The end of a path is always the beginning of a new one

I cannot believe that we are at the end of our class. It is a bit sad to think about it, but at the same time I am really excited to see how we are all going to apply our new knowledge into our new teaching style. I wish we could all get online a year from now to share what we have done and what needs to be done still.

I enjoyed all of the topics. At the beginning I was even scared of using the computer for this. It sounds kind of silly but is true.

There are way too many things to be thankful for in this course. I have seriously learnt a lot from you Sandra, Deborah and all of my classmates. I also realized that I am missing lot of experience when it comes to teaching itself. I now have all the tools that I need to make myself a better teacher and to challenge myself on daily bases to get better, much better.

I am so thankful for this opportunity and I would love to be a part of another class in the future, this was my first experience and once more I should say that I loved it!

All of the topics were somehow relevant to me and I have learnt a lot from them. I have just finished printing all of the material that was given to us, so I will always have a booklet in hand to see if there is anything that I am missing out or that could be improve.

I am so looking forward to the beginning of the next term here in my Institute to apply all of these new things.

Towards the End

It is amazing how fast time passes one by. I remember starting this course feeling so afraid and being a technology illiterate. So many things that I did not know anything about were too scary to me.

Week after week without even realizing it I picked up new tools, things that were so complicated in paper became so easy to me once I used them. I dare myself each week and felt happy and proud of myself at the end, after watching my new accomplishment and sharing it with all of my mates. However, I should also admit that I have learnt a lot from all of my mates and I am a much better teacher thanks to this course and them. I cannot thank them enough for all the useful tools, websites and personal experiences shared throughout this wonderful experience.

I will so much like to keep in touch with all of the people in this class, is fascinating to see how different English can be taught in the whole wide world and is even more great to discover new things to always make us better teachers.

Thanks for all of this experience.

A new and in my case unusual week

A new week of new and great experiences has ended. It feels so weird, I would just like to share that I am now a wife and proud of this. I feel like I am living a dream. However, I realize that I have a long way to go in this course still and I am looking forward to this last stage of a class that has shared so much with me, with us. This past week I analyzed life in a very different way, I evaluated myself as a person, as a teacher and more recently as a wife. I so want to be not just good, but the best I can in all the things that I do. I hope I can catch up with all of my classmates this coming week and be able to do just as good as I was doing. Getting married is a once in a life thing, that is why I wanted to do it the best I could. Thanks for reading and understanding.

A new way of presenting a lesson

A new week has already finished. I find myself once more amzed by the new things we can do with technology, the new ways in which we can use it and make classes always better for our students.

I was particulary interested by this week's theme. Who would have thought that PPT presentations could be used in so many different ways and help us increase our students' interest for learning.

Thanks to this week, I have found so many interesting things to do with my students. I have been brainstorming a lot and I am looking forward to work with a new group of students this coming April. The way I see it, when the access to technology is so limited (as in my case), PPT presentations can be a very useful tool to include technology in order to work with students.

I feel that we now as students in this class now so many useful things about not only technology, but also things that we have not thought about in the past; probably because we were limited by the textbook.
Yes, I do feel is time to change that...all around, not only by including technology but also by using all the things that we have learnt so far.

I am so looking forward to my new term starting on April!

Not only when it comes to learning..We are all different

This week has been really amazing, reading about even more interesting new things.
Probably before this I had never noticed that much that we are all different, not only when it comes to learning but also, as teachers. Tools are infinite and having so many can be really helpful when our objectives and all the activities we want to do are clear. I believe now that I have a new challenge, to be able to reach my different types of learners and make them feel interested by this project.

The project will hopefuly use the internet, this hasnot yet been defined since I donot have access to it at work. I guess I will just have to find ways to keep students interested with the project.

Anyway, this week has been a lot of fun and once more I find myself waiting for the next one to begin.

I felt quite a technology iliterate when I couldnot upload my Rubrics doc, I guess I will have to try it again later.

My own view on PBL and WebQuest

Another week of new knowledge has pass by. I have to say that I found this week's topic really interesting and yet very easy to understand. I am still amaze by the simple tools that could be well incorporated in my teaching in order to highly improve it. I enjoyed Susan's article quite more, probably because of her examples, specially the ones related to folktales. I believe that with the right group of studetns this idea could really work here in my country. Bolivia is a place full of history and even more here in my hometown. I would like to see my students working on a PBL related to this interesting subject. I also thing that having this folktales available for other people, could benefit lot of people, even the lot of tourists who came to this lovely city.

I believe this way of working, could well motivate students and allow them to be aware of their own learning. It is a very simple yet rewarding idea to work this way.

I am so looking forward to next week, I have to say that this course only keeps getting better!

Tatiana

Week 4, a lot of planning and discovering

Another week has finished. I feel this one was a lot more challenging and demanding than the others. However, I believe that I have learnt a lot. Technology is amazing, who would have thought that we were going to have so many interesting things related to this subject. I have personally enjoyed this week, as Gaby said this course has shown how to use technology and take advantage from it. To me this week was rather great, because I got to speak with my students about some new projects, that will include technology. I was really motivated and I spent as many hours as I could looking for new websites to make a change in my class. I have also enjoyed our discussions, though I wasn't part of all the discussions this week. I have read lots of articles related to what I would like to do in my class. I hope I get to motivate my students just as well as this course has inspired and motivated me. Thanks a lot for all the useful and interesting information that you have all shared.

Best regards,
Tatiana

Week 3, Delicious Reflections

This week has been a great discovery to me. I was still enjoying what we had learnt last week when this Week's task came in.
I was a bit scared, this internet tools are amazing, but sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by all the new things that we need to learn in order to keep up with the rest of the group.
I enjoy new challenges. When the outcome is even more than what I expected, is even better.
This week was just like that. I have to say that I used the method mentioned by Jonathan in order to have all my favorite websites available. I had a little notebook full of websites, none of them with a tag, which made the search time-consuming. This Delicious page is amazing, I can not yet believe that technology has this wonderful tool that I did not know anything about. I think is pretty amazing the fact that we can share this useful sites between teachers from all over the world. The finding of our favorite websites seems now a really easy task.
To think that sometimes we are too afraid of trying new things using technology that we miss this experiences.
I am so looking forward to a new week of learning.

My thoughts on Week 2 new challenges

This second Week has probably been even harder than the first one to me. As soon as I opened the Nicenet website, I was quite frankly scared of the Tasks as well as the outcome. I, once more said to myself that it was going to be hard but never impossible. I realize that I have to work a lot to catch up with most of my mates in this course.

I was probably one of the first people reading the assignments for this Week, but it took a lot of web searching, reading and once again self teaching to get to where I wanted to be.

I wanted to feel all up for the Task, I spent lot of time reading the posts that by then my classmates had written.

I will not deny that it took quite a few tries for me to write my objective, see, I had never heard of the ABCD method before.

I can assure that I have learnt a lot this week, not only about web searching and objective writing, but in a weird way about myself too. I realize that we as humans can accomplish anything that we truly want.
I am happy with this week results and looking very much forward to a new week of interesting discussions, tasks and self teaching. As Manana said it is never too late to learn!

Sincerely,
Tatiana

My experience and thoughts on creating a blog

As I entered the web page www.blogger.com I was really afraid of the outcome. I sat on my computer with all the help I had from the class. The directions Dilip had given me, the useful links Ahmed had also shared with us.
The whole experience was both great and scary, is the first time that I dare to create a blog and the result was very rewarding.
After viewing my blog I decided to change the template, a new challenge for me. I had some trouble but I refer to a webpage and the result was what I expected and more.
I am very happy of sharing this blog with all of you and hope we all learn from each other.

As I was creating a blog and learnin more about it, I realize that it has infinite tools that can be very well use in teaching. I think that the idea of using blogs in class wiill allow them a very nice new experience, where they will have now more challenges but also more opportunities. However, I still feel the need of stimulating them, especially at the beginning, making them realize that a blog is a "fun tool" that allows them knowledge as well as fun.

The use of a Class Blog connected to Facebook is a permanent thought in my mind. I hope I find the tools that I need in order to make this happen.