Manal’s Blog

As a grade five English language teacher, I admit that I face alot of bumps when I assign my students any writing assignments. Let alone grammar, sentnece structure, or even vocabulary issues, spelling has become a true nightmare in my teaching.

Most of my students do not bother to read, and if they do, they target the most crucial reading assignments, and they do so in a superficial manner. They do not attempt to understand, analyze or even try to guess word meanings. This is affecting their spelling skills, as well. I often pause at words and try to figure out what a student is trying to say, and at times, I gaze at those novelty words, doubting my own knowledge of the language.

I do give my students some justifications, however, because of the English alphabetic system itself. Let me state some below:

• different spelling for identical sounds are as twice more as different pronunciations for similar, even identical letters.

For example: The /EE/ sound can be spelled in the following formats:

me, peep, weap, ski, key, police, chief, weird, here, people, etc..

Almost half of the English language spelling difficulties are caused by four problems:

1. unsystematic consonnet doubling:
2. unpredictable spelling of the /EE/ sound
3. unpredictable spelling of the /O/ sound
4. unpredictable spelling of the /OO/ sound

It is a well-known fact that the average English-speaking child could need almost three times more to learn the basics of reading and writing than users of another alphabetic system (Seymour, British Journal of Psychology, 2003) After all, to qualify as a moderately competent speller of Enlgish, one needs to memorize over 3700 words with some unpredictable spellings. No other European language has more than 1000 unpredicatble spellings. (Bell, Understanding English Spelling, 2004)

Wow …  wow… wow…

Being done with 811, I am more comfortable using my laptop, and not just to create PPP or word documents and getting all creative with them, but also with completing intricate assignments and actually receiving good marks for most of them.

I have never been sleep-deprived as much before, not for even for my IB. However, it was worth every sleepless night for me to know that my instructors approve and appreciate the work I have synthesized.

I was also pleased to integrate many of the skills and much of the knowledge I came to acquire the past term in CEP 811. I always referred back to ISTE, Brabec, and Brophy standards as well as, netiquette, Zhao, and I still managed to use my netvibes for more informational enrichment.

I do believe that great credit goes back to the great sequential curriculum and to my instructors. They have set great examples for me to maximize my efforts and reach my utmost potential.

My greatest accomplishments this semester were the StAIR project, my blog and creating my own website. My StAIR took forever to finish but when it did, it was a revelation to me, not because it was perfect (it wasn’t) but because I could actually finish it and have it ready for use in a classroom.  My blog was not a hassle really, but it gave me universal voice to communicate with others. Sometimes, I leave a comment on someone’s blog and I am happy to see later that someone from another person whom I do not know comments back on what I said. It is great that at such time of world clashes, we from all over the world can still meet somewhere and discuss our perspectives. My website is my new baby. It parts are compiling and I am sure that when 812 is over, it will be much richer than it is at the moment.

The CEP program at MSU has rectified my misconceptions on educational technology that was formed when I worked under inefficient administration who claimed to use, while in fact it misused, technology. I am grateful for the fact that this fallacy of mine was not only set right, but it also allowed me to explore both technological challenges and personal potentials.  

The great aspect of this program is that it does not teach you everything. It stimulates your curiosity and employs your frustration to explore other dimensions of the lessons and applications in order to reach your goals and satisfy inquisitiveness.

I am no longer a total digital immigrant, not am I a pure digital citizen. I am maybe in the process of acquiring the green card. J I hope I will evolve enough in order to serve my educational objectives while teaching anywhere in the globe.

Online Learning is the learning process which employs technology and internet-based toools to reach an educational objective. This experience could serve in instruction, communication and evaluation. However, it needs to abide to certain characteristics: Collaboration, integration, sustainability, life-long learning skills, teacher involvement and online ethics and safety. I will discuss only a couple of online learning experiences in light of those traits: RSS and LMS.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is viewed by some people as a tool and not as an independent learning experience on its own as it integrates none of the online learning characteristics. However, I believe it involves some of those traits. By using RSS, one is employing life-long learning skills as they are being updated around the clock on topics of their interest. There is sort of collaboration as students could share their updates with others. Because one can choose the ares on which they want to be posted, we could say that RSS involves integration too. The RSS tool can not be fully used at once as it is a cumulative process, and hence, we could say that sustainability is one critrion of using RSS.

As for LMS, the Learning Management System, I can say that it meets alot of the online experience standards. First, it is all about collaborations with all the forums and discussions that take place due to this online experience. Second, LMS could be molded to support any subject and any method of pedagogy, which conforms to the integration element. Third, LSM makes the virtual environment in which technology tools are used, and that is another online learning characteristc required, sustainability. Also, using LMS, such as moodle, enhances students’ proficiencies and makes them embrace onlive and communication skills. Finally, in such systems, the teacher is always involved in the learning process by supporting, assessing and giving feeback.

There are other criteria that can not be controlled all the time such as online ethics and safety, which should not rule out RSS and LMS as very good online learning experiences.

We teachers are in a constant race with technology in order to keep out students interested in our teachings. One method I believe keeps my students stimulated and involved is visualization. As a teacher of literature, it not always a picnic to relate Shakespearean plots to today’s digital citizens’ lives.

One tool that made a difference in my classroom and helped me keep the students interested is having them, with the help of Google Earth, see with their own eyes places that existed hundreds of years ago, and demonstrate to them events that took place in those areas and how those places affected the plot and characters fates, actions and thoughts.It is deal when a fully-3D world and an immersive, virtual-reality experience are most important, just like in the follwoing situation.

Let’s take Shakespeare’s “Anthony and Cleopatra” as an example. Instead of redundantly reciting to students the countries the Roman Empie had reigned, I could show them those countries. With the new feature of going back in time, I could show them the Roman Empire that needed years to conquer most of the world, with a click of a button on the clock icon. This feature allows students to see how the place looked like then, during the following years, and how it is like today.

Google earth also helps me visualize themes and symbols to students. Anthony, the celebrated Roman leader and one of the ruling Roman triumvirate, encounters a change of heart and mind as his perspective of Rome, love, life, and honor changes in accordance tot he setting (country) he is in. His loyalty is divided between the Western and Eastern worlds; he is torn between the sense of duty (Rome) and the desire to seek pleasure (Egypt). While he feels the need to reaffirm the honor that has made him a celebrated Roman hero, he is also madly in love with Egyptian Cleopatra. All of those themes can be explored using the land marks Goggle Earth provides.

Students could also trace the series of the expansion of the Roman Empire to be able to undestand the need for Roman Anthony to conquer Egypt, therefore Cleopatra. They could do so by recording Anthony’s journies across the world and mark his triumphs by using place marks.

For demonstration or assessment, students can create virtual tours to show their understanding of the setting and the plot. You can also share your custom content overlays with others, using KML files.

Another merit about this tool is that is user-friendly. There are tutorials on how to use Google Earth and updates on the new features. Students do not have to be technology natives to be able to use this application. Minimal internet surfing skills should be enough for one to make use of this wonderful tool.

However, one frustrating aspect to Google Earth is the slow updates of modern shots. You may not be lucky at times in viewing up-to-date pictures. At times, you may have to wait for a long time for the pictures to clear out, and it might jam in the process.

As literature teachers incorporating Google Earth, we need to know the geopraphical and narrattive aspects of the piece we are teaching, and we need to incorporate them in balance as we do not want one aspect to undermine the other.

CBIO’ s such as StAIR and Web Quests are definitely the trend in education nowadays, however; those trends may jeopardize the learning outcomes if they are misused. When a teacher is about to create a computer-based instructional object, they should keep the following guidelines in focus:

1.   The users of this CBIO (both presenters and audience) master the skills required to make full use of it. ( e.g. enough computer literacy, internet connection if needed , etc…)

2.  The objectives of the lesson are clear and are being served by the CBIO.

3. CBIO does not become a distraction to audience so that they forget what the lesson is about. ( colors, animations, audios, etc…)

4. Readapt this CBIO to serve the different learning styles of the audience.

5. Ask whether this object will be accessible to users and reused by them.

6. Tasks are clear and simple enough for the audience to stay on track.

While I was checking other blogs, I came across one that teaches high school students to write their rusmes. It is created by Dr. Turner from Ohio University. It caught my attention because it is very simple, yet credible, which is exactly what I need as i am writing my very first blog ever..

You can check this blog by going to: http://www.tigertown.com/ron_ross_page/RossA8_webquest.htm

I like that it addresses high school students’ problems as they lack much experience to add to their CV’s, and how it teaches them to turn what they fear to be negative to something more appealing on their resumes. I appreciated that the Web Quest prepares them for real life and helps them understand what bosses are looking for.

I also know that the steps taught there to build up a resume are credible because those students will be using none other than Microsoft Word to achieve that task.

All in all, I find this Web Quest organized and clear. It helps students analyze what future bosses are looking for, and synthesize CV’s that respond to their demands. It has a hyperlink that lead you straight to the sample resume document. The conclusion restates what the objectives are enhances those high schoolers’ confidence in what thet have to offer. I think i liked it because teachers here are preparing their students for real life, outside of the classroom in an organized and efficient manner.

This is my first blog ever. I am very excited about it bacause I feel I am given a new voice that can reach out to anyone in the globe. I have a modest experience in both education and administration. I hope this blog will help share and improve my experiences.