Week Three

Week Three

A Long, Edifying, Impressive Week

It has a week full of education, readings and helpful assignments. Still, I have extra resources to read. I am hungry for getting more information related to my career. I also feel that I am learning key material that knew nothing about before.

The key topic for this week was Aural: Pronunciation and Listening Skills. I read a number of articles that were totally new to me. Each article included Websites and hyperlinks of helpful resources.

The first article I read is Teaching Pronunciation to Adult English Language Learners. It includes a lot of helpful information and hints that really guide even experienced teachers.  The second article I read is Using Original Video and Sound Effects to teach English is also helpful. Also the article Discussing Cultural Knowledge for Life in the USA is equally effective.

The Website I explored thoroughly is Randall's Cyber Listening Lab and is so resourceful and full of interesting exercises for all levels of learners. Still, I have not explore the sites listed in the article Best Cites to Practice Speaking English at all.

I was introduced to many helpful resources. One of the most helpful is American English is full of resources, browse it. It includes a lot of helpful resources that will not help us become efficient English teachers but will also empower our students and make them master English without paying a penny. It is divided into Resources for Teachers, Resources for Learners, American Culture, Content Spotlights, and My Resources so you can upload any.

The speaking resources have great ideas of holding speaking activities. I also learned that using web resources in a public speaking class is very helpful for both teachers and students as it teaches the readers ways to locate resources on the internet and to evaluate these resources.   

Then comes Delicious.com. The weekly assignment was creating an account on Delicious.com.  After reading the Article on Delicious and following the guiding steps. I created my account. It took me four hours to create this account as I use a USB modem. Really, I find it a great site as it bookmark the sites I like so I can access them any place I want, once I have a computer and internet access.   Thanks to one of classmates I was introduced to Moodle which I would try later and to to blooms.com which I will also try later.

One of the resources introduced was Randel ESL cyber Listening Lab. It is a resource of listening materials that are divided into three categories: easy, medium and difficult. They are also divided into topics, an aspect that makes them effective and meaningful.

Sample Project Reports

 So far I read the first two projects. The first was concerned with using class blogs and the second was concerned about.

My Colleagues Reflective Blog

Reading some of my colleagues reflective blogs was so beneficial as it stressed main ideas and made me feel that I am moving on the same track though they are experienced and better trained than me.

A Thought   

    Though our students are supposedly technology natives many of them have no access to internet (not all Egyptians have internet connectivity at home at all). Those of them who use technology lack the knowledge, skills and abilities to use technology in helping them through education. Our role as teachers is to orient to use technology in empowering themselves, improving their skills and abilities and enhancing their educational and professional opportunities.