My discoveries this week ( week 3)
This week has been fantastic! Despite starting badly ( because of my poor health) it unfolded,I would class it as an 'eye-opening' and 'loaded with new knowledge' week. Actually, as a newly-appointed Head of English at Tbilisi State University, which is, by the way, among very popular and trusted universities of Georgia, I have been thinking a lot how to make the learning/teaching process more involving and thus, increase my students' motivation. Luckily, I applied to this course and got the scholarship and now I can say that this course is a godsend! It seems to respond to all of my needs. (Thanks to the organisers again!!!!)

The sites I particularly liked among the best was a) BBC podcasts which offers brilliant opportunities for active listening ( for main ideas- answer to Sueanne's question)and b) English for Academic purposes which is what my students are after!

WEEK 3

January 28

New challenges and impressions

I have created delicious. Like Mahamud I thought it was something quisine-related. I can infer the meaning of the metaphor now. My delicious pages have yet to be bookmarked. Vow! what vocabulary!

I am reading the article by Lindsay Miller. I have made up my mind to concentrate on listening skills as our students rightly point out that they need to work more on that. I sympathise with them because they do not have many opportunities to interact with native speakers. However, my generation did not even have those scanty resources which are available now. So, they are luckier than we were.

I try not to let them be sorry for themselves and encourage to be more creative. Each group is expected to come up with some new web-page or video-audio material from the web. Besides, this helps to enrich our bank of resources....

P.S I have selected today's photo as, as I see it, there is a metaphor hidden behind it. Can you guess it???

Nora's comment about my learning objectives has brought me back to the problem of exact wording which is, no doubt, of significant importance. While writing my objectives I did wander whether I could join the verbs of two cognitive levels into one objective-it seems to me that identifying relevant structures precedes their analysis. Bloom' taxonymy does mention that 'identify' and 'analyse' belong to different levels but on the other hand, cognitive process is a continuum. From this point of view, 'identify' precedes 'analysis' or rather, one can not analyse what has not first been identified.. Am I right?

lessons of web searching

While browsing various engines I learnt an important lesson: not only should I use different engines myself but, also, I should advise my students to do so as well. Usually, it is me who provides all the available material on the web. Why not ask them to serch the web for something new on their own?

I usually use Google for my scholarly purposes. Now I have discovered that other engines can also offer interesting information .. I wonder why I have not thought about this before?

Like my group-mates who were lost in the Internet I felt very confused and overwhelmed at the same time. On the other hand, the motto of my life-it's never late to learn seemed to be in full blow! Everey day brings new 'electronic' challenges as well as sense of achievement.

Like Hassina, I used SMART method while writing learning objectives in my sillabi as it offers what I believe learning objectives/ outcomes should have: they should be easily measurable,realistic and timebound. Frankly speaking, I had not heard of ABCD method before. Now I can happily wed these two methods which will help me to write even more specific and easily measurable objectives.

Now, it's time to think about the project......

Web searching and learning objectives

Week 2

My first reaction to the Week 2 assignments was UPS! We are going to be busy this week!

I have started searching websites for reading skills material. A lot of good things available out there... I wonder why I did not think about using Internet more frequently in the classroom before...Anyway, better late than never! Thanks to the course designers.. I believe that one of the most significant traits of this course is that it makes you think more about teaching...

By the way, another contribution from Sophie above

Week I



I believe a teacher's blog should include something personal to share with their students:))my daughter Sophie and her best friend :)

I have been reading my groupmates' inspiring ideas about the possible ways blogs can be used in the classroom. How thoughtful of Nina to sum up all the important ideas re-the issue. I do think that blogs have a lot of potential for teaching linguistics as well as ELT (I am involved in both of these)

However, I firmly believe that blogging can be successfully used only if it is based on some problem-solving task. This will encourage my students obtain some data, conduct some research, synthesise and come up with the critical analysis of the data.

In ELT blogging can be used even more often. Our discussion on the Nicenet is a good example of this.

My experience of a 'blogbuilder' fully agrees with the well-known opinion according to which people learn better by doing than by reading only. Practice means a lot indeed.

this photo was taken by my daughter, Sophie :)

Week 1 , January 14 getting started with blogging

The first week started with a nice surprise, by creating a blog of my own.

The process was really something to try, especially for a person like me, who is always willing to experiment with new ideas.

I did have some experience of contributing to other people's blogs by adding comments on them but this time it was different.

To be honest, it did not come easy. I even had to seek for advice from my children. My son, as always, was not availbale. My daughter, like gold she is, helped me with my first steps in the world of blogs!!!

Now I am writing my first comment on my own blog! VOW! So exciting! I feel like a student again!

These two weeks have given me a lot to think about.First of all, I have started to think about posibilities of using technologies (including blogs) in the classroom more.

I also found the discussions extremely useful. Once again, they convinced me in usefulness of shariing ideas-'two heads are better than one'. Like Andreja, I also like step-to-step approach to blogs (as well as to anything in this world).

Finally, I have found myself in the position of a learner which is important: teachers often forget how it felt to be a learner.

I am sure we have several weeks of new challenges and new experience ahead.

Let's help each other to become better teachers.

Best wishes to all of you,
Manana