WebQuest: A good option to teach.

Hi everybody, first of all thank you for visiting my blog. In this week I've searched about the WebQuest, well this basicaly it is something I learnt before in the ENLEF (Escuela Normal de Licenciatura en Educación Física) because I saw many teaching styles, and WebQuest it is very similar to Guided Discovery and Problem Solving; where you as a teacher have to ask to your students look for the solution of a problem by their own ways, those activities will improve the cognitive skills of students and also their autonomy because they will work as fast as they want.

All the activities that students have to do are by internet, they have to search information, analyze it and think about possible solutions, in that way they can learn to make comparisons, induce and deduce the main points of every article they find.

I think this tool it is really helpful because students have to be more responsible about they work, actually, this is the method that my teacher use with me and my classmates because she assign us the topic, the problem or situation, and we have to investigate and solve the task, this is a good way to have a meaningful learning and make students more independent. The bad side that could be presented is, that students forget the task because as we know the internet as can provide information also can provide distractions for everybody, and other point is that students can be confused about the objectives of the assignment.

I found that WebQuest very interesting because I love extreme sport and this website talk about them and also there are some exercises to practice.

http://www.michellehenry.fr/extreme.htm

Well, this is all for today, I hope you enjoy the information and be useful for you.

Rubrics and Alternative Assessment

Hi everybody, this week I have learnt about Rubrics and Alternative Assessment, what I think is a very interesting topic because, as we know sometimes students repeat the teaching method or style as they learnt when become teachers, that can be a problem when the teaching style is too mechanic, is not focused on students needs and do not exist a progressive learning.

As future teachers we have to be worried about how students feel in the classroom and the lessons because each pupil has his own way and time to learn, knowing that we have to dose the quantity of information in every class in order to get a progressive success and a meaningful learning.

Rubrics are excellents tools that can help us to graduate and also evaluate the students' learning, in that way we can complete our objetives for every class to get successfully results and more prepared students, they could feel confidence in the class and work as a big team. 

Reading is the Key

Well this week I focused in the Reading and Writing Skills, elements that are necessaries for any language.
There are many websites that can help in the teaching-learning process where teachers or students can visit in order to get meaningful information.

As teachers we have to enhace students to read and write, at least in Mexico, reading it is almost not practice by population, they prefer be on the TV during the day instead of do something for their education. I know that sounds bad but we as future teachers have to make a change in people's mentality.

All the abilities are got by practice and we have to help students to increase all their skills by practicing, that is the reason why I will give you some websites in order to learn a little bit more.

http://www.manythings.org/


http://a4esl.org/


http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html 


http://eslus.com/LESSONS/READING/READ.HTM

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/392/

Well this is all for today, thanks for visit my bog and have nice holidays.

Improving Reading and Writing

Hi everyone,

Today I want to share a website that you as teacher, student or independent learnet can use to improve your Reading/Writing Skills or apply it for a class.

http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/

I suggest to apply it to pre-intermediate level student because they already have a medium-large vocabulary and they can understand and participate with similar activities like we find in this website. This page is really useful because there are a lot topics to develop and participate in a new way to learn.

Improving our skills

Hi everybody,

This week I'm going to talk about Oral/Aural Skills, to begin as English Teachers we have to have the ability to recognize students with problems when they try to communicate or understand something or someone, that's a very common issue because learning a foreign language can be a nightmare, but this little details can be solved by practicing.

Speaking and listening always will be the most difficult aspect learning a language because when we speak, we have to produce; and when we listen we have to understand somebody else is producing, the more common situations when a learner can feel frustrated is when he/she have to speak clearly with a good rhythm and stop thinking in his mother language; in other hand when they listen, they have to understand the message and follow the speaker speed but the accent can be difficult. Well as we can see Speaking/Listening always will be related one with the other.

I will share some websites that you as a teacher, student or just independent learner can use to improve your pronunciation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/
(Practice your pronounciation with British videos)

http://www.manythings.org/lar/ (Listen some drills and repeat)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1296312/Why-foreign-accents-make-speakers-honest---just-hard-try-understand.html  (Reasons to improve accent and pronounciation)

There are some others links to improve listening:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/  (Listen good music and learn)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBJi8on4TNE  (Learning with cartoons)

http://www.apple.com/mx/itunes/download/
 (You can download this program and listen radio from a big list of countries)


Well that's all for today, I hope you like my recommendations.

Delicious

Hi Everybody,

Firstly I want to thank you for follow this blog when is possible for you.

In this week I explored how to use Delicious with almost all its tools and I think this website it is not difficult to use after you have experienced with the page, Delicious.com offer many advantages for the society because you can share many websites with many people and of course with different purposes. You can save, share and manage every link on this page and classify them in a specific Topic using the "Stacks", For instance:


Entertainment: → Youtube → Facebook → King.com

Educational: → Merriam-Webster → Dave's ESL cafe

Note: You can click the image in order to look it bigger and return just pressing Esc.

I think the only one disadvantage is that you have to spend some time to store your pages in other account because people nowadays at least have Messenger, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube accounts and it could be boring to create and dedicate time to an extra account and at the end just forget it by little use.

In my wiew this is a great tool and can be applied for academic purposes with succesfully results because you as a teacher or student can use that website in order to visit your reliable sources in a quickly way and obviously save as many interesting or helpful websites you want.

I expect this little review could be helpful for you, thanks for visit and have a nice weekend.

Bookmarking

Hi people,

I'm posting hitherto because I was very pressured by two examns and a class that I just have performed today.

Well this week I discovered (with my teacher's help) a very useful tool on internet. I'm talking about Delicious.com, this is a website where you can save and organize all your favorite pages and you can visited from every computer and even cellphone with internet connection. In my first view I sincerely thought that page was unnecessary because the internet browser has its own bookmarking or just using a USB Device you can save your favorites page but then I noticed that we can not always use our own computer or take with us the USB device.

This tool can be used by anyone and you could access at any time you want it. I think this website is a really good option to share interesting information and find very helpful websites about any topic. If you do not know how to store all that webpages you want to save or access in a quickly way then Delicious.com it's just the perfect choice.

Educational Networks - Wikispaces

Hi everyone,

First of all Thanks for follow this academic blog each week, today I'm going to talk about Educational Networks, as you know nowadays Social Networks are very popular and they are everywhere, even you can access from your cellphone, this kind of networks are done just with the purpose to chat, upload photos and share your daily life but they can be used for academic purposes that could be a great idea.

Why?

Because lots of people have this kind of accounts, they could use it for academic purposes in order to create a huge information resource as is happening with EduTwitter that basicaly is a project to use this Social Network as a tool for education.

In the other hand we found a powerful tool for education called Wkispaces, but what is exactly a Wikispace? Well this is a Website where you can use several tools in order to share reliable information with people from all around the world.


I personally think it's a perfect option to Teachers because they can use that space to reinforce any topic seen during class or having classes by this website in case some issue do not let attend a presential class.

There are some links about Educational Networks:

http://www.nicenet.org/

http://www.wikispaces.com/

http://eduredes.ning.com/ [Spanish/Español]

http://www.pearsonschool.com/

Search Engines

Hi everybody,

What are the Search Engines? Well a Search Engine it's a website that help you to find specific information. Google has became the most popular Search Engine in the world and even has bought another websites like YouTube.com; in this occasion I going to metion some websites that can make easier information.

Firstly I have to mention http://www.bing.com/

This website is gaining popularity and even I've read that in few time it can replase to Yahoo.com; with this website you can search anything you want.

Now, for those English Teachers or Students I will share some websites that could be very useful for you.

1.- http://www.wordreference.com/

2.- http://www.merriam-webster.com/

3.- http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/bbf/biblioteca.htm

4.- http://www.eslcafe.com/

5.- http://oxforddictionaries.com/?region=us

Well this is all for today, Have a nice day and Thank You for check what I've posted.

ABCD Method for better results

Hi everybody,

First of all Thank You for checking what I've posted, this week I read some articles about the ABCD method, I have never seen this method but it's interesting and helpful to any Teacher or Student who want to improve the objetives in each class.

These are two links to visit The ABCD Method:


http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/


http://www.slideshare.net/ashleytan/writing-specific-instructionallearning-objectives-presentation

I recomend the second one because is easier but first one is more detailed in case you need more information.

Well, this method is really good because help us how to planning a class and having in mind the elements that are neccesary to complete with your objetives. I think learning about ABCD Method We can improve our lesson plans and even make them in a easily way.

The core of this Method is based in:


Audience: What level/ ability/ etc.
Behavior: Observable verbs (see)
Conditions: What circumstances.
Degree: How well.


That's why is called ABCD method.


I expect this little essay will be useful for you and makes easier the Teaching Labor.


Have a nice day.


Alonso Antobio Escobar López

New ideas for education

Hi everybody,

This is the first time I create a Blog, I wanted to do it before with other purposes but i didn't do it, now this blog with educational purpose it's a good option to share opinions and everything related to education. I think with Educational Technology my classmates and I have learned a lot of things to use the computer as a tool to having classes and talk about the elements that integrate this interesting subject.

I think a blog it's a good way to having class, however I think a forum as Nicenet is a faster way to share information because all the messages are posted in the same website.

Regards.