Two Roads Diverged-I took the Less Traveled By-And That Has Made All the Difference

They say this is the end my friends, but every end is just a new beginning. Lebanon is hit by a severe storm since Friday night, and all wires, connections, billboards, trees, and shacks are ruined and destroyed same as my internet connection. I am late yet again in posting my FINAL blog; however I have this warm gratifying feeling within, for reading all my mates’ blogs and commented on most days ago before it was too late.

We have built so many bonds in this web-course that are rather unattainable elsewhere; bonds with technology, bonds with fine scholars, bonds with friends, and best of all bonds with ourselves. We gave ourselves the chance and opportunity to ponder, to create, to advance, and progress. We gained so much in these 10 weeks that it is currently impossible to achieve it anywhere else.

For the newcomers, following our steps or blogs will surely pave them an easier path to give them a clearer head-start. Every week was a new “treasure hunt”, where our dear Robert as a ‘genie in a bottle’ made all our wishes come true, unraveling the tech-based skills, to guide us reach to the final desired ‘grail’.

In the past 10 weeks we had an amazing tech-journey where we scavenged the following:

- Creating an academic blog

- The ABCD learning objectives framework
- Effective web searches 
- Oral/aural skill-building websites
- Added bookmarks with Delicious
-Sought within reading/writing websites
- Checked Technology-enhanced lesson plans
- Pondered Project-based learning
- Mastered WebQuests
- Created Rubrics
-Came out with Interactive PowerPoint 
- Discussed Learner autonomy
- Found solution/activities for the one-computer classroom
- Got loads of teacher resources online 
-Viewed different Learning styles: technology connections and multiple intelligences

These are only the headlines of the major discussions and tasks we covered all through 10 weeks. There were several other minor discussions and a number of scholar guests leading us to our final projects. Our final projects were always the final destination or the ‘grail’ (as previously mentioned). We had to come out with tech-based solutions to pre-existing problems/issues in our own classes and come up with an elucidation.

I used Comics as a tool to solve my students’ constant writing de-motivation, and lack of interest, and I can safely announce that it worked for a certain extent.

This course gave me a new prospect, a clearer perspective to overview cases, issues, instances in teaching that I have never considered or had the chance to overlook before.

Thanks for all the mates who shared their views, who gave their constant feedback to carry on and give our best, a big thanks to our ‘best’ advisor Robert for all his tech and moral guidance, thanks to all my dear friends and colleagues who encouraged me ‘to survive’ whenever I was out of ideas, patience, strength, and most of all words. However the biggest thanks go to my family who never gave up hope on my perseverance, and never found it odd to see me awake in the middle of the night attacking and waging severe wars against my laptop.

This has been one of the best experiences ever.

Best ‘Tech’ Regards Ever,

Eugenie

'Net' Cerebration

Are we there yet? Did we make it? Is it true we got so rich in such a short time? Well, yes, yes, and yes. Things can’t get simpler and richer than this. Week 9 mates, we have survived and made it all happen.

This week’s discussion was one of my favorites since not only it helped me understand different learners’ styles, but also it helped me on the personal level, after checking some tests and quizzes, to understand where my own kids might stand in the learners’ style and in multiple intelligence categories, and I was surprised that I already discovered a lot.

Finalizing my project draft was a joyful task this week too, since I had the feeling of making progress, and eventually issuing a thing of considerable importance for I have eyed a certain problem, I tackled the issue, and ostensibly found a solution. All I need to do right now is to supervene, implement the tasks, and bring to fruition for as long as I can. I am planning to post most of the preliminary results of comics I got, of course done my students, as a future task, assigned to myself in order just to keep on reliving this curious experience as much as I can.

I don’t know if I should give my final thoughts yet and comment on all the tools, theories, ideas, notions, beliefs, methods, and knowledge we earned from this skills, but I will be wishful and keep it for yet another blog, with the prospect that THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

Dear mates seize the moment for you made it this week, and you alone possess the adequate intuition of achieving it all and owning it all.

Best of Regards,

Eugenie

Tools, Rough Drafts, and Exercise

Another week. Another task. Another stressful days. But soon - very soon stress free nights will prevail. 

Things were flowing very well until this week, when all of a sudden I felt my students' total lack of interest in carrying out and determining the final tasks of writing comics. The visit to the computer lab felt so heavy that I felt I chose the wrong class, or all the more the wrong career. Students reaction for any assigned tasks were rather abrupt. They felt every task given time consuming and 'pointless'. It is frustrating facing such circumstances. I pondered with the idea of changing the level of class I was initially and basically working with, since younger classes (grades 7 and 8) seemed more eager to fulfill this new type of writing tasks.

 Enough of 'nags' and 'what ifs'. Upon writing my rough draft I've realized some good criteria and some missing criteria. I'll leave it to my partner, Shakhnoza, the general evaluation of the rough-draft of my project. However, I found that I should have provided a rubric to my students during/prior assigning the task. 

Other topics discussed and tackled this week were the 'world' of ANVILL, where though it is a breakthrough in teaching listening and speaking skills, it does need a "high performing" internet connection, and some willing learners/students that are eager to acquire language autonomously. I searched and borrowed and created some exercises and posted them where necessary. I found most of the links thought-provoking, and engaging, since each had something genuine to present us with.

We are almost there, and us being autonomous to a certain extent, our paths are being conjoined to end up in the fork of our final destination. See you all there real soon.

Eugenie

One PC Class Autonomy

Learner’s autonomy. This week was the first time ever I’ve discussed this topic. I’ve read all the articles, and viewed all the prospects presented by Thanasoulas, Sheu, and the ‘Interconnections’. . I found real interesting aspects in the tackled subject of learner’s autonomy, though I believe students to become autonomous need to have a certain self-concept  in comprehending situations that generate experiences, which in its turn becomes significant in their studies, in applying knowledge, and in bringing forth motivation and readiness to commit their own goals. Learner’s autonomy is not innate, nor would it be forced upon. It is acquired by guidance of teachers and the perseverance of students who are willing to achieve and reach.

Another point we had to tackle and concur was the one computer classrooms that most of us, participants, have in our schools. Personally, I never encountered a problem in having one mobile PC that I pushed and pulled along the corridors of the departments. As long as we had a computer (with an LCD projector) it was fine to apply, assess, explain, and provide different illustrations through multiple tasks on this one PC. However, lately I got the urge to try to have a session of one of my classes applied in the computer lab in order to satisfy my curiosity of checking how things would flow with enough computers for each student. I reserved the lab for tomorrow, and looking forward for the session.

While checking some of the extra resources’ links provided to us this week I found another interesting activity, which I will eagerly try to apply in my other class (grade 5 – IP class) with younger students. After checking http://www.funbrain.com/books/ameliawritesagain/book.html?ActualPage=1

I decided that it will be a wonderful idea to make students write their own journal entries after having the E-book in front of them as a sample. Eventually having only one computer in the class will pay off I assume.

Another week, another task, another approach, another plan. We had a long, one week holiday in Lebanon; however it didn’t make things any easier in finishing our webskills’ assignments. Things are really shaping up our final ‘blueprints’. We all chose our partners; we are all in shape for our final battles; we are all ready for the closure.

Happy Independence Day for all my Lebanese mates.

Eugenie

Naked Teaching : The Finale

What a week! Another week of  scheming and scanning most of the links provided to us from our dear guide Robert,I came up with useful conclusions that shed light to some parts in my teaching I never considered before.

I felt a familiar feeling while reading about JITT.The feeling 'rekindled' the urge to persist in such activities, and reading about it made me think tactfully on encouraging my other students (younger) to partake in these kind of interactive skills too.

Another point which grabbed my attention was the discussion boards and how efficient and effective they can get in engaging students. Well I can be considered a student right now,and I know perfectly well how discussion boards on Nicenet are attracting us as students to read more,respond more, get engaged more.

A more worth mentioning point was Carolina's earlier blog.She wrote of her students visit to the computer lab and how excited they were on trying new things interactively.Same thing was lurking my mind all day long when I decided to ask for the computer lab(for the 1st time).Actually I got really excited about it and was given the permissionto use it, however for later this month,since it's a holiday for the whole next week. 

I also decided to start the JITT method with my younger students immediately, while I'm guiding my Gr.9 students,and heading to the computer lab for the first time ever in the history of language arts classes in our school.

You think I'm excited or what?! Well there's more.

I made a power point presentation for the first time too! I never thought of it as a significant engaging tool for interactive teaching, for most of the time, when I was presented with a power point presentation, they weren't such memorable instances. Thus, the usage of PPT was never a priority for me, and now I know why.I prepared the PPT for my grade 9 students, discussing how to use comics as a tool for enhancing writing. Students will create their own comics, and write their own story-lines using 

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/,with the hope of solving the class's indifference for writing. Thus,I will be integrating writing with reading skills.I was a follower of 'naked teaching'. I considered the basis of teaching is excluding all distractions, be it technological or other, at first from the teaching process, and then as a reinforcement use different tools to embed whatever thought. It turned out to be the exact opposite where I need to use loads of tools to engage at first, to teach, and finally activate all the materials studied.

It truly was a fruitful week. Catch you real soon mates.

Eugenie

SPIDER WEB

Well, well, well...I now got to know why it's called the Web. Seriously mates it is no different from a spider's web this world wide web, in complexity, shape, and imprint. Week 5 is all over, which was fueled with energy pumping brainstorming, action-packed WebQuests (Zunal.com), full power rubrics (rubistar.4teacher.org), meeting new advisors, creating exclusive tech-based solutions for our classes, and saving our 'necks' with extra credited tasks. Though I am late in posting my blog again, I feel much more relaxed this week, because I had enough time to read all the given materials, encourage some of my mates, read and respond carefully, and create new things for others and myself. The tasks required, be it creating my own rubric for oral presentation class, or WebQuest for my grade 9 students after reading Les Miserables, were all completely new missions, though they took time, were achieved peacefully without any casualties.
Reading others' blogs and discussion boards, I really liked Charbel's Skype idea in creating a safe communicating environment for his students, and Shahnoza's WebQuest for American Civil War. Hassan's thrown questions also were favorites which were mingled by Robert's guiding "hand", Rahmat's enlightening comments,and Racquel's warm wishes.
As for creating something tech-based for my class in order to 'fix' an obvious problem, I did recommend www.comics.com for my students,where I expect them to step by step start choosing widgets, read each one, and comment for each by writing their views in their blogs.I also posted my own widget in my current blog just to set an example to my following students. After all these tasks that I provided to my class, I wished I was still a student in school being pampered by my own instructors in such a manner.
 Though late, another fruitful and creative week is executed.
Catch you in few hours mates, all the way in week 6!

Eugenie

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. ~ Francis Bacon ~

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. ~ Francis Bacon ~

I am in week 5 in my webskill courses, and writing my blog of week 4. I guess that shows how late I am in presenting my work, reflections, presentations, and tasks.
To be telling the truth I am completely disappointed with my efforts, however, some external issues led me to not submit my tasks on time.
I'm reflecting on my previous weeks' task blog with a sense of guilt and loaded heart, for I greatly enjoyed the topics provided this week be it interrelated with writing and reading, or the outcome of a new tech based lesson plans.
In another task I discussed what problems/conflicts I face in one of the classes, and received abundant aid from my mates and advisors. I did find interesting solutions on the web so far however it all needs further tackling.
I look back on week 4 , and I feel sorrow, and am sorry I couldn't be but one travel, and chose the forced trip, though it made me lose my sense of commitment and energy to generate.

See you all in couple of hours in week 5.

Regards,
Eugenie

VokiLicious

Week 3 dear mates- week 3!

I am officially announcing that "I'm still standing". How? Do not bother to ask for I myself have no answer for it. Last week's blogs had been evaluated by my very own student who said :
"Miss Ugeen,(that's what most of them call me) You got me lost". Well, the comment didn't bother me at all,on the contrary I became ecstatic! I was indirectly achieving what we all are striving for. We are passing it forward, and to the right people. During the weekdays, overloaded with daily routine chores and assignments, we are forgetting the core objective of what we are doing : Building teaching skills through the interactive web. What are our skills worth if we do not interact and involve our own students in the process?

We got used to ,so far, the excessive load of reading, however most of the time is it's paying off. Referring to Miller's article, I liked the approaches she described, and all the variety of activities she provided. However, stopping at the word "authentic" made all the intellectual commotions, and the rise of the questions. I realized that listening resources being 'authentic' or not are all important one way or another in the English teaching process. Moreover, CALL by Gong has opened the door for broader questions and simply made every learners dream come true in the sense that "Students are free to experiment, make and correct pronunciation errors without fear of embarrassment when only the system is listening and it offers only encouragement" (Hassan Rahmeh, Aural/Oral Skills Readings). However, what I didn't agree with CALL is that is it 'calling' for the replacement of the conventional/human interaction with tech-based interaction solely.


Coming to Delicious.com, it felt like a new game for me where I added constantly my new favorite 'gadgets'. Someone in their blog mentions it feels like a closet and I can't agree more, just shop for different sites/links and put them in your Delicious closet neatly instead of the messy aftermath you regularly get after 'shopping'!


While www.Voki.com was my darling of this week, though Shahnoza beat me to it by posting about it before I did. Thanks to her it is easier now to spread the Vokis! Voki is a personalized speaking avatar, which is a graphic representation of one's self , that definitely generates energy and motion to a still, static websites and blogs. It is so easy to create a Voki and so much fun. If I got so excited with it and created my own Voki, I wonder what my students reaction will be.


The different links/sites/websites posted on Nicenet by our mates also had a huge portion of the week. Shahnoza's power point embedding on blogs was a great idea. Charbel's cool new speech recognition software, Yudi's http://www.manythings.org/songs for listening songs, and Hassan's http://www.artofstorytelling.org/ for story telling used as listening skill building site, made my week rich and my online experience so far exceptional!
I just want to add one more link :Pink Panther Hamburger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz0IT4Uk2xQ.
For this I have to thank Robert, because I couldn't stop laughing, for I have used this same sample as an example for one of my Venezuelan student who just loved burgers and it was impossible for him to pronounce it. I was really surprised to see what I actually used in class (and we had a huge laugh about then) was edited and posted by our dear Robert on our assignment boards. I am on the right track after all! Thank you Robert.


End of week 3. Almost half way there. Longer assignment, shorter timetables, richer evidences, and stronger bonds. See you all next week.




Eugenie

Google, Doodle, Poodle, Noodle

Here goes a set of new puns and rhymes all the way through the end of week 2. ABCs and noodle-doodles. Are you serious?? YES! Things really turned out to be serious.So did my burning eyes. I challenged myself to three different blogs because I had so much to reflect upon, but I couldn't. I was just able to finish my first blog this week 4 hours ago (1.30am),and now goes my second one (almost 6 am), and again my kids are hustling on my bed trying to figure out how to build a 123 puzzle as I was trying with the ABCD puzzle. So we are not different after all.

This week was though; admit it dear friends! Or was it only for me? I like giving a certain identity to one of the classes I teach. I really enjoyed going on a noodle tool ride, because the ride paid off in many ways. I was looking for green ideas to tackle with my students in story hours, and I wanted these notions to be web-based. I found Podcasts : a full explanation of how to integrate podcasts to stories and books one reads in class, and in depth explanation of each step so that students can work easily. That was a first for me. A new "aha moment".

The week passed, and I had to put a certain identity to a class of mine. While identifying one of my classes, I understood the goal of the task. It was another "aha moment", an 'epiphany' that signified unexpected perception. I realized that the task was not just another assignment to explain it to our mates, or to be able to describe a class easily to a certain audience. It was a situation we were put in to see where our classroom stands, and to make us observe the different objectives our classes can achieve, having in mind their backgrounds, levels, and abilities with the most recent tools provided from the school. I saw that my class and I are standing on a very firm ground where everything is provided to them. I even shared this realization with them.

Coming to ABCD method of stating an objective, it was a first to me too. I just tried, applied, moved, chopped, created, and basically fought to come out with a brief, unified objective,and I couldn't believe how I finished with the final draft to post it to the room provided. I had to be done with it.

Reading a lot this week, following so many threads and links, and opening doors to new rooms and sites, igniting the engines of new searches made me all 'noodley-doodley' if I'm allowed to put it that way. However when I look back, week 2 was eventually a cool one for all the new results we get, for all the fresh prospects we discover, and for the several pleasant "aha moments" you get to be struck with. Let's not forget week 2 was an amazing outlet of thoughts and concept from a very dull wedding ceremony!! Congrats my friends we just survived week 2. You made it successfully, with all your limbs attaching to your body, to week 3.
Enjoy your new week guys!

Eugenie

It Is Said "Sharing Is Caring"

This week was not so cool as last week for me. In school I was overloaded with after school meetings, and had loads and loads of off-duty chores to do, needless to say I had to take care of my kids constantly, and attend a wedding which I didn't want to attend, and all the time sitting in the wedding reception I kept scolding and asking myself why didn't I think of getting my laptop to finish my tasks!!!(The ceremony was that boring for me)

Enough talking about my exhausting week, and enough spreading the negative vibe. One of the interesting tasks to have this week was searching the new links/sites provided by Robert . I've sought too many of the given sites, however I liked to share with my mates some of the links/sites I used in my classes in the past couple of years that somehow gave a positive effect on the general assignments I had asked the students for.  The most recent was ywp.nanowrimo.org. This site gives the chance to ANYONE  who is interested in writing a book/novel to participate. What I do to students is that I urge them to sign up for the 1 month program and decide how long they want their books to be (in word count),assign the target and just start writing in a month without looking back in order to get to their goal. This site dedicated to young writers was a hit among the students. It's worth a visit.
Funny it might be but I ask my students (especially the boys) to sign up for fantasypremierleague.com, and create their own teams for each game week and post their own thoughts and expectations for each match day with their other play mates and thus creating and encouraging an English post-ing environment which is 'healthy' and 'fit'.
Other worth-mentioning sites are Penguinreaders.com where teachers and students can find their own areas to find all they need to know about any story they're reading whether it is listed as solely Penguin Readers publication or not. Teachers can find quizes about Oliver Twist, worksheets on Phantom of the Opera, and extra analytical questions about Anna Karenina. Same goes with the students in finding any info related to their reading material.
My fellow mates can also give a look at Suite101.com to find lesson plans, teacher resources,classroom ideas/activities and so on.

I've gladly gathered information and sites, I obediently organized my resources, and visibly verified them. The rest is up to you. It is said that "sharing is caring". What do you think?
Catch you in no time.

Eugenie

Software,Freeware,Shareware,I -SPY-Ware

Week 1 has passed. The stress somehow deteriorated,because the unexpected is revealed, and the PUN on words has started. It was a pretty nice week getting to know the flow of events and the assignments, getting acquainted to our classmates,and getting to know ourselves that we still lack a large amount of familiarity, awareness, and understanding that is gained through experience or study. 

The entities that most caught my attention this week were Yudi's webquests,and Hot Potatoes,Chrabel's eagerness in creating his own class webquest, and in Nada's urge in finding a unique freeware/software to enable her students to animate their own story after making variations to it. Can I get more curious and eclectic than this? Well it is said "necessity is the mother of invention", so it seems we truly lack some necessities that's why we have this rush to propose , invent, and create. 

During this week I had few more questions thrown at me from another mate, which were both new and controversial for me. What influences an academic discrepancy among world's different regions? To tell the truth not in a million years would that question occur to me if it wasn't for Hassan. however the more intriguing part is I looked, I searched,and I spied to get some clues. In developed countries like the States per Se family Vs. socioeconomic status and that's what might influence academic discrepancy. Schools there have nothing to do with achievements, they're just means to a certain end. However in less developed countries SES has nothing to do with academic achievement unless it is only in some urban areas of certain countries. What might influence these kind of countries are type pf schools, and surprisingly enough ethnicity. For this tackled topic it's worth checking these sites :
 http://pics3441.upmf-grenoble.fr/articles/sopo/Social%20Class%20and%20Academic%20Achievement.pdf ; http://pagerankstudio.com/Blog/2010/10/academic-achievement-cultural-and-social-influences/.

I spied Hassan, and answered one question, and the other question is yet to follow.

The week passed by so fast and the criteria expressed, knowledge shared, and the 'spy-work' was massive! A new week, a new task, a new pair of binoculars. Catch you real soon with new clandestine infos. 

Enjoy,

Eugenie

A Giant Leap So Far...

I guess I made it to my blogging area safe and sound. I'm working since ever to reach here, and post my very first blog ever, however the process was a bit overlapping. I'm overly joyous for being able to contact my soon-to-be classmates.
 Long I wanted to start something new, and here came the chance to do something which I love in the company of so many cultivated minds. This is my first blog yes, and I feel taking a picture with it and posting it on the fridge door (and the family album),because it really felt like a journey to reach here and post this, that it deserves the regal attire on the fridge door. Well fellow mates, you have to bear my sense of humor, for I'm a very serious and organized person in life, nevertheless my sense of humor gets over everything when I start writing.
Tomorrow is week 1,and I have no clue what to expect other than what dear Robert has posted us generously for the past five days. It is said that we can blog our thoughts, assumptions, comments, or even connect with our fellow classmates, but sorry I can't find any of those to share currently. I'm just overwhelmed to meet so many new people that share the same commitment.
I plunged into education and teaching following my mom's advice reluctantly, a while later though,when I started the act of teaching, I realized I was molded to do this, to be a teacher. I just explain, teach, and talk endlessly to my students about literature, and language, and cultures, and the wealth we gain every time we read or utter a word, or even listen intentionally. Teaching for me is beyond the rough codes of semantics and syntax, beyond the conventional ordinance of literature. It's a lifestyle. My teaching is a way of life, and I teach my students how to live through language, through the art of language. However, in  this lifestyle, draws very significant constituents which are the tech-based skills. Here I reach to the common ground that we all assemble for.Taking this course will surely reinforce and furnish our knowledge of web based teaching skills, adding more innovative tools and materials which will,on its turn, assist our students to apply, practice, and better understand the 'lifestyle' of learning English interactively. 
As we say in Lebanon 'yalla '(come on!) guys gather up, and let's do this...Excited to catch you all very soon.