WEEK 3: A DELICIOUS WEEK

      
 Dear colleagues,

       I have had a very intensive week. I did some reading and surfing into the Internet to do my assignments.
Doing all that was an interesting experience to me and I learned and had the opportunuty to do a lot of new things.
        To begin with Deliciuos.com,  I didn't know about its existance. It opened my eyes. Now I wonder, if there could be anything more useful for my future work. I can store all websites I intend to use and sharing them with my students, they can gain advantage when searching for materials to make the process shorter and easier. We all know that, often, to find what we need could become a time-consuming procedure.
       Managing to read the two articles offered by our tutors about technology teaching I was amaized by the broad views of the authors as professionals. I could see different points and approaches of teaching listening, pronunciation and speaking throughout the years. The tips they give make you in a special way think about them, summarise what you do and work out new aspects of teaching.
       Last to mention, but not least is the task with the skill-building websites.I examined different links offering various skill-building activities refering to listening, pronunciation and speaking. What I decided to do was to experiment a pronunciation exercise with my upper-intermediate students on assimilation of sounds when pronouncing connected word and sentences. Although this is a problem with us, Bulgarians, I have rarely done such kind of exercise, but it worked. It was fantastic. Definitely, it won't be the last time, but probably the beggining of that kind of experience in our classes.

      I  am looking forward to new challenges next week.

My best regars to everyone,
Zlatka

WEEK 2 : WEB SEARCHING AND SETTING OBJECTIVES

         Dear Deborah, Sandra and coursemates,

         This week has been very busy and fruitful for me. I learned a lot of new things starting with Searching the Web.
         I've been using Google so far and have been happy with the information and materials I come upon. Deborah's tips and Noodletools opened my eyes to the bottomless ocean of information of the Internet and the importance of defining the exact topic. I didn't know where to start from having so many resources in front of me. I was confused with all those entries, nevertheless, I decided to try something unfamiliar to me. Unfortunately, I wasn't successful with my searches. I concluded for myself that I'm quite inexperienced and need some time to concentrate, develop and improve my searching skills. Otherwise, I wouldn't be helpful enough to my students. I'll go on exploring search engines to see which ones will suit my needs most of all. It's worth spending time on activity like that until I examine it thoroughly. The experience I achieve will help me in the future to save time and find appropriate materials more successfully. I am going to share my experience with my students and colleagues at school. They will definitely benefit from that as their main search engine is Google. Furthermore, I should be able to advise my students to use the web more effectively.

     The other topic which surprised me immensely / positively, of course / this week was, the new for me,  approach to setting an objective. What I am used to is formulating objectives which happen to be long and wordy. Sometimes I myself find them not very clear and accurate, not to mention the students. Now, from the sources given to us by our tutors, I came to know about and was able to practise setting objectives using the A.B.C.D. method. I have already found the right way to compose objectives concise, accurate and exact for my students at the same time clear for assessing the task. I am certain that will bring to better performance of assignments and higher results in gaining knowledge in the class.
        Another interesting idea to define objectives with the words standing for SMART was offered by Hassina. Thank you, Hassina, it is very pleasant when you learn something from a friend. I also learned a lot from the postings of the colleagues in Nicenet.
        Thanks to Deborah, Sandra and everyone in the group.
        It has been an enjoyable week for me. I am looking forward to the challenges of next week.

       Best wishes to everyone,
       Zlatka
 

      

WEEK 1 : MY FIRST BLOGGING EXPERIENCE

Dear Sandra, Deborah and colleagues,

       This is the first time I have ever done a task like this one - creating a blog. What I had to start with was doing some reading - that recommended to us. But it turned into a difficult and time consuming job when I began the achievement. Having no blogging experience, it appeared to be not a very easy task.

      When I first tried to follow the instructions in creating my blog, it didn't work. Then I had to go over some of the information and instructions again, to examine other people's blogs, now with another eye, and at last I got it.

       I am certain that in a couple of  weeks looking back at what I have " done "  will just make me smile but I hope I will have the knowledge and opportunity to make things better and show improvement. Now I am a bit satisfied with the goal I have accomplished, although to some people it may seem to be just a snapshot. I am curious to see what I will be able to do at the end of the course.

       That new experience would encourage me to use the new techniques in my classroom step by step and at the same time to carry out  fruitful discussions with every colleague in the group.

      NEVER SAY " I CAN'T ", BUT SAY " I'LL DO IT " !