A productive week 4!

I have always thought reading is very important in the way it involves many good things to be worked. It gives the students the opportunity to be connected to a real language. It let students increase their vocabulary and be familiar with structures. What do I mean with “be familiar with structures”? Let me tell you! When I was preparing for taking the FCE exam, my tutor used to say: “when you are not sure about any structure, write it as it sounds to you”. She meant that sometimes we cannot not even know why the words have to be in such order but we “think” is like that, it happens because in any time we have read that structure before and it sounds to us, this is the magic of reading. Searching different pages I found very helpful the one where you can read and the same time listen to the reading! And the information is up-dated! Why I am saying that? You know that the Royal Wedding was just past yesterday, that page has already an exercise related to that, even Laye did the task using that page! Good!

I also looked for an exercise to help my students feel more confidence in writing words, and I did my ABCD objective using a page where students practice their spelling by playing. I found that page really fun and useful.

On the other hand, planning a lesson with technology let me know there are a huge number of activities to be developed with the use of it. I wrote my lesson plan related to a structure I have to teach in the first level at the university, it is “There is /There are”. I found GOOGLE MAPS very useful for practicing it, that page has nice pictures of different places and I saw some beautiful ones of my country, students are familiar with those pictures, so they can write sentences of our real context.

Finally writing about the concerns I get in my jobs makes me focus in what I will do for solving them. What worries me is that a big number of students don’t read! I think reading has to become part of us and our students.  In my opinion just practicing over and over again it might have the category of habit. Another relevant problem I face don’t have environments where they can practice their English, they just TRY to do it in class, but is it enough? I don’t guess so! Do you?

Katty

!What an amazing week 3!

¡Another week full of learning!

Discussing about aural/oral skills, gave me the oportunity to know how I can work on listening and skpeaking skills. Starting with listening, it was surprinsing to know that the 40% of our time we spend on listening, and this skill can be worked exactly the same as we do with reading, it means with a pre, while, and post listening. For developing this skill in our students we can use lots of materials, but the one I found just practical was " authentic materials", with this students are listening to real language which is good as they are familiar with native speakers.

On the other hand, using CALL (Computer-Assisted language Learning)is a great idea as computers are now part of teachers and students' lives, they give students the big oportunity to get feedback without affecting their sensitivity and they can learn by their own pace. At the same time we cannot forget that human element is necessary in the learning process.

Going to "DELICIOUS", I can say that using it will help me search information easier and quicklier, and the idea of sharing with other teachers is much better, so we can "steal" websites from them. I was talking to my collegues about this handy tool and I even suggested that they should create their own ones. They liked the idea a lot! One thing I have notice since I started this course,is that the knowledge I am acquiring is not only helping me be better in my teaching process, but also I am sharing this expertise with people around me. It's rewarding!

Finally reading some other people's report about their final project, helped me in order to have a much clearer idea on how I can address mine! The one that I chose was based on the multiples inteligences, the author wanted to reach every student's style and do a better job for EVERYBODY!  I think it is a magnific idea as all our students need to benefif from our teaching process.

This week was just extraordinary!

Waiting for the next one!!!

Katty

Just for fun!

Sometimes it's necessary to take a break and relax! let's do it! But...is it possible to forget what we are learning? I couldn't, enjoy it!

Living a Great Experience!

         !A week full of learning!                                       

This, as the other week have been just great! Personally I've learnt a lot! What about you?

Starting this week with the wide world of search engines made me think I was living in old times. It's incredible the number of them we have online. I put this nice picture because of my litle pupils. I am fascinated about the things I could find on internet, the idea is just to give it a try, and I thank all the ones who helped me with new and handy searches for my children! I am willing to work on that with them! You know, they learn more by playing, by listening to songs, by watching videos than learning grammar rules!

On the other hand, there are many searches engines which help us in different teaching things such as iSeek, and Scholar Google which are useful for more academic information.

Another significant thing about this week was to set objectives using the ABCD model. At the beginning it was a bit confusing for me, mainly the "Degree", but after reading the others' objectives, it was much clearer and finally I could set one with less difficulty. It is good because now I can use that madel in my classes, and actually the two I post were set for coming lessons.

Going to the project, first step, it let me continue thinking about the incredible things we will be doing. As I said in one of my post, I liked the idea of using blogs with my university students. I gave it a try ,and today I saw my students' blogs, there aren't perfectly done!, however I was really really happy. It was a rewarding job!. I felt I did something new, and interesting for them, so in their soon future despite I won't see them again, they can continue using their blogs! Here's one of my student's URL for you to check, her name's Alexandra (first level English student) http://alexa-moon-scarlet.blogspot.com/

Lastly, I want you to look at the picture on the right and comment on it! Isn't it a magic finger?

Best regards

Katty

A Charming Week Using Technology!!

Week 1 Blogging

The importance of blogging as a useful tool in education