REFLECTION OF WEEK 4

REFLECTION of WEEK 4 Just like I mentioned before, my students have to DEVELOP THEIR SPOKEN SKILLS, and that is a big problem! They need to improve their fluency and the integration of vocabulary, they almost finish all of the courses and it's still very hard form them to speak.

In the Lessson Plan (TASK 2) I integrated technology in a way that it becomes the "Input" or information that leads to discussion and conversation. Sometimes we have to show them ideas or interesting topics to talk about, otherwise they stay in silence all the time. The Lesson plan also helped them to go step by step: First I introduced the grammatical structures and they practiced it, then they got familiarized with the vocabulary, and last they started talking little by little.

Speaking in L2 it tends to be the most difficult skill for mexican students, and I'm convinced that technology will help to solve this big issue. 

 I'M SO HAPPY BECAUSE NOW I HAVE COMMENTS ON MY BLOG! THANK YOU GUYS!!

ps. I'm going to try to change it in English, I just don't know how, but hey, you could learn spanish, why not?

SUMMARY OF WEEK 3

I'll summarize what we did during this week:

• First of all we read several articles about AURAL/ORAL Skills on the web. For me the terminology AURAL was completely new since I always call it LISTENING SKILL. As a follow up activity we discuss some interesting CALL websites on nicenet, here my e-mates comments helped me realized that there are many possibilities, ideas and dynamics I could do with my own students, FANTASTIC!
• The fun part this week was when we shared the links on DELICIOUS and also when we shared our pictures on DONNA's WIKI. I'm in an international group of people! Yeah! 
• And last, but not least we analized some final projects of earlier courses, and that gave me a clearer idea of what they are expecting us to do. I chose one ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT from Honduras, because it had many similiarities to my country (MEXICO), for example, the learning environment, the first language, the type of students, and even the weather is the same! ;)
• So far so good! I really enjoyed working this week... BUT I don't see any comments on my BLOG... :( 
• Come on people say something to me! 

WEEK 3 - DELICIOUS WEEK!

DELICIOUS

This link will directly take you to a BOOK-MARK website with a collection of interesting sites for teachers.

End of Week 2

Yes, this is the end... of week 2 only. Like I mentioned before, we had lots of tasks to do, but besides learning how to use different searching machines and writing clear objectives, I also started to analyse my students/school needs in order to start my final project.

I will copy-paste what I posted on nicenet about the group:



MY STUDENTS:

It's a small group of young adults (18-35 y.o.) that study 5 hrs. of English a week at the language center of the state's university (kind of a community college). They come to class from 8:00-9:00 am. and most of them have a job that starts at 9:00 am. Meaning that, this is the ONLY opportunity they have to practice their English. Their level of English is upper-intermediate, they've been studying English for some years, BUT they still need to improve their spoken and written skills mainly, before we can call them advanced students.

TECHNOLOGY AT SCHOOL: The language center of the university (U.A.S.) is underdeveloped, meaning that we have lots of needs, and not only technology, but many other teaching resources. Each classroom has a whiteboard, a tv, a dvd player, and a cd player, and only in SOME classrooms we can find a cannon, screen and computer (4 classrooms in total) which are mainly used for special courses or the B.A. but not for the regular English courses. There's also a self-access center, where students can go by themselves and practice some English skills (listening, writing, and reading) and subskills (vocabulary and grammar), but  the resources are vey limited for spoken and pronunciation skills. There are also some computers (like 5) where they can use the CD Roms and practice the textbook's units. Although a self-access center sound fantastic, the main problem is that the self-access center's materials, like books, and software are really, really obsolete, almost everything needs to be improved and updated, but  there's no budget to buy those things. (yes that's the sad story in Mexico).  

PS. Take a look at the picture I posted. They're very happy people!

WEEK 2

Hi, this is week 2 of the Webskills for Teachers course, and I'm getting ready for it, because, it looks like it's going to be an interesting hard-working week. For example I'm learning how to use other search machines instead of just google, it's so amazing to see that there are SO MANY options to use, that I had no idea they existed, so I will give them a try... GOOD BYE GOOGLE!

I'm also learning how to write objectives for courses, which is SO IMPORTANT to do well. Writing objectives is the essential part of any GOOD LESSON, if an objective is well written, it really reflects that the class will be successful if the objective is achieved. In order to do that I will follow the ABCD's model and the list of verbs from the Bloom's Taxonomy, which  by the way is a very helpful tool. It seems to be my following task of the week.

Well, I'll have to get started then, because I have lots of reading to do! :)
GREETINGS FROM SUNNY MEXICO!

WEEK 1

Well today is "Back to School" day in Mexico, we came back from Christmas Vacation, I'm at school at the moment, and I see very few students around the school, it seems to me that they still want to continue with the holidays. :)  I'm so happy to see all of my colleagues, smiling at them and saying "FELIZ AÑO NUEVO" which means Happy New Year in Spanish.

Well, and here I am starting a new year and a new online course too.
So, this is Week 1, and I have followed our tutor's steps one at the time.

But I still don't see where to post some information:
2) comment on the guidelines and ground rules for our discussions
3) post your thoughts about creating a blog.

Am I lost??

But the good news is that I have created MY BLOG as you can see!
It took me exactly one hour to finish it. Yes I know... bloggin is simple, but I'm too "picky" when I have to select background colors and page settings. By the way, did you like my Red Apple?