Friday, June 13, 2014

Week 10

Hi,
the end has come, like we say it in Burkina Faso, "every good thing has an end". This class, we have learned many things and what is in my mind as what I will do is I will integrate rubrics and also, the use of some website for making materials and teaching. These are tools I did not know of, and definitely, they will be very useful for me and I guess if I share them too with my colleagues.
What may have covered is maybe, using one specific technology (powerpoint ect) and focus on the possible ways of using it for teaching. Teachers would then share all the possibilities they know of.

I thank everyone for the time of the course and for the continuous sharing we will have.
Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Week 9 Reflection

It seems like things are coming to the end. From the beginning, we could see a long way to go, but now we see the long way we have gone. We have learned many things throughout the course, and now we can see it concretely when we think of what we know theoretically, and also try to look at our plan that we have created. This is really like the fruit of the tree we have planted and that we have been taking good care of. I am sure for everyone, they are good fruit and we will all enjoy them, not for only ourselves, but also sharing as much as we can. Thank you everyone for everything!
Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso

Monday, June 2, 2014

Week 8 Reflection

Hi everyone,
little by little we are getting to the finish line of the program. We have gone through many things and it has been so fast. This week I explored the materials to use technology and I made crosswords. This is very interesting as you can create the words depending on the level of the students so there is no doubt that it is an interesting tool. Also, having to comment the work of a fellow, we get to know the wonderful project each one have and it can even inspire us to get better in our work. This week, we made great things.
Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Week 7 Reflection

Dear fellow teachers,
time has been flying and I think everyone just cannot believe we are already finishing our week 7 of the course. This week as well, we have learned new things. What caught my attention is definitely Padlet, which is very new to me. Having posted on it, it reminded me of flashcards we have and just stick them to the board for students to read. I think it is definitely a great tool for the teaching of English, a communication tool with our students.
Besides, the topic of learner autonomy was interesting to know for the first time or know more, and I think we all  agree that the ultimate aim of our teaching English is for our students to be able to use the language on their own. So why not starting to teach them to fish from today, rather than giving them fish? This is was a productive one as well.
Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Week 6 Post

Hi,
for me the course is advancing and getting more and more interesting but I am really lacking time these days so I am just doing my best to complete the tasks. I know it is also the same for other people. But this week, I learned more about how to handle large classes using technology and this will help us make the English class for interesting for the students. Moreover, creating the interactive PowerPoint was a little hard as I did not know really what to propose and plan. This is basically what I studied in literature.
Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Week 5 Reflective journal

Another week, another adventure. Each week we learn new things that are really interesting for our job. In the readings, I have learned that there are techniques that we can use, making our students autonomous learners and at the same time build confidence in them. If we are teaching, we want our students to be able to use the language some day, by themselves. So this week has given me more tools to help reach my objectives. In addition, grading, with rubrics. Sometimes the students do not know how to do to get good grades as they do not know how we grade. But this rubrics, they know what is expected from them, making the task easier and they can have good grades. The third thing learned this week is related to our developing a problem solving technology in teaching. Indeed I think the ideas of everyone are really great and worth incorporating where possible. Therefore, this week was productive as the previous ones.
Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Week 4 Reflective journal

Another week in the learning of new ways of teaching using technology. This weeks, I have come to know a good website that can be used by students to learn on their own. sometimes, some students are afraid of making mistake with their peers seeing so this is a good tool for such students to stay in the comfort of their room or just by themselves and complete exercises. In the readings as well, I have come to learn many things. I would like to speak about the lesson plan we made this week. It may look easy but actually we always learn whenever we make a lesson plan. I learned that using simple technology like a computer and a projector, we can solve many of the problems we have in teaching, and at the same time correct one of our mistakes in teaching: not using visual aids. This week was wonderful then like the previous ones, and I can feel the same for those to come.
Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Week 3 Reflective journal


This week was also a busy week like the previous one. I am tempted to say that we are already adapted to the system but definitely again, I am able to make it because of the checklist I have from the instructor. About CALL, I knew a little about it in the past, but the reading of the week has given me more insights into it, mostly as to the advantages and disadvantages of using CALL for learning. Now if I am to recommend it to a learner, I will know what to add as guidelines for the leaner. What was also interesting this week is Delicious; it is really delicious as you can put your links and have access to them on any computer with internet connection. I think I will start using it, even after this course, as my browser is full of bookmarks. This will avoid my keeping many links on the browser and probably it will get faster. This week is also a rich one like the previous weeks, and I am already excited about what I can learn next week.
Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso

Friday, April 18, 2014

Week 2 Reflection


This is the second week of the course and though we are not used yet to things, I think that it is better than last week and we are less confused. Definitely, I would say that I am using basically the checklist as a reference for the activities. However, going to the websites, I realized that the checklist is not enough as the instructions for the assignments are usually on the websites. Then, I would consider things as complementary.
This week I have learned how to create a less objective using the ABCD model, a very interesting one among others. I do admit that this is not my first time to see this model but repeating it helps me know more about it and master it more, so it was worth. Besides, I have learned how to look at my students, describing them. I also learned to look at the materials or the technology I have access to in class and outside the class. Usually, because we have the lack of materials in mind, we forget how valuable or useful the ones we already have could be. Therefore, we may not have the best materials but we can make the best of the material we have.
Another interesting thing for this week is related to the websearch. There are so many websites that we can have access to but this instructions gave me insights into how we can use them better and make the best of it. Definitely, I have learned something this week.

Jean-Baptiste
Burkina Faso

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Week 1 post


Week 1

This week is the beginning of this course, with a few things to do. As it is the beginning, it is a little confusing as we are not used to the system yet, and it is not on only one website or blackboard so it is a little confusing sometimes.
Creating a blog with this course is the first time for me to create one as I usually do not use one. It was not so difficult as I had only to follow the instructions of the teacher step by step so I made it easily. Maybe it was easy too because I am used to the internet and many things related to it so I just had to use my "electronic common sense" to make it. It was not that hard but new as a whole

But I liked the way the instructor kept contact with us throughout the week, for us to know step by step what we have to do and the checklist was very useful as it helped me complete certain tasks I had not perceived (I am sure I am not alone). I look forward to writing more things, about the weeks to come.