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areas, but I always felt the need to explore and find more material since the course books themselves do seem to be outdated for IT students (their field of work develops more rapidly than any author or publisher could follow), and not so rich in content in terms of Fashion design.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.