Week 5 – Halfway Through, Still Learning with Joy

             Speaking about what I have learnt and done this week, I do not know what to begin with.. So many ideas...
             First of all I started solving my problem of lack of time with my Stylistics class, which was another step to the final project and better education. Students got interested in the idea of blogs and are looking forward to reading and commenting on each other’s ideas concerning the subject. So am I! This week my students are being busy creating their blogs, next week will bring the first experience.
             One more thing I would borrow from my Webskills course is the Nicenet conference. Our university has a number of part-time students. Most of them live in villages somewhere in Pavlodar region and work as teachers. They come twice a year for three weeks to pass their exams. Both students and teachers are dissatisfied with the lack of time as students are part-time. I think the idea of a Nicenet conference could work with such students. Though I will have to think about motivation, of course, because even in our highly motivated group there are days no one would post.
              Still another thing was this Rubistar site. It was really a kind of revelation for me!!! When I first got on it, I thought it was not good at all, and that was the first and the last thing I was working with it, just to meet the requirement of the course - because I could not have the number of columns I wished to have. Furious, I could not understand why I had to give the maximum of four points each time. I was wrong about the site. It is wonderful!!! It is pretty easy to work with and time-saving, which is really important for a busy teacher (or a lazy mind :)! As a result, I changed everything in my original rubric - added one more column, changed my criteria places, having the most important from my point of view at the top, changed the names of my criteria and the content of each one. Now I am sure I will some back to Rubistar many times!
             And the last, but not the least, is PBL! While I knew a lot about projects and problem-based education, and used them from time to time in my teaching EFL practice, WebQuests were something new for me. I have asked both the most progressive-minded colleagues and students, no one had heard about WebQuests before. They would ask, ‘What is it?’ And then, ‘It sounds interesting!’ I liked the idea of WebQuests, though their creation seems a challenging task I have not coped with so far, but I do not leave the idea. Hope I manage to make a WebQuesr of my own till the end of the course.
             And then, of course, I cannot imagine my Week 5 without my ‘virtual’ friends and colleagues – some expressed my ideas in a more clear  way, some would find kind words for me, some would understand what I mean, some would sincerely be glad for what I did, some would add constructive comments, some would share my ideas, still would have their own point of view, and still some would discuss. THANK YOU!!!
             I know all of us had a tough week – have a nice weekend and good luck in Week 6!!!