Week 8: Teacher Resources Online

It's Week 8 and we were all busy writing our project report draft! They were done by Wednesday May 22nd and submitted to our partners. Now we are waiting for our partners to comment on our drafts. Honestly, I had to work around the clock this week, including the weekend. I had to attend Girls Guide Annual General Meeting at J.W. Marriott Kuala Lumpur for 4 days 3 nights. With all the work undone and meeting on the way, I managed to complete the report and did the task this week. I need to apologise to my partners for being a bit late in returning their project  report draft checklist and comments. Kayyum and Jurgita, if you are reading this, I am truly sorry but rest assured, I am working on it!

In this week as well, I learnt a lot of useful online tools. One of my favourite is HotPotatoes. I've downloaded this software to my computer and have even tried to use the tools such as JCloze (to create cloze passage), JMatch (to create matching exercise) and JCross (to make crossword puzzle). I love it! It definitely makes my life as a teacher easier. Before this, I've never made my own crossword puzzle. I did, but using Microsoft Word where I drew the boxes myself! That makes me so lazy to do exercises like that but now not anymore. I can use HotPotatoes. Thank you Robert for introducing me to such interesting tools.

I am definitely going to explore more on all the links provided by Robert and by my e-colleagues when I have free time later. As for now, let's get back to work.

Week 7: Learner Autonomy and One Computer Classroom

It is Week 7. We are approaching the end of our course. I've finished doing my class project with my students. I'm currently writing up my final project report and will submit it to my friends Kayyum and Jurgita for Peer Review. May the force be with me.

In the meantime, this week's topic reminded me very much of what I have learnt during my undergraduate years. It's about Learner Autonomy. So what is an autonomous learner? According to Little(1991), autonomous learners are those who explicitly accept responsibility for their own learning. The autonomous learner also shows initiative regarding  learning, and shares in monitoring progress and evaluating the extent to which learning is achieved (Schunk, 2005). In today's world, it is easy for students to become an autonomous learner because of technology. Technology helps and aids a lot in education. It is not surprising if one day, there is no more teacher teaching in physical schools. Children gets education online. Who knows? Nonetheless, it is today's teachers' responsibility to prepare students to become one.

Another topic that I learn is One Computer Classroom. This is a topic close to my situation right now. My classroom does not have a computer but I use my personal laptop as a teaching aid. I don't mind at all. I'm also grateful as the school has installed an LCD projector in my classroom. Well it's actually for English Unit but they choose to install it in my classroom. Lucky me! So I've made use of these technology advantages to teach my students. My verdict: every time I use the computer and project anything on the screen, my students are more attracted to my lesson. So technology is indeed a motivation to them.

As for my project, I did the Webquest lesson with my students last week on Friday. I'm in the process of writing the project report to be submitted to my peers. Wish me luck! :)

16 May: Malaysia Celebrates Teacher's Day

                                        Happy Teacher's Day!

Video Sharing

Will this be our future?

Week 6: Engaging Students / Large Classes and Interactive PowerPoint

Large class. Do you have this in your school? We don't. Our classes have in average 27 students. 30 will be the largest number of students in class. However, from time to time, we do have a lecture where we combine all five classes from the same form in one big room to undergo one lecture-style lesson. Sometimes we do that too when there happens to be a lack of teacher due to unforeseen circumstances like sickness, out-of-school duty etc. Handling a large class is not an easy task, especially with younger students who just love to talk and move around a lot. They are more energetic and requires full attention. As for the older ones, the usual problem is inattentiveness due to boredom. This requires motivation.

So, what I learnt this week is related to this problem. We talked about how tools like PowerPoint can be used to attract students' attention. In using PowerPoint too, there are various ways that we could do to make one presentation interesting and powerful to retain students' focus and attention. However, teachers/lecturers should bear in mind not to over-use it. Students will get bored too when we use them a lot, to the point that we rely entirely on the PowerPoint to do the lesson or we just read-out-loud points on the PowerPoint. Techniques such as ConcepTest and QuickWrite may be used along with a special blank slide within the PowerPoint presentation, just to switch students' view. We could also create a quiz using PowerPoint by adding hyperlinks etc. All these are called interactive PowerPoint method.

There are also alternatives to PowerPoint that I learn this week. For example, Prezi, SlideRocket, 280Slides and ZohoShow. These alternative add some spice to the presentation, making it more interesting and appealing for students. Well, who doesn't like something new, right? So I guess I'll be learning more and more of these tools and apply it my lessons. :)

As for the project, I haven't actually done the WebQuest lesson to my students. However, I tried one lesson plan (the one we did for Week 4 on Technology-enhanced Lesson Plan) without Internet in class. I've prepared beforehand by downloading the audio file and have the materials ready offline. It works! Students love it that we do something different and I believe I can expect them to be more enthusiastic when we do the WebQuest lesson this upcoming week. Hopefully... Anyway, one lesson I learnt when doing that lesson is to have Plan B ready because in my situation, things can go wrong anytime.

Anyway, have fun teaching everyone!

Week 5: Assessment, Rubrics and PBL

Election fever! Google honours Malaysia's 13th General Election with the creation of Election Doodle for Malaysia Google Home Page at www.google.com.my I've done my part casting my vote for the first time ever. For your information, Malaysians can vote when we reach the age of 20. In the last General Election, I was not able to vote because I was still studying overseas and I did not register to vote from overseas. Anyway, I'm glad I did my part as a Malaysian today. 

Back to the real task. I'm already done with Week 5. This is by far the most busy week for me. It is also the most fruitful week as I did and learnt a lot this week. The topic seems easy - Assessment, Rubrics and Project-based Learning. I did one entire semester of assessment paper when I was in university but there are many new things introduced to me this week. 

Firstly, alternative assessment. Reading about it on Assessing Learning: Alternative Assessment, it becomes clear to me that our Malaysian education system is moving towards it. Ministry of Education has just introduced the school-based assessment last year so this is the second year we are doing such assessment. The Form 1 and Form 2 students now do not have to sit for any national examination. Instead, they are assessed based on performance tasks as explained on the website. It follows all the features of alternative assessment, agrees to the criteria that defines authentic assessment activities etc. To me, alternative assessment is an excellent model to assess students. There's only one downside of it - it requires a lot of teachers' time and effort. Yes marking examination script may be a suffering for us but checking students' work over and over again (especially when they repeat and repeat a certain task because we think that their performance is not up to the standard) is even more tiring.

Secondly, I learnt 2 valuable tools for teachers i.e. Rubistar and Webquest. Rubistar is a website where teachers can create rubrics for students and teachers' use. As Robert mentioned in the class website, 

"...Rubrics are a wonderful way to clarify expectations for holistic grading, such as for writing or speaking. The rubric becomes a kind of contract between the teacher and the learners, so that learners know that if they do the things associated with "excellent" in the rubric, they will get an "excellent" mark. Students are more motivated, and assessment is easier. Students must get the rubrics when they begin the task."

Webquests, on the other hand, are a form of PBL. It is "...an inquiry-oriented activity that uses resources on the World Wide Web" and "...help[s] students develop problem-solving and decision-making skills." (Professor Bernie Dodge of San Diego State University). Students surf on one WebQuest, go to websites the teacher has listed and do tasks required using the processes mentioned on the WebQuest. The task can be done individually or in groups, according to what's instructed. A WebQuest usually has a specific structure; Welcome, Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation, Conclusion and Teacher's Page. I've created mine as well using Zunal - Zunal WebQuest: Fun With Idioms. Do visit!

After rereading and rethinking last week's problem, I've finally figured out one possible solution. Before we proceed, let me recap of what my problem is. My students are very much focused on the upcoming national examination that they are going to sit for at the end of this year. Yes, they are interested in a technology-enhanced lesson but they could not relate (or able to but very little) the use of Internet and examination. They always think that whenever they use the Internet in class, it's only for fun but not to prepare them for the examination. I found the root of this problem. I could still use the Internet and technology-enhanced lesson plans but I need to always give them the rubrics, show them the relations between the activity they're doing and how does that help them prepare for their examination. For example, the Fun With Idioms WebQuest I created can be used to prepare them for English 1119 Paper 1 where they can include idioms to produce a better essay and for English 1119 Paper 2, they should know idioms to be able to answer some multiple questions involving the figurative meaning of idioms. I suppose by clearly making this link, they'll be clearer in where they're heading to.

I think I've put in a lot of thoughts in this blog entry. Looking forward to read others too. :)