Week8

Exploring more tools and finishing the 1st Draft 

This week's task on Nicenet is to select the most appropriate tool to create some exercises to get students more opportunities to collaborate with a teacher. As I have already had my own class website on Google Sites, I tried a new tool which is Padlet. It is going to be an online class board for sharing and posting interesting files, videos, downloadable handouts relevant to my English class.The link to my classroom Padlet board is http://padlet.com/supapornm1/uuy2fwjf45z1 . It is easy to creat a Padlet and easy to use, too. Moreover, I made vocabulary exercises online to print out from http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/general_content/free_resources/teachers_corner/wordsearch/wordSearch.jsp, which is easy to use and allows me to create vocabulary puzzle just a click away. There are many suggested websites to facilitate material preparation of the teacher who wants to make a classroom funnier with games and to offer students interactive online activities. I hope to explore more next time.

This week, most of my time has been spent on finishing my first draft of the project report and peerreviewing. I would say that time flies so quickly -- I can't believe we are approching the finishline. I just finished peerreviwing Lina's 1 st draft report and she did an excellent job to make her report clear and elaborately written. Following the project report checklist for a peerreview, I have realized some weakpoints of my report. I've not made my report clear enough and missed to answer several questions. Lina, I am sorry -- please be patient with me and my report:)

Regarding using infographics in my class, I'm sure that I will incorperate it in some other language learning activities in the future. Fortunately, I've found a website for interactive infographics and it must help make my students more excited to learn English with interactive infographics. Here is one (http://magazine.good.is/infographics/vitamin-atlas#open)  that I'm going to bring to my class in the near future (after a mid-term exam week), please have a look and think about how you would apply it into your classroom.

Ta, Thailand

Week 7

Keep learning and shining

To encourage learner autonomy in language learning, Little (n.d) proposes three pedagogical principles: learner involvement, learner reflection and appropriate target language use. That means the teacher should involve students in good learning activities that allow collaboration among students and are motivating and meaningful to the students. The teacher should promote students in planning, monitoring and evaluating learning by their own, for example, by making them complete a journal entry to assess the past learning and plan for future action. Most importantly, a target language should be a medium of language learning both inside and outside the classroom. In practice, to make students autonomous learners who can take charge of their own learning may consume time and need contribution from both teacher and students. The students need to be guided and supported by the teacher and then they will gradually move toward an independent learning.

Language learning activities that allow students to freely exercise their voice and choice should be included in the classroom. Through an activity such as writing a learning log  or reflection on an online blog, it will also enable the students to develop to autonomous learners bit by bit. Moreover, creating positive attitudes towards English language learning must be concerned and by making language fun, motivating and meaningful, the students will enjoy learning English both in a formal classroom teaching and outside the classroom on their own pace.

To sum up, fostering learner autonomy is an important goal in language learning classroom. We as language teachers should create classroom learning which helps our students become more autonomous as we are not going to nurture and accompany them throughout life.

Regarding the technology-related change I have implemented with my class, I can say that my students did quite well in trying out using Canva's drag and drop tool  to create their first infographic. After watching a brief Canva tutorial presentation (available from Youtube), they learned quickly to use the tool and make use of elements available. However, some of them asked for more time to make the better-looking one. I allowed them to continue their work as homework. In addition, I spared half an hour to prepare them for the next activity "Creating infographic" which requires them to do online search gathering reading texts and presenting what they learn into a comprehensible infographic. To begin with, I divided them into a group of 4-5, then I had them select one "eco-jargon" from the list to study (this is part of a "Beyond Classroom" assignment, Unit 2 Environmental Issues) , afterward I assigned a leader of the group to create a file on Google Docs and share it with the members and me. Using Google Docs allows group members to collaboratively work together gathering reading texts to study and prepare contents to present, and finally we talked about the rubric so that the students can use it as a guide to reach the set criteria. I can't wait to appreciating their infographics.

Keep going and learning. Always have a smile on your face:)

Ta, Thailand

Week 6

Project Step

This week as usual I have learned new things useful for me and my students. Many interesting teaching techniques for managing a large class have been shared on the discussion board. Clearly, it is important that teachers should employ teaching techniques that can foster active engagement to help the students learn better and enjoy learning. Cooperative and collaborative learning activities, for example, allow students to work together and construct knowledge. In addition, small group activities not only reduce students' anxiety but also promote social skill development. Apart from those creative techniques, the content of language teaching materials has to be relevant to students' needs and interests to make learning meaningful to them.

Again, technology like PowerPoint can be included in the classroom and by making it become an interactive presentation, it could be a tool to draw attentions and increase students' participation in learning process. Different kinds of media should be wisely included in PowerPoint to appeal to different learning styles. Personally, I have learned a method to make PowerPoint presentations interactive with games using action buttons. It is the first time for me to be able to make a plain-looking PowerPoint become more lively and interactive to get the students more engaged with what is being taught. I intend to learn more about different ways to make PowerPoint presentation interactive.

Regarding the implementation of technology-related change, I have chosen 'infographics' to resolve my students' reading competence. After spending time to search about using infographics in education, I have become clear to begin my plan.

This week I have introduced my students an overview of infographics. I have used a PDF file made by Short (2013) from http://www.cabarrus.k12.nc.us/cms/lib09/NC01910456/Centricity/Domain/6052/exportable_infographic.pdf to present facts and details about infographics to my class. Due to time constraints and a tight schedule making it impossible to complete the first task in the classroom, I have assigned the students to do an out-of-class activity, Exploring Infographics. This task aims to have students take their time noticing different models of infographic designs and layouts meanwhile getting them engaged with the reading texts of their interest.

The objective of  the first task is: Exploring infographics samples from http://dailyinfographic.com/, students will be able to choose one infographic, draw at least 4 information/facts they get from it and state at least 3 statements how the use of graphics including the design, the use of fonts, color can contribute to how they feel about the information.

It is expected that after exploring a variety of infographic examples, the students will be able to create their own infographic to present an issue or topic they are studying.

Next week, I'm planning to involve them in a step to create an infographic.

Week 5

A half way home

The 5th week's reading assignments have given me a clear picture of the implementation of a Project-Based Learning in EFLsettings. To implement PBL in the classroom, it requires a careful step-by-step collaboration between a teacher and students. I think that when involving students in a learning process, we as a teacher have to work so hard to handle and manage things well enough. In practice, it is possible that we cannot make every single student satisfied, so it may be alright to just look for better, not the best. To successfully implement PBL, it also means that our students have to prepare themselves to be active learners. They need to stand up to express themselves and share their voice. However, many Thai EFL students are dependent learners and they rarely express themselves confidently in the classroom. That's going to be my job to tackle this problem finding a way to encourage them to participate more in PBL classroom.

Besides, to make students participate more in classroom, the role of authentic assessment or alternative assessment is important. By focusing on students' performance, it gives students more opportunities to gradually develop themselves along the way to the learning destination. A rubric is therefore needed to help guide the students to self-check whether they are moving to the right way to the expected learning outcomes. There are many tools online to help teachers create a rubric. Many rubrics shared make it easier teachers to choose and make use of ones they are interested in. Honestly, I would like to thank all teachers and educators who have shared their experiences and provided many useful materials, instruction ideas and the things relevant to English language education, including rubrics online. They are all useful and helpful.

About a technology-related solution that I am going to implement to help my students increase their reading skill, I have decided to use "infographics" to be as a learning tool to extend my students' reading experience and ability. Apart from improving my students' English skill, I have my own expectation to make my students have some content knowledge so that they can catch up with what is going on outside of the classroom wall. An infographic presents contents in an attractive way and can surely attract my students's attention. They then will be motivated to read and learn in an enjoyable way. However, I expect them to be able to share thier knowledge by creating infographic as a way to check their understanding towards what they have read, too. It's going to be a right tool for my students, I hope.

Now, I'm learning how to creat an infographic using www.canva.com, though I find http://piktochart.com/ and http://www.easel.ly/ more user-friendly. Well, I've chosen 'canva' because it is more challenging. Anyway, I may change my idea -- I am not sure. Just give myself a trial and error.

Ta, Thailand