Week 9: The End of The Pleasant Journey!

Hello Jodi & Sheire and everyone,

I am writing these words and I am mesmerized, paralyzed and breathless because this course is going to end. I love the moment I communicate with everyone in this course. I love the moment I understand and learn from everyone. This week is the 9^th and I collect a lot of information and learn the power of thinking and discussion. Allow me dear to start speaking about this golden, super, bright and outstanding course. We started with getting to know each other and then introduced to the ground rules for the discussion. Which are the basic and main strategies that we all follow during the course. I learnt to create my own blog and I tried my best to learn more about the blog and its features. I got the idea of writing something and commenting on my classmates work. I am obliged to be introduced to the ABCD learning objectives. I read more about the ABCD from different materials. I used these techniques when I did my lesson plan and I  used it a lot during this course. I had a pleasant tour and discover the most effective web search. I add to my bookmark a lot of websites and I feel great that I have these rich websites. Then I worked on Oral/aural skill-building websites and bookmarks with Delicious. I read different materials about Oral and aural. The bookmarks I got familiar with are a great help for me and my students. I moved to reading and writing websites which gave me huge benefit about the techniques of reading and writing. I spent some times searching some websites and read, analyze, and summarize some ideas about reading and writing. Then I learn more about lesson plans using technology and tools that help in teaching. Then I move to Webquests, Rubrics and PBL. I struggle in making my own Webquest but finally I ended up with my successful webquest. I read a lot of materials about PBL which needs much time concentrating on the materials given because there was a huge benefit. I learn about large classes and interactive powerpoint. These two points are very interesting to me and I learn a lot in term of application. A big number of websites give a lot of information about the large classes and the interactive powerpoint. Then I was introduced to Learner autonomy and the one-computer classroom and which another excellent subject. I spent a wonderful time discussing, forming, and preparing the project. I experience the best practices in the webinar I learn about its features. I tried my best to apply what I learnt in my classes at the institutes and I will do my best to use the materials, websites and ideas soon. I will try my best to go through the materials again and learn more and discover other beneficial ideas.   I am very happy that I communicate with the course participants during the course. I felt great when I share the discussion through the nicenet. I add a lot to my experience and my filed of teaching. I apply till now most of the technological tools that I learn from this course.  I am proud that I attend this course and I met the great instructors, the bright guests and the wonderful participants.  

Thank you very much indeed for your time.

Salam

Week 8 My Dream Comes True

Dear Shiere, Jodi, Jeff and friends,

I have the privilege to write about week 8! To tell you the truth I suffer and face difficulties in finding the information I want and I face a problem in opening some websites in ANVILL! I am lucky that I experience different tools this week. It is very busy week because of the different tasks that the instructors assign. I do admit that this week is one of the strongest, hardest, and most beneficial weeks I've ever had during the term. I am this kind of person who feels disappointed when I don't get what I want. I am astonished by the amount of reading and searching that we have to do. I sometimes spend hours thinking and arranging my thoughts and trying to understand the various tasks assigned. I honestly believe that lots of hard work makes people learn indirectly and become more than qualified in their field. What makes me happy this course is the amount of materials I received and I read. I don't want really to lose a minute this course but it is out of hand. I want to promote for his course everywhere. I hope that this course will be taught to all instructors in the world. The joy comes through learning a new idea or a new method  and I adore learning, my teachers, and those who spend their time and effort helping me and clarifying every single matter. In week 8 I am impressed, thrilled, terrified and petrified by the amount of materials I got.

I won't forget to welcome and thank Mr Jeff who helps and introduce ANVILL and other valuable tools to us. I would like to offer my warm regards to his great contribution in this week. I really like all the materials he introduced to us. Another wonderful idea is the webinar that was held on Friday! I spend a great time listening to Jeff, Sherie, Jodi and my classmates. It was awesome. 

In this week lots of activities are done by all the participants. I read lots of materials and design some lessons, surveys, a lesson plan,  we communicate through the nicenet and we shared comments and thoughts. We enjoyed the nicenet discussion and the partner activities. I realized a positive attitude towards the project peer work. I thank my partners, Vijay  and Ludmila for their support during this week. I thank Sherie and Jodi. 

Thank you very much for you all and I hope that you will do well in your final projects.

Suprise!!!

Hello everybody,

This week I have this wonderful and super bookmark. It is called "Pearltrees". You can do a lot with this bookmark.

-You can share files and websites.
- You can get thousands of websites easily.
- You can have friends.
- You can share other interests.
- You can manage your pearl easily
- You can search for any title you want.

Finally thanks Russell Stranard for this wonderful bookmark. I am really glad that I am using this bookmark. You need only to have an account and it's for free. You can have your own pearltrees.
Just visit www.pearltrees.com

Thank you

Week Seven

Dear instructors, Sean and participants,

I would like to welcome and thank Sean for his contribution to this week. In this week I would like to talk about the learning and teaching processes. I really feel worried and anxious about coping with such processes. What makes me worried is the way that we should manage these processes. I do concentrate on the learning process much more than the teaching process. We need to pay much attention on the learning process because it is our main goal. Our goal is to improve and enhance the skills in our students. This is why the teachers keep searching and finding the suitable technique to use while teaching. In this week all the participants and myself try our best to come up with a well organized lesson plans and we did other activities regarding planning. I learn a lot this week from my dear instructors and my friends. I won't forget the" Learner Autonomy" which is a great subject that we read about. I read several articles about this subject and I found them interesting and useful to me. They help me a lot to realize the importance of the learning process. In this week we are trying to prepare for the final project and we chose partners so that we can work together. This is an excellent idea that comes from the instructors. Pair work is a means of collaborative learning and it gives the chance for all to learn from each other. This is a brilliant technique to use in order to encourage the participants to share their thoughts and ideas. I thank the instructors, Sean and the participants for making this week great.

Outstanding Websites For All ( Week Six )

Hello everyone,

While I was surfing the net, I came across the following websites. I hope you will enjoy them.

Useful Websites

Note: for more interesting websites you can go to ICTmagic.com

No	Websites name	Function
1	www.wikispaces.com	A superb wiki/web hosting site with lets you create web pages for your class.
2	www.wix.com	This is my website builder of choice. This easy to use, drag and drop tool allows you to build beautiful flash websites.
3	www.justpaste.it	A really simple way to post text and pictures online, Great for setting homework.
4	www.issuu.com	A great online publishing site. Upload pdf files and read them online like a professional magazine.
5	www.simplebooklet.com	An impressive online booklet maker which is really easy to use, yet has so many options& can be embedded in to websites.
6	www.wallwisher.com	Leave online messages for colleagues and students with WallWisher.
7	www.empressr.com	Empressr is online PowerPoint-link presenter with great visual effects.
8	www.prezentit.com	Present It is a great online presentation creator and publisher, similar to Power Point
9	www.ahead.com	Don't have boring PowerPoints. Ahead is a powerful and impressive zooming presentation creator, similar to Prezi.
10	www.yudu.com	Yudu is a good site to find interesting educational publications and to upload your own.
11	www.jux.com	Jux is a beautiful site that allows users to make great looking websites and blogs quickly and easily by click and dragging media and text where you want it.
12	www.slidesix.com	Sleek looking presentation maker. Embed photos, videos and documents. Students/colleagues can view by a link or embed on your site.
13	www.myplick.com	Upload PowerPoint, PDF, MS Office or image files to myplick to publish them online as slideshows. Add audio to your presentation.
14	www.present.me.com	A superb presentation site. See a split screen of the presentation and the speaker. Basic account is free.
15	www.notaland.com	Make a collaborative whiteboard and add images, photos, video, audio, and documents. Great for project work.

Thank you

Salam

Week Six Tough and Sweet

Hello everybody,

This is is great and tiring. Although we don't have many materials to read, we have some tiring tasks. I read about Power Point Presentation. This tool offers a lot to teachers and students regarding teaching and learning. I went through different techniques about the use of the tool. PPT is an excellent too that a teacher uses to develop a certain skill in a student. I want to emphasize on the idea of learning or I could say self learning by the students. Personally I spent much time surfing and trying to locate some ideas and have some other facts and information about large classes, small classes and PPT. I spent some time talking to my coworkers, asking some questions about the use of PPT in the classroom. Once we have the discussion started we try to manage a short discussion one the issue raised in week six. The biggest and the most useful talk is the Nicenet. This tool helps a lot in enhancing my knowledge on the use of ppt and some ideas about large classes and small classes. I am positive that teaching and learning are tow words to be one. I appreciate all the participants effort and bright ideas presented on the Nicenet every week. I would like to add something about the use of ppt. Teachers can use the ppt to teach the following:

- Grammar points

- Phonetics

- Listening through songs

- Listening through programs or movies

- Vocabulary through newspapers

- Writing through pictures

- Speaking through pictures

There are other uses I might not mention because ppt is a tool with different uses. Teachers can come up with several ideas regarding ppt usages. 

Thank you very much for everybody participating in the course and making it goes smooth and beneficial to all.

ICTmagic - *Recently Added

ICTmagic - *Recently Added

ICTmagic - *ICTmagic Show

ICTmagic - *ICTmagic Show

Week Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

Hello Jodi, Sherie and everyone,                                                              

Once upon a time there was a pleasant and challenging week called week 5. It was full of fruitful ideas and powerful tools. I amazingly believe that this week is somehow critical and at the same time beneficial. This week has a big community that brings joy, fun, support, clarity, wonder and peace to it. I would like to mention the super tool the Nicenet that helps, saves, gathers manages and develops all the participants. This tool is the field of our genius participants and instructors. Allow me to call all of you genius because you work hard to make this course special and you add a nice flavor to it. Allow me to call you creative, critical thinker and bright readers. You deserve more because you add a lot to my life career so I am proud of everyone. During this precious week I live a marvelous journey. I live a special and unique moment with every participant in the course. Everyone in the course has his own flavor and taste. I meet different character. Although I couldn't meet them face to face, I understand a teacher!! When I communicate with my students, I feel as if they are my family and friends. I experience different wisdom and excellent number of tools that really help teachers and students. By mastering these tools they will use the power of imagination, power of anticipation, power of presentation and creation. I would like to accentuate on the information I get from the writers, instructors and participant this week. I could say that I am watching a movie that never ends and becomes like a river. All participants and instructors are benevolent because they don't stop helping me and helping other participants in this course. I have this feeling that this course is super and fruitful. The moment I checked my email, I directly checked on Jodi's email and went to check my assignments and other duties I have to do. I was paralyzed because I saw lots of sites, reading, searching and different tasks to accomplish. That moment I capitulated and I was panic because of the powerful work I should do. I do believe strongly in this quote “There are no boundaries for the journeys of mind.” We have to live these sweet journeys together and get the best of them. We fly here and there and we exchange brilliant ideas that we all admire. I would like to mention this wonderful quote by Mr.Marjan Glavac “Talk to each other, support each other, take care of each other”. What a great quote Mr. Marjan. I faced a real challenge when I was introduced to WebQuest, Rubistar, Alternative Assessment, Rubrics and Project Based teaching (PBL). Each one of these methods or tools have its own taste and use. We should deal with each one carefully and thoroughly. They all help in giving the students the freedom to learn, think, provoke, anticipate, imagine, predict, compose, work, communicate, and produce new ideas. What I like about these ways is the flexibility that is given to the teacher and student. This week I learn a lot from dear participants, I learn from their posts, their discussion, their comments and their reflection on the ideas mentioned. I do like strongly the warm feeling among them and among the instructors. I am really thankful to them all especially to the wonderful instructors. One dream I would love to come true is keeping this course run forever so that I keep learning till I master everything in teaching and learning. I learn a lot of projects and their benefits for the students and their impacts on the students thinking and learning. The writers mentioned Folktales and how can students develop their speaking and imagination through telling stories. This technique creates students self-confidence. These projects are also beneficial for the teachers too. I am worried about being here as a narrator and I don't want to be long and boring. I want only to send everyone a meaningful message. Thank you for everyone who participates in this course thank for the dear instructors for being helpful through the course. I am positive that beneficial ideas are spread among the participants and among the world.

Wish you all the best and thank you for your time!

What I learn from Week Four?

I read a lot of different articles about reading listening and speaking. I feel that I gain a lot from the mentioned articles. What I enjoyed most is the websites I got from different people and from the articles mentioned.  The reading materials make me learn more about different techniques and methods about teaching and learning process. Concerning the websites, I tried all of and they are useful and they have huge number of uses. They need much time to go over them and try to organize them and put them on the right spot to be used. I am astonished by the number of websites and by the content they have. I am delighted that I learn new things every week.  I feel happy that my students will get much benefit from the ideas and websites that I am getting from this course and this week. What makes this course great is its rich stuff, materials, websites and ideas. I am positive that all participants get benefit, richen their background and make them brighten up their critical thinking skills. The magic thing about this week is the Nicenet thread which is the cream of the crop. I feel that it is a pleasant journey for me and for all of the participants to learn, read, process our thought, generate ideas, put them logically and present them on the thread. Everyone is an expert in this course because the huge experience each one has. What makes me thrilled about this week is the amount of materials I went over and the way of communication we use. Ideas agree generated automatically. The big challenge that occurs in this week is the tasks given by the instructors. Lots of work is given like the reading materials, web search, project tasks and the Nicenet thread that required time, effort and quick reflection. Challenge makes people learn in this course and add a lot to their experience. I got a lot from the participants especially those who use critical thinking skills to communicate with each other. I am trying my best to use some ideas in my class and with my coworkers in the school. I try using some of the ideas in my field. I won't forget the articles about lesson planning which is the most important activity that a teacher should worry about. Once you manage and write a well-organized lesson plan, your message will be delivered smoothly. This lesson plan is engaged with the use of technology so that a teacher ends up with an interesting lesson.  I am happy to be a participant in this course. I am thankful to the participants and the instructors for making this course interesting. I would like end up my words by saying thank you very much to you all and thank you for your time reading my humble words.

I would like to suggest more websites for this week:

www.usingenglish.com

www.englishonthego.com

www.eslfocus.com

www.eslbase.com

www.apples4thteacher.com

www.lessonplanet.com

www.esljunction.com

www.reall-language.com

www.honeyboee.net

www.educationworld.com

Week Four Valuable Materials

I read an article about using the Internet in ESL writing instruction by Jarek Krajka. The article emphasizes the use of technology in our life and in our field especially education, teaching and learning. Technology gives variety to the classroom and to the learning process. This article tries to explore the use of the Internet as a teaching aid or as a teaching medium, through which students are taught how to write different writing genres. The writer proposed the use of web pages, email connection and creating websites to develop the students writing. Jarek Krajka refers to some articles on the topic. The first article is by Dennis Wilkinson, in his article “Getting your Class Connected” from the title I understand that the writer is in favor of using the net to develop the student writing. He suggested also that students should exchange their emails and teacher should introduce emails to students. Belisle suggested that teachers use some software like (Eudora Light ). Chao-Chih Liao talks about “E-mailing to Improve EFL learners”. Reading and Writing Abilities. He talks about pen pal connection.

Gerald Fox, in his 1998 article. “The Internet”. The Internet motivates students in their efforts to acquire English proficiency skills. Both teacher and students will be active using the web. Trokeloshrit and Jost in their paper say that the Internet helps students improve their skills in typing skills and general computer usage. Students will be involved in new group discussion via an Internet system to learn how to sue the Internet for general research purposes. The authors claim that web classroom has widened and authentic reading audience. 

Victoria stressed on using the Internet in the classroom to motivate learners. Internet projects are interactive and facilities for using the Net are often readily available. The summary of the mentioned above research the writer emphasizes on the management, successful planning and the implementation. Teachers should be careful about their goals when they prepare their lessons. There teachers should think careful about the integration of the on line-activities into the syllabus. The teachers should be aware of the complexity of using the Internet such as; difficulties in scheduling the access to the computer labs, the availability of computers out of the classroom to finish their activities. I understand that the Internet gives students variety and choice since they have huge number of sites to choose form. Each student will be encouraged to do something different, and later the class compare their findings orally. By this way we add speaking and listening development to the lesson, whereas the course book which is given to student has the same text or exercises, and there is no possibility of change. The Internet gives the freedom, more knowledge and the ability to learn more about culture, having the world at their fingerprints and moving from one place to another freely. In addition students are motivated to learn through using the web. On –line lessons might add new flavor to the classroom. Another important point is how this on line component could be in corporate into the curriculum. First, the students level should be considered in English. Students should be in an intermediate level so they will be able to understand the content of the Internet sites. Besides English level students should computer-literate in the sense that they should know how to manage using the Internet.  The teacher should be well prepared for the lesson, with a careful detailed plan lite, the content of the sites, time, the language. Teacher should know how to solve minor technical problems. There should be a ready lesson plan in case of emergency like, Internet communication. Control and keep observing students so that he knows that student are doing the exact work assigned.

The teacher should consider the resources needed for conducting on line lessons like intern connection, the speed; lab tops, scheduling the lab and etc. Students should have the access to use the lab outside classes. Students should have an individual email account and should bring a flash desk to save their work, interesting sties and incoming email messages.

The last issue which needs to be considered is the syllabuses of a course including the on-line elements.

Some ideas for teaching writing Genres with help of the related components. Mary Stephen mentioned some practices and ideas for tasks and techniques done with the help of the web or e-mail could make writing more interesting and appealing to students. There are three elements to be used in most of the genres.1. A letter to a friend               2. A formal letter     3. A Biography   4. A description of a person

5. An argumentative essay(Both For and Against) 6. Notices and advertisements    7. A description of a Festival of Ceremony    8. A description or Reviews of a Book, Film or play    9. A newspaper report   10. A personal open essay     11,. A description of a place.

Teachers should think wisely on how to generate on-line activities into the syllabus rather than the adding them on top of the rest of the classroom activities in a disconnected fashionable way. To conclude my work, I do really learn a lot from the articles given and I enhance my skills in developing the writing, speaking and reading among students.