Time is running pretty fast. For so many things we were presented this week, it would have been wonderful to have more time. After so much theory, this week we had to experiment, to create, to choose materials for our students taking into consideration age and psychlogical particularities. Whether experimenting with HotPotatoes, EasyTestMaker, Crossword Puzzl Games or Word Search Maker, we understood that they, among others are great opportunities to make our lessons more dynamic and attractive. We have to choose from the offered variety, so as to use them at their best value in our lessons. The tool I have created for my students was a blog which will offer them the possibility to post comments on it, to create their own blogs and post their reflections there. Its URL is http://learningenglishxie.blogspot.com/2011/08/welcome-you-all.html. This tool represents a step towards their increasing autonomy.
Another tool we have found out a lot of information was Anvill. It is a tool for all the teachers and students who have a web access and by using it we can do a variety of activities from: listening to the news, watching video clips, to submitting voice or video-based assignments. ”ANVILL is quite flexible, and permits the kind of extra listening and speaking practice that language students need so much” as I read on https://anvill.uoregon.edu/anvill2/.
Another thing I found very useful is the fact that it's easy for a teacher to create and assess speech-based tasks, either synchronously using ANVILL's built in audio-video chat tool, or asynchronously, using ANVILL tools for recording voice or video. There are so many things you can do using Annvill, but though, you need a lot of time in order to get familiarised with all its tools.
Last but not least, we had to read our partners’ projects and comment upon them. It was a great experience not only because we could compare, analyse and express our opinions, but because after all this we could improve our own projects. My two colleagues, Celeste and Natalya gave me very insightful comments and I can in this way make some changes so to make a better final project. This cooperative work is really helpful since you see other perspeectives and in my case, very good ideas.
Good luck to everybody in writing wonderful projects!
Hi Laura-Cristiana,
RăspundețiȘtergereYou're right, this has been a very fruitful week. I really liked working with you and Natalya. I love working in teams. We can exchange ideas and create fantastic projects.
I agree with you that ANVILL is a fantastic tool. We must give it a shot and find a way to use it in class. I believe our students will love it. Of course we must, first of all, learn how to work with all its fantastic features, but I'll think it will pay off in the end. ;-)
Celeste
Dear Laura-Cristiana! You made an excellent blog for your students! This is a great example of welcoming to students! I was exciting when I read it, because I wanted to try immediately what you as a teacher will suggest to me. I love the way how you wrote it, students can learn from the first post.
RăspundețiȘtergereYou correct we did a lot at this week and it was so fruitful and beneficial to us. We can use many resources in our teaching practice. Thanks a lot for your great input in working with me for my project/plan. You gave me meaningful comments that I will pay attention to. Good luck in your project an have a great weekend! Natalia
Hi Laura-Cristiana,
RăspundețiȘtergereI agree with you. This week has give us the opportunity to experiment or as Donna says "play" with this new ICT tools. It has been a very busy,but interesting and fruitful week. Well, that´s how learning should be!
Wilma.
Hello Laura,
RăspundețiȘtergereYou are right when you say we have had a lot of reading, not too much time for practice. We have learn about using different sites to use for our courses, it will take some time to explore them and adapt them to our class programs. In my opinion ANVILL is one of the best sites. I plan to use it in the future, but I need to explore it and watch some of the webinars on how to use themwith students. I really liked voiceboards.
Cheers,
Omar