Reflections on week 2

Before registering the webskills class, my sole concern was to deal with something new,something I didn't devote time before professionally. I was not full of expectations, just excited about being a student again and meeting colleagues from different parts of the world. Even though I have been using web tools (accepting student essays through e-mail, messaging with students about the lessons through yahoogroups, etc.) in my classes for along time, frequent use of webtools such as blogs, or virtual classrooms have never been at the top of my what-to-do list, partly because I do not prefer to devote much time to my students out of class as they occupy a huge place in my life during the day :)and I have already papers to check or lessons to prepare at home.Honestly, I am one of those teachers who value her personal space and time out of school.
However, things have changed a great deal since the beginning of this course (still at school though not out of it :) Because of the sources we are provided with and all the new ideas flying around I feel a lot more motivated to teach than before now. And this energy blossoming within me is surely penetrating all my classroom practices. My laptop is always on during the classhour and a webpage is reflected on the wall waiting to be introduced to the students as a complementary activity to what they are reading as their course material. One of the biggest problems we have in the very first weeks of the term is students coming to class with no books or notebooks at all. This might be a real handicap for the teacher. But with the help of websources students can read from a reflected page on the wall, watch a video, look at the pictures, etc. and talk and write... Therefore, the lesson can still be taught. I am grateful as this course reminds me of such opportunities that the web has and encourages me to use them.
In addition to these, I have found the task of objective writing as much important since it highlights the importance of deciding on the final outcome that we expect from our students. Otherwise, our teaching is like a journey under the candlelight with no destination to reach.
Last but not least, this course is a really valuable experience for me because I can learn about different teaching contexts,ranging from very privileged ones to the deprived ones. There is a a lot to appreciate and learn from all these contexts.
Now,I need to do some readings.
wish you a "productive" week :)