Session 3: Reflection

I have tried to create a quiz on Google Forms and used Hot Potatoes today. I think the quiz on Google Forms is more useful and appealing for my students. As a teacher, it's very important for me to know how much my students have learnt from my lessons. Google Forms are very useful for me to create quizzes after the lessons so I can ask students to do them when they go home. That saves my lessons' time and they can do a quick revision because they know how many marks they get and they can check their answers immediately. Google Forms are very easy to use and I think primary students can do them. They are like games for students! I can also check the results with them in class the next day and reward them.

I think the tasks in Hot Potatoes are less attractive but if my students are interested in the online quiz, I will give them a try! Can't wait to try them with my students. :)

Sessions 3: JMix and JQuiz

I have just taught my P.5 students to give advice. The sentence is one of the examples of the advice. :)

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=jmix1.htm

I would like to use this quiz to test students if they can use the question words correctly. It is also for my P.5 students. It can be used to revise what they have learnt in Unit 1. ;)

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=lum_jquiz.htm

Session 3:A quiz for my P.5 students

This is a quiz designed for my P.5 students.The questions are all designed based on what they have learnt in Unit 3.

Session 2: Reflection

I, as a teacher, always use online dictionaries to check the meaning, pronunciation and example sentences of words but I never ask my students to use them. I taught P.1 and P.4 students in the last three years. I always think that they are too young so I have not thought of asking my students to use any online dictionaries or thesaurus. After this lesson, I do think that I was wrong to assume that. They really need some tools to help them learn by themselves when I am not here to offer help.

This year is a very challenging year for me as I am teaching a P.5 class. The students learn quite slowly and they need a lot of help in learning English. I have just taught them how to do a composition this week. They struggled a lot because of their lack of vocabulary. A thesaurus will be a very useful tool for them as they will learn and use a wider variety of words to do their composition. For example, most of them would just use the 'easy' words like 'happy', 'big' and 'want' and they really cannot think of other words to replace them. Next time when they do composition in class, I may show them how to use an online thesaurus and they can try to use it at home.

Searching a corpus may be too difficult for the slow learners but I am interested in asking my students to use 'Textranch' and 'Googlefight'. I do not want to tell my students the difference of some phrases directly as they will not remember my words. If I bring out an interesting question and they search by themselves, they will remember the answer very well.

I can't wait to try these tools in my class!

Session 2

Original Version

On the first day, we met our class teacher Mr Wong, we thought he would be very strict to us. After one week, we found Mr Wong was very nice! We like this secondary school and we like to be in 1A. This is a good school and 1A is very good. The teachers in this school are very kind and nice and our classmates are also kind, friendly and nice. We like each other very much.

Improved Version

On the first day, we met our class teacher Mr Wong, we thought he would be very strict to us. After one week, we found Mr Wong was very pleasant! We adore this secondary school and we love to be in 1A. This is a superb school and 1A is incredible. The teachers in this school are very kind and charming and our classmates are also caring, friendly and likable. We like each other very much.

Session 1: Reflection

After Paul's first lesson and reading Ms Zoe Ma's teaching blog, I do think there is some potential for using a blog as a teaching tool in my own classroom, especially for the P.5 less-able class that I am teaching this year. I believe that most of my students are interested in their teachers and they love to share their thoughts with their teachers and peers. Yet, there is not much time in my lessons to share my thoughts and feelings with my students and I am always sad that I cannot hear from every student in my lessons. A class blog will be a useful platform for them to share their thoughts freely with me and their classmates.

Furthermore, my P.5 students are very afraid of writing in English. If they are asked to do a writing on a piece of paper, they will be very bored and they feel forced to do so. When using a blog is encouraged and is not counted as a piece of homework, they will be very happy to do it and they won't lose interest easily.

 To be more advanced just like what Ms Zoe Ma does, a class blog is a very useful tool to facilitate English teaching and learning. Games, polls, videos, questionnaires and so on can be uploaded. These can be related to what they have learnt in that week and they are interactive. Teachers know how students progress easily and students ENJOY doing so. This is the most important thing of learning.

Of course, there are some problems regarding using a blog. For examples, students do not have access to the internet or they have not enough time to do this after school. Yet, I see more prospects than problems. I may talk to my students and try a class blog with them in the future! :-)

 Let me "borrow" this image to show all of you the advantages of using a blog in the classroom.