Week 10 reflections - What changed in my teaching carreer after taking this course?

Dear all,

When we started this course, in my first post I wrote  "What impact this new way of learning and teaching will have in my carreer as a young teacher?"

Well, I must say that it changed a lot. After being introduced to so many new technology tools and after starting to use technolgy in class I must say that first of all it had a very postitive impact.

 

In my first post during week one I pointed out that I work in the High School of Visual Arts in Gjilan, Kosova, which is a vocational school. Unfortunately, many students in this vocational high school said: "Why do we have to learn English, we are here only to learn a craft." I saw that they weren't motivated to learn something new, in this case English.

 

As I mentioned above, in this course we have been introduced and learned about many technological tools and how to use them. When I started to use the web for the first time with my students, I got a very positive response from their part (a thing that I never expected that would happen so soon). When for the first time I asked them to send their homework to me by e- mail, I noticed that they were interested to do it and began to come more prepared in English classes.

 

As we continued to learn new things,  I always tried to apply technology in class, even though it wasn't always possible because of the lack of computers and internet at school. But, after learning especially  how to use one computer in the clasroom, I immediately began to  prepare lessons with the interactive powerpoint, as for now it is the only way to include technology in class.

In additon to this, amongst  many great tools and webs  I started to use Nicenet and Blog with my students.  Two very new tools to students and also to me.  I plan to always use them in my teaching because they help students to inhance their writing and communication skills as well.

It was a great opportunity for me to have the chance to learn about how to use techology in class. I learned so many new things and I really hope that I will be able to use them in the near future as in Kosovo the schools still aren't digitized, and during winter we have a lot of problems also with eletricity. But, however , fortunately I atchieved my main goal, to motivate the students. Thanks to this course I learned how to integrate  technology in class appropriately and I saw that students began to feel motivated and started to come regularly to English classes.

 

Finally, I want to state that I feel very privileged and lucky for having the chance to work and to exchange my experince with so many great teachers from all over the world. I have learned a lot from all of you.

 

I want to thank Robert in particular. During all these weeks he was very supportive and helpful. He is a great teacher, and especially liked the way he gave his feedback.

 

Good luck to all of you in your future teaching!

 

Warm regads from Kosovo,

Blerta