Week 10- Final Thoughts

Hello Dear E Colleagues

Hello Donna Shaw

                              This final week has opened many thoughts to share. This final week is not final but as Akifa said , it is a beginning of a new chapter, a chapter that will continue till our fingers play on our PC keyboards. How time flies, I can imagine that it is just a memory of Yesterday when I started this course but everyweek brought some thing special , something new and innovative, interesting and motivating ,  even so far so I forget all this time  period, I eagerly waited for the next week and now what I can wait for ! is that now I will wait all these technology resources being used by my students, their emails, their blog posts, their powerpoint presentations, thier site quotations , their nicenet discussions, use of ANVILL, use of ABCD model in thier teaching practice , all this will keep alive one thing, the sweet memories of this E-coures and of course Donna but "The Donna" will always be there to remember with respect and love. 

All E Colleagues did an excellent job, I learnt a lot from all posts and reflective thoughts on blogs. This course was a really a wonderful experience of my life which opened many new vistas of search and reseach for me as a teacher. I am thankful to all E colleagues and do hope we will be in contact in future and keep on sharing great experiences. 

Warmest regards, 

Dr. Athar  

WEEK 9: Reflections

Hello E-Colleagues!

This second last week kept me much busy. Time flies so fast. This week offered many things to learn for effective teaching. Learning about learning styles of the learners is very much important to deliver your content effectively. All Individuals are unique. They have their own specific needs and interests. All learners cannot be equal in abilities, skills and attitudes. Their way of learning is different, their level of understanding is different and their backgrounds are different.

A teacher must know all these individual differences and his teaching methodology gets changed keep all these in view.  Secondly using technology to facilitate students learning according to their learning style is a great idea. Technology enables the teachers to use a variety of tools that can accommodate various learning style of the learners. I had mixture of students in my class, some are slow learners, some are fast learners, some just cram the material and some grasp the ideas. I can use technology that will let them work according to their capacities. So the teacher can take maximum help from technology to cover a wide range of learning styles.

Finally, “horrible thing” of project plan is over now and now I would say “All is well that ends well”.  Now I can imagine how time flies! E-course has left many memories that would go long way in our teaching learning profession.

Warm regards,

Athar

WEEK 8: Reflective Thoughts

         Week 8 left many indelible features and signs that would definitly bring about a change in teaching learning style in my classroom. I learnt many new things from the readings of this week which were all new for me. ANVILL by Jeff was a wonderful resource for language teaching. It is easy, interesting and user friendly. Voiceboards, Tcast and all such devices will  make my classroom interactive and resourceful for language teaching. Now  audios and videos are no more problems for me as I can easily use them through ANVILL. Jeff did a great job .

Then preparing project plan was a challenging , interesting but heavily academic task of this week. Project plan makes me realize that how can technolgoy change the direction of teaching learning process. The comments of my partners helped me improve my project plan.

Now after submission of project  plan, the course gives thoughts of ending but I do hope, our this learning will be ever lasting.

Warm regards

Athar

WEEK 7

  Week 7 brought many good ideas for professional development of teachers. First learner Autonomy was a great idea. Traditional teaching learning style are taking a shift and new paradigms of teaching learning are emerging. Learner Autonomy is one of them. Now learners are independent, they feel free to search, to interact, to dicuss, to practice and engage in activites. All this becomes a source of fun, joy and happiness for them. They do not get bored, they can choose content and activities of thier interest and abilities. They start thinking a type of ownership. And when learners feel ownership in doing something , they do it wholeheartedly.

Second idea is about one computer classroom and I like it most, especially in my teaching learning context where my students do not use computer frequently and are not much familiar with computer technology,  therefore, one computer class will do the work and bring good results.

warm regards,

Athar

WEEK 6

Hello E-friends
                   I would say Week 6 has been very fantastic. Many things to learn for me. First, managing large classes with technology. Engaging students in group work, using project method and collaboration techniques are great ideas for language teaching. I also learnt the use of computer, emails, power points to handle the large classes. Moreover, how to assess students with the help of technology was a great idea. I came to know about the use of web in developing communication skills, using web for assessment and building interpersonal relations among various stakeholders.
    Then use of interactive power point in teaching learning process gave me new ideas regarding management, interaction and assessment in the class. How does Interactive power point presentation make your teaching effective and your lecture interactive? When I recall my past experiences with power point presentation, that was just a silent slide show just going to the next slide by clicking having no interactivity, but week 6 reading material taught many things regarding interactive power point presentations, blanking the screen , hyper-links, point hider , all these were new to me. I got many points in this wonderful week.
As our reading was about large classes, use of technology in large classroom management etc but I do believe that for new teachers, small classes have the same importance and pose similar challenges. So technology offers support to small classes as well.

Warm regards,

Athar

WEEK 5

Describing week 5, I am thinking of many things that I have learned to practise in my class. The most important is reading about rubrics, that is something new in my professional life and I think, that is of real importance.  I created rubrics for independent reading at elementary level. By using rubrics, I get a clear cut picture / standards of assessing students performance and the students also know what  and how they are assessd ? Apart from Rubrics, PBL and  WebQuest did compel me to modify / bring change in my teaching learning process that is usually followed in Pakistani classrooms , that is , just a lecture method. All these readings are a source of professional development.

During this week, I also post URL on course wiki regarding Rubrics.

Week 4

Hello

            It has been very useful. Articles on use of technology and multi-skills websites are a great source that I can use in my classroom. Teaching English as second language needs professional commitment that demands that ESL teachers must be  familiar with the use of modern technology. Thus we can enrich our classrooms and better develop reading and writing skills among the students.

Athar

EFL : WHY OR WHY NOT ?

Hello  E participants

                    The world is still devided on the issue of language. There are irrefutable arguments from both sides. English as a foreign langauge should be used as medium of instruction for better understanding of the current global trends or the Non-English speaking countries must not use it as medium of instruction as the children develop concepts in mother tongue. This issue has become very complicated in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Even Taiwan, Japan etc. As English is dominant language of the present global civilization and must be grasped but from where it may commence and how to use it , that is , as a subject or medium of instruction? As an English teacher, I keep on thinking on this issue but still it is hard to come to a conclusion.
The present course is helping me to improve teaching skills through technology and it is really enjoyable here to communicate with E colleagues from all over the world. I would also like to suggest all here to see
"kidsclick" and "googlescholar"  as a big source for material on EFL.

Athar

Athar: The Learners

Athar: The Learners

The Learners

Learning through Technology makes learners the real learners. Here the diversity of ideas flows and plenty of knowldge sharing happens. How is technology bringing cultures, values and systems closer to understand eache other and to learn from each other. It is quite a unique platform to share your experience of English language teaching when you are using it as a foreign language. Here in my country, PAKISTAN, people are fast becoming familiar with English but majority still observes severe apprehensions about English as medium of Instruction. In my context, learners learn English in local settings. Teachers use translation methods and students solely  depend on notes. The use of technology is not common.
Here through this interaction of webskill program for E teacher,  I am observing a great experience. and enjoying a good company of E learners.

Hello

Hello Everyone

                             E Teacher webskills course seems very interesting and motivating. I am enjoying and learning a lot.


Athar