WEEK 10: THE LAST WEEK OF OUR E-COURSE

       Dear Sandra, Deborah and friends from all over the world, 

      Our Building Skills course is over. Week 10 - it was the last chance to share ideas with so nice people from all over the world. Thanks to Deborah and Sandra we were guided through constructive discussions and tasks all that time.
       This is not the end, this is the beginning of applying the acquired knowledge in the classroom. The students have to witness changes based on working with interactive PowerPoint presentations, WebQuests, posting in blogs, being autonomous learners on the one hand and on the other being able to interact with peers. I learned how to set learning objectives, learning styles, rubrics and learner autonomy. I learned new methods of teaching and exploring websites for creating teachers' materials. Every topic, every piece of information was very useful and valuable for me. I also learned a lot from the experience shared by my coursemates.

       I will miss everyone. I hope we will keep sharing ideas and helping each other. Let that not be the end, but the beginning of a long and productive collaboration. Hope our friendship will continue.

      I decided to show you some photos from Bulgaria and Stara Zagora, the town I come from. You are welcome to Bulgaria. Come and visit us. I would be glad to meet every one of you.

My kindest regards, 
Zlatka

WEEK 9: EXAMINING WEBSITES

        Dear mentors and friends,

        Our course is going to its end! Sad, because it has been pleasant and useful experience for me with wonderful people to share what I have learned; but pleasing, because the time to apply what I have learned has come.

         This week I found out how many new sites exist on the web to help me create and design activities for my students, different from what they have done so far, engaging them to be autonomous and promoting their motivation to learn. Going through the recommended websites, I  discovered several helpful tools and used one of them to accomplish my task for the week.

        It was the time when I created my first school blog and published the first assignment for our students. You are invited to visit the blog at http://trayanaschoolsz.blogspot.com. The topic I decided to use for the opening post was “Time for Fun” where I created a crossword and suggested the students to do. I hope it will be enjoyable for them to participate in the comments.

        Another exciting occupation was being Gulsen’s peer viewer for her project report. It was so well written that I could hardly find what to comment on. Her comments on my report were extremely valuable for me to improve the initial draft I had. Now my final version of the project report is ready and I have uploaded it on the course wiki.

         I am leaving Week 9 of our course looking forward to the last week of being with so nice people all over the world sharing knowledge, thoughts and opinion which I will keep in my mind life long.

My warmest regards

Zlatka

WEEK 8: HOW TO BE AUTONOMOUS

Dear friends,

It was pleasure for me to welcome our guest moderator Jeff Magoto this week.

After reading the recommended sources for the discussion, I have thought quite a lot about autonomy learning and the process of learning to be autonomous. In my opinion, this process begins from early childhood.But at school we, the teachers, have the honour to mauld the new generation guiding the students what to learn and how to learn it. This is the exciting point of our profession, isn't it? I will try to find appropriate ways to encourage my students to be more autonomous in order to achieve higher results in the learning process.

The task we had to create a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom was very enjoyable for me. I read a few materials and came upon interesting tips. The topic of the lesson which I decided to prepare is in the curriculum. Comparison of adjectives is just what follows to be taught in Grade 8 and the prepared lesson will be another chance to implement technology in the classroom adding to the techniques of the textbook.

Working on the course project is not an easy job. Although I thought I had been getting ready for it during the past weeks, it appeared to be more complicated to sum up all the work done, but I am working and will be able to send it to Gulsen, my peer viewer, on time. I'm expecting her to help me with things I am not clear enough with or have missed. I am ready to give her a hand, too.

Work is becoming strenuous, we have to be tough!

My best wishes to you all,
Zlatka