Week 4 - Reflection

First of all, I have to admit that I started to feel more comfortable with the concept of integrating technology in my professional development, both as a possible teaching tool, as well as a tool for my own reflection. I feel happy about it.

The first task of week 4 was practical and useful. I found the articles on the main course page relevant and inspiring. I really appreciate the feeling that more and more people are trying different tools and resources in their teaching context and sharing the experience with colleagues. 

Once again, it took me a while to browse through numerous websites (I never knew how many websites for ESL are there) before I chose the ones that I need to reflect on and comment. I was very happy to be able to discover some links relevant to the study field of my students in fashion design and IT. I have been teaching with published course books in these areas, but I always felt the need to explore and find more material since the course books themselves do seem to be outdated for IT students (their field of work develops more rapidly than any author or publisher could follow), and not so rich in content in terms of Fashion design. I do feel confident that I would be able to find more material for my lectures for the following academic term which is a great relief.

I approached the task of creating a lesson plan with technology carefully. I was confused where to start and what to do first. I wanted to prepare a lesson plan for presentations since they are an important aspect of my courses. The course assessment consists of a portfolio consisting of several homework tasks, which are mainly extended writing activities and an oral presentation which is basically the only spoken language that is assessed. There is also the formal exam at the end of the semester which is basically a test that students do. The presentations are tricky for students mainly because most of them had never been asked to prepare presentations in Serbian, let alone English. They are anxious and find them stressful, That is why the task of preparing a presentation is divided into several classes during the course. Each class deals with a different segment of the presentation allowing students enough time to plan, prepare and rehearse the presentation before it is evaluated.

This task was challenge for me. It took a while. I was careful in the selection of online resources, as well as the timing of the activities themselves. I wanted to make the lesson inspiring, mainly because it serves a greater purpose of solely teaching English presentation. I wanted to make students understand the beauty of spoken language. I hope I will manage to help them appreciate the skill and make use of it more often in their professional life in general.

The project itself is developing well, I hope. I would like to prepare a reasonable and achievable plan. I have been working on it for days. I will have to see how it goes.

On Delicious

I left the task of dealing with delicious.com for the end of week 3 assignments because I am rather clumsy with online tools and it takes me a long time to figure out how things work. This tool is indeed delicious… the instructions were straightforward, I followed them and here I am – after less than 10 minutes I have my task done! Unbelievable… When I get more used to it, or rather more comfortable when using it  - I will fill it up to the brim! It seems to be a very practical tool when organizing the content of online resources…

I have a sense of fulfillment now, which is exactly what I need in order to get back on track with my course.

Week 3 - Reflection on tasks

I was ill and nervous since I was away from my tasks and obligation. I was disappointed and helpless. Now that I am getting back on track, which I believe I will, I feel even more determined to achieve good results.

While I was ill and not able to do much work, I was reflecting upon what I had done and what I knew that I have to do… without any resources, books, computer, internet… I just went back through my teaching experience and wanted to have a clear memory of what I had done, what I had read, what I had had as a problem or issue… It took my mind from my condition which was good. Only now do I see the benefit of it. Why? Because now I read some final project reports, and I commented on one of them and understood what I was expected to do as my final project much better.

I often jump from one topic to another, I thought of the issue of teaching pronunciation first. I had read some articles and even two books on the issue of English as a Lingua Franca, the changing role of the model of the language taught, the role of non-native speakers of English as teachers… I thought that I had my project idea. In the end, I did not even comment on the pronunciation issue in my first task for week 3.  I decided that I should find my focus, make sure it is my focus and work on the question central to the focus. We will see how it goes.

I really appreciated the model reports. Seeing a model provides a much clearer explanation of a task than endless explanations… which is a good thought for a teacher to know when giving explanations and tasks. We should present model answers more often.