last class

I cannot believe that this semester is almost over. Seems too fast. We have only one final class with final presentations left. Last task is complete, reflection paper is written, website is ready. Feels weird, but I like this feeling;)))
During the previous class we discussed the podcast about technology and standards. Technology is changing rapidly, it is hard to keep up with it. It is good to have standards that focus on what students need to know and what students need to be able to do, but it is very challenging. Attention should be payed to all details. Nevertheless, the interviewees had good ideas and interesting points, but I think that standards should be improved.

plan

Inna’s plan

Week 13: Work on my web page. Work on Activity 5 draft.

Week 14: Work on Activity 5 with KarinKa and ChrisKa.

Week 15: Finish my web page and Activity 5.

What I did

Week 13: I did not work on my web page, but I did work on the Activity 5.

class and no class at the same time

For the final project Chris, Karina and I decided to work as a group. During the class we came up with the topic and activities we want to do. Also, we split the labour, so no one ends up doing everything, or almost everything. Each of us will do two activites, and everything else (organization, final look, presentation) we will do together. I feel that it is very helpful to work on final project in class, this is the time we can get together and actually work; besides, if we have problems we can ask for help any time.

Chapter 9

I found this chapter to be very informative. Very helpful tips for teachers. The author referred to the reference list at the end of the book, so I decided to look through it. I particularly liked the whatis.com. It has lots of helpful information, which I will use myself as well. I also looked at Charles Kelly article (listed in internet references at the end of the book), which might be helpful in creating our web page. Another very very useful web source is www.techtutorials.info (also listed in the reference list). There are lots of tutorials about how to use, for instance, Adobe Acrobat, email tutorials, etc.

class...Linda Jacoby...presentation

Linda's presentation was the best of all the others. I was trying to catch every word, it was very interesting, understandable and very helpful. I was very surprised that she mentioned Facebook as a teaching tool. I think it is not very appropriate. Many student have their Facebook accounts and I think they won't take seriously any activities using Facebook.
Another thing that caught my attention and interest was Second life. It looked very very interesting and exciting. I created an avatar in second life; it is so much fun. Bur I still do not know ho to use it in teaching. I don't think I would ever use it as a teaching tool.

hot potatoes

For the first time in this class I was able to work with a software without any help (except tutorial;))))!!!! I think that hot potatoes is fun; I enjoyed creating different exercises. I tried to do all the exercises: match, gap-filling, crossword, quiz, etc. I liked that the instruction for the students were displayed. I also liked that this program allows to insert pictures if needed. Hot potatoes is a good resource for creating interactive language learning
exercises that can be used in the classroom. Hot potatoes provide teachers with flexible, easy-to-use language exercises that students can work on while also receiving feedback that will direct them towards correct answer.

copyright

Karina already mentioned what I wanted to say, so I won't repeat. For us it does sound too serious, but I think that if we are in a different society and culture and we teach here, we have to take all the rules into consideration and take them seriously.