Week 10 Overview of the course

Dear all,

I can't find the words to say how grateful I am to this e-course. First of all it was my first experience of distance learning. I was a little bit nervous at the very beginning, and thought I would fail. But thanks to clear instructions, realistic objectives, appealing topics for discussion, and presentation of innovative teaching ideas I tried to do everything possible to move further and learn more. I learned much from Deborah and Sandra, from our professional guest moderators, and from all the participants.
As I have already mentioned at Nicenet posting, it is impossible for me to decide what topics were most successful because they all relate to my teaching practice and relevant to what I do. Each week there was a little discovery for both me as a teacher and me as a learner because each week was very specific, full of interesting ideas, innovative teaching techniques and tools.

I would like to thank our instructors for:
Clear, measurable and realistic objectives
Helpful resources
Effective course management
Efficient Evaluation System
Interactive classroom design
Innovative teaching ideas
Providing the self-directed learning
Helpful samples/templates

Thanks to this course I am inspired to start a series of workshops for the teachers on different topics we discussed throughout the e-course to share the teaching ideas, modern techniques, and opportunities the technology gives to improve the methods of teaching.
As for my future expectations, it will take some time, but I will continue to increase my levels of teaching innovations I implement more advanced technological techniques. I am grateful for this course's ability to introduce me to both the technological opportunities for teachers but also the teaching methodologies related to using mentioned techniques.

It was such a pleasure to work with you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you all,
Best regards,
Luba from Kazakhstan

WEEK 9 Weekly Reflection

Hello all,

Another challenging and busy week passed. We are too close to the end of the course now which makes me sad, but at the same time satisfied with all the job I did throughout this course.
Last week I kept working on the "Village Outreach Teachers Training" project as a facilitator/instructor. It took so much time and effort, but all the effort was worth it. It's such a pleasure to see the real results of your work...I hope our instructors who did so much for us would feel the same next week.
Last week I managed to generate a true or false test using one of the resources offered by our instructors, unfortunately I failed to create a crossword activity because of Internal Server Error. But it was just an attempt; I will have many opportunities later on, I am sure. Those websites make the teachers' lives easier, save much time and energy, help to create more interesting and interactive classrooms. Thanks to this e-course I know about them and will definitely advise other teachers to use them as well.
I am also happy I finished working on my final project report. I want to thank Manana for her Peer Review; her advice helped me a lot to change things and make my project report better.

Thank you,
Luba

WEEK 8 It's hard to believe this week is over

Hello all!!!

I am happy one of the busiest weeks is over. It seems as if it took me forever to cope with all the week tasks because I had only 2 days to do it.
Currently I take part in "Village Outreach Teachers Training" project as one of 3 facilitators. We go to villages which are lack of access to native speakers (culture/linguistic sources) and current teaching resources. Therefore, students in these regions are limited in skills which could aid in upward mobility. The priority of this project is to enable local teachers to provide exemplary teaching to use in their everyday work.
Though the week was busy, I still had a chance to learn much from the articles offered for reading as well as the ideas posted by other participants. What I like about the format of our e-course is that we try to apply all presented ideas in practice; it makes me feel I learn something "real", something that will work well for my teaching practice later on. This week I created another lesson plan I would definitely use with my students. I also thought a lot about learner autonomy and activities that would encourage students self-directed learning.
As for the draft project report, I want to say special thanks to our instructors for giving clear instructions and providing us with template, check list and rubric. All these make learners' life easier.

Thank you
Best regards,
Luba