My reflections on Web Skills - Week 5

Hi Courtney and other colleagues,

Greetings.

I am really happy to reflect on the practices for the Week 5 related to Rubrics, Project-based Learning and Technology - related change and Web Quest, etc.

Firstly,  I learnt several things about the requirements of teacher through the article 'Alternative assessment' from NCLRC.  The article highlighted the following issues:

1. The methodology of teaching English
2. Survival tips for the new teacher
3. Teaching Portfolios
4.Reflective practices
5. Communicative competence
6.Learner-centered Instruction
8.Guidelines for instruction
9. Setting Lesson goals
10. Identifying resources
11. Learner Motivation
12. Alternative Assessment
13. Teaching different skills of the language such as Grammar, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.

I learnt the techniques and rubrics for making an effective teaching through the article.  Further, it makes us more conscious and cautious about the different requirements from the teachers of English in order to excel in the profession.  I accessed the web tool 'Rubistar' and created an account and the rubrics for my class dealing with Reading for clarification - Summarizing the given reading passage.  The rubrics made the ideas on a particular task more clear and the ways of assessing the individual learner more transparent.

Secondly, I read the articles related to Project Based Learning which gave more insights on the topics to be dealt in the classroom and the ways of making the final project using PBL.  I watched several videos of the PBL based projects done by the students and  amazed by the quality of work involved.  Further, the questions from the instructor had aroused my interest on the topic PBL about the implementation.  Her questions such as how to motivate the learners using PBL?, Technology driven classroom using PBL and the limitations for implementing in the classroom? , What is the role of rubrics / Alternative Assessment using PBL? and How to promote independent learning using PBL?  had made me think beyond and to find out possible solutions in the task.

Thirdly, I read the methods of making Web Quest through several articles and video clippings.  I created an account in webquest but it needs more internalization before adding more values to the concept of creating web quest.   I followed the information from zunal.com and found interesting.  The webquests are really a handy tool for making the classroom more interactive and technology -driven.  I visited the web quest of my colleague and very much impressed with her work.  I discussed this information with the students and stated how technology can be made use of teaching - learning purposes.  I had shown some videos  of the project based learning of the kinder garten school children piloted the PBL and the web quest related to 'finding an apartment'  and listened the experiences of the teaching fraternity through 'thirteen.org' .  All the video clippings are really impressive and made me to create a wonderful webquest for my class.

Finally, I discussed the project step 4 on how the technology create a change in the potential project of mine in the future, though I have not discussed completely about the solutions.  But the week 5 of Web skills course had really grilled the inner thoughts to achieve perfection in the profession.  I whole heartedly thank Prof.Courtney and her team for bringing such a "CHANGE" in all of us... which led us to the best.

S.Sankarakumar