January 1st 2013

Glitter Text Generator

Week 10 - Bye!!!

Week 10: Wrap-up!!!

I have always looked forward to the time when I can start writing and shaping my blog post but this time, I’ve always found one reason or another to postpone doing it. The thing is, I hate thinking it is the last one I will publish on our class wiki; I though hope that we will continue to keep in touch through our blogs and share our reflections concerning the implementation of the insights gained during the training, Indeed, now that the training is nearly finished, I can’t help thinking back of those useful web tools we were presented with all through these ten weeks.


 I have to say that those tools like WebQuests, Wallwishers , PowerPoints, Rubistar or Hot Potatoes for example, are extremely useful in as much as not only do they help promote students’ autonomy but  they enhance their critical thinking as well; thus, I will certainly use them with my students. Besides, I will make it a point to improve my webskills and score better at the Loti survey one year from now.



I would like at this point to congratulate the team who designed the course on the choice of the topics offered to us; all of them were indeed interesting and useful whatever our teaching situation; for example, learners will benefit from being engaged in a project, wherever they are from; teachers will gain in knowing what their students’ learning styles are, and being aware of useful search engines and websites and being shown how to efficiently store them was most helpful. So, thank you very much indeed as the course really contributes to the development of the teaching of English worldwide. Now, if I may suggest one thing, I think it would be a good idea to include a video conference in the activities offered.



I would like to finish with a heartfelt Thank you to Robert, for his unfailing support all through the course, and to all my online classmates, for their insightful comments which helped me enrich my teaching experience. Thank you, guys!!!

Week 9: Learning Styles, Multiple Intelligences, Final Project

It was quite interesting to be reminded of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences again. In fact, I was first acquainted with Gardner’s theory when I prepared my Master’s degree in Education back in 1994 and all through my career, I have noticed that on one hand, no one can deny that learners have different learning styles and we, teachers need to be aware of those styles and address them in our teaching so as to help students to learn efficiently; on another hand, it is also obvious that no one is a hundred percent visual, auditory or kinesthetic; instead,  a learner can present a mixture of learning styles even if there  is generally a predominant one. If none of the styles is dominant, then we generally talk about 'multimode'.


As far as the use of technology is concerned, I believe that since it gives room to students’ autonomy, then it also favors students’ learning styles. Indeed, as students are allowed to work on their own, at their own pace and according to their own needs, they will surely approach the tasks in their own ways, their own styles. However, as facilitators, we still need to know about those styles if we want to efficiently guide our students, bearing in mind that they will just give an indication as for their overall personality and preferences.



This week, we reached the culmination of the course as we had to submit our final project report where we recorded what went well and what went not so well during this enterprise; in fact, I like to call it ‘learning by doing’ as we tried things out and reflected on the outcomes and considered other alternatives when meeting an obstacle. I found the activity very enriching for both my students and myself because we tried new tools together. I have to say that they were very cooperative and since it is not sure that I will still be their teacher next term, in January, we decided to continue the adventure together via our class website.
The site is not complete yet and some uploaded materials do not open well yet but I am fixing that now, hoping everything will be alright in January.

Week 8:Teacher Skills Building through the Interactive Web

Now, it is sure, the web is offering endless opportunities to make our teaching different and better and it is just up to us, teachers, to ‘dare to explore’, as Sam has rightly put it in his discussion post. This week we were introduced to Hot Potatoes, ANVILL, Web Poster Wizard and many other ESL teachers resources; we were encouraged to ‘create’ worksheets, crossword puzzles, survey forms, websites,… using ‘Tools for Educators’. I sincerely found all these fascinating as I really don’t stop discovering new useful tools and I can conclude that the course has reached its objective which is to help us build our teaching skills through the interactive web. It has indeed successfully equipped us with valuable tools likely to motivate our students and to make of them autonomous learners.

Besides, with Robert as a facilitator, and with the rich experience many of the participants kindly shared here, it is sure that by now, we should be able to exploit the interactive web on our own and in a more successful way; I, for my part, feel certain that our students will benefit as much as we have – if not more than we do - from this course and that they will find pleasure exploring the web so as to develop their level of proficiency in the English language. A glance at the projects of the group has indeed revealed the riches and variety of ideas which emerged from the course and how committed everyone is to making students enjoy learning English thanks to the web. Let me finish with this quotation I discovered during my exploration:   

Week 8: Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Glitter Text Generator

Week 7: One Computer Classroom - Wallwisher to Enhance Learner Autonomy

‘We believe that everyone can learn, become a better thinker and independent learner. We are committed to meeting or even exceeding our students’ expectations’

Let me start this week’s reflections with this ETP mission statement. At ETP, we are indeed convinced that teaching amounts to developing students’ critical thinking and to make of them independent learners. It is therefore obvious that what we learned this week in terms of learner autonomy is of a high importance to me. Moreover, discovering wallwisher really helps find a brand new way of motivating the students and thereby to involve them in the learning process. The use of Wallwisher has demonstrated how effective one computer can be if used properly.

I have to say that the students’ experience with Glogster was not really a successful one; in fact, none of my A1 students managed to create one Glogster account because it was impossible to access the site and even if we had spent a whole period of ninety minutes in the computer lab, they were not successful; as a result, they were a little disappointed at the beginning of the week. When I introduced them to wallwisher, they were again a little skeptical but when they saw the result, they were so excited that they volunteered to investigate into a new topic every week.
 To avoid new disappointments, I opened one wall I entitled A1ETPWALL (http://wallwisher.com/wall/hx5c4slmjx) and I had them search the net for interesting items about ‘Child Labor’. They brought their findings on a USB key or sent them to me by mail and last Friday, I brought a computer to class and posted their files on the wall. You should have seen their expressions when they were asked to come to the desk to talk about their contribution and put their names on their files. As one of my classmates said on Nicenet: 'It is during moments like this that we realize how rewarding it is to be a teacher'. That was exactly how I felt at the moment and I was all the more happy when those who did not contribute yet promised to do so for the coming topic which will be about ‘Domestic Violence’.

They also appreciated very much the fact of working in groups to synthesize what they learned about Child Labor in Madagascar, the causes, the effects, what is being done to solve it, which organizations are involved in the fight and what remains to be done. Each group of four was then asked to write a paragraph about their conclusions and to post that on the wall on Monday. From the discussions I heard, I can say that on the whole, they have benefitted from much more input about the topic from each other than from me alone. I just had to take care of the accuracy of the language they were using.

The other great event of the week is also the fact of having paired up with Kinnari so as to work on the project; I'm looking forward to her feed back. I myself have been impressed by the Webquest she has designed. Week 8 definitely promises to be another enriching one. Let's hope that Nicenet will be back!!!!!!