Friday, March 30, 2012

my new glog

here is the glog
I've prepared for the courses I am currently teaching

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

forget about blogging?

I am a glogger !!!now....:)
pages are waiting to be filled in though...
coming soon.....:)

Sunday, March 18, 2012

news

I have been interested in digital storytelling for a while. This is what I have tried with my little daughter Asya... It was just to check how the tool works and of course to have some fun with Asya :) . and below is the product of another tool. you upload a photo and record your voice on it. I think it is better than "little bird tales" because you can directly embed the product; therefore, the reader + listener (as I have visual- storytelling in my mind, I say so) doesn't have to reach the material through another website, but via your blog or online classroom.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Survey

I am going on practicing the teachings of our webcourse...
As I noted before, my students came together and wrote their webquest final product in the classroom. This happened last Friday.
I am now working on the last touches. Yesterday, I sent a 10-item- questionnaire to my students through Surveymonkey, today a few responses have come. Out of six students, 5 of them checked the option questioning the effectivity of webtools in increasing motivation as agree and strongly agree, which is a desired attitude.
Next week, fall term is closing and I am planning to administer an open-ended questionnaire in Turkish this time. SurveyMonkey is an effective tool, but limiting the survey with 10 questions leaves lots of blanks between the lines . Therefore, I intend to fill in those blanks with a set of open-ended questions investigating the strengths and weaknesses of the course, materials and the interactive webtools employed.


Thursday, December 22, 2011

Autonomous Learners ???

Today....
I asked my students what they would think about an opportunity to increase their course grade- the class average is really low and I want them to improve that.This is an elective course and a failing grade is not something desired -
The class was full of murmuring, some asked if I was planning to assign an easy task, or give a simple quiz or else.I told them my intention was to administer a vocabulary quiz which would take up 15-20 % of the general grade.This time some even dared to say "why don't we decide after seeing the quiz results ????"
-I was going to prepare an exam for 41 students, copy them, distribute them, grade them and then if they didn't feel satisfied.....I was not going to do anything but put them away !!!
Then one of them said "Teacher please don't ask but do what you think is good for us"
It was the moment I remembered what I had forgotten in search of encouraging learner autonomy : I was the authority; noone but only I (!!)..... was able to decide for them better than themselves. How could they know what was good for them ???
I love my job :)

Monday, December 19, 2011

PROMISES

I remember promising to write here regularly and keep the track of things I am doing in my classes.However, after the course finished, unfortunately, I didn't feel intrinsically motivated to even visit the site.Today I am here to keep my promise.
What have I been doing since the course finished?
I have finished checking the exam papers and uploaded the grades into the system. It's worth mentioning here because the otomotion system is going through its infancy in my institution and it's been a hard job to download the system and create all the classes I teach and distribute the students, finally entering their grades. Thanks to our webcourse, I have improved my IT skills now :) I was able to do them all with no further assistance :)
I was plannnig to assign a webquest task to my students, and I have already initiated it. Next Friday, my students will gather in the class and with all their notes and printed out materials, sit together and write their articles.I changed the final product into an in-class activity since there was no time for drafting and I didn't just want to be given perfectly written articles at the end. At least, as a class activity I will be able to see how seriously they take it; they will also be able to share their ideas and even help each other. I don't want it to be a frightening writing experience. Instead, I want it to be an enjoyable learning experience.
There is a saying after all "learning is what is left after we forget what we are taught at school" :)