Week 14: Technology as an important tool to deliver feedback.

Rate: 4

Technology has changed over the years and due to big impact that it has had in society, it has changed people's life. Nowadays, due to technology being present in everybody's life, it is easier to use a computer than use paper and pencil to take notes or to do homework since when using a computer any mistake that we make when taking notes can be deleted faster than when using an eraser because it is time consuming, for that reason students prefer Technology.

Technology has become an important tool in education since students and teachers use it in their daily routines. However, Technology in teachers' life is very important because they can using it to prepare interactive classes for students because as we know, there are many tools that teacher can use to easily deliver feedback to their students. There is a really interesting program that is called screen capture, which can be used to give feedback. This is a program easy to use, where teachers can check exams, homework, presentations, etc. and at the same time they have the ability to record their voices in order to provide feedback to students in a way students will understand and put into practice in the future.



  

Week 13: Students participation in the classroom.

Rate: 4

The participation in the classroom is so fundamental for students since it contributes to their learning process and at the same time it helps them with their learning-skills development. Besides, it helps students overcome any shyness they may feel when they speak in front of their classmates and teachers because sometimes students do not feel confident when they answer questions due to the fact that they do not know much about the topic they are being questioned about so teachers have to look for good strategies to make all students participate in class. Strategies such as asking attractive questions to get students attention, making them ask themselves why something is happening, can help teachers check students comprehension and knowledge about the topics they are learning about, thus teachers can give them feedback or can explain them what they do not understand. Besides, a good strategy to improve students participation is to make them work in groups so they can express their opinions their partners in order to give them the opportunity to think and to check out their answers, then they can share their thoughts with the whole the class because in that way students will be motived to participate.

Week 12: Project Work in English Classrooms

Rate: 4

Project work activities, are a good tool that can be used by teachers in order to maximize the student's skill language learning. Project work based learning, with proper teacher guidance, and feedback along with the student's engagement and elaborated tasks, will greatly benefit students by increasing their socialization and collaboration skills so they can get to know their classmates better and also they can learn to work with others. For a project to be successful and for students to feel committed to it, it is necessary that teachers propose interesting topics to get the students attention; these topics need to be real-world based topics in order for students to learn about real world issues while they are learning a new language. If real-world based topics are used for project work activities, students will increase their metacognitive awareness and enhance critical thinking and decision-making abilities that will serve them not only in their career but also in their daily lives. In order for a project work to be successful, teachers and students alike need to work together so students are prepared for the demands of information gathering, to gather the information needed for the project work, and to compile and analyze the information gathered in order for the final project to be completed and presented to the target audience.

Week 11: Online Dictionaries in Second Language Learning

Rate: 3

Every student that is learning a second language starts to use a dictionary since it helps students to look for words that they do not know and to be more knowledgeable. Most of the students prefer using an online dictionary because it is easier to use than a paper dictionary as they think that paper dictionaries are big and bulky to bring to classes, and it is difficult to look for a word because paper dictionaries have such an extensive content, which makes any word search a time-consuming task. For that reason, they choose an easy way to look for vocabulary and words unknown for them. Using an online dictionary is common nowadays because there are many applications that students can use in their cellphones; besides, online dictionaries offer a lot of information about a word, like different meanings, example sentences of words use, pronunciation guides, quick find etc. so students will learn many things using a online dictionary. However, students must be careful when using online dictionaries because no all online dictionaries are reliable of use as they do not give a good definition of a word; for that reason, teachers should recommend students which dictionary can be the best option for them to use.

Week 10: Mobile phones as learning tools.

Rate: 4

Nowadays, using a mobile phone is common for many people since everybody use it to communicate with others; however, mobile phones are not only used to communicate, we can also use mobile phones to do other things such as to study, to do homework, to send emails, to do exercises, to read books, to listen to music, to look up information easily, etc., with mobile phones there come a lot of tools that students can use to improve their language skills in an interesting and funny way.

Mobile phones are a useful school tool where students can learn many things in an easy way; since mobile phones are part of students' everyday lives, they will be able to study and practice wherever and whenever they are. Besides, in teaching mobile phones can bring a lot of benefits to students and teachers because both can use them to teach and learn in meaningful ways. Teachers can integrate mobile phones in their classes since students enjoy using mobile phones everywhere they are; for that reason, teachers can do different activities where students can use their mobile phones or give them homework where students can use mobile phones, which would increase the students' motivation to learn new language.
 

Week 9: Wikis: Good option to improve the writing skill.

Rate: 3

Wiki is a software application that resides on a web server that is accessed with any browser and it is characterized because it allows users to add content and edit existing ones. Teachers and students can access the wiki application easily. Teachers can use this applications to assign to students a specific task because Wiki is not difficult to use and students can do a lot of things since users are allow to edit, add, and modify any information. That means that students can express their ideas, share their knowledge or express their points of view about the ideas expressed by others students previously.

When using Wikis, at the beginning students may be a little bit skeptical about it, however once they get to try it and start working along with others in the same project, they will find it to be fun and they will learn how to work with others, which will increase their interpersonal relations. Also, using collaborative writing with Wikis, teachers can effectively promote students' interest in writing. This way, students will be able to improve their writing skills and get better grades in their writing assignments. Furthermore, collaborative writing with Wikis, help to develop the students writing competences and enhance their collaboration skills, which will serve them not only to improve their writing skills, but also to improve their other learning skills.

Lab Session

Welcome everybody to my Lab Session 1

     Topic: Animals Around the World

     Author: Gabriela Escobar

     Time: 60 minutes

     Level: A1

This lab session focuses in the topic "Animals". With this topic, students will learn the name of animals, how these names are pronounced and how they are spelled. Firstly, students will watch two video in order to learn about the animals in they names. Also, there are different exercises that will make students put into practice what they have learned about animals.

1.Watch the video about Animals Around the World. Try to remember the different animal names and the countries where they live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcDoOnAkkME  4 minutes

2. Let's listen to some animal names, pay attention to their names and pronunciation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhQpT9-8Bss 6 minutes 

3. It is time to see a list of animal names for you to read and learn how their names are spelled. 
https://www.easypacelearning.com/all-lessons/learning-english-level-1/834-animals-names-with-pictures-learning-english 5 minutes

4. Read these interesting facts about animals and choose which is your favorite animal.
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals.html 10 minutes

5. Let's see how much you learned about animals with this animal maze game. https://elt.oup.com/student/i-spy/games/animals?cc=us&selLanguage=en#Instructions 5 minutes

6. What about testing your memory and animal knowledge with this memory game?
https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/vocabulary2/zoo1.htm 5 minutes

7. Do you still need to practice? Let's practice vocabulary of animals!
http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/vocabulary-exercise-animals.php 10 minutes

8. There are a lot of animals living around the world. Do you remember what are their names and how they look? Let's check it!
http://iteslj.org/v/ei/animals.html 10 minutes

9. Now let's play a word search to know how much you learned!
https://www.eslgamesplus.com/animals-on-the-farm-interactive-word-search/ 5 minute