March 1st - a Bulgarian feast

         Dear tutuors and friends,

         If you by any chance visit Bulgaria on the first day of March you are certain to notice almost every person decorated with small tokens made from red and white woollen threads. March 1^st is known as the "Baba Marta" Day in Bulgaria – so, on the very March 1st, as well as the days following, all people give each other red-and-white tokens in the form of strips, often  ornamented, known by the name Martenitsas. Generally, the Martenitsa is believed to preserve the person wearing it from any bad luck or illnesses.

        The legend connects the tradition with the foundation of the Bulgarian country long, long ago, in the

year 681 AD.  Once we have had our Martenitsas pinned on our clothing or tied around our wrists (it is usually the right wrist we are supposed to put the Martenitsa on), we have to keep them there until we see some sign of spring - such as a stork or swallow, or a blossoming tree. Only after seeing that sign,do we remove the Martenitsas, as only then we know for sure that spring has truly arrived. After seeing one of the signs, we are supposed to tie our Martenitsas on a fruit tree, and make a good wish, which is believed to always come true.

Enjoy the feast of spring with your red-and-white tokens – the wonderful Martenisas!

Let health, joy and happiness be always with you!

My love,

Zlatka

WEEK 7: POWERFUL PRESENTATIONS

             Dear everyone,        

            The readings that week helped me to get the right idea what a real interactive Powerpoint presentation is, how to create one and how to present it. Teaching a large class is not an easy job. To attract the attention of  many people who have different styles of learning, different abilities and motivation to learn, the teacher should be not only well-prepared but should know how to use activities distinctive from those in the textbook. Technology comes to help. "Personalizing Language Learning in Large Classes" offers ideas, some of them so simple, but very effective. They can be perfect solutions of reorganizing the classroom and engaging the students more actively in the learning process.
         "Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint" and "New Ways of Using PowerPoint" from the UO's Teaching Effectiveness Program show us  how to turn a lecture into an interactive experience for students. I myself have often used PowerPoint  in my teaching, but not  interactively. I knew nothing about interactive presentations and now creating one was an amusing experience for me. Although some of the elements of my PowerPoint show are not in the way I wanted them to be, I can still say that I already have my first interactive  presentation. I tried to insert a video but I couldn't do it in the right way, although I followed the instructions. I have a slide show, too. For unknown reasons to me on the wiki it doesn't open. In the saved file on my computer it does. I don't know what  wrong I've done. PowerPoint presentations are attractive and combine a variety of techniques. I went through all the published shows on the course wiki and liked them very much. Some of my coursemates are very experienced.
        During this week another exciting thing I did was going through the class blogs of  Gulsen and Dilip. What I read and saw was really amazing.
        In the passing week I spend some time in my 11th Grade / upper-intermediate class / preparing the students for the WebQuest of my project which we will do next Thursday. We talked about the possible elements of the WebQuest, I gave them the topic and asked them  to look for some information. I also made a short survey about their expectations. I am going to make some changes. Gulsen is going to be my peer viewer and probably Marcia. I rely on their opinion, so I am expecting them to give me a hand. I am ready to help them with their projects, too.
        The past weeks were busy, the coming look even busier. I am ready to do my best.

       We shouldn't forget that we,  teachers, are like the conductors of an orchestra and it is up to us what kind of music will be played and how each musician is going to perform.

My best wishes to every one of you,
                          Zlatka

WEEK 6 : STYLES AND INTELLIGENCE

Dear tutors and friends,

       Another week is over with new knowledge gained. The articles " Learning Styles and Strategies"/R.M.Felder and B.A.Soloman/, "Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students"/R.Finnan and D.Shaw/ and all the websites recommended by our tutors opened my eyes for a new outlook to the teaching process in class. I like the ideas of activating the students using their senses and intelligence in finding ways of engaging every individual in the group. " To teach is to engage students in learning..."/R.Finnan and D.Shaw/, if only that could happen every single lesson with every single student! Technology is the source to help and I know that I shouldn't miss a lesson using it.

      The task of creating a rubric wasn't difficult. I found it enjoying. I tried a few versions hoping to find the most acurate criteria for assessment of a research report for the WebQuest which I am going to use for my final project.

      What have I done so far?
The class for the lesson will be Grade 11, upper-intermediate students at my school.
The issue is to activate the students in reading and writing and motivating them to communicate sharing opinion.
For that aim, I am going to use a WebQuest and as it is something they have never come upon, I started acquainting them with the characteristis and specifics of that technique.
I hope the next steps will be successful in realizing the plan for the lesson.

     I am expecting the next assignments with excitement.

My best regards to all of you,
Zlatka

WEEK 5 : WEBQUESTS

 Dear Colleagues, 

 Welcome to this week's guest moderator Rick Rosenberg!

Another busy week is over! The more I do in the course, the less I think I know.

Webquests happened to be a black spot in my teaching experience. I new nothing about them. My start was to find out what a webquest is. It appeared to be a very interesting technique, something completely new and different for me, not to mention the  students. There are step-by-step instructions to follow given by our tutors but when I first do something it always takes me more time than it should, because I try different things, change here and there, don't like what I have done, look at it, think it over and......and.....I started creating a webquest on sports and games dedicating the lesson to the opening of the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, but it's not finished yet. Whatever the stage is, I'll post the URL for you to comment and will continue improving it.

I wouldn't have done "that piece of art" if I hadn't read B. Dodge's article "Some Thoughts About WebQuests", or Zunal.com WebQuest Help. S. Gaer's  "Less Teaching and More Learning" is another valuable article helping to solve issues in the language classroom.

This week's project task on implementing technology-based changes in the class was a good opportunity for me to focus on solving the issues using the available technolgy at school. One of our problems is that there is equipment which is not utilised enough.

The postings " Just for Fun" are really fun. I logged in to see most of those offered by the colleagues and I gave the URL of one I consider enjoyable for the students and the teachers, of course.

I am tired now, but have to finish the webquest.

My best wishes to all of you friends,
Zlatka

WEEK 4: REFLECTIONS

          What a week! The end is coming but looking back it seemed to me a whole month, but that "month" was with too short days.  I had to do so many things.   At school we had the end of term with many reports and other office work. For my assignments I wanted to read all the recommended materils and I had to spend enough time doing so.
        At the beginning of the week we had the pleasure to welcome our guest for the discussions Leslie Opp-Beckman.
       What more? It was interesting to study the articles. D. Hoopingarner's article on best practices in technology and language teaching regarding the use of technology asks the question "how" not "whether". From the review on the approaches of scholars throughout the years, I got an idea how the attitude to language teaching has changed. Invaluable are the thoughts focusing on the specific language skills in the classroom - listening, speaking,  reading and writing. On the other hand L.Miller's article was very specific on developing listening skills with authentic materials. Distinctly the three main parts of that lesson are marked as pre-, while-, and post-listening stages. Authentic materials from radio, TV/video, the Internet/CD-ROM can be used in any of the stages by the students and the teacher.
      Examining the 4 websites was a real challenge for me because there was so much to go through. Everything I came upon I found useful and applicable, but finally I made a choice for my posting.
      The tech-enhanced lesson plan was not very easy to do as I tried to follow the recommended template which is in a way different from the plans we use  in Bulgaria.
In the end, having in mind my students I thought of some issues that thechnology might help with, but if teachers could be trained to use that technolody more efficiently, it would be great.
     I am an optimist and facing all the problems with the desire to solve,  we will achieve  higher and higher results. I am certain that optimism helps but when we make efforts. Do you agree with me , dear colleagues?


DUM SPIRO, SPERO.  / Latin saying /


My best regards to all of you,
Zlatka