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Week 13: So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye...

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This course is coming to an official end, and with it, my blog. I could lie and say that I will continue to update once this course is complete - but knowing myself, and the busy nature of life as a whole (and particularly the final season. yikes.), I probably will not do so. And, honestly, no one will read it either unless I email them to do so. Plus, there are much more fascinating blogs out there on the web. (Stay tuned for the next department newsletter for many wonderful recommendations... this is also my last opportunity for a newsletter plug.) I want to say a quick thank you to all the participants. The learning experience was much more worthwhile, as I found the collaborative discussions meaningful and thought-provoking. And of course, Avraham, thank you for putting the course together and making sure that it was both user-friendly and #relevant. It is important to note the end of this blogging chapter is not the end of my (or our) learning. Technology continues to adv...
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Week 10: Research Tools in the Classroom + The Google Scholar Challenge

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Hello Fellow Students! Wow it has been a while... I think of all the tools that I looked at, the one that most excited me as a future English teacher was Simple English Wikipedia. The reason being, these are great options for texts that I could bring into my classroom. In a different course we are taking, incidentally with the same lecturer, we discussed the importance of differentiating content in our classrooms - one way being according to readiness level. Being exposed to this particular tool can help us in this seemingly time consuming pursuit.  As opposed to the regular Wikipedia, which is long-winded and has difficult collocations, these articles are short and to the point. You now have two text options on the same topic - both provided by Wikipedia. Regular Wikipedia and Simple Wikipedia. Let’s take Healthy Habits and Diets, for example. The famous Present Simple topic. Here are two text options that you can just copy and paste without much effort. Option 1 - S...
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Week 6: How Technology Wages the Language War For Us

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  In this week's unit, I was exposed to a very large amount of tools and how they can help us in our language teaching. As I read the words on my screen, the ideas of how to integrate the tools into my practice teaching (which after this semester is ending, but no worries, next year I will have the chance to implement them) starting dancing around my brain. So without further ado… the five tools and my opinion as to how it can be used in such a way that makes our lives as teachers easier. 1) Voice Chat - specifically - Whatsapp Voice Chat. You know how in the classroom not everyone gets a chance to speak? And how when we tell our students to create dialogues we never have enough time to go through them? Or how there are always those students who feel uncomfortable speaking in front of their peers? Whatsapp Voice Chat is a wonderful way to work on speaking skills that doesn’t require much class time, nor does it require public speaking. The great thing is that most if...
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Week 4: Let's Talk about Canva.

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Have you ever wanted your images and lesson plans to look professional and fun but found that page design and images were too complicated to make on your own? Meet Canva . A simplified graphic design tool that can help you personalize images and lesson plans in your classroom. I have yet to see anyone write about this tool in depth. Vicki Davis does write that "Canva is a powerful design tool. This year, my students made infographics and blog graphics with Canva. I like its predefined sizes -- whether we're using Twitter, Facebook, or designing an ad, the templates and sizes are already set." But, this brief description does not fully express how useful this tool is. I searched the archives of the blogs I'm following. Unsatisfied with my findings, I looked to Google to supply more information. After a quick search, I found that Canva wrote about themselves and how they can be useful in the classroom. https://www.canva.com/learn/10-ways-to-take-your-less...
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Week 3: Tech Tools for Teachers

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I remember using Quizlet and other important self-study tools in high school. The flash-cards and self-check options really enabled me to prepare myself for exams. As a future teacher, I also recognize the benefits of this self-motivating and fun study system. However, I found myself thinking about how these tools can help second language learners. The reality of virtual studying is that it often is only applicable to students with a certain level of English ability. At the very least, the students using these tools all need to know how to decode. How do we help our younger learners using technology? In my perusings of various articles discussing the integration of technology into the classroom, I came across a fascinating tool called Pear Deck. This tool can be easily incorporated into elementary school classrooms. In addition to the functions that Quizlet serves, Pear Deck allows for students to draw what they hear. This really creates an environment where the non-decoders can pa...
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Week 2: Technophobia

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I have met a fair share of teachers who are extremely wary of technology. You know the type. The one who shudders at the word “powerpoint”, who thinks that QR Code sounds like the name of one of those new-age sci-fi movies, who thinks that Tik-Tok is just the sound that a clock makes. The ones who start their sentences with “Back in my day…” or “When I was younger” and will probably end with them saying something like “we had AOL chat rooms, and they were very cool. Much cooler than your chatsnaps or whatever they’re called.” For this type of teacher, the use of a marker and a whiteboard is sufficient. And it works. Because it always has. And it always will, right? ...Right? Now, this teacher can cause some serious problems in our classroom. Even if we have an entire school that values advancement and technology integration, it is entirely possible that the class won’t advance. Why? Vicky Davis broke this problem’s effect down into a series of not very mathematical equations...
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An Introduction

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The world is developing at an unprecedented rate. Technology has become one of the basic necessities in everyday life. Some even compare the lack of basic technological knowledge to being illiterate. I am taking a course this year that is extremely crucial for all teachers and mentors - to learn, to connect, to adapt to a changing world. My main apprehension about the topic of discussion is the fear that most of the topics learned in this course will not necessarily be relevant in the coming years. Facebook is already dying out in the younger generation. Most students prefer Instagram over any other form of social media. New media platforms open up on a yearly basis. People blog less and vlog more. Worldwide, students' attention spans decrease due to a large amount of stimuli coming from their technological devices. Understanding the importance of using technology in the classroom also comes with understanding its disadvantages. Many studies have shown that technology h...
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