This has been definitively an exciting week for me. In order to better acquaint myself with the navigation of this Program, I have been checking the pages, documents, rubrics and all the material that we are going to be using since Sunday.
On Monday I checked the course website over and over... trying to get accustomed to the layout. I can proudly say that I have gotten to know it very well.
Today (Tuesday) I finally managed to create my blog! Even thought I had created a blog in a different website before, I must admit that creating this blog was kind of confusing and time-consuming. I do not think that the Blogger web page is totally user-friendly. However, what will be life like without any new challenges?
For later (Wednesday) I will join the class discussion: Conferencing Topic: Week 1: Ground Rules for Discussions, on Nicenet.
For the rest of this 1st week I will be "developing a weekly rhythm for working through the topics", as stated in the course website.
What I learned:
After reading the "Bloggin for ELT" article (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/blogging-elt) and looking at the additional resources on the website, I would like to point out two very important blogging advantages that I found:
a) Academic advantage: using a blog for a class would provide the students with lots of opportunities for foreign language learning (extra practice, feedback from teachers and peers, access to online resources appropriate for their level, enhancing the writing process).
b) Emotional advantage: having the students create their own blog might increase the sense of community (shy students included) and also help to build a closer relationship between students in large classes.
These two aforementioned aspects when put together, can make the language learning process an amazing journey... for students as well for their teachers.
I'm eagerly looking forward to the challenges ahead.
Dear David,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, that blogging will help us not only to make weekly reflections but to be in contact and make friends as well. It really gives us a sense of community where we can share our ideas, lesson plans and teach each other new things.
How old are your students? Do you think blogging is a good idea to do homeworks, look for something new and work in class? Should we create a special network for our school so that kids will do their works online and submit them to us in this way?
Awesome !!
ReplyDeleteHow did you do that? I want to learn from you.
Hello David. I can see that you had a busy week. In fact, I went through the "blogging for ELT" article too. I am very interested in applying some of its "recipes" in my teaching practices. Since you explain in your answer to my first post that you are teaching in the same environment as me, I would like to know if you tried blogging in your classes. Personally, I can see some difficulties ahead because I have just realised that I would first have explain to my students what a blog is, how it works and certainly also show them how to buils their own blog before going any further. This may take some time and delay me as far as the academic schedule is concerned. What is your point of view?
ReplyDelete