A Path to Maturity

WEEK 7

Learner autonomy, one-computer classroom and creating a computer lab/learning center are the main subject discussed in the week 7. Based on Samuel P-H Sheu article we learned that in learning autonomy of learner or teacher, they depends more on teaching system as a whole rather than on individual teaching situation in terms of readiness and practicability. As a teacher I fully agree that teaching practices should be flexible as it has been said, therefore learning autonomy is practicable and achievable. That is why in my project I try to give more freedom to the students to explore the provided module to be more acceptable and thinkable by the students so they know what to be learned and what is the target of their learning process. Policy can always be there in every institution but it is the responsibility of the teacher to find loopholes where there is a possibility for students to participate in the learning process.

One of the ways that teacher chooses a learner autonomy teaching would be based on the consideration of different aspects. It is not merely based on the curriculum or syllabus of the school but it can be decided by looking at the facilities of the institution. As we deal with web interactive teaching, teacher will probably teach the class using one-computer in the classroom if there is no class providing one computer for every student. However, the policy from the school which has no facility to provide one computer for every students will be in line with its facility. The policy maker even forces the teacher to follow the traditional module strictly. As an English teacher in an almost similar condition like above, I sometimes take this new approach to the classroom, I found that the students enjoy the class more but for me as a teacher, I need to spare my own time to prepare the tools such as hardware, software, classroom management, and perhaps internet connection by myself. This condition will demotivate the teacher.

In order to support the insufficient computer classroom, some institutions provide a computer lab or a learning center. Certain factors that affect its design based on Glori Chika article are: the type of users, the goals of the users, the space available, internet accessibility, money available, training and technical supports. In our Center we have a what so-called 'Self Access Room' which has a function as a multimedia learning center where there are also two language facilitators who will guide individual students development. Some students who have different learning style will feel more comfortable to come to this room as they like to be taught individually compared to thrive in a language classroom with more than 10 students. So, the facilitators or the teachers in this room should be able to provide a 'learn to learn independently' method which need to be monitored and managed accordingly.

All of the points above require high responsibility from both teacher and students. Teachers need to be mature enough to let their students to involve in the arrangement of the class because what is important in the learning process is the achievement of the class goal. While the students will gradually learn from the maturity of their teachers on how to reach their goals together. So, be mature scholars!

Remember your Final Project draft on Wednesday!

Imas

Learning from all

Week 6

It is a crucial week really when we have to deal with two different tasks simultaneously. Firstly we must focus on the weekly tasks and assignments such as: nicenet thread, making an interactive power point, reading related articles and posting as usual on this blog. The second area to deal with is our action research project, which generally speaking hasn't been turning out as we expected and not to mention our routines.

However we could accomplish the second area successfully if we focus from the first one, because there are so much background knowledge that we can learn from it which then ease our phases toward the project. All the reading materials have opened our eyes of how important enhancing the students in the learning process which means teachers should make engagement with he students so that the learning objective can be achieved. This can be done by making an interactive Power Point presentation for the class. From the informed websites also we can learn how to create this media of teaching. One new presentation tool that I learned from this class and really make "a wow factor" is Prezi. Some of us have managed to create Prezi for their teaching and I will do that soon.

Besides learning from provided modules and websites I think the thread is the place where all of the participants of this class have got justification over their understanding while they read the articles and websites alone. I sometimes find myself unsure about my understanding of the materials but when we discuss it together on the threads with colleagues and  tutors we can be more confident to counter the uncertainty. This week we don't only have Robert as a tutor but we also have Nicole who always give us clear and deep explanations.  I especially remember when she responded my post on team learning which reminds me of the unthinkable aspects on managing  groups in team learning for large or small classes. Nizara came at the end over this subject too.

Nizara is not the only participant this week that I justified myself from but also from the others, which might not be mentioned one by one. I learned from them on how to enhance my students by Virtual class, Inverted classroom, the useful task such as, think pair and share;one minute write; question of the day and I even know how to differentiate between activities that best applied for basic, intermediate and advanced classes. Actually enhancing the students can not be assumed that the smaller the class the easier will be, because it depends on how you create a dynamic class by involving your students more. Teacher could avoid their students from faded out by getting technological tools in their teaching activities.

Talking about technology, we had a task this week to create an interactive power point which I did. My tropical fruit power point was made under a supervision of many materials given in this class, suggested websites and of course from the self created Power Points by all participants of this class that has been attached on the wiki page. My slides has a very simple approach compared to the others as it is designed for beginners. I would be nice that we can adopt all those creations for my teaching.

By the way,  I would say that I learned from all of you my friends, all the materials and definitely from both of the tutors.

Good night
Imas

My Classroom Project

 

This is the situation of my classroom project. There are many students there but not all of them are willing to do the task. They were happy to be in the class, but some of them don't want to write the writing assignment.

I will write the full report in my final report.

Thanks for visiting!

Imas

PBL can motivate the students and teacher

WEEK 5

We are at the end of week 5. On this summary of my learning process, I feel that I'm still like a baby who needs to learn a lot on many new things, easily gets curious and moves very slow. But thanks God, for sending this class a very patient tutor like Robert and this week we also have Courtney who has been joining our discussion at nicenet thread  as she an expert on Project Based Learning (PBL) topics.

Discussing PBL has risen extended understanding as we answered questions that I considered fundamental for this teaching and learning method. The one that I chose was the first question: How can PBL be used to help motivate students more? I answered this question based on the provided articles the journal of by Susan Gaer  "Turning from traditional methods to project based instruction" . She  found a different types of learning where the new method can help student to develop the language skills while conducting a project. This new method was read from Elsa Auerbach's book which is called Project-based curriculum or learning (PBL). I also learned the idea of PBL from had been outlined by McGrath, 2003 that the method will allow the students to solve challenging problems that are authentic, curriculum-based and interdisciplinary. Therefore, the students with different learning style will get the opportunity to display their acquired knowledge. As I stated on my thread that it is like flying a kite when the player sometimes needs to loose the thread to let the kite goes higher, but then the player will pull it down when there some dangerous conditions occurred. So it is very much like teacher and their students. Freedom can also be a kind of motivation.

Even though we give more freedom to the learners but the teacher still need to assess their students, so I learned about checklist or rubric required to assess my student achievement. The good thing about technology, we can easily create a rubric for our project by just registering to Rubric creators websites which I have chosen www.rubistar.org. It was not that hard to create one when you follow the instruction correctly.  We can involve the students to decide the dimension and the quality measured hence they can understand the learning target. when they are motivated they will learn even more serious.

Beside creating my own rubric this week, we also learn how to create a webquest. I reckon, the task as a time consuming one. If we want to make a creative webquest draft I think we have to find the attached pictures to support our steps. It is really interesting though. I made one for kids who wants to learn English through a birthday song. I hope you have time to visit it. The URL can be seen on Robert,s wiki page.



What I really like is Dr. James E. Alatis' quotation: "Good teaching happens when competent teachers with non-discouraging personalities use non-defensive approaches to language teaching and learning and cherish their students." In this situation like in PBL method, both teacher and student are motivated.


See you in week 6
Imas

This is what I am doing now!

Teaching Reading and Writing with Internet

WEEK 4

For one week we have channelled  our energy for studying adequate materials, journals, websites about teaching reading and writing using Internet as the tools. The participants of this class also presented the summary of research on the area including some  different genre of writing resources. This reminded me not only on the extended function of technology but also the essence of basic and traditional  writing knowledge.

Reading is not less important than writing, as we know that all of the menus, dialog boxes, symbols and instructions on most of computer system are written or expressed  in English. How we can deny the importance of this skill in taking a big step toward the IT teaching domain. Unconsciously reading technique  is always used in order to pursue this task. The additional lesson that we have is from the two journals that we read, those are the use of e-book  on three extensive Reading activities  for ESL/EFL by Mei-Ya  Liang which gave me a clear idea of how to utilize an e-book site for this task. It is even clearer with the supply of the evaluation rubric for students’ final report. I will apply this to my class where there is a chance.  Another reading journal describes  the correlation between the role  of vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension that can be enhanced by the help of technology.

So far we have done everything almost successfully. I underlined  the word ‘almost’ as I feel that I need to up grade myself. At anytime Robert sends  new materials  for us to study or task to do, there are a lot of things that I don’t know, I thought of myself as a disable teacher. But, I also use the word successful, because of the tutor everlasting  support and surely because of all lovely and kind participants of this class who are always ready to show me the right  track. By all the motivation I feel close to success.

Good and Bad

What Should I Do?

This is the fifth day of week 4, Friday 3 February 2012
I am lost.
I usually work, teach and do on-line tasks simultaneously here at the office.
Since two days ago everything has seemed to be difficult. Electricity black out and Internet system was shut down frequently in this Institution. Sometimes is ON and and then suddenly OFF.
I typed and saved the assignment and keep on sending it. Yes one was sent then the internet service gone again.

This morning, everything seems OK, but now only this 'blog page' can be operated. How can I live with it? I would say that maybe this is the bad side of technology besides its many good sides.

Lift up your spirit
Imas