Week 1 #2: Reflection on First Week's Activities

Hello everyone!

Today is Friday 26 June 2015 and the first week of our course is already drawing to an end. This week which began on Monday 22 June will close up on Sunday 28 June 2015, in about two days' time. So far, I have done and learned a lot from the course. Let me share with you below.

In terms of human relations, I have introduced myself to the course participants and have been thrilled by the diversity of these people who come from Africa, Asia, Europe and South/Latin America. We are indeed a global community of English teachers brought together thanks to the very object of our study, that is, the Internet. It is indeed amazing. I now have friends from countries like America, Costa Rica, Ukraine, China, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, to name but a few. In this group of people, we have professionals with more than 10 years of experience in teaching English as well as emerging professionals with less than 5 years of experience. We have people with PhDs, people doing PhDs, writers, mothers, etc. We have people who have already been using technologies in their lessons and others who have never done so. In this kind of community, there is no doubt that we shall learn a lot and improve our teaching skills. I am thus privileged to be part of this diverse community in the early years of my career. When I peep into my future, I can only see a great teaching career!

I have also read the ground rules and assessment rubrics for our course and commented on them. I agreed with the terms of both of them and also joined discussions and opinions by others relating to the rules. We all agreed that politeness and objectivity should guide our interactions in the course and elsewhere in life. I have read documents on creating blogs as well as using blogs in teaching. I now know of three types of blogs in teaching namely: Tutor's/Teacher's Blog, Class Blog, and Learner's/Student's Blog.

I am so happy  I can now sign into our Nicenet class and I am sure I can equally create a Nicenet class for my students. Thanks to guidelines from our wonderful course instructor Donna Shaw, creating a blog is now just fun for me. Though this is my second blog, its creation has taught me so many lessons, especially about managing settings. In addition, I have been helpful to my peers; I advised one of them two days ago on how to get the correct URL for her blog. My advice really helped her and she has been so grateful.

By experimenting with our class Wiki page, I have also learned so many things. I was the first in my class to upload my photo to that Wiki page and the first to make our instructor discover that she did not include our Blog Roll on the Wiki. From the Wiki page, I found myself playing (experimenting) with google maps. I successfully added my location on the map found on our Wiki page. Furthermore, I carried out research on how to use virtual maps in ELT lessons and found an awesome article on that titled Using Google my Maps in Classroom Projects) which lists class activities about using maps in class such as talk about your home, find a good restaurant, etc. Now I can also use maps in my lessons, provided there internet access.  Thanks to Donna's blog, I also got access to some short nice Youtube videos about the University of Oregon, Right now, I cannot help but think about how I can one day study on that beautiful UO campus! Only if wishes were horses! Then I will soon ride one to UO to continue my education.

I visited and commented on Donna's and Namse's blogs and tried in vain (several times) to access Yuliya's blog. It would appear hers has restrictive access! Namse's First Blog Post evokes two issues that I like and agree with all: most teachers in Nigeria (and Cameroon) are reluctant to embrace technologies in their teaching activities, and access to the Internet in these two countries is very costly.

By and large, the first week of our course is wrapping up but not yet finished. The course itself is just beginning. Thus, everything about the course including this blog and its present posts is still ongoing like the course. And I am convinced that THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Love you all,
Nsah Mala
Cameroon