Reflection on week 10

Dear colleagues...
Can you imagine that the course is almost over!!! Reflecting on what I have learned means to mention many things that I have already mentioned some in my posts on NiceNet. I just want to mention that I have tried many software, programs and technology-based ideas and they are really amazing...It was my first time to hear about NiceNet, ANVILL, Jupiter Grades, Blogspot authoring and many other great ideas. Thank you Donna and the team for this wonderful ride that I personally enjoyed much and I think the colleagues too.
The challenge I am facing now is how to transfere this knowledge to others and this means two things:
1. Training my colleagues in teacher training workshops in Egypt.
2. Applying this in my classes till it becomes part of my teaching practices.
I recommend my colleagues to follow this dual direction in the next step. Thisa experience should be enjoyed by others too.
I hope all the best for every colleague in the next challenge
Regards
Haggag

Week 9 - Reflection

This week I read new articles about learning styles and reviewed how various the learners are. What I liked most was the examples provided through the links of the course about the activities which can meet the variety in the learning styles of the students.
Reading about the nine Intelligences by Gardner made me think of the big challenge we are having in our classes. This made me think of combining various activities and exercises to meet these differences.I have reviewed the activities which are technology-based in the current project I am working on and I found out how technology can meet the differences between the students. I think to have various activities and teaching techniques is not new to any language teacher but what activities to add, for what learner and what objective(s) behind is also important to consider.

Another important thing to reflect on is the peer-feedback we have this week from our colleagues in the course. I think most of us keep using peer-feedback in his classes but to give it and use it is a different learning experience. If I meant to evaluate this week, I would say that it was really valuable.
Regards
Haggag

Week 8 : Reflection

Hello.....
If I am to reflect on this week,  three important points should be stated:
1. Google documents: This week was another very good week in which I could learn how to use Google to upload documents and share them with my students. I could use it in uploading an online questionnaire for my students in the current course I am teaching to fill in. I believe this will save me much more time and effort.

2. ANVILL. I have been exploring and trying the various aspects of ANVILL and the first impression I had was that how complicated to design and implement various resources in one author-ware butafter I reviewed the comments and saw the screen shots by Jeff and the colleagues, I believe it is a very good tool. I just need more time to use it in an online class or implement it in my class.

3.Peer-review for project report.
This week was a good chance to share my project with my colleague Mr.Mohamed Rashid. I think his comments will enrich my project. I did review his project and I think that he is really a brilliant colleague and his project is very academic, promising and valuable. I think I am lucky to have online colleagues like him.

Regards
Haggag

Week 7: Reflection

Week 7 was a very informative week to me. It reviewed my ideas and schemata about learner autonomy and the one computer classes. This week opened the horizons for me to find effective means to use the lectures which is mainly one computer based more interactive. I think my idea about the computer as a tool to play in the lecture is not correct, it is rather a partner to depend on the lecture and to add liveliness to the lecture.
Teachers should think of new jobs to this partner in the form of interactive software and activities. I think hyper-linked and interactive web based activities can change the traditional lecture into a more live one. I browsed the internet for this new lecturing form and I found that they call it "the modified lecture" and it is one
for of the active learning strategies which can promote learner autonomy. I think yhis week I could find a connection between ;earner autonomy and the one computer class. This connection is, you can use technology to promote learner autonomy even if it is a one computer class.
Regards

Week 6 reflection post 2: Refinement in my project

The change I will add to my project after this week's readings and skills is - as described in NiceNet - the following:The change that I already started to implement is the interactive PowerPoint presentations which is hyper-linked to online resources. I will prepare presentations and upload it to the website of the course that I am designing for the course and then I will ask the students to download the presentations  and use the hyperlinks for home practice. I will make sure that the presentations contain some sort of feedback (i.e. the correct answers). This modification may help me solving the challenge of home assignments.

Week 6: post 2: Interactive power point slides reflection

One of the merits of the power point is its possibility to integrate the four language skills together in one presentation. Using action buttons in the slides can bring the students into a unity of skills in one activity or a task. When I read this week about how to make the slides more interactive, I though of our mere use for power point and how teachers fall into mistakes about the colors, design and the motions. After designing a presentation for my class using the actions buttons and hyperlinks, I found that I was mistaken. The Power point can be really a good mean to integrate the skills and add live interaction with students. I have reviewed some presentations where teachers hyperlink the answers with the correct answers and with positive feedback or correction slides; this is really amazing. This week is another plus to my understanding for the true implementation of technology in our EFL classes. 

Regards

week 6 technology and large classes

Dear colleagues,

I would like to share the question that I posted in NiceNet about the levels of technology. The question again was what is the relation between technology and the large classes? First I know the apparent common relations which refer to the ease of instruction, student interaction, student-oriented notions etc. The point I would like to make is that there are levels of technology and speaking about the integration of technology for the large classes is now an old notion about technology due to the new form of the wholly technology-oriented classes, which are small in their settings. Do you agree with me that using technology for large classes was one reason for the implementation of technology and that now technology is more than a mean? Do you think that now educational technology specialists should think of using new technology for large technology-oriented classes?

Regards

Week 5 - Extra credit lesson plan based on WebQuests and rubrics for TOEFL-iBT writing section

Dear colleagues,

I would like to share the following lesson plan. It has a new implementation for the use of rubrics in assessing my students by themselves. Another new point is the implementation of webQuests in a TOEFL test lesson. I think they will enjoy the experience of self-assessment and fun webQuests.

Class: TOEFL-iBT preparation session 

Section: Writing / Independent writing task

Learning objectives:

By the end of the session, students should be able to:

1. To identify the format and content of the independent writing task.

2. To identify how to organize an essay.

3. http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/studentpage.htm

4. To use online rubrics for self-assessment.

Aids (Technology accessed resources):

-http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?ts=1319917357

-www.ets.org

-http://demo.toeflibtcourse.com/toefl_R11s.htm

Warm Up (Introduction):

-Students are asked to log online to ETS website and find information about the writing section in TOEFL-iBT test to identify the format of the independent writing task.

-Then, they are asked to discuss this information in groups.

Procedures:

-Introducing the independent writing task format, time and questions based on ETS website.

-Discussing ETS sample questions about the independent writing task.

-Starting screen icons discussion activity using the following website

 http://i-courses.org/?p=sample_tests

-Introducing the ABC format for the essay (Abstract, Body and Conclusion).

-Brainstorming activity about the body of a TOEFL-iBT question.

-Gallery-walk activity to discuss students responses.

-Online exercises from the following website:

http://demo.toeflibtcourse.com/toefl_R11s.htm

-Writing WebQuests exercises: asking students to log in to the following website and do one of its assignments:

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/studentpage.htm

-Self assessment task: asking students to log in to the following website to assess their essays:

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?ts=1319917357

Home assignment:

- Students are asked to write an essay about the rubrics they have used and how useful they are to them.

Week 5 Reflection: Rubrics implementation

I could create my own writing rubrics for my class. The link to it is: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?ts=1319917357

 I like the ready made templates in the website. In the beginning, I had worries about having ready made wording and sentences that my not suit the level of my students but then I found out that I can edit it. This was really very helpful. I will recommend this website to my colleagues. I also decided to make an online rubrics portfolio to my classes. Now students can find useful and valid criteria to assess their learning progress.

Regards

Haggag

Week 5 Reflection

This week is very suggestive; this is how I can describe it. The various webQuests and rubrics websites are wonderful suggestions that can be implemented in my classes. Rubistar website took me back with memories 2 years ago to USA, Hawaii Pacific University, the first time I had training on these alternative assessment tools. I link this week with the advice we had then, that it is not the what, and rather, it is the how. It is how to implement a valid and reliable assessment and motivating as well. This is what rubrics can do. Another thing that astonished me was the new attempts to create a virtual 3D webQuests. Oh my God, can you imagine your child or student living in a 3D world of learning. After this week’s experience, I will rethink of the online exercises I am using now and search for more challenging and motivating ones.

Regards

Week 4 reflection

        The most important thing I remember for now was how to find reading and writing resources that count to your class. I mean by to count, is to really have an effect on students’ learning and language development. I thought” God, how can I find interesting websites to integrate to a class that is devoted for assessment like mine?” Then I found my lost links, just by logging in and searching or finding a recommendation by a colleague. This week I found a good recommendation from this course. It is the following website:

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

       This website has really interesting lesson plans and websites that can “assess” and “teach” your students what you want to teach for them and what they want to learn.  This week, helped me with a website that might be little in the wording but great in the effect that it may add to my class. This Thursday, I have participated in a CALL discussion with colleagues from the University of Graz in Austria and they liked it too and recommended using it.  What is good also about it is this integration of language skills that it stresses. This means I can use it in the instruction of reading, writing, listening and speaking sessions too.  To me, this week is very very fruitful.

Regards

Haggag

Project task 2 week 3- Reading the report

I enjoyed reading report number 6 for Joanna  Zubel. Her work can be classified into 8 elements:
1.She gave a background of her students, setting of the class, goals and needs. The experiment was run on 35 students (32 females and 3 males) of the first year of second cycle studies (Master studies). They are 22-23 years old. The experiment was in Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education "Ignatianum" in Cracow (Poland).
2.She gave a description of the problem.
3.She described the initial teaching practices that she provided and how the students reacted and how different was this to them.
4.She reflected on the practices to follow in the teaching of the course.
5.Then she described the changes that she did in the course and therefore the practices.
6.She stated the implications of the experiment and what results can be gained.
7.Project timeline  (From 14 April till 3 June)
8.The resources that she implemented in the experiment.
-I liked 2 things which are very important:
1. To reflect on what you will do, do and did.
2. To find implications to what you do.
It was a very concise and valid report. I enjoyed the ride of that experiment and I think the teacher is very creative.This report inspired me to add new elements in my project.
Regards
Haggag

Week 3: Aural/oral skills-building

-The four language skills have been long classified into receptive and productive skills. Reading and listening represent the first while speaking and writing represent the second category. During this week I could go deeper in learning about how to provide my students with online resources that can develop listening and speaking.  The articles provided in this week are also very valuable and could inspire me in looking for some ideas to implement in my current course as the communicative activities.

-The three new websites I could explore and share during the week are the following:

www.nonstopenglish.com

www.englishtogo.com

www.teachenglish.com

-I think teachers should look for such websites to integrate in their classes to guarantee a level of communicative input in their teaching especially with classes of large number of students. Another thing to add is that these websites provide a kind of communicative language evaluation and feedback. Students can receive spontaneous feedback from these websites and this has a big effect on his learning.

Reflection on week two

While I was reading the ABCE model-if we call it a model- I was thinking of why do teachers have to formulate an objective in any given way? The answer that came to my mind was that: To assess the objective. Moments later, it came to my mind that it is not assessment that matters, rather, the achievement of the objective. Then, I came to a conclusion, which is we specify the objective to clear it, teach it, verify it and assess it. The ABCD model is a very good model to clear, verify and find ways to asses the objectives.

Questions to answer

There are threequestions to answer before you start your serach:
1. What are you going to search for?
2. How would select the appropriate key words?
3. What websites to search?

Try these questions and see how it works.
Haggag

Description of my project task

Project Task-step 1

I would like to implement the project on a class that can be described as follows:

Who?

A class of 22 non-English language specialized learners who graduated from colleges of humanities (i.e. art and education).  They represent a sample in my research. The reason for selecting the humanities field is that natural sciences students know more English (in my country) than humanities students and this may affect the validity of the experiment.  Their ages range from 22 to 32.

What

The course is TOEFL-iBT course which is designed by me using active learning techniques and strategies. The course consists of 4 units (RWLS) and each unit consists of 3 lessons.  

When?

The course will take place this winter semester 2011.

Where?

In South Valley University in Egypt, Hurghada Faculty of Education. In a training room and a computer room which has 25 computers that are fully equipped with internet, software and projectors.

Why?

They want to take the TOEFL-iBT test for academic purposes as researching, travel and scholarships or grants awarding; this why they would like to participate in this course.

How?

Instruction will implement online and offline techniques and activities due to the nature of the test itself, which is an internet-based one. For this reason, two rooms will be used, a computer lab and a regular training groom.