sample projects that were done in the past. I chose one project title solely for the reason that it was carried out at the Department of English Education. The department is similar to where I have been working since 2004. However, when I read the project report in details, I grew respect to the project leader (Prem Bahadur Phyak). S/he carried out the project in an under-resourced teaching environment with 20 Master degree students who had no experience with the technology use. That initiation must require a big self-determination! S/he succeeded in involving a change related to technology use in his or her classroom. The positive outcome is for the benefit of the academia in the general sense. I hope my project will bring positive outcomes, too!!!

Week 2: ABCD Objectives

This week I have been working on the ABCD Objectives.


A is for Audience: Who are the learners?

38 English language teacher trainees studying at their 3rd year of undergraduate program that lasts for 4 years. All of them are Turkish native speakers. All of them have learned English as a foreign language in Turkey. None of them has formal teaching experience at a classroom setting.

B is for BEHAVIOR: What are the learners' observable behaviours?

1-Trainees are expected to observe an English language class at a kindergarten setting. During observation, they are expected to fill in an observation sheet that will be distributed to them earlier than the observation session.The categories to be observed are dealing with classroom discipline problems, conducting a teaching activity, using teaching materials, and assessing pupils' understanding of the course content.

2- Trainees are expected to conduct a micro-teaching session in groups of 4.Each trainee is responsible for the conduct of an activity (pre-task, main activity or Post-task).The activity content should be coherent with the learning goal.

3- Trainees are expected to design and produce a teaching material appropriate to their teaching activities. The teaching materials should be relevant to the learning goal. The materials should be designed according to the pupils' interests, age and proficiency level and should reflect the multiple intelligences theory.

4- Trainees are expected to assess pupils' understanding in-class by using different techniques.

5- Trainees are expected to maintain classroom discipline and deal with any classroom misbehaviors.

6- Trainees are expected to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses in teaching and suggest possible solutions to their weaknesses by writing on the blog.

C is for CONDITION: How do you reflect on learners' observable behaviours?

1-The trainer (myself) is going to discuss with trainees in groups about their observation forms.

2- The trainer is going to observe and video record trainees' micro-teaching sessions.

3- The trainer is going to reflect on trainees' self-reflections. The reflections will be based on each trainee's classroom practice.

4- The trainer is going to ensure that self-reflections are published on the blog. The visuals of teaching materials will also be published on the blog in order to provide samples for future classroom use.

D is for DEGREE: How do learners complete the task that is acceptable based on a definite criteria?

1- After the first micro-teaching session, each trainee is expected to conduct another micro-teaching session in pairs.

2- The second micro-teaching sessions will also be observed and video taped by the trainer.

3- The evaluation of the second micro-teaching sessions will be based on the self-reflections of the trainees about their first micro-teaching experience.

4- The trainees will be expected to improve their weaknesses written and/or observed during the first micro-teaching session.

5- The trainees will be expected to add more strong points to their classroom practices.

6- The trainees will be expected to put their solutions to their weaknesses into their classroom practices.

7- The trainees will be expected to write self-reflections about their second micro-teaching sessions as well.

8- The strengths and weaknesses of each trainee will be discussed with the trainer based on video taped classroom practices.

That's the ABCD objectives. I hope the project works well!

Greetings from Mugla, Turkey!!!

Dear Colleagues,

 

This photo is taken in front of the Convention Center at Mugla Sıtkı Koçman University.

I have been teaching at the Department of English Language Teacher Training, Faculty of Education since 2005. I teach at both undergrad and postgrad levels.

The courses I taught are TESOL for young learners, teaching practicum, conversation analysis based language education. 

 

Week 1 Reflection

This is my first blog!!!

I aim to improve my web skills and use them for teaching purposes. As a class, we are from different countries that would make the class discussions more interesting. I hope we form academic links and share our ideas during and after the online course.

I wish success to all : )