Week 10 reflection

Dear Donna and colleagues,

Without any doubt this week is the saddest one for me because it is the end of this course where I met wonderful colleagues and instructors, shared ideas by participating in great discussion in nice net. I gained a lot of things in this course including many teaching spices that help shape the way I teach. I experienced many tools that were new to me, and explored some very interesting sites like delicious where you can stores hundred of links that interest you. This course really represents a great experience for me, an experience that I will never forget in my life. I will miss the wonderful instructions of my instructor Donna Shaw and the great comments of my colleagues in the Nicenet discussions and in my Blog. We really formed a big and solid family during this course.

I would say that all the topics presented in this course were so interesting to me, they added me a lot. But among the topics that struck me the most are: learner autonomy, multiple intelligences, assessing learning etc. Reading about learner autonomy made me think about ways in which I can help my students learn independently and be responsible for their own learning. The great articles on multiple intelligences gave clear idea that students are not stupid but just have different learning styles, some learn by seeing and listening and other by touching or drawing etc. so paying attention to this idea, will help me more in involving all my students. The good ideas from using rubrics helped me a lot with the assessments. Students used to complain a lot about their grades telling me that they didn’t deserve such or such grade but since the day I read about them and knew how to create and use them, I am at peace and there are no more complaints.

Concerning the tools, I had the chance to discover so many tools in this course among are blogs, webquest, padlets, delicious, ANVILL by Jef Magoto, etc. But the one I will really use in my class are Blog and padlets. Blog are great way for a teacher and students to share ideas concerning the class and also student can discuss topic on the class blog and then make some presentations in the class about those topics. Padlet on the other hand is a great tool that allows teachers to share materials related to the class with their students like documents, images, web links, documents and videos etc.

I suggest all my colleagues to use SKYPE and EDMODO; they are great tool that teachers can use in their teaching. Skype is a great way to bring a guest speaker in one’s classroom without any transportation cost. Edmodo is a site that I like the most since I was student because of my teacher. He used to send us there our assignments and lessons sometimes. You just go to www.edmodo .com and create your personal and favorite account that can make you the feel of face book with the educational perspective.

Looking forward to sharing more with you,

Brahim Abdoulaye Thiam

     Mauritania

Week 9 Reflection

Hello Donna and colleagues,

I can say that this is the most wonderful for me because it the one before the last (maybe the one before the easiest one as Donna mentioned). But also it represents the saddest week for me because it is almost the end of the nice teaching spices that we are experiencing in the course. I really loved the week because it tackled the most important issues which are the use of technology tools and technology to address the learning styles.

The week is so resourceful. I have been given chance to explore another great web tool called ANVILL by Jef Magoto. The tool is just great I created my own account as a teacher but still I am learning the tool to be more familiar with it. It really gave me a headache before creating the new account, I tried many time but in vain and every try it said that the enrollment code is incorrect. But final I understood the process. As a teacher I love using technology tools in class because it makes my easier and the class more interactive. But this week told me that using technology tools is very important but also paying attention to the students’ learning is also important because what works for John as students might not work for Clara as student.

Students are not that stupid but just perceive things in different ways. Some learning by seeing and other learn by singing etc. so a teacher knowing all these things mean a successful class where all the students feel alright about what is going around them. The best thing as mentioned in the article of Felder is to make a balance.

Looking forward to sharing with you more next week,

Brahim Abdoulaye Thiam

          Mauritania