Simply Delicious

Hi Everyone !

How should I start? With a loud cry? With a  victorious cry? Or with the roaring sound of the Royal Bengal Tigers? Please, don't think that Mr. Khayrul has gone crazy or has been out of mind. Please, don't be so rude. I am just overwhelmed, spell bound, just speechless. I am struggling to form my joy into words, into meaningful sentences. But often I don't find right expressions. How is it possible for me to find the utterances , to find the appropriate syntax?

Friends, it is indeed a real joy. It is indeed a DELICIOUS joy. Honestly speaking, I never thought of the existence of such a miracle, of such a marvel. I simply never imagined. The very short experience and memory with DELICIOUS are awesome. It is sweeter. I was amazed when I saw that I could put my all favorite sites in a page and use them whenever I want with minimum effort. 

Do you know what I used to do just one week ago? I used to write the URL of the my essential sites in a notebook. Surely, boring and tiresome. Difficult to maintain. But delicious! A source of excitement? A sea of information? Easy to use. Matter of clicking.

The week is delicious because of the discussions  on CULL and oral/aural skills. Though we, the teachers of English in Bangladesh, are living in a modern world, we do not have an easy and available access to Computer Assistant Language Learning, But the the week has introduced me to the system at least theoretically. Surely better scopes are waiting for me. Actually, the articles were resourceful, timely and above all, nicely suited to the purpose of the course.

My navigation and exploration of the given links were also a very good experience. Sites like ESL-galaxy.com, One Stop English, and Randall's Cyber Listening Lab were really fantastic. It would also be unfair if I do not mention the sites like  Listening Real English video, the BBC and Best Sites to Practice Speaking English as these are also a big help for both the teachers and the learners.

Should I ignore the the project reports of my senior trainees? How do I dare to do so ? Obviously those are  well thought, well written, exquisitely organized. These articles are big helps for us to go ahead and to look forward with ours what we are going to do at the end of the course. 

Finally, first week was a week of excitement and over flux joy of creating and writing in a blog and of being introduced and assimilated with the situation.  Second week brought new dimension with the project task and an exploration of hundreds of web links. And the third week is for new sensation with the entrance to the DELICIOUS world, project analysis, and contextual link seasrching.

Shouldn't I wait for more excitement and more resources in the coming weeks.? 

Khayrul     

 

 A Tale of  A Week with Difference

Hi friends!

Time is passing so fast. Around a month ago we got selection for this excellent E-Teacher training course. After a passionate waiting finally we started it on 7th of this month. But we are already  to finish second week of the course within few hours. Yes, I must not get the week back. Is it possible for you to do so? Surely not. Then, is it totally lost? Is it completely forgotten? I am confused what would be your answer. But I am confident about mine: The week is surely one of the most successful ones I have ever passed. You may throw the question with a frowning eye-brows: Successful?

Yes, obviously, this is  a week of exploration, a week of critical thinking, a week of planning, a week of achievement and finally a week of enlightenment.

You don't know how much excited I felt when I navigated the sites and links given by Donna. That was an overwhelming experience. I was simply stunned to see the collection about which I never knew, I never imagined. That was  really an unexplainable experience. Hundreds of sites for billions of information  about different disciplines forced me to think once again about my good luck of being selected for the course. Before this I knew quite a few number of websites, But now I have a huge collection to search and to be enriched.

I surely and boldly will also call the week a week of critical thinking. As per my mentor Donna's direction I had to make  comments on one of my colleague's posting on web searching. I chose Sonia Low' s posting as it appeared to be resourceful and fruitful as she seemed to toil a lot to look at the sites and links. Here suggestions are really valuable and considerable.

This is also a week of planning for me. In fact, we were instructed to do a ground work for our final project. Again, being properly guided by Donna's instructions, I worked on the first phase of the project. I believe that it is certainly a great stride towards my final project.

This is also a week of achievement and enrichment. Speaking honestly, this is the first time I have read about ABCD model for planning a language program. ABCD method is surely a scientific one which helps a teacher to determine his/her goal keeping some other factors such as students, their needs in mind. Along with this we were instructed to go through  Bloom's Taxonomy which also enriched my knowledge.

Finally, because of all those things the week is certainly a week of enlightenment and enrichment. So the week cannot be lost in oblivious. This cannot be forgotten. This is certainly a week to remember. This is certainly a week to cherish.

Khayrul

  Dear Donna & others,

We are now almost at the end of our 1st week of the course. I am here once again to share my experience with you. I am also to hear something more from you.

The week seemed to me a week of excitement, of joy, of troubles and ultimately of personal enrichment. I have marked it as a week of excitement as every thing concerning the course was really exciting in the sense that this is my first experience of an E-Teacher online course,  first exposure to the professionals of different countries of the world, first experience of having such a good instructor like Donna and many more.
This is a week of joy as it appears that this is the most hectic week in recent days. In fact, the course kept me so busy throughout the week. I either was on the computer or thought over the matters constantly. I was indeed completely preoccupied with the course. However, I enjoyed the challenges of regular postings and time line also.

But things were not so smooth as I am telling right now. Opening the blog was not an easy one. Even I had to face some troubles few hours ago. As usual I sought help to Donna who also interfered timely and things became easy and smooth going.

Now the question is what I have gained from all the activities of the week. I think it's really great and inspiring. I have discussed with my fellow learners. I have gone through all the write-ups posted by them. I have learned a lot about the guidelines, rubrics, professional discussions, sharing, respects, plagiarism and so on.

Finally, I want to utter few words about my colleague on the web. They are really very good discussants, considerate and knowledgeable persons. I enjoyed their writings and quotes.

Hope to learn and share  many more in coming weeks.


Khayrul

Birth of a blog and a layman's experience & expectation

Hi Dear Colleagues,

You do not know how much nervous I felt when I was asked to create a blog account. I became frequently frustrated but ultimately I have been successful to open the account. I felt excited when I saw that everything was working well.

I am truly grateful to the State Department of the United States and also to  the University of Oregon as they have planned such an excellent course to develop our teaching skills using web. Speaking truly, my technological knowledge is very poor and primary. Despite I am trying to cope with the pace of the course.

While creating blog and connecting it with wiki I had to face a lot of trouble. At the same time it seemed to me amazing and quite helpful. In fact, in the present world of technology based teaching trend, without having a sound technological orientation it becomes almost impossible for a teacher to fulfill students' requirements. And here lies the great significance of the course.

I think the course has the ability to move the participants to look forward to the better. I also believe that it is also designed in such a way that it is capable enough to help a layman like me in handling computer and technology for the cause of teaching.

Khayrul