Week 3. 
This week  I learned  Using Delicious.com to Store Useful Links  and  read some  articles about CALL for listening, speaking, or pronunciation skills. I also have a chance to  take a quick look at some of the lesson plans for both skills.  I read  Lindsey Miller's article about 'Developing Listening Skill with Authentic Materials' which provides me with important  information about the aims and advantages of using real English conversations or speech such as news on radio or TV for the learners. It affirms me that I have been doing a right thing for my intermediate  listening class where students listened to  a real Englih conversation downloaded from YouTube as my listening materials. The article, however, reminds me that I have to be more focused in determining the listening tasks for the students. The second article 'New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation', by Maria Busa, also affirms me that using linguistic perspective can help teacher teach pronunciation in a more effective way. In teaching pronunciation or helping student's pronunciation, I often contrast or compare some English sounds with the equivalent Arabic sounds for  English words containing such sound as  [ð] as in the English words 'they, though'.   This technique is very effective, especially for the Muslim students as  they also learn Qoran and Arabic language.

I also have searched and checked several websites which provide me with great ideas about English teaching and lesson plans. One of the best websites, besides the ones I usually use, http://esl.about.com/od/teachingenglish/u/teach.htm. I can see that this would be best for the second language learner to learn listening and speaking. It  is very  a good source for both teachers and  students as there  are different activities to go through.  The URL, the 'English as 2nd Language' , is a good reference and resource to help us understand the basics of being an English teacher and develop our understanding of teaching techniques. It includes step-by-step instructions of writing lesson plans and provides classroom handouts by learner level and topic area. One teaching idea mentioned here is using YouTube for teaching listening. You can check the http://esl.about.com/od/listeninglessonplans/a/youtube.htm. It is appropriate for intermediate students.  I think http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/speaking/teaching-ideas/is a best web for teachers. It provides us with lots of ideas for teaching speaking.

This week I also had a chance to discuss with my students about using web technology for the listening class and use them as audience for my final project. I was so glad finding that the students   were very enthusiastic and so eager to create their own blog and the class blog. I believe that it's a good start! After the class, we took a picture together showing our enthusiasm for the class.

My Intermediate Listening Class

Students of Intermediate Listening class are watching an Oprah Winfrey's talk show downloaded  by a student to be discussed in the classroom.  They will be the audience of my webskills class and my final project.



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Week 2: Moving forward

This week I learn about two different things: using different search engines on internet and writing objectives of teaching. Articles about types of search engines and the tips to search web are very valuable since they do not only provide me with important information about different search engines but also help me realized that so far I have used the internet without really pay attention to the types of search engines I used. I nave never really thought of the engine types and the effective method of searching.

Writing articles about teaching objectives and the ABCD Model make me realized my weaknesses in teaching. Although I always write a syllabus for every subject I teach, I , however, never really consider the right terms to use for the cognitive objective. Thinking of applying a technology to my class and writing the teaching objectives using the model is very exciting. I am planning to ask my students to make and use a class blog in my Intermediate Listening class for the rest of this semester. The blog is intended as a media to enhance their learning behavior and improve their listening skills and at the same time develop their writing and speaking ability. The students will use the blog to post a video of their own about different topics. I limit the topics to ones about Minangkabau culture and tradition (food, arts, practices. The students will share their videos on the blog and also present and discuss them in the class. They will learn to use the Google map and create their own map to show where their video are made.

Week 1: Reflection

The first week is very exciting but also challenging. There are lots of information  about the course and how the participants could participate in.  I  used the first three days of this week for observing what is really going on and trying to follow  the instruction. Although  this period is quite hard, especially because I jumped to  building my reflective blog while at the same time signed in to the nicenet, I learned through it.   I found articles about using blog and google map for teaching English are very inspiring. I think I would  use them as well for my listening and writing classes. I believe that  my students will  also be very excited  as I am and find  them very useful for themselves.  I have to work hard to do this as my students are now in their mid-term exam and will have a two weeks mid-term break  after that. How..?
Anyway, I  am glad realizing that I have this blog. Yes, I have started it already. Here I am now, writing for my first post on my reflective blog. Amazing....