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Saturday, October 17, 2015

Module 5 "Presenting your Blog and sharing your experience"

Dear EFL Blogging School Participants, 

The fifth Module of the course, entitled "Presenting your Blog and sharing your experience", aimed to  guide participants will be guided how: 

to establish and maintain an online partnership with the online mentor,
 present his/her blog during the project closing event in Chisinau,
 be in charge of organizing a 25-45 min workshop to share from his / her experience on the project,
 organize a training for 10-15 teachers and educators in his/her home region.

 This way, In January your blog will:

 be prepared to be presented in public at the project final event,
 reflect everything you learned during the project,
 include your teaching portfolio, students sample work, lesson plans, teaching advice, bibliography for students etc. 


To accomplish Module 5 goals, you will need to complete the following assignments:
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Module 4 "Enhancing the blog as a teaching tool Blogging: Off we go!"


Dear EFL Blogging School Participants, 

The fourth Module of the course, entitled "Creating an EFL class/school blog and involving student", aimed to  guide participants to integrate into teaching: 


-Projects
-E-Portfolio

-On-line Tools in lesson plans
-Blogs as assessing tools (rubrics). 

This way, this Module is dedicated to:

turning the blog into a teaching tool,
 enhancing the blog with tools for EFL teaching and learning,
 integrating the blog into daily teaching practice,
 adjusting the blog to school curricula,
 combining classroom teaching with online teaching, and 
actively involving students in posting on the blog (complete tasks, post comments, submit homework etc.)



To accomplish Module 4, you will need to complete the following Assignments:
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Module 3 "Involving students in the EFL class/school blog"

Dear EFL Blogging School Participants, 

The third Module of the course, entitled "Involving students in the EFL class/school blog", aimed to  guide participants to apply in teaching: 

Dictionaries MWvisual, thefreedictionary, visuwords
 Polls Monkey Survey, Google Polls
 Video Teaching Tools UTube, Teacher Tube, Jenny ESL
 Speaking Production Tools Prezi, Slideshare+audio




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Module 2 "Video production for EFL blogging and approaches in involving students online"

Dear EFL Blogging School Participants, 

The second Module of the course, entitled "Video production for EFL blogging and approaches in involving students online", aimed to  guide participants to apply in teaching: 


 Video Production Tools Movie maker, Voicethread, Voki

 Writing Production Tools Dvolver, Tagxedo, Fodey

 Graphic Production Glogster, Pininterest

 Easy solutions for busy teachers ReadWriteThink.
 Approaches to involve students online.




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Module 1 "Introduction into EFL Blogging Basics"


Dear EFL Blogging School Participants, 

The first Module of the course, entitled "Introduction into EFL blogging Basics", aimed to  guide participants to: 

 exchange introductions and become familiar with the group environments
 try tools for synchronous communication to be used during the project
 answer a survey to determine their previous experience with blogging
 add themselves to the group map
 visit the group blog
 discuss the concept of a blog (and distinguish it from "website" and "wiki", and 
 analyze various EFL blogs and the ways these are used to enhance EFL teaching and learning.


To accomplish Module 1, you will need to complete the following Assignments:


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October 19, 2015: Welcome to Online Module 1 "Introduction into EFL Blogging Basics"

Dear EFL Blogging School Participants, 

    Starting from October 19, 2015, we would like to invite you to take part in the online instructive process of the first Module of the course, entitled "Introduction into EFL blogging Basics", aimed to  guide participants during 4 weeks to: 


 exchange introductions and become familiar with the group environments
 try tools for synchronous communication to be used during the project
 answer a survey to determine their previous experience with blogging
 add themselves to the group map
 visit the group blog
 discuss the concept of a blog (and distinguish it from "website" and "wiki", and 
 analyze various EFL blogs and the ways these are used to enhance EFL teaching and learning.

To accomplish Module 1, you will need to complete the following 4 Assignments. 


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Opening Ceremony of the "EFL Blogging School for Moldovan Teachers" Project


In October 2015, 25 EFL teachers from 18 regions of Moldova have joined the "EFL Blogging School for Moldovan Teachers" Project, Second Edition, financially supported by US Embassy to Moldova and successfully implemented by American Councils for International Education Moldova.
On this occasion, on October, 10 the project participants attended the Opening Ceremony, hosted by “B.P. Hasdeu” Municipal Library, aimed to initiate the teachers in:

  •  the successful highlights of the "EFL Blogging School" Project, Edition 1, presented by Daniela Munca-Aftenev,
  • project structure and timeline, course requirement, project syllabus and curriculum components, presented by Olga Morozan, and 
  • online platforms to develop students’ reading, writing and speaking skills, presented by Corina Ceban.  

The most honorable guest of the event was Kate Bartlette, Assistant Public Affairs Officer, US Embassy to Moldova, who greeted all participants and wished them wonderful experience during  the 5-month instruction. 



                                                         

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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Teacher Trainers' Assignment 2: Tips and Tools for the Successful Online Teaching Facilitation


                                            
                         Dear EFL Blogging School teacher trainers, 
Teaching in the online environment is quite different from teaching in the classroom and as such has a number of unique characteristics and limitations. This week we will learn a few practical tips and techniques necessary for a successful online teaching experience.


Task 1: Read the ”22 Tips For Better Teaching Online” and the ”25 Tips For Successful Online Course Facilitation” articles and select 5 tips which you believe are the most important ones when it comes to moderating an online course, such as our EFL Blogging School Project. 

Task 2: Online teaching strategies. Which of the 10 strategies listed below are you planning to use when you moderate your modules as part of the EFL Blogging School Project and why? Give examples following similar online models included in the list below: 


  • Mentoring was used HERE and HERE to connect Moldovan educators to American educators online, through Skype and Google Hangouts. 
  • Collaborative learning was used HERE to offer American students the opportunity to comment on the projects created by Moldovan students from ASEM. 
  • Case studies were used in Assignment 13, Task 2 (this method was used to provide participants with practical examples necessary to understand what a final project result would look like)
  • Peer to peer learning was used in Assignment 8 (Sample projects created by your colleagues section) and in Assignment 4, Task 3 (this method aimed to encourage participants to learn with and from each other)
  • Self-directed learning was used in Assignment 2, Task 3 (this method was used to help participants become autonomous learners)

 Task 3: Tools for screen recordings. As our EFL Blogging School participants work on their blogs, they often need technical advice on how to build, organize and publish their online portfolios. We can use Google Hangouts and the Screenshare option to demonstrate in practice how to accomplish a series of technical tasks, like adding a video to a blog post, embedding a picture slideshow or inserting hyperlinks for example. In addition to Google Hangouts, there are other online tools which allow us to record our screens as we work on a blog, save the recording and share it with participants, so that they can use it as a tutorial. Explore the free platforms listed below, record a short tutorial while you work on your blog for example and post the link in the ”Comments” section below. For example, I made this tutorial for one of the educators from the Institute of Education Sciences using Screencast, saved it on YouTube and then shared it by email:



c) JING (Tutorial)

Task 4: Let's explore all the possibilities of Google Hangouts. In order for us to connect to our EFL Blogging School participants and record our online meetings, we used Google Hangouts on Air. Explore the resources below and write 10 things that Moldovan educators could do using this amazing online tool.



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Teacher Trainers' Assignment 1

Dear EFL Blogging School teacher trainers, 

 This week we would like to propose to discuss about:
 the project structure and timeline, project syllabus and curriculum components, and E-learning guidelines for trainers and mentors, such as tips for developing and assessing online assignments.
Enjoy discovering!
Task 1. Analyze the following links:


  
and identify: 
  • 5 project instructive modules; 
  • 2-3 challenges the project participants will meet while studying this content;
  • 2-3 solutions you would recommend as methodological tools to address the above-mentioned challenges, based on your prior experience as a teacher trainer. 
Task 2. Based on the information you find presented in the resources below, choose 1 methodological approach you consider as most interesting and effective to apply in teaching your online training content. Give 2-3 reasons to explain your choice.  



Task 3. One of the essential element to consider in developing an E-course is how formulate correctly the Assignment tasks, and select the learning resources.  Scan the links to look for some useful tips for your teaching style, 

 

Example of Online Assignments: 
  1. online rsources to study
  2. what the students should do
  3. how they should achieve this objective, and 
  4. to what extend (how much). 


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Tuesday, October 13, 2015

ASSIGNMENT 8: Bridging the Skills Gap in Multilevel and Mixed Ability Classes. Integrating Web 2.0 Tools

                                                           Dear EFL Blogging School Participants,

   One of the big challenges that teachers face today is large multilevel classes, because even if the learners are grouped according to their level of language, age, or other kind of grouping, any class, in a sense, is a mixed-level group. Teaching large multilevel classes effectively is a concern for most teachers.  
    This week we are going to discuss about large multilevel classes and some strategies to manage such classes. We will also try to see how integrating Web 2.0 tools can help us teach in these large multilevel classes.



Task 1. Study  the resources posted below to find out more information about the problems multilevel classes arise, and the most efficient principles to cope with these challenges:  




and write a 5-phrase paragraph on: 
1      1. what  a large multilevel class is (1 phrase); 
       2. what  the benefits and challenges of teaching such classes are (refer to your own teaching            experience (think of the classes you teach) (2 phrases); 
      3. what principle(s) will be most challenging to implement into your large multilevel classes.  Give      reasons and examples why you think so (2 phrases).   

Task 2. The following resources emphasize on the importance of approaching multilevel classes through the effective classroom management, the cooperative learning, the differentiation, or through offering clear instructions. 
Analyze the strategies and approaches below, and create a personal methodlogical strategy on  approaching the issues you meet  in teaching one current multilevel group of students (if not, create an imaginary one). 

Your answer should include the following: 
1) The students' grade: 

2) The issues you are facing due to their multilevel character: a)... , b)..., c)... 

3) Efficient approaches to apply to address these issues:  a)... b)... c)... 
4) Concrete strategies and techniques to use while tecahing this mixed ability group: a)... b)... c)... 
                                                                            



Task 3.   Scan through the following online resources, and extract for yourself the main ideas on developing instructive activities for multilevel classes:
 Then, following  your "Teaching Multilevel Class Strategy"  developed in Task 2,  choose one topic you will teach in December to your multilevel group,  and design an instructive activity which will engage all levels of your students from this assigned group, and involve one online tool you studied in Module 2.  
Use the same content (text, audio file, video, etc.) for each level but with appropriately differentiated tasks.  Publish this activity on your blog, including compulsorily: 

 1. a 1-paragraph message for your students to introduce them into the topic and general description of the activity explained in a simple and a clear language.  This will include details referring to: 
  the name and a short description of the activity; the language skills the students will reach out at the end of this activity, being differentiated to each students' level (for e.g,. by the end of this activity level 1(elementary)  students will be able to ..., level 2 ( pre-intermediate) students will be able to..., and level 3 ( intermediate) students will be able to...  
  
 2.  an instructive material(s)  you will propose your students to work with/on ( a video, a text, an audio file, a picture, etc.);

 3. 1-2 differentiated instructive task(s) for each level, while working on/with the instructive material(s).  
  
Additional resources: 

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