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