Week 7

I started this week by the discovery of the article "What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?" at http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html and found it challenging to understand, especially the upper part due to the language barrier. This is not the first time I hear about 'learner autonomy'. In 2001, I found this term on the Internet, and intended to do my MA thesis about 'growing students' autonomy with the help of technology'. But I failed at persuading my supervisor in how to define autonomy and how to measure it.  The lower part is more understandable and I found some interesting strategies to foster learner autonomy, some of which have been tried by me. I also find other useful techniques in the article by Samuel P-H Sheu at http://coyote.miyazaki-mu.ac.jp/learnerdev/LLE/8.1/sheuE.html, and I like the way she titled her article, i.e., Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush?

Another topic I learnt this week is one computer classroom, which is rather familiar to me, but I still find new strategies in the article 'Strategies and applications for the one-computer classroom' at http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm. The links to ESL Activities for the One Computer Classroom (S.Gaer) are interesting, but some links to examples are not working. The article '7 Categories for classroom Computer' which is short and simple, is worth reading, too. I paid my attention to the issues raised in the article.

This week I also had to choose a partner for peer project reviewing. Luckily Brigitte, Dagnogo and I are in the same group and I hope we can make great collaboration!

Week 6

I wish I had more time!

As Brigitte wrote in her week 4's blog post, tasks are increasing and getting more challenging every week.
This week came with a lot of readings, many of which consist links to other articles which, honestly speaking, I cannot finish reading all. I know that they are useful for me, so I wish I had more time, or I was a faster one!

This week, we deal with the topics of teaching large classes and interactive powerpoint.
Concerning teaching large classes which is also a common problem at Vietnamese state schools where there are from 50 to 100 students per class. In the article "Teaching Large Classes" at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/LargeClasses.html#engaged, I agree that "The effective use of technology and group work are two ways to enhance large classes, increase student engagement, and minimize the time you spend grading...". The most important word here is "effective" which require much of teacher's consideration and preparation.
In the link to "Teaching Large Classes" at http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/largeclasses/usingtechnology.html,  I was interested in Online Assessment with Blackboard together with tutorials to use this function. However, it seems that we can only use this when we own the commercial Blackboard system which is not cheap at all. Am I right? 
An alternative to Blackboard that I have been using for free is Moodle which also contain quite the same features as Blackboard.

Concerning interactive powerpoint, I have been using and training other teachers to use powerpoint in their English teaching. However, through the readings, I still learn something new such as techniques in presenting with PPT, i.e., Give it a rest and Hind your pointer, or "How to Give Interactive Lectures". There are so many links to articles to read about PPT and teaching with PPT that I will go on reading. Besides PPT, teachers as me also want to find its alternatives and I have known Prezi. Thanks Robert for inserting the link to the article "Top 5 alternatives to power point" through which I know more applications besides Prezi.

This week, I also start to worry about my course project when we are getting closer to the final week. My students have finished their two weeks off on the occasion of our lunar new year and I will start to apply my lesson plan designed in week 4 to see how successful it is.

Week 5

Coming back from my hometown due to my mother's death, I have to try to finish my work for Week 6, so I will return to this week's work later.

Week 4

Week 4 - Going on to Discover New Interesting Things

I start to write this post when we are at the middle of Week 6. It's because my mother's serious sickness and death the week before and I had to come back to my hometown in a rural area of Vietnam to take care of her and see her off to the other world.

There was a lot of things to do there and I tried to work with the course whenever I had time.

The two reading articles of this week are interesting to me. The first one, named Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction (2000) at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html, is rather long and took me a lot of time reading, but is the one that I really like because it gives me a review of previous research in using Internet in ESL writing instruction and detailed ideas of teaching genres using Internet together with usefule links, which is a good source of reference for my related studies in the future. I did a study on using computers and Internet in teaching and learning ESL writing in 2002, when Web technology was very limited.

I found the second article, i.e., Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books (2004) at http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html useful, too, with concrete classroom techniques. However, it is beyond my sixth grade students' proficiency level now. They may be applicable to my class in one or two years. Vietnamese youth nowadays is said to read less, and teenagers like my students usually use computer and Internet for fun. So, this is a good suggestion to lead them to make full use of this technological advance for learning purposes.

This week I also 'had to' describe my class issue, problem, or need. In fact, there are quite a lot issues, but I chose the problem with project work to describe here, which I think technology can help.

I was also asked to write a technology enhanced lesson plan, and project work is the one that I decided to be my lesson content. I sometimes integrate technology to my classroom, but this is the first time I write a detailed lesson plan about this. This job was made easier with the template file given by Robert. I have used Google Docs and shared files with others, so I had no difficulties in this. It would be good if I could try this plan, like what Brigitte Falkner did with her class, to see how successful it is. However, my students here are having 2 weeks off on the occasion of the lunar new year and I have to wait until they come back.

With what I learn and prepare this week, I hope I can make some positive changes in my teaching.