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.