WEEK 10

                              
                                                  Lake Chapala in Jalisco, Mexico
                                                   30 minutes from Guadalajara

This is the last week of the Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web. I have mixed feelings: Relief, melancholy, fear of being back on my own again in the endless persuit of knowledge.  There is so much to learn, so much to share, so much to change or to improve.

                  A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

                  -Henry Adams

This Webskills course has made me more aware of the variety of ways and technology we can use to involve our students in their learning. There were many topics that I consider were successful. I found that In PBL (Project Based Learning) learners work in groups to create a project. This promotes colloboration , a sense of community and more learning among class members. Blogging  not only helps to improve students´ reading and writing skills, it helps  foster critical thinking skills and creativity, not to mention learner autonomy. Learning about ANVILL (A National Virtual Language Lab) was eye-opening. A Language lab with multiple resources to help teachers plan a technology enhanced lesson. I loved participating in the Webinar that Jeff Magoto set up for us to explain how ANVILL works. I wish we had had more time to actively participate in the Webinar and to see and talk to our classmates. Then there are Larry Ferlazzo's lists of  great websites. Knovio is one I tried out and which proved to be quite useful for imbedding audio and video to a Powerpoint presentation. Discovering Delicious has allowed me to bookmark and save links to webpages that I do not want to lose track of. These are only a few of the many topics that proved enriching.

Special words of thanks to Jodi and Celeste for your dedication, for all your help and guidance. You two are absolutely great! My respect and admiration for you both.

WEEK 9

My Final Project Plan is in! I turned it in this Friday at 11:57 am., Oregon time. I wish I had had time to go over it at least one more time.  However, that's the way the cookie crumbles. I know first hand that late submissions are heavily penalized.  In the fall semester, I will carry out my plan to have my students create their own blogs and interact with eachother throughout my Advanced 1 English course.  The objective is to foster learner autonomy and to improve reading and writing skills through free and creative writing. I will continue to learn about technology by making periodic searches in the Internet and by having idea share workshops with the teachers in my language department.

This week we read about implementing technology taking into consideration Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles. In Education as in Health, it is wholesome that we, as teachers, procure a balanced diet for our students. In the New York Times article: Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits by Benedict Carey, the author states that when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched. Varying the type of material seems to leave a deeper impression on the brain, forcing it to make multiple associations. The suggestion is that variety is what counts and this is where technology comes to the aid by opening for us a vast range of both context and materials.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_r=3&ref=benedict_carey

PBL (Project Based Learning) is perhaps the best way to achieve variety. PBL can be designed for individualized or collaborative learning. Auditory and visual elements are easily integrated, as well as metacognitive tasks. Organizing the project, looking for information, sharing it with team members are all actions well suited for the Kinesthetic learner. The websites and technological tools that we have learned about in this course can all be used in PBL.

Next week is the last of our Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web course. "Time flies when you're having fun!"







Central Building Universidad Panamericana,
campus Guadalajara

                                                                                                      The Kiosk
                                                                                                                                                                                 

WEEK 8
This week went by so fast!  I found myself awakening to a new Monday morning and before I knew it, Friday was tugging at my shoulder. :)

I was able to send my partner Patricia Roldan, my Final plan draft. I decided for a plan because I finished my academic semester two weeks ago. There wasn't enough time to implement and then report on results. However, my plan for students to create a blog of their own and make weekly posts, is going to be useful for the fall semester. Blogging, I expect, will improve their reading and writing skills, as well as foster critical thinking and creativity.  
As this week's task of  creating a teaching resource, I'm going to make a survey on Google Docs that I will ask my students to answer. The survey will help me organize the project in terms of how much blogging the learn­ers should do per week, what topics should be included, how much background knowledge learners have of blogs, and what students expect to achieve by using blogs in the English class.

The Anvill Webinar made a positive impression on me. It's an amazing tool and it's free! It made me realize how lucky we teachers and students are at my university. We count on the technological resources and whenever possible we, in the Language department, organize teacher training sessions to update on teaching methodology and develop technological skill. Anvill, through it's features, Voiceboards, Forum, TCast, Livechat, etc., offers an attractive and integral context for language practice and perfection. Moreover, the very nature of the activities foster learner autonomy.

Universidad Panamericana, campus Guadalajara