Using Technology in EFl classrooms by Linda Jones

           In this lesson, the teacher firstly showed us a video and explained us how to use camera. We were divided into groups and first decided the topic. We went out and we recorded video together with the group. Our topic was shooting advertisement with the Kazoo:) Firstly we are getting bored and accidentally we find Kazoo and our lives changes. we begin dancing, earning money with it:) It was so enjoyable. We can use this activity to practice language. Students may take their rooms, they can record vocabulary, they can make role-play, interview or they can just talk about sth important for them. Hence, this will take their attention and will enjoy while learning.
         As a second activity, we used "Camtasia" which is about recording yourself with a script if we like. we are able to read the passages and record ourselves. In this activity, we can read stories or we can practice pronunciation. We can apply this activity and students will do it, too. They can record themselves by reading a story, for example.
        As a third activity, she showed us "xtranormal" site and in this site students can choose characters and write whatever they like and they can add movements to their characters. This character will act in the way we directed. Thus, students can create story and with the help of xtranorma they can make cartoon which will take their attention easily. Different kinds of topics or grammatical structures can be asked to apply. I believe that with these kinds of activities, our students will like studying language rather than being afraid of it. 

using assessment to plan instruction and evaluate learning by Judy Hobson

In this class we become groups and in the group we decided firstly the content then we decided the final product as a second step. This was very different for me because I generally plan the lessons step by step I mean from the beginning to the end but this time we decide the content then the last step the final production. I think this is also very useful because we will know what we will do at the end. In short, we will be aware of our destination.
she wanted us to write sth about ourselves that no one know. the other day she gave us a piece of paper that every information about us written on it. The activity was about asking questions about the given information and match the information with the correct person. I think this activity is very enjoyable. moreover, students will have chance to talk about themselves and will ask questions to learn required information. This activity also creates good raport between learners and they learn many things about themselves. I enjoyed this lesson a lot.

preparing lesson plan

We can use Microsoft in many fields. We can as a teacher can use Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. while preparing lesson plan we are using Microsoft Word, too which is a good thing to be able make use of it. It is easy to save, write and make framework,etc. We can share our lesson plan with students by using projector to show what the plan is about or we can distribute it to our students.

Gloger, wiki, videothread...

today I impressed with the sites which are very useful for teaching purposes. I have just know that we can use PowerPoint Presentation, Microsoft  Word, etc. to make the lesson enjoyable or to use visuals we can use those tools but there are a lot of ways to make it interesting or attractive. I tried to use Gloger I really enjoyed while preparing poster so I believe that students will enjoy it more than me and they will like English from now on:)

Assessment and learning

we know that we should consider testing principles while preparing such as validity, practicality, authenticity, etc.
we can use rubrics to be fair while evaluating but we should be careful while choosing right rubric because it affects our evaluation. If we choose a rubric which doesn't evaluate what we have studied during the class session this means that the result will be useless. In order to be a good teacher we should train ourselves in a best way in the field of assessment.

teaching grammar interactively

we can teach grammar with games which will be helpful for learners like the grammar lessons. We can place "Dice Game" with students. We as a teacher draw a chart on the board and we can write words, verbs, adj. etc. Students use dice and according to the numbers they make sentences, say past forms of tenses, etc. I think this activity is very enjoyable and students will be able to practice what they have learned.
teacher may write words on the board randomly, students have a stick to point to the board, teacher tells a word and the one who points the verb first, for example, gets the point. We can practice words, verbs,etc. together.
every students gives examples of inventions, "Telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell", "Electricity was invented by Thomas Edison." etc. then students place them according to their importance or set them chronologically. Hence, they can practice passive form, their background knowledge can be activated with this activities.
If we can set activities in which they engage students, they will benefit from the activities effectively.

powerpoint presentation

There are many ways to use PowerPoint Presentation in our classes. We can prepare presentations using visuals to take students attention or we can create games to make our classes enjoyable. Hence, it will be much more easier to reach our goal by doing this. I knew many qualities of preparing presentation and how to prepare it but I have learnt here that we can create games easily with PowerPoint. With games, students will participate the lesson eagerly. It is very easy with powerpoint to prepare games because there are many Templates wchich will be useful for us. As Microsoft Word or Excel, we can use this as a classroom management, creation of instructional resources or students learning. These three items can be applied with the help of PowerPoint.

Teaching grammar interactively

Many people don't like grammar that much because in any language there are  a lot of structures we have to learn to use the language effectively. As a teacher we shouldn't make the class session as a torture for learners to learn those structures and we should be creative to make the lesson meaningful. Today I have seen that the grammar lessons can be enjoyable. We can use videos, movies or cartoons to teach tenses such as Present Progressive, Past Tense, etc. We can teach grammar with games. Students make a circle, for example, and one says verb, another says past tense, the other says past participle. rather than using traditional forms of teaching, we can modify the activities to make it more attractive and more interesting.

Microsoft Excel usage in classes

I have many things about Excel except using it for making statistics. We can use it as a Microsoft Word, we can create stories, prepare attendance sheets, etc. I believe that Excel is much more interesting than Microsoft Word because we can make many tabs, go from one place to another, enjoy with students during the lesson. We can make students write their stories with Excel. Shortly, learners will enjoy the lesson with the help of this opportunity.

Cherokee Heritage Center

I impressed with the nature of Oklahoma and when we entered the Cherokee Heritage Center I felt like I was going to past when the Cherokee People were living. I have been reading a lot of things about their lives but seeing their real life is very amazing. As a teacher we can organize this kind of sightseeing or tour about the topic we are working on and want our students write a story like imagining themselves living in that tribe and those years.

Microteaching demonstrations

Firstly, I want to state that I enjoyed the lesson very much because my friends prepared so enjoyable class session. I have a lot of plans in my mind to apply in courses but I took note of my friends plans because they were practical. yes there were inadequate parts in our presentations but I believe that all of us will improve ourselves. In fact, we had very limited time. However, This shows me that in real life we will still have limited time with a lot of subjects to cover.

Developing EFL reading skills

teacher gives learners paragraphs and the headlines and want them match with headlines. I enjoyed this activity very much and matching headlines took my attention alive all trough the class session. the other thing in the class was answering questions from the newspaper. I think it is authentic and students will like to answer the questions eagerly because the news is fresh and it is related to the things are happening around them.

difficulty of using microsoft word

           Thanks to technology we have chance to use it to enhance our way of teaching. We can use it as a classroom management, creation of instructional resources or to help students' learning. I think using it as a creation of instructional resources because I belive that PowerPoint presentaions are much more helpful than Microsoft Word. It is easy to prepare presentations using a lot of visuals and with Powerpoint it is much enjoyable. We can use Microsoft Word to prepare exam papers or may be just to give students some of the most important clues of the lessons.
           Shortly, we can or should use Microsoft Word in every field for education even though it may sometimes be hard to apply.

developing EFL writing skills

we were given a very short and memorable. we were asked to came up the whole story by sharing our sentences and combining those sentences. I think this activity is very useful for elementary students to help them understand and do the activity in an enjoyable environment.
more than that, in this class we also learnt the procedure of writing, the characteristics of good writing, Topic sentences, controlling ideas and concluding sentences.

general education course:the teaching/learning process

in this class we saw what the teaching and the learning were and we talked about their definitions. the other thing which was mentioned was why we teach, why we teach language, how do we teach, etc. then we talked about what were the characteristics of being a teacher and shared our memories with the whole class, which was about our teachers who affected us and whom we couldn't forget and why.

learning through observation

In this class we had different duties such as observant of the class session or just observant of the students or the teacher.Even though we had never been exposed to Croatian language before students easily learnt what the teacher had thought.
The students who had different duties came together and shared what they observed.
I think this class session was useful for us to check whether we could observe the class session or whether we could see what were the pros and cons of the lesson. I realized that as we had been looking at the different angle we were catching different ideas and our ideas were changing according to our dominance of our work.

technology in education

as we are living in an information age it brings  the compulsory for us to use technology. verythins is changing day by day and in order to follow those things we have to learn what this new age bring to us. Then we see that we need to take this technological changes to our classes. I believethat computers,projectors, may be even cell phones, etc. will make it easy for us to teach what we want to easily. there are a lot of sites to use for educational purpuses and this will help us to communicate with students individually. Hence, students will benefit from this effectivelly.
to sum up, technology will take us further in education.