I Love Week 5!

 Hello Everyone!

I love Week 5 in Webskills! Donna is absolutely correct in finding this week her favorite. The thread of discussions in Nicenet is quite longer than the past week’s discussions. I am pretty sure that everyone is enjoying and at the same time learning much from the experience.

The articles on Alternative Assessment, rubrics, project-based learning and Webquests offer great ideas and lead me to some realization of the past assessment practices I and most of our teachers employed to our students. I clearly recalled it was in 2003 when the public schools in our country undertook a major revision in the rating system from 70-100% grading to zero-based rating system. Likewise, alternative form of assessments or performance-based assessments was introduced. These were at first met with resistance especially by most of the teachers who find traditional pen and paper tests their comfort zones. I clearly recalled the popular test types multiple choice, matching type, short answer/completion type, essay type which dominate the test papers of students during periodical examinations. Students were required to write essays during exams, but as how these were evaluated and how points were assigned were not clearly communicated to them. Each of the learning areas required students of projects and some performances requiring oral communications and written outputs however, the scores they got should I say were seemingly “mysterious” and worse, scores largely depend upon teachers’ subjectivity, specifically, on teachers’ moods. Not only an injustice but somewhat funny. Then, being part of the goals of the department to improve teachers’ skills for assessment procedures, several trainings were conducted and I am glad to note that there are changes somehow on teachers’ attitude towards assessment and students now are seen happier than before as they find meaning and connection of the activities they do in school to their life outside school.

Rubistar is one of the week’s best delights. This is a site worth- recommending for teachers specially in our local schools division since one of the concerns which confront teachers in alternative assessment is the preparation of the rubrics. With Rubistar, teachers shall be re-enforced of the categories they need to include and the degree they will set for each condition in assessing certain tasks, thus,  reducing teachers' burden because the site offers array of categories to choose from. What teachers need to do is only to make little revisions so as to fit to the context of the learners.

Webquests is worth trying. From the samples at Zunal.com and Questgarden, I’m sure students will not only learn but enjoy as well. I am thinking about coming up with an online treasure hunt materials for my students, hopefully I will learn the process the soonest time possible. With webquests, students shall be engaged in an interactive academic activity in a much more controlled environment, therefore their access to the internet shall not be solely for games and social networking.

What makes this week more fascinating are the shared ideas and tips from the Webskills participants. I am glad to have been surrounded by and benefit from someone’s kindness. I personally like to thank the following online friends who impact me positively during the week. Let me name a few:

• For pointing out what I need to improve on; for being generously tactful in giving comments; and for giving me a detailed instruction on how to create class wiki, hopefully I can perfectly create one before the classes in the second semester begin.  Thanks a lot Donna.
• For brilliantly illustrated his ideas during discussions at Nicenet; for sharing Markin http://www.cict.co.uk/markin/index.php  which I can study and learn about and eventually be used in the future;  the link http://youtu.be/yQRbUeM6HDM  for a video tutorial so that I can use tables/grids at Nicenet; for sharing the idea about errors and mistakes are “learning steps- the phrase I and my students shall surely love to hear. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Muhammad Rashid.
• For the very nice suggestions on how to improve my students’ writing skills and for extending earnest encouragement so that I can possibly do things right and get best results. My sincerest thanks Olena.
• For the shared ideas and experiences about alternative assessment, PBL and rubrics which stirred me to reflect how am I being a teacher. Thank you so much Letty, BinLi, Ma. Elena, and Sebnem and the rest who I fail to mention.

Week 5 also leaves me a challenge- to create a Webquest at Zunal.com or Questgarden. Well, I miss this extra credit for the week. Perhaps, with more nights of burning midnight candles browsing and making attempts, I can finally create one soon.

Lastly, week 5 offers well taught lessons and these are actually contained inhttp://www.finestquotes.com/select_quote-category-Challenges-page-0.htm through the quotes of William Arthur’s “Failure is not fatal. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. It should challenge us to new heights of accomplishments, not pull us to new depths of despair. From honest failure can come valuable experience”, and Michael F. Staley’s “There is no challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve oneself”.

Indeed, I LOVE WEEK 5! How about you?

REBECCA CASAS SAGOT

Week 4: Humps and Bumps

Hello everyone,

It's better late than never! -  the excuse by those who just arrive or do things on the dot. I hate this but there are circumstances which bar me from doing the things I ought to do my way and at my pace. Week 4 is characterized as a head cracking, nose bleeding and jaw dropping week for me. I literally experienced the strong winds and heavy rains last Monday which shut down the electric  power for almost two days and internet connections for four days. Much as I liked to open and see what's inside my inbox from Webskills course but the situation never worked on my favor. This made my heart pound; take note, not beat but pound. It was Thursday when the internet was finally restored. Who else won't get stressed seeing from the course site the several links to the required readings, plus the three tasks to be accomplished at Nicenet and the blog to post for the week. I figuratively described it a terrible week of multiple tasks ever since the Webskills course started. Honestly, I crammed. It is really not easy to be doing several tasks which all demand time. Good enough I got my hugs from my hubby and kids, and a pat on the shoulders from my peers, then I took a deep breathe and  there gained a sigh of relief.

The articles for the week are simply awesome. These are all giving great ideas on how to conduct technology driven activities in classes.There are websites which are user-friendly, on the other hand, some links are already dead. For the purpose of easy marking of important points, I have all the articles saved in My Delicious Page and have them printed as this also lessen the number of hours my eyes are on the laptop monitor. The articles  Using the Internet in ESL Writing and Emailing to Improve EFL learners' Reading and Writing Abilities: Taiwan Experience were good sources of information for they enumerated the details on improving reading and writing specially in a country where learners are non-native English speakers. I can relate very well to the experience stated by the latter  because it also showed the same picture of our learners in the Philippines specially in the non-urbanized areas. The article on Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books clearly articulates the process on how to make use of E-books in lessons. This is something to be tried yet in our classes, and I find it worth the try.

During Week 2, I considered the crafting of ABCD Objectives to be the most difficult of all the tasks. I messed during my first attempt which caused me to revise my output. I was just glad to have some lifelines (Donna & Muhammad) on the rescue. Now, the ABCD objective tests me again at Nicenet. Every time I set ABCD objectives, I am always apprehensive because I am not used to this, plus for several years that I did not teach full-time in classrooms added to the misery.  Our situation in the local college is, the part-time instructors are just given the prepared syllabus and some reference materials, and the session's plan with objectives already set. This is done because the administrators understand that we have our main jobs and in a way they don't like to burden us so much about lesson preparations. Somehow, I realized that though it has helped me in some aspects, but it also cripples me from doing things creatively. Of all the the tasks this week, I lag on the making of a technology-enhanced lesson plan. I try my best to come up with one even before Oregon's clock strikes at Sunday midnight!

If there are best points I appreciate in this course, these are the ways in making every learner reflective to what has been learnt and how learning can be transferred. The gradual incorporation of new technology in addressing teachers and students' needs are giving me a notion that I am being prepared for a much greater tasks ahead in the course and even by the time the course shall be over. Investigating and re-investigating classroom situations give me as well the opportunity to determine what will go well and what might not go well in my classes and from there identify the need that shall push for some sort of e-innovations.

I remembered Michael Jordan once said and I quote: "Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it."

I have been to humps and bumps... but these make sense because I realized I 'm tougher now!

MABUHAY!

REBECCA

Week 3: Looking back from where I've been....

                I feel pretty good about what I am doing here. Everyday is a new experience to learn and reflect on. Every task accomplished  is an ignition device to carry on. Every comment received is something to ponder on. Every friend is a source of inspiration.

              Week 3 has been a week of multiple tasks. From reading a lot of articles for discussion to the reading and commenting on the past webskills participants' project reports plus the making of  My Delicious Page have made my week so full. For several months, I didn't use my pair of eyeglasses, but gosh! have to wear them back again now but this makes sense somehow!

            It feels good to look back from where I've been. As I accounted what I've done since the first week of the webskills course, I couldn't help but thank God for having given me this opportunity and for bringing me this far, then I thought about our DepEd Division of Davao del Norte's institutional vision which hopes to see our division as one of the premier institutions of learning managed by competent and caring personnel whose learners are value-laden and equipped with academic and technological and life skills. From the time I participated in the crafting of our vision, I had been being honest to feel and think that we lag in developing our teachers and students' technological skills since for several years now, most teachers are still on the basic level in terms of technology utlization. The computerization program in our schools division has been there for about a decade yet it has not gained remarkable feat except to a very few teachers who dared and few students who explored. Being a school principal before and now an education program supervisor, I always have the yearning to see the department vision in a clearer view and .... and I guess, I can start making a difference through courses of actions in simple beginnings.

            Week 3 has offered much. I was so delighted to learn and work on My Delicious Page. As I've said in one my posts at Nicenet, being forgetful goes along with my age thus, my Delicious can be a good buddy in collecting, classifying and organizing my online favorites. Reference materials have always been a problem in the extension university where I teach part-time and Googles was the only search engine I used to access, but now my information need can be best addressed with the engines I knew about from here.I greatly appreciate the links posted by the other participants which I also saved in my Delicious. Simply awesome!

            The articles for aural/oral skills are good reference for activities that can be done in the classes of various levels while using the technology. At Nicenet, I discussed about The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills. The article provided me with insights about the advantages of using the technology (internet) in enhancing the speaking skills of my students who are non-native speakers of English as it likewise enumerated disadvantages which cautioned me to come up with measures should things don't happen the way I expect them to be. I also appreciate Mingya Zhou on his reply to me at Nicenet, that was not a just mere reply because it gave me an idea on how to improve the synchronous online discussion which I will again conduct with another set of classes this second semester.

              If there is something that gave me clearer view of where I am heading, they are the project reports of the previous webskills course participants. Even if we differ in the type of learners and settings, as well as differ in the goals set, but in some aspect, there is a sort of parallelism of the context we try to drive out. The project report of Prem Bahadur Phyak of Tribhudan University, Kathmandu, Nepal is a source of inspiration and challenge specially for me and the teachers in schools where technology can be available. Prem's way of beating the odds is very commendable.

               Just a day away, and Week 3 in webskills shall be over.... with a pocketful of learning gained from this course, I cannot stop looking back from where I've been and whisper to myself.... "I am lucky!"

REBECCA CASAS SAGOT