Third Week Reflection

When there are Sonia’s, Pam’s, Dev’s and let alone Vinay’s blog a step from yours, and you are running out of time, what would you do? I reckon you simply fold your hands; and stand and stare at their post. Same has happened to me this week particularly in blog post. One the one hand, I have to complete my assignment in stipulated time, and on the other hand, I have few minutes left to meet the deadline. I am really stifled and pulverized now.  I am pondering how to come out of this dismal predicament. I know I don’t have any way out either. I think I must take recourse to Beatles song ‘let it be, let it be’. Any way, I have to post to my blog, singing 'let it be' by Lennon/McCartney.

It's our third week in webskills course. I am fortunate to learn many things in these three weeks. Sailing back  this week, I encountered much more interesting tasks. I came to read 'Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller and 'New Perspective in Teaching Pronunciation' by Maria Grazia Busa and found their writing comprehensive and extensive. I came to know the general trend in listening and speaking; and was surprised to know the indifference of the researchers and scholars towards them before.

Next, I visited websites that aimed to enhance vocabulary and better pronunciation. The opportunity to hear the native pronunciation and a gut to improve it consistently in the words utterances along with listening the native tones will help my students to further hone their skill. I must admit I had an amazing experience with listening and speaking websites where I enjoyed Randahl’s cyber space the most.

My experience of delicious web page gave me a new horizon. It gave me opportunity to get familiarize with linking the files and texts we read in different web pages and save them for future reference. The learning and sharing with like-minded people has been shaping me into new personality. These three weeks have been a milestone to hone me as an effective and promising teacher. Thanks to all who contributed this opportunity to me.

Sitaram http://www.nicenet.org/

W oh! week 2, you taught me Web searching.

This week has been quite different than the previous one. I have not been as traumatic as I was before in week 1. The reason might be that I am quite familiar with the course, my course mates and  instructor Donna. But, obviously, it’s quite hectic this week and it’s very difficult to complete the task in stipulated time. I have been trying my best not to miss the week 2 deadline. Anyway, I am done after this blog post.

This week is quite phenomenal as I came to know some of my course mates quite closely; and the interesting fact is, I have developed a close rapport with some. This week, I went into all my course mates blog, I was amazed looking  the blog of vinaya and Sonia. How they managed to make such an interesting blog?  So far Pamella’s post, I wished I could write like hers. Dev, oh, my god! He has marvelous poetic sense.  My admiration goes to all my friends for your quaint sense at your disposal. I can say I am learning so many things from you.

When I have a glance back to week 2, I can recollect the profound excitement of knowing scores of search engines and ABCD model. To some extent, I was quite familiar with ABCD model before, since I have been using this model while making lesson plan. But, web searching?  The experience was quaint and extraordinary. I did not imagine before that there are scores of search engines other than Google at our disposal. It’s really amazing!  I wish I had known them before. To be honest; among those search engines, my first impression goes to “I seek Education”. It’s safe, authoritative, intelligent and time saving. Last but not the least , it was week 2 project task #1, where we were supposed to describe our students- population and class room setting. This task has been helping me to revisit the uncharted parts of my  teaching and learning; and explore the possible way to make it more effective.  

Finally, I am thankful to webskills week 2, it has given me a lot of pleasant surprises. At last, I must thank Donna; you gave space to my missed assignment.

Sitaram

Reflection on Week 1

Until Jan. 5, I was anxious and covetously longing for something. I, whenever possible, checked my inbox, 7 or 8 times a day to know whether there was the mail, I was looking for. Each time, I checked the inbox, I was duped by my inbox.......It continued until Jan. 5.

 It was Jan. 5, I checked my mail as my daily routine. To my great surprise and elation!!! I noticed a mail from UO AEI Admin. in my inbox. I was curious enough to know what was written there, I hurriedly clicked and got the greetings from UO AEI Admin. and our instructor's name, Donna. It was the most rejoicing moment, I had this week. It was the beginning of my journey in online course  which I was completely unknown to. And to be frank, I was/am pretty novice in the use of technology. A sort of fear overwhelmed me considering about the course and the participants across the globe. And I was pondering  whether I could do my level best in this course or not.

Its been already 4-5 days, our course had started and I feel how swiftly days passed by. Its probably because of our course module. Its engaging but interesting. Its,sometimes, painstaking but entertaining; mind itching but amazing. Its really fun and enjoying doing the course. Looking back this week, I feel like I have learnt a lot of things like exploring the course website, completing the needs assessment survey, joining on Nicenet, introducing myself and writing comments on the ground rules and rubric grading and creating blogs and posting on it. Its amazing, Isn't it?

Comparing the tasks above, creating the blog was really herculean one for me. I never created blog before and had no idea about it. I went through the instruction given, ultimately I accomplished. After creating the blog now, when I look back into the moment I was creating blog, I want to say to myself "How fool I was." Looking then and now, I could see the change in me brought about by this course.
 special thanks to instructor Donna for your  unceasing support.

Sitaram