The grand finale!

It seems just like yesterday when we began the course now its over. It has been a thrilling 10 weeks of online learning. This is actually my first online course and it has been a fantastic learning experience.
I have learned how to write better learning and behavioral objectives. I have been using technology in class bt the course introduced me to new websites and technology to improve teaching.
One of the highlights for me was the interactive powerpoint for teaching. I have created and experimented with some during an informal religious program for children and they loved it. It is going to be a main stay of my teaching from next session.
Project based learning is another interesting aspect of this course. I loved the dimensions which PBL was highlighted as a teaching tool. Rbrics writing was also important and can be used to get better results from students.
 My project plan was done focusing on reading fluency and pronunciation.
I thank Donna Shaw our course instructor for her kind and useful comments during the course. she is a gem. I also made new friends like Kenneth Nsah from Cameroon and Ali from Pakistan (hope I got that right). special regards to Tinatin my project plan partner, Dianna Poppa and all the rest of the class.
Thanks.
Namse

Multiple intellegences

Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory provides the back drop for this week's work. the theory describes the various learning styles of students. The nine are listed as:
1. Verbal-linguistic intelligence
2. Logical-mathematical intelligence
3. Spatial-visual intelligence
4. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
5. Musical intelligence
6. Interpersonal intelligence
7. Intrapersonal
8. Naturalist intelligence
9. Existential intelligence
Understanding These intelligences are essential  to deploying technology in teaching. I believe that many teachers in Nigeria do not take multiple intelligences into consideration that's why they have problems with some students.

The beginning of the end.

I cant believe the journey is coming to an end. It has been a wonderful learning experience.
This week was majorly about putting finishing touches to my project plan. I have made my draft including all technology and web-links I intend to use when school resumes. It has been uploaded on the course wiki for review by my partner Tinatin. My plan involves creating a platform for pupils to listen to downloaded audio books to improve reading fluency.
I downloaded two games that would be used to improve pupils sentence construction and general written English.
On a personal note, I did my final defense of my masters thesis at the Ahmadu Bello University on Tuesday and it went successfully. Now planning for my doctorate (hopefully in University of Oregon).
*wink* @ Donna.

The end is close but the work is fun!

Its week seven and we have come a very long way in the web-skills course. I have really learned a lot from  the course so far, I feel privileged.
This week has been all about autonomous learning. This concept is not very common where I work. Our Educational system is too teacher centric and old school. I guess I have a lot of work to do to sell the idea to my colleagues. I think making the classroom more student centric would greatly enhance learners' autonomy.
The one computer class room really relates to me because there is no computer in my class. I use my personal laptop to show materials to my pupils. The lessons learned would definitely be used in future classes. There is still a heavy reluctance to encourage students to mobile phones and laptops in where I work. There are even universities in Nigeria that ban students from using smart phones!
I have choosen Tinatin to be my project partner. I hope it all turns out well.

wish me luck and your best thoughts as I defend my Master thesis on Tuesday. thanks!

some throw back pictures of my old wind vane class project.

Interactive power points: the power with the teacher!

It has been quite and interesting week. I am still enjoying my long holiday by the way! The interactive power point struck me as power I had without knowing it. I use power point for mainly official and other non school related presentations but Interactive PowerPoint: Not Your Usual Approach by Deborah Healey was a major shot in the arm. It took me a while to create mine because i work with kids and really needed something children friendly, so a made a sponge bob themed presentation on verbs. In future when I have a better equipped classroom i will make interactive power point a main stay of my teaching.

My project plan is in progress, still gathering materials to aid my one computer class, I guess I would be using more of  worksheets from the net. I having also been downloading audio and video files to be used to enhance reading fluency of my pupils. It is quite complicated but I hope to have something tidy later in the week.
Now back to my vaccay!

Project based learning: the future of teaching.

Whew! It's week five already. The pace is really picking up. My horizons has been greatly expanded. Allan and stoller's article titled "maximizing the benefits of project work in foreign language classrooms really got me ticked. I used to relate project work mainly with science subjects. I never thought of doing projects with language classes, but the article gave me a new angle to work with. Projects are a very good way to develop students along the three domains of learning, cognitive, psycho-motor and affective. i definitely will be doing class projects with my kids when we resume in September.
I also love the concept of webQuests. I would surely use them in future when I teach older students hopefully in the university of college. The beauty of webQuest is the bringing together of various internet resources to guide student's project work. Its quite unfortunate i could not get the bonus 5 marks for setting up a webQuest. I tried but the internet was quite crappy this week. Bonus marks or not i would still set up my webQuest in the coming week.
My rubrics page was created and I hope Donna likes it. I will be creating more when school resumes.
My project plan is also in place and I look forward to implement it.
Bye!

Baby says cannot wait for school to resume.

Making steady progress.

Its the fourth week already. How time flies. I am really enjoying the insights I am getting from the course. my school closed on Monday for the long holiday. I discussed some the new technology with my pupils and they are feeling sad that they wont be with me next session to fully partake in my tech enhanced classes by September
I enjoyed reading the articles on using social media and blogs to enhance children's writing skills and Mikulecky"s Using Internet-Based Children's Literature to Teach EFL.. The sites referred to such as www.magickeys.com were very useful for teaching reading. The audio books are awesome. The gave me new stuff for my delicious page.
I have take another step towards teaching after the web-skills course with my technology enhanced lesson plan. It was an interesting time writing it.
I have identified "reading fluency" as the problem I would like to address with my end of course project. i cant wait for week five to commence. 

My pupils at end of term awards day!

Week 3: a delicious week!

I am having so much fun already taking this course. My teaching will never be the same again. I thoroughly enjoyed the article on using  Using Original Video and Sound Effects to Teach English. I have started experimentation on that. I believe that I can use these recordings to improve use of tenses (which is quite problematic for my kids).
Although we are rounding off the session (usually kids don't wont to do any class work after exams), my kids, after seeing the picture of the present tense board, are eager to try it out. By Monday we would surely get going. I am looking forward to getting more fun materials for next session form www.esl-galaxy.com.
A have all the cool kids and teacher activities on my delicious page. The funny thing is that for long time if had been seeing the delicious book mark on some websites, but did not bother about it. I now know what I have missed all this while. It was a delicious experience getting all my favorite sites in one place.
I hope to put up some pictures and videos by next week.
Cheers!

Week 2: A week of web searches and writing Behavioral Objectives

 I felt a sense nostalgia as a began my tasks for the week. The reading on " How to write clear objectives" brought back memories of my undergraduate studies. My professor then used to say "without Objectives, teaching is useless". The article made me review the teaching and learning objectives I have been employing in my class. To be honest I had not been setting clear objectives before now,  but now I know writing pedagogical objectives is as simple as the ABCD system!  I actually applied it to my lesson plans for this week and found that assessment was much easier. The ABCD system together with Bloom's taxonomy was the highlight of the week for me.
Searching through web engines was also fun. I found subject specific search engines to make searches easier. I love the tips for better searches, pretty cool! But I am still addicted to google!

Here is a picture of my class!

Welcome to my blog

Its nice getting started on this blog space. I will be sharing reflections on my activities during the Webskills online course. I have been blogging previously at www.namse.wordpress.com and www.thenamsechronicles.wordpres.com.

Setting up this blog did not pose much of a challenge but I learnt some new tips. I never knew you could convert words into hyper links. I can now hyper link words on my blog.

Blogs are a very good means of expressing yourself to the world. It can be a means of releasing creative energy. The concept of classroom blogging is quite necessary for both students and each. It helps introducing a non personalized approach to teaching and learning. It removes the terseness and inhibitions sometimes found in the classroom and provides a new frontier for student-teacher communication. There are however some challenges and questions that arise in the use of classroom blogging especially among we in developing countries.
On a technical level, many areas lack adequate infrastructure to cope effectively with the demands of classroom blogging. The perennial problem of power is a paramount challenge facing many communities in my area and hampers students and teachers access to the internet.


There is also the cost of internet access is also an issue. In Nigeria it costs approximately $30 (N6000) per month to get internet data to conveniently take a person for a month. There needs to be significant increase in internet access for classroom blogging to bear fruits in these parts.

On the other hand there are questions relating culture and local educational practices that need to be answered. At what age or class should pupils be allowed to blogging? In a country like Nigeria with a very diverse population it would be difficult to incoporate classroom blogging before university level. Many students well of families who attend high brow private school from primary level would be able to, but what percentage of the total population of students are they?

There is also a perverse conservative culture, where many people, even teachers are reluctant to embrace new technology. These are some of the factors that we teachers in Nigeria would consider before commencing classroom blogging.