THE END? THE BEGINNING!
I did it! The course is over. It was really intensive and rather hard for me. Now I can brease freely. But I feel some sadness. I got used to assignments, readings, blog tasks.
This course taught me to manage my time, to plan activities.I learned to make a project report (here in Belarus we are only beginning to perform methodological work in the form of a pedagogical project). This is very important for me because now I can share my experience with colleagues at school as I am in charge of the methodical union of teachers of English of our school and my duty is to provide them with new teaching techniques and tools.
I think all the teaching tools and techniques that we learned during the course were wery useful. I especially liked rubrics, WebQuests, Nicenet Discussion Boards, Class Wiki, blogs, online crosswords, Delicious, interactive Power Point. I will definitely incorporate more technology into my lessons and use more Web activities.  And I am also planning to hold some meetings with my calleagues to show them the new tools I learned and to encourage them to use them too. I'm also going to show them LoTi survey to motivate my colleagues to improve their level of using technology in teaching.
It's a pity  I didn't have enough time for ANVILL. Maybe it would be better to study it earlier than week 8 when when we were busy with the project report. But I'm going to learn to use it in summer when I have more free time.
Well, it seems to me that a new period of my teaching is beginning. I think I won't be able to have my lessons without technology. I think I have no right to deprive my students of possibilities to use modern tools in learning.
I'd like to thank our instructors,Jodi and Celeste, for teaching me so many new and useful things. I'm also grateful for other participants of the course for sharing ideas and tips. And, of course, I'd like to thank the Embassy of the USA in Belarus for giving me the opportunity to take this online course.

MY WEEK 9
Busy week, as usual! And a very important one. I'm happy I could finish writing my project report at last. I hope it's OK, I did my best.

This week I read a lot about learning styles. I was really interested in the article about learning intelligences. Here in Belarus we call them ways of perception. Learning styles and technology is a really interesting topic. Students learn in many ways, like seeing, hearing, and experiencing things first hand. Students study better if they change study habits to fit their own personal learning styles or it's better to say that the teacher changes his teaching habits in order to cater to a range of learning styles in the classroom.I think the teacher should be ready to incorporate different styles because students are different and the teacher has to be flexible.  And of course  technology can be very helpful for this.

This online course we are finishing will change the way I teach. I'll try to use all new tools and ideas i learned during this course. I can't imaging my work at school without technology now. I think this online course pushed us to change our teaching or at least to develop it. I'm planning to share all new I learned during this course with colleagues in my school and my town. I do believe this course was very helpful.
 

WEEK 8

Well, this week a did and learned a lot as usual.

I explored different teacher resources and exercise generators. I'd like to say that Hot Potatoes is really great. I've been using it for some years and I think it's easy to use(except crossword puzzles) and good for creating matching, cloze, scrambled sentences, and multiple choice exercises. I made some tests on different topics. My students like them a lot because they are interactive as students see their result, success or failure, as soon as they finish doing a test. Also they like reading some encouraging phrases like "Well done!" or "Sorry, you are wrong. Try again" which can be added while creating a test. I think that exercises or tests made with the help of Hot Potatoes promote learner autonomy because students work individually on their tasks and these tasks can be of different levels for different students. What concerns constraints, of course Hot Pot exercises are good to be used in a computer lab but also can be used in a one-computer classroom if students work in turn or these exercises can be assigned as home tasks. So if a teacher is willing to use Hot Potatoes he will find a way out.
I also explored some online resources. I find Nicenet useful for creating discussion boards, I made one for my students to use it next year because this school year has ended recently. I also think creating a class blog on Blogger or a class survey using Google docs is good too and I'm planning to use them with my students, not at the lessons  but as home tasks because we don't have the access to the Internet in our classroom or in our computer lab. I consider ANVILL a fantastic tool! But unfortunately I don't think I will have a possibility to use it because it needs a computer lab and computers in our school are rather old and weak. But at least I'm happy I had an opportunity to get acquainted with this great tool.
Writing a project report was rather time-consuming but useful, I think. It's always good to look back at what you did, to compare your expectations and what really happened, to think why it happened so, what could be different and so on. In my opinion we have two roles during this online course: we are students when we learn some new tools and write peer checklists; we are teachers when we apply teaching tools in practice. We are both teachers and students when we write our projects reports: teachers because we think about teaching methods and tools we used, students because we are waiting for our instructors' assessment for the project report. I think it's always good to change the roles because it helps see the other side of the teaching-learning process.

WEEK 7

Well, this week I was busy with preparing my project report, I mean a rough draft. What we did during previous weeks was very helpful (the description of a class, the setting, the problem, possible solutions to the problem using technology or some technique). So, I made the beginning of my rough draft rather quickly. I’d like to say that taking part in this project we learn to teach our students to make projects step by step.

I found a partner for the project task. It’s better to say that the partner found me. Anyway I and Bojana are partners and I’m really glad to have such a partner.

What concerns the assignments of this week, I described how I use one computer in the classsroom: mainly for watching videos, listening to songs, watching presentations, creating Word processor-documents, drilling exercises and tests. Reading the article "How to thrive in a one-computer classroom" I liked the idea of posting a schedule and establishing color-coded groups so that students could work with the computer in turn. I'm planning to try this in the nearest future.

I made a one-computer lesson plan where I used my interactive presentation from Week 6. I think I feel better now with making ABCD objectives.

I also read articles on learner autonomy and I agree that the autonomous learner takes an active role in the learning process, he is ready to generate some ideas, he becomes an active agent in his own learning process. I mentioned the ways I try to increase learners autonomy: we discuss news and current events, our weekends, express our opinions on some problems, make individual projects and so on.
In conclusion I'd like to say that this week I learned a lot of useful information which is very helpful for the final project task and for my lessons in general.

MY WEEK 6
I'm glad that this week we had not so many assignments as last week. Nevertheless the week was very fruitful for me.

First, I learned a lot of new about Power Point and how to make it interactive and useful for creating student-centered lessons. Of course, I knew about Action Buttons that go to the next slide, indicate an available movie or sound clip and that any element in a PowerPoint slide can serve as an Action Button -- text, images, or even clip art. But I didn't use Action Buttons to assess student understanding.  I liked this idea very much. Also I found the idea of blank slides very useful when you ask a question which needs some time to be answered and when you use Think-Pair-Share technique. I'd like to try this too because I used to just stop my presentation and what was on the screen at that time could distract my students.

Then I made my interactive presentation. I called  it "No to addictions". It's for the students of the 9th form (intermediate level), the topic is "Healthy way of life". The presentation contains a task to identify the harmful substances in a cigarette with an active button "HELP", a short video (a comercial) after which there is a blank slide because students are supposed to discuss the video after watching it, then the students' task is to do an exercise from their student's book (to answer some questions choosing the option true for them:"Are you addicted to the Internet?"), then there are rules for scoring and hyperlinks for seeing tips after doing this quiz. I added blank slides not to distract my students during the discussion. And I used interactive scoring to motivate my students, to make them more active.

I brought my ineractive presentation in class. I noticed that blank slides helped me switch students' attention from the screen to some discussion easier than before because nothing on the screen distracted them. Using a video in the presentation (it was an ad of an alcoholic beverage) provoked my students to speak on the problem of using alcohol and if it can solve personal problems as it was said in the ad. Then when I proposed my students to do a quiz "Are you addicted to the Internet?" interactive scoring interested them much. So, my presentation was really interective as my students were more active than usual, they became more motivated and spoke more which is my objective.

MY WEEK 5
I think it was the hardest week so far. So many tasks! Rubrics and Webquests were completely new for me.
I'd like to share my thoughts about Webquests. I didn't use them before and I even didn't see them, so, I was really interested in using and creating Webquests.  I thik Webquests can be a good form of PBL because students do not just surf the Net but they learn to find necessary information on the sites which were recommended to them. I also find very important that the evaluation is produced in the form of a rubric for students because when students present their product after doing a Webquest they will be able to see the point of the teacher who gives them grades. So the Webquests which I saw inspired me to create my first Webquest. I consider using Webquests as a form of PBL can be very effective for motivating students. I hope my students will like this activity as I'm going to suggest them my first Webquest in the nearest future.

What concerns rubrics, I didn't use this word earlier in my work and didn't make them either. So, I was really interested in this topic. I consider rubrics very useful in assessing students because they know what they are supposed to do and to have to obtain high results. Rubrics are also very useful for teachers to explain students their grades for some work. And of course rubrics are very helpful in self assessment and peer assessment, I think. I've read articles on rubrics and learned a lot of useful information besides rubrics: how to establish project goals and objectives and how to assess projects. I've tried RubiStar to create my first rubric. I haven't done such work before and I didn't use this word in my work so far. So, it was an experience for me. First I thought it would be extremely hard for me because I need to invent something. But with the help of Rubistar I did it within 5 minutes. What a great tool!I've tried this rubric in class. First I explained my students what they are supposed to do. Then I showed them my rubric and commented on it. I was glad that my students found it fair. When they presented their projects I began assessing them using my rubric and commenting on every aspect of it. My students said that they could easily understand their grades, their problems and mistakes. Next time I'm planning to assess students' project together with them, maybe using peers assessment.

PBL. I often use it with my students. They like making projects, especially when the topic is really interesting for them. And I like PBL because all students are cative, all of them doing different tasks. And of course, it's motivating.

Speaking about motivation, my problem is speaking motivation. I want my 9th form students to speak more in the lessons. I'll try to solve this problem by using Project Based Learning. I'm thinking of suggesting my students some projects like making a Power point presentation on some topic or interviewing people and, of course, Webquests. The topic can be Natural Disasters, I think (we are studying it now). I believe PBL will help me and my students because it involves all the participants of the project in active work and the topic seems to interest my students because it's authentic. So, I hope it'll work.
In conclusion I'd like to say that this week was very productive for me though It took me much time to do all the assignments, more than I expected.

MY WEEK 4

Well, the tasks are becoming harder but more interesting too. And of course they are very useful.
This week I looked through some sites which were recommended. I searched for some information that I could use for teaching reading and vocabulary and of course I found a lot helpful.
Then I analyzed some sample lesson plans in order to create my own one. I liked this task very much because here in Belarus we have different lesson plans and to use something new is always very exciting for me. This task was also useful for me because I had to make my ABCD objective again and I realized that it was easier for me to do it this time.
And I tried to formulate the problem that my students have. It's motivation. Thanks to Jodi I could make it clearer: motivation in active class participation.
Looking forward to new tasks.

MY WEEK 3
Well, I've done the tasks of week 3 (I hope I did it all right).  It took me a lot of time but was very useful.
First of all all I'd like to mention a new tool which I learned this week. I mean Delicious. It's really great! Before Delicious I used to save the URLs that I liked and needed in Favourites of my browser. It works when you are at home but what to do if you are not? So Delicious is very helpful.
Then I looked through some lesson plans. I found most of them very useful. I even tried one of them with my students and was satisfied with the result.
Finally I studied a project report and understood what I am supposed to do at the end of the course. I hope I will be able to create my own project.
So, the week was quite busy, I learned a lot.

MY WEEK 2
Well, I'm slowly moving forward, trying to do all the tasks. During this week I've done the following. I've tried some new searching engines.  I've used NoodleTools. In Teaching Resources I've found an interesting reading task (a text about a tribe and an interective test after reading it) and some interesting information about global warming which can be used in class as part of Power Point presentation ( also there are some useful web resources on this topic). I've used Twurdy, too. And I liked it more. I was searching for poems about friedship for my 8th grade students ang I found lots of them there.
I shood say that first I didn't like NoodleTools. But Celeste strongly recomended it for me and I tried again. And of course I changed my mind. It's a great searching engine, now I can see it. So, it's good to try something new.
This week I've learn a lot about objectives and I wrote my own one: Given the necessary web-links my 9th grade students will be able to create a list of the most popular tourists attractions in Belarus consisting of 15 items. This objective is for the class of 7 students aged 15, the level is intermediate. Thanks to Jodi my objective is clearer now: The students of the 9th form (Audience)will be able to create a list of at least 15 (Degree) tourist attractions in Belarus (Behavior) when they are given the web resources .... (Condition).
And I also described my class. My students are in the 9th form. They are 15 years old. There are 7 of them, both boys and girls. All my students have computers at homes and the access to th Internet too. In our classroom there is no computer but I usually bring my laptop. There is a possibility to project the computer screen for everyone to see but I usually don't need it because my class is not big (only 7 students and they all can see everithing well on my computer). The level is intermediate. We have 5 lessons a week. My students are rather good at English and using the computer and the Internet though they usually do it at home.
So, I'm glad that I was able to do the tasks of this week, well, I hope so. It was really exciting to try new activities ang share ideas with others. I'm looking forward to new tasks.

  

Week 1. Reflections

Well, the first week is coming to an end. It was an exciting week and a rather difficult one for me. Exciting because of meeting so many new and interesting people from all over the world. And difficult because I didn't have a blog and right now I'm trying to make it. I hope I'll manage to do it. At least I'm doing my best.