This week has been enriching with its several interesting readings and activities. In the discussion task, we had to choose between "PowerPoint and Interactive classes" and "Engaging Students". My choice was motivated by the class I am teaching at the moment.
As I mentioned in my post on Nicenet, this class takes place on Saturdays afternoon (after school time) or Sundays morning. For this reason, students sometimes come lacking motivation or energy. I have been using games and small-group discussions to have their attention and energy back.
Therefore, the article that called my attention and that I enjoyed exploring is the one about "Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students", accessed at http://umbc.uoregon.edu/eteacher/webskills/material/engaging_students_handout.pdf. The article provided me with a variety of activities that will, for sure, help me in engaging my students in the process of learning in class.
The other part of the assignments has been very exciting as well. I created a PowerPoint presentation in a new way. Actually, I used PP for my studies before but not as a teaching material. I found this experience very interesting and I liked designing slides following some of the interactive techniques. I looked at some of my course-mates' presentations and they were great. Unfortunately, mine is not as "sophisticated" and developed. I still need to work on this part!
Submitting the final project is due in 3 weeks! For the next step, we have to start implementing the technology-related change. The issue I raised is the lack of opportunities for my students to "speak in English". So I suggested an online platform, Nicenet for instance, or a common project to work on. Donna recommended the Nicenet as good and workable. I totally agree with her and reading the article about "Generating and Facilitating, Engaging and Effective Online Discussions" (http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/discussionboard.pdf) gave me some instructions and tips on this kind of discussions. However, there is a possibility that I don't see my students for a month starting from next week, in addition to the persistent Internet issue in the country. Any suggestions would be more than welcome!
Look forward to Week 7.
Ghada
As I mentioned in my post on Nicenet, this class takes place on Saturdays afternoon (after school time) or Sundays morning. For this reason, students sometimes come lacking motivation or energy. I have been using games and small-group discussions to have their attention and energy back.
Therefore, the article that called my attention and that I enjoyed exploring is the one about "Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students", accessed at http://umbc.uoregon.edu/eteacher/webskills/material/engaging_students_handout.pdf. The article provided me with a variety of activities that will, for sure, help me in engaging my students in the process of learning in class.
The other part of the assignments has been very exciting as well. I created a PowerPoint presentation in a new way. Actually, I used PP for my studies before but not as a teaching material. I found this experience very interesting and I liked designing slides following some of the interactive techniques. I looked at some of my course-mates' presentations and they were great. Unfortunately, mine is not as "sophisticated" and developed. I still need to work on this part!
Submitting the final project is due in 3 weeks! For the next step, we have to start implementing the technology-related change. The issue I raised is the lack of opportunities for my students to "speak in English". So I suggested an online platform, Nicenet for instance, or a common project to work on. Donna recommended the Nicenet as good and workable. I totally agree with her and reading the article about "Generating and Facilitating, Engaging and Effective Online Discussions" (http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/discussionboard.pdf) gave me some instructions and tips on this kind of discussions. However, there is a possibility that I don't see my students for a month starting from next week, in addition to the persistent Internet issue in the country. Any suggestions would be more than welcome!
Look forward to Week 7.
Ghada
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