Thursday, March 14, 2013

 Loss or  Gain?

  • End of the course?
  • End of exploration? 
  • End of excitement? 
  • End of constructive thinking?
  • End of the  good guidance of Donna in reshaping of teaching techniques?
  • End of friendship with my so good colleagues of different countries across the world?

NO. Nothing can end all these things. Surely, the course is dying out very fast. Only few hours are left. But, this is only a physical disappearance of the course from my life. This is just an apparent disconnection of the course with me. 

The course  has had a profound influence in my teaching life. Still I can recollect the initial excitement I felt when I was selected for the course. Is that excitement over? Obviously not? At the end of the course I am equally excited rather meaningfully excited as that time I became excited on the point that I had got a chance to attend a course without knowing much about the course. But this time I know the real value and effectiveness of the course. So I am excited that I have got enlightened about various technology tools for teaching English.
While working with the course I had to explore many things. In the 1st week I had the chance to know about rubrics and to create a blog.The second week introduced me to hundreds of useful sites which were completely unknown to me. This was the week in which I had a good reading and discussion about ABCD model. The third week remains delicious with www.delicious.com. In fact, this was the week when I first knew and used such a great and effective link to store my necessary web links. The week also introduced me to CULL and to a lot of websites. But unlike the second week these sites were more specified. The fouth week made me acquainted to some sites in which ready made materials for teaching/learning ESL/EFL were available. I also prepared a  lesson plan in this week. The 5th week came with new thins. In this week I got the chance to read about alternative assessment. I had a quest for the Web quest. I also made a rubrics for an argumentative easy. In week first we talked about rubrics but in this week we made rubrics by ourselves.
The week six will remain memorable for interactive  power point  presentation, about the discussion on interaction in a large class size.Week seven was no less important as this week we read and discussed about how to engage students in a large size context. It also talked about how to make a one computer class  successful. Week eight came with new test of ANVILL and the webinar about ANVILL. Submitting the project draft was also a remarkable advance of this week. Discussion about multiple intelligence and different learning styles was also very much useful. But the vital thing of the ninth week was the final submission of the course project. Week 10 also maintained same excitement. This week we got the chance to justify our position as technology users. We were asked to post some suggestions for future participants. To me this was obviously a nice piece of job. I enjoyed it as I wanted to tell something from my piratical experience and the lessons coming out of mistakes.  Thus, throughout the course I got the chance to learn a lot about different aspects of   teaching English using tools, technology and scientific approaches.

While such is the reality, should the things be forgotten? Can the excitement or exploration be over? Can the knowledge of critical disappear? Can Donna's guidelines be lost in oblivion?  Can I be a past to my friends like collegues? So, nothing is lost with the end of the course. Rather there is a lot of achievement to go ahead, to look forward and to bring about positive things. It is just the beginning of new things of new avenues and of new loftiness.

Thanks to Donna, thanks to colleagues.

Khayrul 




Sunday, March 10, 2013

  Reflections: Week 9

Just a week is left. After the period the journey of two and half a month will come to an end.Even this week has been a very successful one as the previous ones. Surely the previous week was the climax. In that week we had a lot of new and exciting experiences. Knowing about ANVILL, sharing with Jeff in Nicenet, webinar with  Jeff, creating a Nicenet class, and developing some exercises using different websites added a lot to my knowledge. The week was a hectic one as I had to prepare and submit the draft project. It was also a remarkable week as in that week I got the experience of being a peer reviewer for the first time in my life.

The present week, a denouement,  is also a very effective week. Discussion about multiple intelligence and  different learning styles was very meaningful and resourceful. It has enriched me a lot. The participants  made some knowledgeable discussions. Donna's comments were also encouraging and directive.

 The first half of the week became a hectic one for me as I had to spend most of the time in preparing final project. However, I submitted it almost at the eleventh hour. While preparing the project for final submission, I tried to honor my reviewer's suggestions. In fact, the project has contributed a lot to build up my confidence for future endeavor.

Khayrul

   

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Reflections: Week 8

There were a lot to learn in the last week. We talked about the autonomy of the students. We had a good discussion on how to engage learners in the learning process and how to make a one computer class room a success and so on. Finding out a project partner was also a nice experience. Last week also kept us preoccupied with the draft project. 

Week 8 is not less significant than the previous one. The course plan of this week has introduced us with a lot of resourceful links regarding web based learning materials. 

Being acquainted with ANVILL was also a very exciting experience. Joining the webiner with Jeff and his instruction and discussion in the Nicenet were also very effective. In fact, without Jeff's guidelines and directions ideas about how to use the tool could not have been clear. 

Preparing ' an online course site or an exercise to use online or offline' was also a very good effort. It was also a step to build confidence indeed. I think after this effort I am truly motivated to prepare materials for my students using on line. This is indeed my first venture in this line. However, I tried to create a Nice net class. I also hope to use other links and tools in future. Thanks to Donna for engaging us in such activity.

Checking my partners' draft project was also a very good experience. In fact, while doing so I also got some reflections about mine. And such reflection will certainly help me to prepare and repair my final project paper. 

Finally, time is running very fast. Only two weeks are left. Hope those two weeks will also come with new discoveries and  exploration.

Khayrul