Week 9 Reflection

I don't feel good after reading some of my online mate for this week. In this occasion, it can be called I am very sad because I cannot do much in teaching dealing with the technology. In this case, I cannot do in relation with technology. Actually I have some information until this week about technology that can be applied in the classroom. Unfortunately, I can do much as I wish so far. I often say that words for many times during the discussion, but you have to remember it again because that is reality. I am only able to use PowerPoint presentation as my great technology. So far that is very good technology for my students in receiving some information about the subject matter. In additional, it is my style in teaching for now on. 

Basically on this occasion, I have some options dealing with technology except of internet access that can be used in teaching such as; video player, movie, television, radio, compact disk/cassette, tape recorder, projector, computer. I am going to use it in-depth.

Especially in Teaching Media, technology application is required for the consideration that can make the student easier to understand the subject matter. By having it, it can make the lecturer goes to his/her function as well, i.e. to be a facilitator in the classroom. It will direct the learners to be active, creative and innovative. 

Week 8 Reflection

Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web

Project Report

Name: Muhamad Suhaili                                                                           Country: Indonesia

Overall project goal: Plan and conduct action research, which involves a change related to technology use in your classroom. 

I. Background

·         Who are the learners?

All of the students at IKIP Mataram especially at English Department consist of 26000 students. They come from different background such as: 1) Prior schooling; it can determine their ability in speaking English. Some of them graduate from Senior High School at small villages and some of them are from city. Normally, most of the students who come from small village have not good ability in learning English, vice versa. 2) Motivation; it will affect to their endurance or dealing with optimist and pessimist thought in learning English. They are at fifth semester now, three semesters again they will pass from the institution. However, they are not motivated to learn more, it can be seen throughout their English ability. They are not well enough as the lecturer expects from them 3) Financial support; it will determine how long they will study and to what extent they can study at IKIP Mataram. It is dealing with living cost at the small city and school fee as well assignments and final projects. So far, 90 % of them can graduate from IKIP Mataram and 10 % go way which is caused by those aspects.

In this semester, the students at fifth semester are learning Teaching Media. Their ages are about 20 years old. They are learning English as Foreign Language. They have Sasak language for Sasaknese, Sumbawa language for Sumbawanese, Bali Language for Balinese, and Mbojo Language for Bimanese as their mother tongue meanwhile Bahasa Indonesia is our national language that include as second language. In teaching and learning process the learners use both Bahasa Indonesia and English. It is hard for them to understand English totally. Almost of the learners are shy to speak English because they worry to make mistakes as the effect their classmate will laugh their mistakes.

·         What is the setting?

The setting always takes place in the classroom. It starts from morning to evening. They learn 2 x 45 minutes a week. The class is very noisy and crowded because it consist of 40s students. The desk consists of 50 and it is heavy and difficult to move it. It means that the desk cannot be arranged like making circle, square, or other style during the learning process. We also have one LCD and Computer to support learning process. The classroom is hot as well because it is not facilitated by air conditioner. The learners sit in line facing the lecturer like watching the movie. Sometime they laugh if they find something funny and sometime they feel asleep when they get bored.

·         What are the course goals?

In a semester, the learners have 16 meetings in achieving the material. They are many goals that can be expected throughout this subject. i.e; 

1.      They are expected to be able to speak English, it is the most important thing because the teacher should be able to speak English much better than learners. It seems funny when the learners’’ English much better than teacher.

2.      They are expected to be able to teach by using some media. In this matter, they do not have to teach their students by the old method, i.e. speech from the first to the end of the class. In the other hand, they have to teach in many ways by having some media.

3.      They are expected to be able to create media by using technology. It means that they have to create something good to make the learners active and interested in learning. For instance, they make good PowerPoint Presentation by using interesting templates; create a Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Skip, etc.

·         What are the student needs?

1.      To become more self-motivated and take ownership of their work

2.      New strategies and techniques for incorporating media and technology into their teaching

3.      Examples of different types of media that can be used to teach the four skills

4.      Increased levels of confidence in their ability to speak English

·         Describe anything else that is significant or relevant about the course that related to your project

Prior to this current course with the University of Oregon, I rarely used technology with my class.  Rather I relied on more traditional types of media, such as printed media, photographs, etc.  The primary reason was due to the poor Internet connection at my school.

II. Issue or problem that started your project

This can be in the form of a research question or a less formal statement, like "students were not very motivated."

Based on the background above, the main problem that can be seen in this course is students’ motivation. In the teaching and learning process, I think the most important thing comes from the student’s motivation itself. It can said that everything cannot go well without having good motivation.

III. Initial solution and expected response

Describe what you thought would happen (this may be quite different from what actually happened). Describe what you tried, when, and where. Make sure you explain how what you tried is different from what you have done before.

Before taking this course at University of Oregon, I never used a PowerPoint presentation to present information. Rather I spoke to my students the entire class. Sometimes I asked them to discuss the information in a whole group setting.  So, for my project I tried to use a PowerPoint presentation in my class as the main solution to the problem regarding motivation.  I chose the use of a PowerPoint because my classroom doesn’t have internet access. By including the PowerPoint, I thought that the class would be more interesting for my students. If it was more interesting, I thought the students would be more motivated.

            On November 17^th I decided to present my students the course content through the use of a PowerPoint presentation.  I made a PowerPoint that included all the course content for the day and I thought it was an interactive PowerPoint. I presented the PowerPoint for 20 minutes, during a 90 minutes class. I presented the PowerPoint in the same classroom where I usually teach my Teaching Media course.

IV. Response and reflection

What happened? Feel free to attach a course syllabus where you have noted what you tried and when. What did you think about what happened?

On November 17^th I presented the PowerPoint. The students reacted in different ways.  Some students seemed more motivated.  Other students did not.  They were watching the slides like watching a movie. They became passive learners in my class. I knew they weren’t motivated because at the end of the presentation, they didn’t give any comments or questions.  I wanted to know why some students still were not motivated.  They still seemed bored.

V. Changes made

As a result of what happened and your reflection, what did you try next? What happened?

 I asked a friend to look at my PowerPoint.  My friend suggested that I add some slides to make the PowerPoint more interactive. I remembered how we talked about this in class.  I decided to change my PowerPoint by adding a Concept Test. I think these additions made the PowerPoint more interactive. I would like to try using the modified PowerPoint with a different group of students to see if they reactive more positively. I have not been able to try the new PowerPoint yet because the students have midterms right now. However, I believe that the modified version will be more interesting and create more interaction. 

    

VI. Conclusion

How will what you observed affect the way that you teach? What are the overall suggestions you would give others as a result of your project?

·         Some students were more motivated by the PP alone.  So it seems like a good idea to included PPs.  I should include more PPs

·         A PP that is not interactive can be very boring for some students. So my PPs must be interactive.

·         Even if you don’t have internet access in your classroom, you can find other ways to include technology in the classroom.

·         The visual media and presentation of information helps to keep students more focused.  It is helpful to visual learners.

Based on the explanation above, it can be inferred that Teaching and Learning process must be connected between learner and lecturer. In this way, the teacher should provide good way in teaching and the learner can adopt the lecturer’s way in teaching. Independent learners are encouraged to enhance the quality of learners. It means that teaching and learning process happen in both learner and lecturer. At least, it is not in student center or teacher center.

VII. Resources

Brajcich, J. (2000). Encouraging Learner Autonomy in Your Classes.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line_powerpoint.htm

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/

https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/home/assignments/week-4

https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/home/assignments/week-5

https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/home/assignments/week-6

Week 7 Reflection

Hi All

This is good site for this week. We can learn much about learner autonomy.

<iframe src='http://wallwisher.com/embed/oc6xlcnroj' frameborder='0' width='100%' height='480px' style='border 1px solid #999999'></iframe>

dealing with the learner autonomy, there are six item to enhance learner autonomy in the EFL literature.
1. Encourage students to be interdependent and to work collectively. The less students
depend on their teacher, the more autonomy is being developed
2. Ask students to keep a diary of their learning experiences so that they may become
more aware of their learning preferences.
3. Explain teacher/student roles from the outset.
4. Progress gradually from interdependence to independence. Give the students time to
adjust to new learning strategies and do not expect too much too soon.
5. Have the students do projects outside the classroom to increase motivation and nonlesson
classroom duties to perform (taking roll, writing instructions, notices, etc.).
6. Emphasize the importance of peer-editing, corrections, and follow-up questioning in
the classroom.

Best regards

Muhamad Suhaili

Week 6: Reflection

The material for this week

Engaging Student

The first, I am going to remind you again that I am teaching in large class. Each semester I teach 10 classes with 40s students. Seeing the number of students in each class, in this semester I prefer PowerPoint to Blogs or Email or other dealing with internet connection to engage the students. I know that PowerPoint has weakness as well as the strength. Based on my experience, the students felt like watching television during the class. Some of them were happy and some were not. In this case, it might be caused by the slide that I created was not good. It was text only. It seemed that it was not cooperative/interactive learning anymore. However after reading the material that posted on this week. I get some knowledge/experiences as the way of teaching in large class by having PPts. In this case, I have to find out/create the best PPts for my class by adding some games, quiz, movie, etc.

The second, I am going to use Blog and Email to engage the student if the internet connection works in my place. I am sure the teaching and learning is going to run well. In this way, they will have some resources in doing their projects and make them easier to get and understand everything.

Regarding with the technique, I usually do the following activity.
1. Pre-questioning. Here, the teacher gives some questions dealing with the topic discussion. It is a kind of stimulation for them before going to the topic.
2. Discussion. The students have small discussion and I as a teacher become moderator.
3. Post activity. I ask the students to do some tasks to evaluate how well they understand the lesson.




PowerPoint


I tried to made PowerPoint when I thought teaching Media in my classes. After reading the material from some experts on this week, I thought that I got many ways in creating interactive PowerPoint particularly in large class as mine. I am going to create the newest PowerPoint in my class for the future meetings by putting some games, quiz, movies, and colorful pictures to make them interested to joint the class. In the other hand, everything that I get on this week will become good reference and will be applied on the next class meeting. Here we go. 


https://sites.google.com/site/webskillswikifall2012courtney/interactive-ppt




Best regards


Muhamad suhaili

Week 5. Reflection

My Rubric

Research Report : Research on English Language Teaching

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Organization	Information is very organized with well-constructed paragraphs and subheadings.	Information is organized with well-constructed paragraphs.	Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed.	The information appears to be disorganized. 8)
Amount of Information	All topics are addressed and all questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each.	All topics are addressed and most questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each.	All topics are addressed, and most questions answered with 1 sentence about each.	One or more topics were not addressed.
Quality of Information	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given.	Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.
Sources	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but a few are not in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but many are not in the desired format.	Some sources are not accurately documented.
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.	Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors	A few grammatical spelling, or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Notes	Notes are recorded and organized in an extremely neat and orderly fashion.	Notes are recorded legibly and are somewhat organized.	Notes are recorded.	Notes are recorded only with peer/teacher assistance and reminders.
First Draft	Detailed draft is neatly presented and includes all required information.	Draft includes all required information and is legible.	Draft includes most required information and is legible.	Draft is missing required information and is difficult to read.
Paragraph Construction	All paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence.	Most paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence.	Paragraphs included related information but were typically not constructed well.	Paragraphing structure was not clear and sentences were not typically related within the paragraphs.
Graphic Organizer	Graphic organizer or outline has been completed and shows clear, logical relationships between all topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer or outline has been completed and shows clear, logical relationships between most topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer or outline has been started and includes some topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer or outline has not been attempted.
Internet Use	Successfully uses suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Usually able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Needs assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links and/or to navigate within these sites.
Diagrams & Illustrations	Diagrams and illustrations are neat, accurate and add to the reader\\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are accurate and add to the reader\\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are neat and accurate and sometimes add to the reader\\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are not accurate OR do not add to the reader\\'s understanding of the topic.

Project Based Learning 

In this week I am going to share concerning with my thoughts to you.
The first article that I read was Focus on Basics: Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer at http://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=385.html 
I was so amazing in reading it. It is remaining me when I was teaching at Senior High School. Seeing from the title of the article can be inferred that learning based on the student center. We are as the teacher especially for me does not have to speak a lot in front of the classroom or spend much time to explain the material from the beginning of the class till the end of the class. In this case the student will not be treated as well listener as listening the radio. However, they will be treated as the doer. Meanwhile, the function of the teacher here is a moderator or facilitator. Where, the teachers just control the student in presenting the project. It seems that the term of “teacher talks less and the students do more”    
Regarding with Courtney's questions, I am trying to elaborate my answer based on my perception and I wish I can do in right way.

1.      How can PBL be used to help motivate students more?

Based on my introduction above that taken from Susan Gaer's article, and I really do agree with the author, PBL enables "less teaching and more learning". When I was in Senior High School’s teacher, I explained the students about “the procedure text” It was similar with the author way. In this case I asked them to take stove, noodle, and praying fan from their house. I asked one group to present the way of cooking noodle meanwhile the other students wrote the procedure of they cooked. And it worked. I did not have to speak much to them because they knew everything that they would do. It was amazing for me. Even I explain in different example of PBL but it seems that PBL really help motivate students more in doing the task.

2.      How can PBL be incorporated with technology in your class - or alternatively what limitations are there to using PBL in your class?

I am really sure that everything can be incorporated with technology to enhance the value of the project. In the other word it can give high quality of project by incorporating it. And regarding with the limitation I give them some motivations to stimulate their desires to work then if they still do not want to do the project I give chance to find out the project based on his/her ability. My consideration is impossible for me to ask them to do something that she/he cannot do. So that is why I offer them free to do as their project.

3.      What is the role of rubrics and/or alternative assessment within PBL?

Of course, the rubric has important role to measure the student’s knowledge/skill. It is dealing with the student’s score. It can separate the score between the student who has excellent skill and who has not. In the other word, it is going to make sure the student’s level.

4.      How can PBL, rubrics and/or alternative assessment be used to promote independent learning?

I think PBL, rubrics and/or alternative assessment can be used to promote independent learning. The reason is very simple namely the students need a guideline (rubrics) when they are going to do something. By having it, they will know exactly the real consequences if they are not active or lack of activeness or do nothing within their own project. In addition, they are going to be interactive, creative, and innovative students with their own styles.

Problem Solving

First of all, I am going to say "sorry very much for my posting last week. I did not focus to the question therefore I made big mistake, I sent to many problems" However on this week I would like to take one of them namely "Motivation" as my main problem. In this case, the students do not have good motivation to go with my lesson even though they come to join it but most of their activities are silent in the classroom. They do not have good motivation to learn as I expect from them by giving comment, questions, opinion, find out the other sources, discussion etc., dealing with the lesson. It is kind of attending the class and  listen my explanation then going home. It is an easy job for them.

Regarding with the problem solving, I am going to teach my students by using computer that is connected to LCD. It means that I am going to teach them by creating power point and try to create good slide show. Actually this is my second option where Blog and Email are my first option. In term of bad internet connection that's why I prefer Power point presentation to Internet connection.

By having good power point presentation that is made by me or their classmate. Day by day they are going to know how to make it and finally their ability/knowledge will be more than I expect in teaching media.

The benefit that can be found:

1. In presenting the material, they will find some sources dealing with the topics and share it to their classmate afterward by using Flash Dish or CD

2. They can teach their students at Junior/Senior high school by having Power Point Presentation after graduating from IKIP mataram.

3. we don't have spend a lot time to explain the lesson as I did before (the material is read/explained by teacher manually). It is a kind of monotonous activity for them.

4. It will make them famous/familiar with the technology

5. It will make the teaching and learning process become more interesting and be creative students.

6. Teaching and learning process will be focused/centered on students activity.


I wish can get a lot of experiences from you more.

Best regards,

Muhamad Suhaili

Week 4: Reflection

 This week I have some great assignments to improve my ability in teaching. It is so hard for me to create it. Finally I can finish it in time. 

 

Reading, writing, and vocabulary skills

First, I am going to say welcome to week four. I wish we are happy in this week.

The first of my journeys was:

http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/ then I found

http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/writing/interview2f09.html

Through out this URL, I can see the student writing especially for grade 7 and 8 Fall 2009. I clicked on interview I and Interview 2 then I saw student writing about his/her partners.

In my perception, Writing is applicable for all levels. However, this is suitable with my class condition for the consideration that writing is hard activity in my institution. The students seldom write directly because they have habitual to adopt someone's writing. It is a kind of plagiarism in my district. So that's why writing like describe about student's partners are going to work at my institution at undergraduate students.

The ABCD outcome for this site might be:
After reading this page site, students should be able to write short paragraph at least 150 words dealing with his/her partners.

The second, I went to the second URL namely;

http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/ then I found
http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/stories/stories.html

This page site is about reading activity.
I found some of reading topic and I tried to open the links one by one. I think it is very good example reading for the students at any levels. It seems the vocabulary used is not complicated but, it is understandable especially for student at intermediate level. In my class can be used at first and second semester.

The ABCD outcome for this site might be:
After reading this site, students should be able to comprehend the reading by answering the questions dealing with the passages.

The last URL was;

http://a4esl.org/

actually, this site is very helpful and useful for all levels to increase their vocabulary. It is medium for the learner to provide themselves to have a lot of vocabularies. Or in the other word is a kind of vocabulary enrichment. I have experience about it when I teach Vocabulary I at first semester in my institution. I applied puzzle and quiz to measure or to know the vocabulary mastery and it works. They are really helped by having or answering the puzzle or quiz dealing with vocabulary and grammar application. Of course this site is very important for them as the EFL especially for basic learners.

The ABCD outcome for this site might be:
After reading this site, students should be able to complete well the puzzle/quiz dealing with grammar and vocabulary enrichment.

The last but not the least, I think this site is very helpful and useful for all learners in my institution. The level can be condition-able with the words usage. Try to modify as good as we can!

Class problem

I am going to let you know about the issue of my students. I teach at 10 classes for teaching media class and the students consist of 40 up to 50 students in each class. They are coming from different background and different level/knowledge/comprehension in oral and written communication. They use English as the foreign language and some of them use Bahasa Indonesia and Sasak Language as their first and second language.

The first problem is the class very crowded, overwhelming, and noisy. It is not a normal number for good class, but it must be done because that is policy from my Rector. To make them listen to my explanation, I have to speak loudly. However, it is hard because they are speaking when I am speaking. Then I have no energy afterward. I cannot control my students in teaching them each week.

The second is time management; I cannot manage the time because the time allocation is not enough with the student's number. When I explain the material, suddenly my students say that the time was over. Therefore, I have to end the class soon. It seems they are bore with the class condition as well. And the class meeting consists of 12 meetings. It is included middle test and assignment. I cannot do more for teaching with huge class.

The third is assignment; I don't know how to give them score because the assignments of most students are same. The tasks come from the one student and she/he share with the classmate. They do plagiarism in doing the tasks.

The fourth is Language; some of my students come from small village and some of them come from small town. They have been learning English for many years; nevertheless they cannot speak English well yet. Therefore, I have to teach them in Indonesian language and in English (Bilingual).

The fifth is motivation; it seems parent's motivation not student's motivation. I say that because they take English department, but they don't realize it well even they seldom attend the class. After graduating from the collage, they are going to be English teachers. The case, they are going to teach an English class at elementary school, junior and senior high school, but most of them cannot speak English well/fluently in both oral and written.

The sixth is classroom discussion by having single presentation; the students don't want to do it at early meeting. They just wait the last minutes of class meeting. It seems that they just want to do it in hurry time with short duration. If I do it in group presentation, only one become spokesman meanwhile the other are silent since the presentation begin.

The seventh is project; the project is writing the paper dealing with the subject. However, I don't believe that they do by their selves because I can see from the student's activity inside the class. For instance, they never speak but the language use in their project is very good. It seems that they ask other people to do it.

The eighth is scoring; they don't worry if they will get C score. That is good score for passive students and in addition there is a kind of "score reparation" after the semester and luckily the will get better score then.

The ninth is financial; it is necessary for them to buy some books as their references but the financial doesn't support them. They just go to small library with its limitation if they have to do some assignments.

The last is final examination; they sit very close with other classmate. Therefore, they usually see their friends answer even they look up their books with their own tricks. And finally the supervisor cannot control it well.

Lesson Plan with Technology

Class (name, type of student):

Class                : The class is called Vocabulary Enrichment. 

Students          :  There are 45 students in the class. The students are between the ages of 18 and 19 years old.   The students in the class are level 2 and 3 English Language Learners, demonstrating high beginner level competency.  

Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Materials

Vocabulary Pyramid Word Document

Mobile lab (laptops)

Thesaurus/dictionary

Note: actually I really want to use Blog and email through internet connection however I can’t because of bad connection in my place.

Introduction

During the previous class students learned the meaning of 10 new vocabulary words related to “giving directions”.  They also learned the meaning of “synonym” and “antonym”

Objectives of this lesson (tell students about them):

The students will be able create a word pyramid on the computer using the word pyramid documents for all 10 new words.

Procedure

Presentation (teacher or student), including key vocabulary

1.      The lecturer gives brief explanation dealing with the advantage of learning vocabulary (it is a kind of motivation).

2.      The lecturer gives description about some new vocabularies learning

3.      The lecturer gives the way of working with the “Vocabulary Pyramid Word Document”

4.      The lecturer gives the simulation before asking them to work through their own computer

The format is:

WORD

SYNONYM               SYNONYM               SYNONYM

ADJECTIVE              ADJECTIVE              ADJECTIVE              ADJECTIVE                         

SENTENCE

The key:

Handsome

Attractive                    Good looking              Fine-looking

Kind                Friendly           Rude               Polite               Bad                 Terrible             

I do not like the handsome man if he has bad character

Activity (student)

1.      The students pay attention to the lecturer’s explanation

2.      The students think/find out the synonym of the word as many as they can

3.      The students think/find out the adjective of the word

4.      The students try to make sentence(s) dealing with the word that they have written on their computers

Learning styles addressed:

Visual learners, tactile learners,

Technology alternative (in case things don't work as planned):

I am going to use printed paper if the technology doesn’t work properly.

Review before the end of the class session:

By having the word pyramid you will have a lot of vocabularies. It is a kind of vocabulary enrichment that makes you easier to understand your interlocutors. Try to remember the word that you’ve created.

Homework:

1.      Make the assignment by creating ten words vocabularies and do as the sample.

2.      Look at your classmate’s works and share yours if you did different things.

Best 

Muhamad Suhaili