A Final Comment on Week Three

Hello Jodi, Sherie and all friends, 


After we worked hard to explore and share reliable and enjoyable resources on listening, I decided to close Week 3 with something funny, with a smile!

Listening is Fun!

Listening is Significant!

Best regards, 


Nihmat, Lebanon

Week Three: Reflections on Delicious

Dear Jodi, Sherie and all friends, 


 I often thought of a way to save all my favorite links so that I can utilize them efficiently without having to carry my laptop with me to my workplace. Besides, I have a PC at school, but sometimes I fail to add or send by mail any of the links and I have to wait till I go home to check everything. 


However, Delicious is a great tool that could solve this problem and find secure place for the site other than the favorites. I was enthusiastic about the idea, but the application caused me tension at first. Frankly, I have had no idea of such a page before! It might take me some time before I explore its content in a more professional way. Unfortunately, adding tags and stacks is the only hindrance I still encounter. 


Have an enjoyable time! 


Wishing you the best in Week 4!


See you in class. 


Best regards, 


Nihmat, Lebanon 

Week Three: Reflections on First Task

Hello Jodi, Sherie and all friends, 

          I’d like to share some of my responses to the article entitled “Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Material” by Lindsay Miller. 

I previously thought that listening had been given  the primary position  researching due to its validity  in the ESL class. According to me, I do believe in its significant  role to enhance the proficiency of the English language. To do so successfully, students must be well-exposed to the whole skills, and on top of them is the listening skill. Through listening, the ESL learner  have an access to the accent and pronunciation of the native speaker. Besides, it was so interesting to me to know that "more than forty percent of our daily communication time is spent on listening, thirty-five percent on speaking, sixteen percent on reading, and only nine percent on writing (Burely-Allen 1995)".          After reading this article and some of the topic-based lesson plans posted in  www.onestopenglish.com, the Pre-, While, and Post process of the listening was deeply reinforced through a variety of  resources (TV or radio news, videos...) that could contribute to the acquisition of the language.        I also liked how the article contrasts contextualized listening to a lecture that has some flaws and affects the listener's motivation and benefit.        Best regards,  Nihmat, Lebanon

Week Three: Just Reflections!

Hello Jodi, Sherie and friends, 

     Before I share with you what I learned, I'll take some of your moments to describe the inconvenience the I encountered during the first part of Week Three. We've already learned that the blog is considered an online diary that we could scribble our happy and unease moments. In this post, I'll rely on personal reflections rather than on knowledge because I feel like doing so.
    
     At the beginning of the week, I wanted to read all the articles , explore lesson plans and get to know more about suggested websites. In fact, researching took more time than I expected  and led to my delay. I was pressed for time, so I have to finish it before the deadline; I didn't even have a double check on the content of the comment on CALL before I posted it.  It was so depressing for me since I wasn't satisfied about it! However, I usually look on the bright side and sought relieved when I learned an important lesson about using time wisely in an online course. It took me while to manage, but I successfully did it at last!  
                                                          
 Sincerely yours, 
               
Nihmat, Lebanon

Sincere Reflections on Week Three

Dear Jodi, Sherie and all friends,

It's 3:00 A.M. now. I'm the only person awake at home trying to finish assignment one of the third week. I was pressed for time because I wanted to read everything before I post my comment. However, I have to express my intense feelings of enthusiasm and thrill since I can reminisce the overnights before the finals or the midterms on my university years. Thanks to the course, for I have to experience these moments again!

Regards, 

Nihmat

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End of Week Two Reflection

Hello everyone, 

Although I have a few tasks to do before I end Week Two, I feel I'm terribly in need of this: 

Have a calm and relaxing night (It's 10:00 P.M. in lebanon) before we start the marathon again tomorrow morning! 


Best regards, 


Nihmat, Lebanon





   

Viewing Myself This Week!

Hello everyone, 


A very impressive and expressive image that displays my condition during this week!

Just Like Me!

Have fun! 


Nihmat, Lebanon

Reflections on ABCD Method of Objectives

Hello everyone,

Towards the end of this week, I still have some more ideas to share with you. Do you like to read some more reflections on the ABCD method of writing objectives?

To achieve success in any task, I believe that it has to be well-planned. After 14 years of teaching, I still dedicate some of my time to lesson planning regardless of my knowledge of the content. Every year I meet new students that differ in learning styles; therefore, to be successful with my teaching, I prepare very well and decide upon the objectives. 

I'm more familiar with the condition-behavior-criteria method of objective. Although it's similar to the ABCD method of learning objectives, it's more accurate especially when it comes to the degree of mastery. It helps specifically describe to what extent the behavior must be performed. The examples submitted in the readings that the course attached are very helpful. To write my objective, I followed these examples and easily finished the task. 

In a final response, I felt frustrated and annoyed because I didn't share in the discussions from the very beginning. However, I learned that "never postpone today's work for tomorrow." 

Have a nice time. 

Nihmat, Lebanon  

More Reflections in Week Two

Hello everyone, 


Hope you are all fine and getting along well in Week Two. 


I need to briefly comment on one more benefit of blogging in general. 


It made me more familiar with the profiles, interests and educational backgrounds of you, classmates. As I followed your blogs, I was able to get introduced to you more closely. This will surely influence my discussions positively.

By so doing, I can discuss issues with you on Nicenet with a more profound and professional way.

I'm truly having a very happy blogging! 


Hope you are as well!


Regards, 


Nihmat, Lebanon 

Week Two Reflections

Hello everyone,

      I hope that all of you are gaining great knowledge and experience just as I do! I'm enjoying every minute of research but desperately wishing that I have more time. 

     When I read the task on Monday, the opening day of Week 2, I was surprised about the topic, search engines. However, when I followed the links, I was amazed to know the huge number of dependable search engines that could enable me to use the web more efficiently. Before that day, my knowledge about search engines was very restricted exclusively to Google. Frankly speaking, I thought that it was the sole web browser, and I laugh about this now!

     After being informed about numerous search engines, I become excited to make good use of them. I started trying them one by one until they become familiar to me. I also sent some of my colleagues a list of them, and they replied with too many thanks in return.  Now things differ as I discovered new search engines that might facilitate my work and provide a wider scope of materials. I truly wonder how man keeps on learning no matter how old  or well-educated he tends to be!

Regards, 

Nihmat

Week One Reflections

My First Experience with the Reflective Blog

    
Hello everyone, 

       Although a little late, I'd still like to jot down my reflections on creating the first blog in my career life! To start with, the word “blog” is considered a new and old expression to me at the same time. In fact, I have gained abundant knowledge about the blog and related Netiquettes from some of my colleagues who have previously taken online courses about blogging and other topics like PBL. They have talked a lot about its efficiency and requested me several times to post comments on their students’ tasks as a guest. I frequently log into their blogs sending greetings and replies on the comments or tasks. However, this is the first time I create my own reflective blog. To me, it was like exploring a new world!

        Following the clear and detailed instructions of the handout posted on the course website, I managed to create the blog without any hindrances. All the guidelines are so lucid that I didn't seek help from any other Blog application. However, at the beginning, I had an inquiry since I was confused whether to log in using my gmail account or create a new one. Once Jodi approved it, I followed the directions until my reflective blog was created. However, I had problem adding it to the wiki. I had to refer to Jodi again for help, and I luckily discovered that it wasn't my only problem! Now my blog is added to the wiki having one welcoming comment and a simple design. I look forward to update everything in order to communicate with all the participants.

       Upon reading the article,   http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/blogging-elt, I found the definition of the word blog very interesting as it combines web and log.I also liked how journal writing was developed to be online. I still remember how at the beginning of my career  I used to read my students' journals weekly, taking lots of copybooks home to be read and reflected upon. It was time consuming and demanding but very effective to create better writers of the English Language.Now with the blog, inciting students to write on a daily basis has become possible! I also consider the reasons for the usage of the blog very genuine especially the second point about peer reading and reflection. 

        After this experience, I learned that I should start blogging with my students as soon as possible in order to infuriate them to use the language in a professional way. It's an important tool that helps teachers achieve meaningful and lifelong learning for their students. Although it's my first blog, I bet it isn't going to be the last one!

Best regards,

Nihmat

   

Hello

Dear Jodi, Sherie and Course Participants, 


Allow me to welcome you on my blog. I send my best regards for you through this reflective blog hoping that we can enjoy our work and benefit from your experiences. 

Sending you the best wishes. 


Nihmat