http://weheartit.com/entry/32857783

Week 10. It is not the End, it is a very exciting Beginning!

The last week of the course, the last reflective post in this course...can it be so?! It seems that the reality is exactly like this! I was thinking that at this particular moment I would be upset, yet I am not. I do know that I will come back to my precious and beautiful blog quite often and not only to remember what I did in this course but most probably even to write here again and again, maybe it could even be my diary, teacher's diary?! :) Therefore, I have chosen the picture on the right with the purpose, with the idea in mind that this course is definitely not the end, this course is a new beginning, a wonderful beginning of innovation, curiosity, implementation of technology, and definitely - discoveries.

http://roleplaying-advice.tumblr.com/

Sean has asked us to think of the advice we could give to future participants of this course. I have told a lot over this on Nicenet, therefore I would not like to repeat myself here. However, I would definitely like to stress that the only thing you actually need is passion! If you are passionate over what you do here, if you are curious and determined, if you are the one who is not afraid of making mistakes and thus learning, you will be successful! Do not postpone, do not leave the assignments to the last possible minute, be polite, ask questions, do not be afraid of writing to your course teacher, since these are the steps to your success too! :) This course will teach you not only how to implement technology into your teaching context but also how to be a responsible teacher who is able to manage his/her time and overcome any difficulties you face with.

http://www.robeson.k12.nc.us/domain/4057

The most significant question raised is what I have learnt here in this course. The answer is the only one - I have learnt so much that it is even difficult to describe in a few words or sentences. The course has changed my attitude to technology in the class, to the usage of technology when teaching languages. This Bloom's circle perfectly reflects the methods of a modern teacher, of an innovative teacher, of the teacher who learns together with his/her students. Technologies do not make the teaching process worse, technologies help your students become efficient, successful and self-confident learners! :) 

The most successful, useful, interesting and also time and effort-consuming topics of the course for me were related to WebQuests, Padlet, Web Searching, ABCD model for writing Objectives, Delicious site, how to write a Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan, Rubrics. So many of them, actually! :) I will surely use all of them and will never cease looking for other web tools that have not been included here or the ones that have been suggested by other participants of the course. I love WebQuests, since they do help you and the learners be independent, learn collaboration skills, learn how to carry out a research. Padlet is my Number 1 for any type of activity, easy to use and appealing a lot! ABCD model for writing obejctives teaches you how important it is to formulate the objective so the learner would know what to expect from the course or class and what he/she will achieve or will be able to do at the end of it. Rubistar for creating your rubrics is also a great tool and handy indeed, especially for busy teachers. :) The topics I did not quite enjoy or found useful were related to Learning styles and PowerPoint presentations. This is my personal opinion, so please don't get offended. I have learnt a lot over the learning styles and a lot of things introduced here were known. The same applies to PowerPoint presentations, since the things were introduced when I was at university and also when I had a teacher training course in Canada. Nonetheless, I will not deny the fact that it is always good to remember certain things or be reminded of them and simply revise again. :) Moreover, there can always be people with you who have known nothing or little about this. Hence, still positive feedback here! :) I would have liked though to be introduced to Prezi rather than PowerPoint, since students have started using this tool for their presentations, therefore I feel a bit ashamed with my PowerPoint presentations, even if they are interactive! :) I hope that I will soon master the skill necessary to work with Prezi.

http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/thank-you-1-1324059/1/20

Finally and most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you my groupmates. I have learnt a lot from you, your thoughts, discussions, questions, experience. It seems to me that I have visited the universities of the world! :) I would like to say big THANK YOU to Sean, who has always been polite, motivating, helpful and quick with response to any problems I have had while studying. I would also like to thank for the USA embassy for this amazing, invaluable opportunity to be part of this course, to learn and later share the knowledge with the students and teachers in Lihuania! :) I will always value what I have learnt here! :) This smiling and happy doggy reflects my mood, my nature...lots of smiles to all of you! :) I do hope that we will keep in touch in future and maybe even think of some projects together. :)

Warm wishes to all of you from Vilnius! :)

Jurga.

http://twistynoodle.com/nine-3-coloring-page/

Week 9. Learning styles and Final Project/ Plan reports

One more busy week that seems so short! I have always had the feeling throughout our Webskills course that time simply flies away and there is constantly little time for everything to do. :) I suppose this is a natural feeling, since teachers always have a lot of things to do, e.g. get ready for classes, correct the tests or essays, look for video material, etc. For us, there are always additional tasks waiting, i.e. our Webskills course assignments. And this is great, since we learn, we grow as teachers, we also learn how to manage our time properly. Most importantly, we gain knowledge and experience that we will be able to share with our students, colleagues and friends.

http://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/en/about-city-college/slo/professional_development/learning_styles.html

The discussion topic of the week was connected with Learning styles. I simply love this topic, since as a teacher I know how essential it is to be aware of the learning styles that prevail among your students. Moreover, it is not only enough to know them but rather more significant it is to look for the activities so that different learners would feel comfortable in the class and would attain the best results while learning the language. I do like the picture above, which clearly discloses a variety of learning styles and visually makes the teachers understand that the selection of tasks must be well-thought over. Most probably all of us sometimes notice how uncomfortable some students feel with certain tasks like group work, pair work, listening, games, etc. How to solve such an issue? Is it possible to tailor the lesson so that each individual student would feel great while learning? Well, I guess, it is impossible to create a lesson plan for every individual learner in the class, but why should we do this? Based on the reading material of this week, I could state that a teacher can successfully create a lesson where different students, with different learning styles would have a chance throughout a class to feel satisfied, happy, relaxed and pleased to learn. The only thing a teacher needs to do is to be attentive and creative. Coming up with a variety of activities in one lesson, already gives choice to students. In addittion to this, they can also learn that different approaches and styles help to learn the language in a different way, and I think that we should encourage students to try a variety of methods. Another helpful tool for the teachers to address different learning styles is connected with technolgy. A great number of web tools we have learnt so far in this course (Padlet, WebQuest, PowerPoint, etc.) can be implemented in the class and can also let the teacher look for the activities that can satisfy different learners, e.g. those who prefer listening, group work, writing, project-based activities, etc.

http://symetris.ca/blog/5-essential-steps-good-project-management

The most significant part of the week was related to our Final Project/Plan reports. I have created a Project Plan, since my students had holidays in February and have just come back to university, therefore we have a Project Plan and will implement it throughout this semester. My plan is connected with enhancing students' writing skills via blogging and thus a class blog has been created so they could try a bit different approach towards both theoretical and practical parts of writing field. We had to finish the plans based on the feedback of our partners and having received one from Lupita, I immediately turned to finishing the plan. I do want to thank you, Lupita for your comments and just want to add that the feedback is really important while you study. I do hope that this plan will be successful and will bring lots of joy to both my students and me. :)

http://buffalomountaincoop.org/news/785/2013-customer-survey

The last assignment was to complete the survey for the AEI ELearning Department related to the evaluation of the course. I tried to be as specific as I could while answering the questions there, yet I have also expressed my gratitude for this amazing opportunity to gain so much knowledge and experience while being here with all of you. I would also like to thank you, Sean and you, my great groupmates for the fruitful discussions, support, inspiration, feedback, questions, which all will make me, I believe, a better teacher. :)

Thank you, sincerely!

Best wishes,

Jurga. 

http://www.imagui.com/a/numero-8-TeKaxk6zj

Week 8. Active, busy, full of unexplored online fields for teaching and with an amazing task for peer review!

Week 8 of our wonderful Webskills course is approaching to the end. I don't feel sad actually, since I know that another great week is coming, which will bring so much fun, excitement, worry, hard work, but most importantly, new knowledge and experience to us! And I am waiting for it a lot, since I never want to cease learning, learning to be a better teacher, learning to alter my attitudes to certain methods of teaching, learning how to help my students attain their goals and be self-confident, and independent in their learning process.

The week started with a usual task, i.e. to look through the given resources and get ready for the discussion on Nicenet. Even if I have just used the word usual, I would immediately add the word unusual, since we have been positively "flooded" with such a huge ammount of information connected with online tools that help teachers to get ready for their classes as well as make them active, interactive, appealing and technology based at the same time.

http://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/tag/teacher-education/ 

The picture I have chosen to reflect the discussion of this week speaks for itself, I guess. The 21st century teachers are supposed to be brave, versatile, interested in what they do, curious and especially technology-savvy. The latter expression makes a lot of teachers freeze, since either they don't have a clue over it or are against it. The resources of this week just confirm once again how important it is to have a yearning for something new, to have a desire to learn the thing that makes you scared, to overcome the bias that you have and simply accept the reality that the teaching-learning process is changing and we, teachers, have to know as much about technology as our students do, so that their learning process would be both enjoyable and efficient. Moreover, the resources of this week just indicated that the preparation process for the classes might even be made easier if you use certain web tools that can help you to create tests faster, to come up with colourful and attractive images, posters or even exercises. These things do not only make the preparatory teaching process quicker but also help the teacher be a versatile trainer, e.g. you can print the created activites and use them as handouts or you can export them and upload on your class blogs, wikis or websites.  This is true, the load of information is huge, yet it gives you a choice and helps you to surprise your students every time you enter the classroom. Hence, I will definitely give a try to the majority online tools or resources that our teacher Sean has introduced to us. I have used only HotPotatoes, therefore others are my priorities and I am waiting for my students to come back to university so I could again see their smiles when I tell them "We are going to play a game or use a new online tool today". :) 

We had a task to do this week and it was to create an exercise, a test, a blog, a Padlet wall, etc. that could be used with the students. I have seen so many  great activities designed by my coursemates and I am so happy that there are such a big amount of teachers who love their work and who are eager to change their teaching style to the better. All my coursemates will definitely make their students love English even more with the help of the activities they have created while using web tools of the week. I have also used a few of them and like a lot of my coursemates I simply adore Padlet, which is a wonderful tool for interaction, collaboration, planning, project based learning, etc. I will for sure use it in my classes and I do hope my students will like it as much as I do. A blog is also a tool that can give students freedom of creativity and that can actually make them fall in love with the skill they are all afraid of, i.e. writing, since writing on the blog is different, is quite modern and most importantly open, which means it is not only the teacher who reads, but we all do, we - the team! :)

http://www.g21.com.au/g21-regional-growth-plan-2013 

A very important part of this week was definitely the project/plan drafts. I am sure that all of us really worked hard to provide our results to our partners for peer review. In my case, I prepared a project plan, since I have no students at the moment and I could not implement the project while we are still here in the Webskills course. However, I have tried to do my best to create a detailed plan and to describe my future steps so that my peer review partner could visualise the future project itself. It was quite tough though to finish the draft, since all the tiny details had to be taken into consideration, i.e. the expectations, the constraints, the resources and the step by step stages. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful opportunity to think it over how essential it is to describe the plan in such a way so that your partner would understand what you mean and how you are going to implement it. I do hope, Lupita succeeded in that?! :)

http://blog.aicpa.org/peer-review/

Finally, it's peer review. Teachers always stress the importance of it and we have had an opportunity this week to try this out. I am sure we have all understood how important it is and how beneficial it is. Lupita is my partner for plan peer review this week and I am really happy over this. We have both shared our results (Lupita shared her project and I shared my plan) on the Webskills wiki. I have analysed Lupita's project and posted the checklist with my comments on the wiki. I do hope that these comments will help Lupita however I must add that she did a great job and her project is very well-organized, thought-over and appealing. I could feel myself part of the project and could clearly visualise myself in her classes, being a student who carries out the research and adds the results to the final result of the project, in  her case, a WebQuest. It was also nice to feel Lupita's worries and to finally find out how her emotions towards the project changed, and how happy she felt that her students got engaged, interested, how they turned into autonomous learners who collaborate and help each other! :) I am sure Lupita and her students have great time throughout their project and will eventually have the best results! :)

To finish my reflctions of the week, I would like to thank Sean and my coursemates for the opportunity to learn not only from the articles and resources but most importantly from each other! I am so happy that I have received such a huge amount of knowledge and experience which I will be able to spread in the institution I teach and to share with other teachers at university who could  flavour their teaching content and make their students happy and more successful! :)

Best wishes,

Jurga.

Week 7. New experience followed by unexpected difficulties...

http://blogs.brandeis.edu/gps/

The week has started with so many new articles for reading, new discussions. We have met a new person on our Nicenet discussion, Rachel and I am really happy about this, since not only books, articles or discussions help us grow as better teachers but also people like Rachel, Sean and my groupmates. Yet, the week finished in a very upsetting mood..I fell ill yesterday night and have spent the whole night and day in bed..I am writing this post on my blog while experiencing huge pain, therefore please forgive me for my short overview and reflection of this week.

There have been two topics offered for us this week, i.e. learner autonomy and one-computer classroom. I have always been interested in learner autonomy therefore have opted for this particular topic and have been so happy to find out that teachers should always foster this particular way of learning. The teacher's role has altered and he/she is the one who guides his/her students, who shows them ways how to do certain things but leaves lots of space for the learners to discover, make mistakes, learn from mistakes and enjoy their learning process.

http://alternativelearningprocesses.blogspot.com/2010/10/autonomous-learning_03.html

I was also happy to think of my students as autonomous learners. They are very creative young people who take responsibility for their learning process, who support each other when performing a variety of activities, who collaborate together with their groupmates and the teacher. I will definitely continue working this way so my learners would be self-confident people and eager to study for all their life.

http://badinertech.blogspot.com/2013/05/tech-tip-padlet-new-wallwisher.html

The task of the week was to post some links, articles or videos on our class padlet. I am happy Sean has introduced us to this great online tool, which can successfully be utilized in our teaching context. I have already started thinking of how and then to use Padlet in my classes and I am sure the students will simply love it, since the tool itself is so versatile and so appealing.

http://childbirtheducation.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html

Finally, we are all approaching the stage of implementing our projects or the stage of carefully planning the project itself. I have no studnets at the moment therefore I am thinking a lot over my plan. I have created a class blog, staretd thinking of the tools and activities I will use there and I am happy to have such a great partner as Lupita for my peer review week. Thank you Lupita and I hope we will be a great team together! :)

It seems that Week 8 is already knocking on the door. Let's see what exciting things it will bring and I hope that I will recover soon.

Best wishes,

Jurga.

Week 6. Something new + something known = everything engaging and interesting!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/244883298458648712/

I would like to start the reflection of this week with this wonderful poster, since I do believe it not only represents our work done in this Webskills course but it very nicely pictures us as teachers and inspires our students to believe that everything is possible if only you have a strong wish and  work hard. :)

I need to say that Week 6 is really interesting, since I have found a lot of things I had known before the week started, yet at the same time, I have looked at these issues from a new, refreshed, different perspective. I have learnt a lot from the reading articles, from my groupmates and their productive results. Moreover, I was able to recall the techniques I have used and to think it over what worked and what failed in certain situations in the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9yOOwGYYfU

The discussion on Nicenet has been divided into two topics and I have chosen the one on how to engage students in big classes. This is a very actual topic for me, since our groups have been increased this year from 8 to 16 students and I have been waiting a lot for this week to come. However, I have been pleasantly surprised when I found out that I am using all the different techniques that have been described in the reading articles. And I will tell you sincerely, I have been using them not only because I have bigger groups but because I want my students to learn in a very active way, to use their creativity, to teach them responsibility and independence, to let them feel that they can learn a lot as a team. I will never stop and will definitely proceed with a variety of activities that engage students, since this is a great tool, which makes them self-confident learners, active learners, always interested learners, the ones who do not need to be encouraged but rather involved in the process of language learning.

http://themetapicture.com/powerpoint-death/

Are you fond of PowerPoint? I am sorry to say this, but my answer would be "not that much". I do think this is a wonderful tool to be used when teaching languages (of course if it is interactive and absorbing), yet I have noticed my students dislike this tool and are constantly looking for other ways of presenting, Prezi for instance. Therefore, my aim is to be on the same level with them and I am afraid that my interactive PowerPoint presentation will be engaging and at the same time pretty "old-fashioned" according to them. Nevertheless, we have learnt a lot this week how to create wonderful PowerPoint presentations so that people would be constantly involved and performing a bunch of activities, rather than simply looking at the screen and eventually getting bored or even sleeping. I am happy we have been reminded that the slides must not be overloaded with text, that we need to take into consideration the size of the fonts and many other essential aspects. Hence, I will definitely give a try for the presentation I have created and hope my students will love a bit different approach to language learning. :)

http://cursivecontent.com/10-dos-and-donts-for-the-personal-blogger/

Blogging....and my Project planning....The ending -ING, which means active! :) As you already know, I have decided to use a Class Blog as my Writing problem solution. "To blog or not to blog?" Definitely BLOG! :) I have started creating my class blog and you can take a look at it here: learnenglishadvanced.blogspot.com. It is just the beginning of its creation, yet I am so excited and I hope you will see a more advanced result next week. I have started looking for activities, resources, references, etc. that I will include as part of the blog. I do want to be innovative and interactive, and I will involve my students in the creation or modification process of our blog as soon as they come back after their holidays. I do want to start this project with them and to let them practice writing in a different way, in a creative and collaborative way, in a way that teaches them language and independence.

Week 7 is approaching and I am waiting again to learn something new and something, which would suprise me and my students! :)

Warm wishes from Vilnius! :)

Jurga.

Week 5. A few addittional thoughts on the challenges of this week.

http://kuanyugeoportfolio.wikispaces.com/Webquest

You are right! It's a WebQuest! I would like to add a smile here, yet I cannot...I feel tired, absolutely exhausted and this time I cannot deny this fact and cannot even deceive myself. :) Hey, here it comes back...:) I guess such feelings have visited me after I have completed the most difficult assignment I have ever had. I don't know if it says something about me as a teacher, but I am not complaining here, I am admitting the difficulties I face with. I did my best to complete an assignment given to us by Sean and I did that not because he encouraged us to do that, but to give it a try to a Web tool, which has been so much praised by a bunch of teachers worldwide and by the majority, if not all, of my groupmates here on the Webskills course. 

I will definitely add that WebQuest is an amazing tool that develops students' creativity, critical thinking, analytical mind, reading, listening, speaking and writing skills. It teaches students how important it is to collaborate if you want to attain your goals. It makes students use the target language, English in my case. It teaches them a sense of responsibility for their choices, ideas and the result. It makes them look for solutions rather than give up when facing with a problem. It makes them self-confident and independent learners who believe that authentic language and materials are ways to learn and use the language in real-life situations. I see WebQuest as a tool for bigger or smaller projects, as a way to apply Rubrics in a very creative and constructive way, as a way to be one of many technology related changes in my future plan.

However, I would also like to share some ideas with you over the difficulties I have faced with while creating my first WebQuest. It took me 2 days to look for all the material I needed for the topic I had selected to work on. I should also add here that I have droped the idea on my innitial topic due to the fact that I did not manage to find enough information. You might smile and wonder now...how can this be, the Internet is full of information. Maybe? I always think of my students first of all and then the topic, skills, ideas, syllabus...I want my students to enjoy the learning process, to fall in love with English, to leave the class and want to learn outside of it as well as come back inside to share all the ideas and emotions! When I found all the necessary information, videos, pictures, etc. I needed to describe the stages in my WebQuest and well, this is not easy. It has to be clear not for you as a teacher but for your students. You need to think of their interest, motivation and engagement, hence your words mean a lot there. I have spent one more day for that and I am still thinking there is a lot to improve there. Therefore, what I want to say here is that we, teachers, should not only be excited over the WebQuest as a tool but take it seriously to a certain extent and be responsible for the content we choose. This is a wonderful, creative and promissing tool, but also time-consuming and requiring lots of efforts on the side of a teacher.

Nonetheless, this has been an unforgettable and invaluable indeed experience which has made me grow as a teacher once again. :)

Jurga.

http://beekman1802.com/5-beautiful-things-81/

Week 5. Thought-provoking reading, challenges, new assignments and activities.

What a strange feeling lives in my soul when we have reached the middle of the course. I still feel happy, still feel interested and excited, yet as all students feel in the middle of the course, I feel a bit tired...I do think this is a normal feeling, since our lives have become much more intensive, and much more pleasant emotions appear when I start thinking over the rewarding results we will all achieve at the end of the course, i.e. lots of knowledge, experience, discussions and even created lessons, lesson plans, WebQuests, etc.

The week has started with a bunch of activities. I could say "like always", yet they all seemed very different again and attractive indeed at the same time. This makes the course even more appealing and unpredictable to some extent.

http://www.imostateblog.com/

The broad topic of the week was named "Alternative Assessment". I am sure all teachers who are motivated and seeking for changes in their classrooms, aim at looking for other means of assement in addittion to the traditional one. Hence, we have had a chance this week to get acquainted with or analyse deeper such forms of Alternative assessment as Rubrics, Checklists, K-W-L Charts or even Portfolios. We have had an assignment to create a rubric for some specific task assigned to the students, however my attention has especially been attracted towards K-W-L Charts and Portfolios. The former, deeply involves the students in the lesson starting with the introduction of the topic and throughout it. Moreover, these charts let the teachers know their students more, since we can get information over their backgound knowledge and present needs as well. I am sure students will feel satisfied at the end of the class to find out and record themselves over the results they have achieved in this/that particular lesson. I have known about Portfolios before and had one myself when I was a student during the teacher training course in Canada. This is a great tool to observe the students' development for both the teachers and especially the students themselves. Rubrics as a method of alterative assessment is a great tool that helps teachers evaluate their students objectively especially when working with such subjective tasks as Writing or Presentations. It is essential to remember that your created rubric must always be shared with your students, since teachers always collaborate witht heir students and they must let them know what they can or need to do to achieve the required or desired result. I will definitely implement various types of alternative assessment, since I can foresee now that it could work as an addittional tool of motivation when learning the language. All of the teachers should only bear in mind that alternative assessment must be introduced to students step-by-step not to make them scared or demotivated.

http://www.cheme.utm.my/cheme/index.php/cl

I have chosen this picture on the right to share with you my thoughts over the Project-Based Learning (PBL). We have discussed a lot over this approach towards teaching on Nicenet therefore I would not like to repeat myself here. However, I should say that PBL is an amazing tool to teach students learn independently, to teach them how important it is to collaborate to achieve certain aims. PBL is a way for the teacher to be a facilitator rather than a teacher who simply tells what is good or bad, right or wrong.  It is also a means to teach the students that any problem has a way out and that they always have a great chance to look for this way, learn from mistakes and attain the wanted result. Project-based learning gives a chance to feel the language, work with it, analyse, create and even share the results of it with others, for instance their school/university community. I will definitely give a go for this, no matter that I am confined by the course syllabus. Projects can be smaller or bigger, shorter or longer but they will surely give lots of joy, experience and knowledge to our students.

http://pls3rdlearning.com/blog/steve-barkley/creativity-and-critical-thinking/

I would summarise my thoughts with the selected picture. I want my students to be inquisitive learners, who are able to think critically, who are able to look at the problems from a creative and analytical perspective. I want them to fall in love with the language they study and most importantly, I do want them to "think outside the box". Project-based learning combined with all other interactive tools will definitely help them be self-confident and creative people whose language skills will enhance via real life assignments or situations.

One more week of learning, which makes me feel happy that I have this opportunity to be here with you, Sean and my groupmates. :)

Thank you!

Jurga.