Week 10: My Final Reflection

Now we are at the end of the 10 week long online/e-teacher training course on webskills. Nowadays, most of the students have access to some kind of technology, i.e. cell phone/ smart phones or computers, i-pad, etc. They spend some of their prime time playing with it. Now it is time to integrate it with teaching and learning. This course (webskills) has given us some useful vision to utilize technology to help our students reach course goals and objectives. I found some useful technology tools in this course, which can be used in our classes as well. They are:

(a) Power point presentation: to present the content in the classroom using multimedia projector.

(b) Different websites: for more educational information.

(c) delicious.com: a common forum to share important websites or links where the learners can get genuine knowledge for the content they learn

(d) padlet.com: a common forum/wall to share important websites or links where the learners can get genuine knowledge for the content they learn; and send or upload their assignments or links of their assignments.

(e) zunal.com: for providing the guideline of project work.

(f) rubistar.4teachers.org: to provide proper guideline for them to do their assignment and for teacher a guideline for assessment of the learners' tasks.

(g) blogger.com: to create a blog to share the information to receive the assignment from the learners.

The other important things we learn in the course are:

(a) ABCD Objective models and preparation of lesson plan using technology tools and ABCD Objectives.

(b) Learning styles and variety of learners on the basis of their multiple intelligences and different technology tools to address these learning styles.

(c) CALL, Computer Assisted Language Learning.

(d) Teaching a large class and using student centered methods with the help of technology tools.

(e) Some useful websites and tools for enhancing the skills of teaching listening, speaking, pronunciation, reading and writing in the classroom.

(g) Some ways to make the learners independent/ autonomous with the help of technology.

(h) Project work on the topic to solve our specific problem using technology tools.

The way of presenting the topics one after another in a sequence with clear instruction was really amazing experience. The course was really well organized and planned in every aspects. When I looked back at myself before 10 weeks and I now found some changes in my knowledge and skills which I didn't have previously. Perhaps this change is call real learning. I would like to thank the course instructor, Ms. Courtney Cunningham, other guest tutors and University of Oregon for providing us such nice contents during the online course. The classmates who have worked hard for their assignments and provided precious information on different topics and shared their experiences really deserve to receive a huge applause and my sincere thanks. I am grateful to American Embassy Nepal who provided me a scholarship and this great opportunity in my professional career.

Week 9 - My Expression of the Week

This week we learnt another new topic, "Multiple Intelligences" or learning styles and use of technology tools to address the diversity in learning pace and styles. The link provided in the course <http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm> has given very important information on how technology tools can address the need of the learners with various learning styles. Previously I used to make the activities that support my class to address the different learning styles without using such technology tools. Now the information from this link has been a valuable stuff for my class with technology tools.

The discussion thread in this regard is not less important. The ideas poured by experienced classmates are really something precious to read and store them implication in practice.

I received a constructive feedback from my peer partner, Johan on my project report draft. They were really very good suggestions, I immediately made some reforms in my project report and finalized it, then submitted in the project page given in the course wall.

Week 8 My Reflections

This week is really a busy week. Preparing project report was a new experience for me. Finally I did it. Then I uploaded it on the wiki page provided by our instructor. On the wiki page we had already formed a pair to upload on separate place from others and exchange our feedback in pair. I downloaded my partner's report and read it. Then I filled up the checklist form given by the course instructor, and sent it to my partner and cced it to the course tutor, Courtney Cunningham, too. It was a beginning step which is quite new in my profession, and I am longing to use these activities in the other issues, too. This is a grand experience in this course.

In this week I reviewed different tools I learnt on this course from the beginning, I again tried to create some for my class. For example: the link http://padlet.com/wall/zy9hn57s9b for my story class as a common wall to submit homework. I saved some of the important favorites in my link- https://delicious.com/btamang so that I can use it time and again.

Week 7: My Experience of the Week

Discussion: Learner Autonomy

Sorry, I couldn't take part in the discussion thread this time so well due to the frequent internet interruption. I had to go to cyber cafe and read them there. Anyway I copied them and brought home in my pen drive and read them. The information on learner autonomy provided by the classmates on the discussion thread was really valuable assets for the teachers. The theory, I believe, makes the class really leaner centered. Since the advent of the term 'learner autonomy' coined by Henri Holec in 1981, the term has been a 'buzz word' in second language learning. Teaching has been shifted into learning. In this regard, Henri Holec defines, "Autonomy is the ability to take charge of one's own learning."

Final Project Peer Review

For making pair for the final project peer review, I dropped a request to classmates. I found the partner there, but when I tried to sign up "docs.google.com" to write the name of our pair, it didn't open. So we exchange our email address to each other and sharing our project via email. I don't know is it appropriate way or not. I would like to ask our course instructor for the best way in this regard.

I like the way the course makes us prepare the project step-wise. It can be a great lesson for us. I think even we can select the certain topics for our students for the whole year or certain term, prepare rubrics to create a guideline for the students and to assess the students' project for the teacher, and ultimately to bring some progress in learners' proficiency in second language.

Padlet.com

I think "padled.com" (wallwisher) is another great thing I learned or got in this course. I learned that in the "padlet.com" we can create/build our own wall for certain class or topic. When we click in the "Build a wall", we can enter into a specific wall like "http://padlet.com/wall/9td39t3pz4" which can be our wall to share the information. With the double click of the mouse any where in the empty place of the wall, we can drop our information there. The information here means that can be particular task for the students or the tasks prepared by students or any links, etc. The thing we can do there are:

(a) Your name/Post title: The writer has to write his/her name, and title of the post.

(b) Write something: The writer has to mention a brief description of the post.

(c) Add a URL: The writer can add a URL (image, video, map, slideshow, document or anything else from the internet websites) related to the topic

(d) Upload a file: The writer can upload any kind of file from his/her own computer there.

(e) Take a photo from webcam: The writer can take a photo from webcam and save there.

Above mentioned are the features of "padlet.com", so we can exploit it as our assignment box. The students can drop their task there and the teacher can assess them staying anywhere in the world.

Week 6: My Experience

DISCUSSION: Engaging Students

True learning occurs only when the learners get chance to do something by themselves. For this the students should be engaged rather than the teacher gets everything done. Like in small class, even in large class, same techniques can be adopted, whereas sometimes different techniques should be taken on. This week, after reading the article on Teaching Large Class" in the link: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/LargeClasses.html" , I found some useful tips to handle the large class effectively. Some of them are: 
-Interactive lectures

-Just in Time Teaching (JiTT): Assessing the students' prior understanding on the topic using brief web-based questions before a class.

-Effective tasks in the middle of lesson(in class exercise) and at home (Out-of class group assignment)

-Getting and keeping students' attention and giving them opportunities to review and apply important concept

-Using interactive technology

-Co-operative and collaborative learning

Then I read another article given by our instructor in our course guideline in the link:" http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/largeclasses/usingtechnology.html". It was effective guideline for us to carry out the large class with technology.
Online assessment using "Blackboard" tool is motivating one for the learners.
Use of computer, projector and power point slides is now essential aids for the modern teachers.

The information provided by our classmate in the nicenet discussion thread was also really a great milestone. Again I want to remember the project based learning (PBL) and Webquest as the effective tools to get the students engaged in the language learning.

TASK: Create an *Interactive* Power Point

Another significant leaning of this week is, no doubt, creating power point slide show for the language class. I learned some new application such as hyperlinks/jumps to other sections of the PPT or to link the internet websites for further information, blank slides to shift attention, jeopardy game or interactive story. To learn these, the links provided in our course was really helpful. I viewed some of my classmates' power point slides in wiki page in the power point section where I also uploaded my PPT. I found some of the PPT really helpful for me.

PROJECT STEP: Implement the Change

As my instructor has approved my proposed issued and plans to solve those issues/problems for my project work, I began to implement the things I mentioned there. I am taking my students to the computer lab where there is a projector and internet service. I have introduced them a couple of websites where they can read stories/fables, and told them to read a story each week there and write it in their own language, then submit their task to me. I am preparing rubrics for their guideline to write and for the assessment as well.

Week 5: Rubrics, Assessments and Project Based Learning (PBL)

Task Creating a rubrics

First I prepared a set of rubrics for the guideline of writing essay or evaluating essay on a word document and opened the link: " https://sites.google.com/site/courtneyswebskillswikifall2013/rubrics" provided by our instructor, Courtney Cunningham. It was actually "Courtney's Webskills Wiki – Fall 2013" page where I clicked on "+Add file" button which let me browse my word file from my computer. It was then listed in the page. Then I shared the link of my rubrics on the thread of "nicenet.org" which is our "virtual classroom" named ICA – Internet Classroom Assistant.

Later on, when I read the other colleagues' posts on "Nicenet", I came to know that there was some other ways my classmates were recording their rubrics, something in different way than I did. It was in " http://rubistar.4teachers.org/". I decided to try it. When I entered into this link, it demanded some of my personal information and password which I completed. Wow! There I got some ready-made templates for rubrics, so easy! But I used my own categories ignoring its ready-made ones. How flexible!  Then I saved it and made it available online by clicking the given button on screen. I again shared my another new link on "Nicenet". Again I opened the link: " https://sites.google.com/site/courtneyswebskillswikifall2013/rubrics" where I clicked on "+add Link", pasted the new link and saved.

Between these two, I think the later one is better.

Project Task Week 5

As our course instructor, Courtney Cunningham emailed us and informed not to write week-5 Project Task unless we received her feedback, I was looking forward to her valuable feedback. As it appeared on "Nicenet" page, I was initially worried on how to make it better, because I realized that I couldn't be specific on my or my students' issues or problem. I waited some days and read some other classmates' responses on the thread, I got some kind of clear view. I know my students have very low proficiency of English language, particularly in all skills. But among them I think they are very weak in writing skill, so I chose that one for my project task. I still anticipate some constructive feedback in this regard from my instructor and classmates. In advance, I have bookmarked some links in "delicious.com" which will be helpful to implement my plans in the future.

Project Based Learning, Assessments and Rubrics

"zunal.com" is a useful web page to create a forum for the project based learning. It gives a guideline for the project work. I learned to create an account on "zunal.com" and set a project as per the guideline given in the web for the Project Based Learning (PBL). Actually "webquest" in zunal.com and "rubrics" in rubistar.4teachers.org will support to materialize the concept of "Less teaching and more learning", a true learning.

Week 4: My Reflection

What a wonderful course! Every day of the each week, I am learning new things, I mean, getting new links, from the vast ocean of the Internet, which seem to be almost impossible and very difficult to find out from the "Google search" .

The discussion thread on "nicenet.org" this week related to reading, writing and vocabulary is another powerful stuff to recharge a teacher with new skills. I am still collecting the useful links provided by the respected tutor and classmates. I have used some pages from the links which, I believe, was more effective for my class especially teaching grammar and listening skills. I am planning to use other links soon. The following links and search engines provided by our course tutor, Ms. Courtney, are really excellent pages for the English language teachers:

http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/

http://legacy.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html

http://a4esl.org/

http://www.manythings.org/

I read some articles from the links provided us. I have prepared a lesson plan With technology this week which is a new experience for me , and it will be a good model lesson plan in English teaching in the future, because the world is in information technology and IT is growing instantly in every field including education field.  I have learnt to upload the lesson plan document in "docs.google.com" where, I think, it will be stored for long term and the tutor and other classmates can observe, comment and edit it.

I hope I will get more and more in the next week which I am eagerly waiting for.

My Reflection: Week - 2

Now our course is at the end of third weeks. By now I have learned that "Blog" can be a very effective tool for (language) learning. It can be created at "blogger.com", too. We can make it more attractive going into the setting, we just need some time for it. The teacher can give tasks to the students there and the students can submit their assignment there.

From the first week discussion thread we collected the address of so useful search engines, links, and websites. ABCD model objectives is really new thing for me, I want to use this in my plan. Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is a mandatory thing for the teachers of 21^st century, so let's try it in our real classroom, too. The sites I got from classmates in this discussion thread are really precious for my teaching, thanks a lot my classmates for the contribution. "Delicious.com" is really an unforgettable flavor; it can be used to bookmark the important favorites at a single page online.

I hope we will certainly get some more valuable thing in next week.

Batuk Lal Tamang

Week 2 Web Search2 (List of links recommended by classmates)

From the beginning day of this discussion thread, I was reading thoroughly all classmates' posts and by now what I expected really came near about truth. I was expecting some useful links for me and my students to learn English language and get some other information. I believe now I have got some genuine and valuable websites and links that will support my purpose. Here's the list of the links the classmates and our respected course tutor have provided in this thread for each other's kind information. I visited some of the links, but couldn't visit all, so I think the collection of the links will certainly help us in our further study. I would like to thank all for the valuable contribution.

Courtney Cunningham, the course tutor writes:
1. www.noodletools.com

1. Bernadette Lingani, a participant writes:
1. www.iseek.com
2. education.iseek.com (useful for students, teachers, lesson plans, activities, school subjects, ...)
3. www.slideshare.net
4. www.harcourtschool.com
5. www.gleancomparisonsearch.org (useful for writing skills)
6. www.wordcentral.com (English course)
7. www.readwritethink.org
8. www.bbc.co.uk/learning/
9. www.findsounds.com/types.html

2. Tika Subedi, a participant from Nepal adds:
1. pages.uoregon.edu
2. www.intute.ac.uk
3. infomine.ucr.edu
4. www.academicinfo.net
5. education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/

3. Akbar Shomurodov, a participant from Tajikistan adds:
1. yandex.ru
2. www.ya.ru
3. www.google.ru
4. www.dis.tj
5. www.qsi.org/schoolpages/tjk/home/
6. ips.tj/eng

4. Waseem Zuhra adds:
1. www.teachthought.com/technology/464-digital-learning-tools-tools-to-sift-through-on-a-rainy-day/
2. www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines
3. www.mahalo.com
4. info.com (for best images, webs and videos search at once)
5. maktoob.yahoo.com
6. blekko.com
7. search.lycos.com
8. www.aol.com
9. www.infospace.com
10. www.search.com
11. www.excite.com
12. www.goodsearch.com
13. http://websites4teachers.com/ (news books tools progs materials and even jobs for teachers)
14. http://www.sitesforteachers.com/index.html (plans crafts worksheets and resources)
15. http://www.wisemantech.com/25sites/ (tools new programs for teaching activities for kids)
16. http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/sitesforteachers.htm bullet in board art curricula
17. http://teachers.net/ chatrooms for teachers plans projects 
18. http://www.teachingexpertise.com/ management and teaching
19. http://www.educationcorner.com/college-university-planning.html college teachers
20. http://www.educational-freeware.com/ kids progs games and education
21. http://www.pre-kpages.com/ kg only
22. http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards-guidelines/best-websites/2013 best tools and programs used to teach on line or with tech
23. http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/08/great-teacher-websites.html various webs for teachers
24. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/25-best-websites-teachers 2 thumbs up for teachers teaching English or others 
25. http://www.funbrain.com/ for kids
26. http://www.gse.harvard.edu/library/educator_resources.html leads to webs of education
27. http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/top-11-educational-video-websites-for.html
28. http://www.abcteach.com/directory/educational-links-teacher-sites-1389-2-1
29. http://topsites.primarygames.com/ kids games education awesome webs for education 

5. Kyi Tha Wai, a participant from ... adds:
1. www.wikipedia.org
2. www.quoteland.com (for quotations)
3. www.thesearchenginelist.com

6. Inesa Zubrylina, a participant from ... adds:
1. www.brainyquote.com (for quotations)
2. quotations.about.com (for quotations)
3. www.learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org
4. www.mes-english.com
5. www.english-4kids.com
6. www.multimedia-english.com
7. www.english-online.org.uk
8. learnrealenglish.com
9. www.eleaston.com

7. Baraat Alsmadi, a participant from ... writes:
1. www.wikihow.com
2. www.ezinearticles.com/?Englishwriting-skill
3. audioboo.com

8. Diana Alui Daniel, a participant from Malaysia writes:
1. www.cari.com.my

9. Ahmed Hamzi, a participant from ... writes:
1. www.google.com (search engine)
2. www.yahoo.com (search engine)
3. www.bing.com (search engine)
4. www.ask.com (search engine)
5. www.sweetsearch.com (for practical English dialogues)

10. Jennifer Ramdonee, a participant from ... writes:
1. www.freetech4teachers.com
2. www.ascilite.org.au
3. enotes.com
4. WorldCat.org
5. Idea Portal
6. Sweet Search

11. Paramita Chaudhuri, a participant from India writes:
1. www.docsouth.unc.edu/classroom/lessonplans/ RAFT.html
2. www.shapingenglish.ning.com

12. Johan Lopez, a participant from ... writes:
1. nsdl.org/search/results/ (for mathematics and technology)
2. www.kidsclick.org/ (kids content)
3. www.biography.com/people (for history class, biography of 7000+ people)
4. www.exalead.com/search/ (Advanced internet teachers)
5. www.schoology.com

13. Sanjiv Alay, a participant from Bhutan writes:
1. www.youtube.com

14. Darshan Lal Sharma, a participant from India adds:
1. www.philb.com/webse.htm
2. www.dogpile.com (search engine)
3. www.duckduckgo.com (search engine)

15. Ewa Prokopowicz, a participants from ... writes:
1. lookahead.surfwax.com (seach engine)
2. quoteland.com
3. merriam-webster.com

16. (Me) Batuk Lal Tamang, a participant from Nepal writes:
1. www.20search.com (a search engine)
2. www.engvid.com (a website for English teaching videos)
3. www.khanacademy.org (information of different subjects)
4. pustakalaya.org (online e-library with 5,000+ books)
5. moecdc.gov.np (Nepal government 's website for curriculum and textbooks)
6. www.slideworld.com (for readymade power point slides on different topics)

17. Nagei Abdel-aal Ahmed Mohamed, a participant from writes:
1. www.ncsall.net (for computer assisted language learning)
2. www.readingrockets.org
3. hakia.com
4. www.really-learn-english.com

18. Domingo Cadima adds:
1. www.manythings.org/hmf/
2. www.esl-lab.com/index.htm

19. Paula Mattila informs:
1. searcheuropa.eu
2. www.norden.org/en/theme/mr-u2
3. linkkiapaja.edu.fi/oph/search.html
4. http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu (great stuff on MOOCs) and 
5. http://www.etwinning.net/ (wait and see, if not eTwinning is to serve as a basic edu MOOC platform)

20. Sira Diop writes:
1. https.//dosmaterialsdevelopment.adobe 
2. http.//shapingenglish.ning.com
3. http.//www.nicenet.org
4. buusu.com
5. onestopenglish.com
6. http.//www.carla.umn.edu/cobaltt/modules/curriculum/textanalysis/communicative academic functions.pdf
7. communicativelanguage teaching .linguistic theory and classroom practice sandrj.savignon http'//yale.edu/excerpts0300091567-1.pdf

21. Muhammad Tariq adds:
1. http://www.bl.uk/
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
3. www.alison.com/speaking-English 
4. www.britishcouncil.com.pk 
5. www.altavista.com
6. www.jstor.org

22. Keong-sub Yeon writes:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurisangja

23. Faatu Touray writes:
1. www.colorelt.org
2. http:how to study.org/resources
3. www.English class.com
4. http://englishclip.com/ftp.englishclip.com

Week 2 ABCD Model Objectives

Description of a Class I Teach:
One of the classes I teach is grade 10. It is the second year of high school level in my country. There are 44 students in the class. All the subject teachers go to the class one after another for the 40 minutes' period for each class as per the time-table. This is quite different from the system that I have heard somewhere in American schools. (I mean I heard in some American schools the subject teacher has her/his own classroom where the students of different grades come one after another.) The students sit on the sitting desk attached to the desk for writing in the group of 4 or 5 in a row with 2 or 3 columns. There are white board and the teachers use board markers. The rooms are not so spacious, so it's difficult to conduct any mingle activities for language practice. However it's well ventilated.
Since English is foreign language, out of 8 subjects only English is taught in English medium and even in the class of English language the teachers (have to) speak the native language (Nepali), the proficiency of students' English language is very low due to the lack of English language exposure. So it's a big problem and challenge for the teachers to improve their English language proficiency.

Sharing a Learning Objective:
Normally whenever I take any class for this grade, I prepare the objectives of the class in this way:
At the end of the class, the students will be able to:
(a) tell the story of "The Thirsty Crow",
(b) write the story of "The Thirsty Crow".

But when I read the link (http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/) provided by our tutor and some other websites, (www.mdfaconline.org/presentations/ABCDmodel.doc), (http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/),
(www.missouristate.edu/.../Writing_Student_Learning_Objective_12-06-...?), as well as the other classmates' posts, I came to know that the objectives that I use have some lacking. 
In the above mentioned objectives: 
(A) The audience is the students, 
(B) The behavior is telling and writing the story. I think they are observable and measurable. I mean they can be heard and seen.
(C) I think the condition is not so strong in my objectives because I couldn't mention the context or circumstances of learning clearly here.
(D) I think the degree is not mentioned in my objectives, as I didn't state the level of mastery of the content.

I feel after reading the information from different sources as mentioned above, I could try my objectives in a different way, something like this:
(C)With the help of the picture story and clues words, (A) the students (B) will be able to:
(i) tell the story of "The Thirsty Crow" (D) in past tense for two minutes,
(ii) write the story of "The Thirsty Crow" (D) in past tense in about 150 words.

Reference:
(Adapted from: http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/

The A.B.C.D. Method

The ABCD method of writing objectives is an excellent starting point for writing objectives (Heinich, et al., 1996). In this system, "A" is for audience, "B" is for behavior, "C" for conditions and "D" for degree of mastery needed.

1.            Audience (A) – Who? Who are your learners?

2.            Behavior (B) – What? What do you expect them to be able to do? This should be an overt, observable behavior, even if the actual behavior is covert or mental in nature. If you can't see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, or smell it, you can't be sure your audience really learned it.

3.            Condition (C) – How? Under what circumstances or context will the learning occur? What will the student be given or already be expected to know to accomplish the learning?

Degree (D) – How much? How much will be accomplished, how well will the behavior need to be performed, and to what level? Do you want total mastery (100%), do you want them to respond correctly 80% of the time, etc. A common (and totally non-scientific) setting is 80% of the time.)

Week 2 Web Searching

Dear all,
I use most often "Google" as the search engine. Today from this discussion thread I came to know that there are so many search engines that may be helpful for our need online. I have searched something from this search engine:
1. www.20seach.com
Some other websites I usually visit are as follows:
2. www.engvid.com (a good website for good English teaching videos by different teachers on various topics)
3. www.khanacademy.org (a good website for the information of different disciplines)
4. pustakalaya.org (an e-library contained the softcopies of more than 5000 books.
5. moecdc.gov.np (an authentic web of Curriculum Development Centre Nepal, a government authority, responsible to design curriculum and textbook the Nepal)
6. www.slideworld.com (for ready-made power point slides on different topics)

Week 1 - Introduction "Batuk"

Finally I created it. I am not used to creating new blog at "blogger.com", so it was a bit difficult for me to manage it. I think creating a blog at "wordpress.com" is easier than doing it on this site.
I am Batuk Lal Tamang from Nepal which is in south Asia located between India and China. I have been teaching English for grade 10 students in a government school where I work as an assistant head teacher as well. In the morning shift I teach English Education to the students of Bachelor's Degree. In the past I used to teach primary level children, too. I have an experience of teaching all grades' students, i.e. from grade one to 12. I sometimes work as teacher trainer as well.
I have been working in a voluntary social organization of English language teachers in Nepal (named "Nepal English Language Teachers' Association/ NELTA). It has more than forty branches throughout the nation (Nepal). I am the chairperson in one of those branches (NELTA Chitwan Branch). NELTA has its own website - "nelta.org.np".
I am very much happy and excited to work and learn online with so many experienced scholars from the different parts of the globe.