MY REFLECTIONS -WEEK 3

A FLIGHT BACK THROUGH WEEK 3

Yet another important and interesting week I had.....Week 3.So many interesting things to recall and reflect on ..... The aural/oral skills development tasks and the related websites are really a new discovery for me. For the first time in my life, I have visited such interesting and powerful interactive websites which provide awesome resources for developing aural/oral skills. I was really amazed by the remarkable features these websites have. After browsing these websites I have become more confident in teaching sounds of English, pronunciation, word stress, etc. Now I can easily teach my students aural/oral skills using interesting websites.

 Another important task that filled me with boundless delight was saving the websites links in Delicious.com. It was really great discovery and an interesting task for me, which will go a long way in my teaching career in having a great mine of websites links.

Reading the two articles “Teaching Pronunciation to Adult English Language Learners” by Kirsten Schaetzel  and  “Using Original Video and Sound Effects to Teach English” by Shahla Yassaei was a wonderful experience for me. It would help me in teaching listening skills and speaking skills using digital tools.  I got a better understanding about teaching of the aural and oral skills using web technology.

I also learned a great deal about the kind of  Project I need to do as part of the e-teacher program by reading past Final Project reports. Reviewing the past project was a great learning experience for me as it gave me an insight into the kind of work I am expected to.

In short , I would like to say that again I had a wonderful week full of interesting learning experiences.

Best

Sasi Raj

RECOLLECTONS: WEEK 2 - AN EMPOWERING ONE!

Week 2…..a great week! Full of activities …starting from Web Searching to Project Step. I had a great time busy using the internet browsing websites and web pages. Every time it was a new thing that I learned during the week.

Web Searching task has been really an eye opener for me – taking me to a completely a new world of wonders and surprises. I have come to know about the wonderful new search engines which took me to a whole new world of websites or web pages which were quite relevant for my search and topics. I have been really wonderstruck at the power of search engines. I have been able to prepare lesson plans and web materials for two of my class lessons using this web searching task. This experience has really helped a lot in my teaching this week’s class and I have a learned an important and great skill which is very much required in teaching English in this technology- rich world.

Writing ABCD model of objectives was also yet another exciting experience for me as I have never done before that way. So I have learned the advantage of writing the ABCD model of objectives and I have learned to write how to write teaching or learning objectives according to ABCD model. It was really a great learning experience for me.

Writing the class description for the project was also another important task that gave me an idea of re-thinking about my whole class in terms of  its nature, composition, background, learning goals, etc.

The whole week has been a rewarding experience for me while reading the posts of other friends on the Nicenet. I have learned a lot from the experiences posted on the Nicenet. I have come to know about the different class settings in different countries through the project task posted by all our friends on the Nicenet.

On the whole, Week 2 has filled me with rich learning experiences and I thank Ms Courtney and the other instructors for their meticulous plan, help and cooperation in making Week 2 a grand success for me.          

RECOLLECTONS: WEEK 1 OF THE E-TEACHER PROGRAM

RECOLLECTONS: WEEK 1 OF THE E-TEACHER PROGRAM

First of all, I would like to express my profound gratitude to the US Embassy and the Regional English Language Office (RELO) in India for giving me the rarest opportunity to participate in the online course “ Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web”.

I feel it is a life- time experience for me to be a participant in this course. The email informing me about the acceptance of my application filled me with overflowing joy. After the registration, I felt that the course would be a very difficult task but at the same time  it filled me with excitement because of the nature of the course and the tasks involved in it. The name of the course “ Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web” fascinated me very much and I knew pretty sure that I was going to learn something entirely new. Though I am not a web savvy, the passion to learn web skills gave me the impetus to eagerly wait for the course to start. I joined the Discussions for Week 1 very late as I was on an academic tour and I had to race against time to complete the assignments for Week 1. The instructors were very helpful and gave instructions and information related to the course tasks and assignments well in advance. I would like to thank all the instructors who took extra effort to inform me about joining the Discussions in time.  

There was a range of tasks and activities during Week 1. We can not take the course very lightly. I started with the visit of the course website to explore the whole range of tasks, assignments, weekly schedules, etc. Then I filled out the needs assessment survey. These two tasks gave me sufficient information about the scope and nature of the course.

I joined the Discussion on Nicenet only on Friday as I was on an academic tour. It was a wonderful experience entering Nicenet , creating username and password and making the first post on the Discussion – “Introduction”. I was really wonderstruck at this .Then I went on to create my blog on the blogger. My heart leaped out of joy when I succeeded in creating my blog. Then I linked my post on the blog to the Wiki. Then I posted my comments on the Ground Rules for Discussions. All these web-based tasks gave me a series of thrilling experiences which filled me with wonder and awe.

On the whole, Week 1 has been full of delightful interactions with the web.

Now looking forward to learning more in Week 2.

Sasi Raj from India

AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE

MY EXPERIENCE OF CREATING A BLOG

Creating a blog, wow! An awesome experience that filled me with boundless joy. A dream-come -true experience for me when I finally succeeded in creating a blog.Many, many thanks to the e-teacher program and the members of the faculty. The experience of creating the blog set me thinking about the tremendous impact that the the digital tools and the webs are going to make in the filed of teaching and learning in the 21st century. The experience has taught me the power of the internet and the web-skills which are already revolutionizing the learning experience of students and making learning a delightful experience.

Sasi Raj