Time flies....

As I look back at my last entry from January 15th, I can say the last 5 weeks have been a blur of learning, teaching and life just happening and passing so quickly that sometimes I can't believe that I have learned so much in such a short period.  After joining the Webheads in Action for their 2011 EVO sessions at http://evosessions.pbworks.com/ in January and learning to create blogs, wikis and use other technological wonders for enhancing my teaching skills, I have been able to start an online class for my own adult students that I tutor using a comprehensive Education Management System and a collaborative learning environment called Rcampus at http://www.rcampus.com/. Rcampus is a a user friendly teaching platform which guides teachers through the set up of their own private classroom to use with their students. Only those with permission and a password can access the virtual class, so it allows teachers the flexibility of controlling who can access their curriculum. It also allows teachers to create their own personal website to use for their class.  The resources that are available on the internet to help us become better at what we all love to do are amazing. If you have not already experienced how online Web 2.0 tools can enhance your teaching and create a blended learning environment to help your students achieve their goals, then I challenge all teachers who are afraid of technology to put aside their fears and dive in to all the amazing technology on the internet. Check out the links on this site to other teacher's blogs to see how they are making use of the technological wonders to enhance their student's learning experiences and watch as your students progress to higher levels of competencies.

My blogging mind...

Words such as blogs, wikis, social networking, micro-blogging and so on have been swimming in my head for the past 5 days since I created this blog.  I have been reading all about these Social Media tools and have been amazed at the potential for these tools to be used not only in teaching and learning, but also in many businesses around the world. That said, as a teacher, I think to spend the time learning about and using these tools is an amazing asset to be used in our classes, whether online or f2f. Our students need to know how to use these tools in their jobs in order to collaborate with others. The task may seem daunting to us "book users" and "paper pushers", but taking a part of a f2f class to teach our students how to use these tools will enhance our lessons as well as give the students varying options for using their learning outside the classroom and collaborating online. This New Year, 2011, is a year for me to offer my students new options for practicing their English skills outside of the safety of their classroom.  Are there any other teachers who want to join me in this challenge in 2011?

Why I started this blog

I have been interested in writing a blog, but never knew how to begin until I started a course on a yahoo group with EVO 2011 at the following link: http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/10708567/FrontPage. The first week our assignment was to learn how to make a blog and other Web 2.0 tools to use in a classroom setting or with online teaching. I am excited to learn about blogging and other resources available for teaching my students. I need to be prepared in order to show my students the benefits of using these tools in helping them to learn English at a level that is up to date with the technology in schools and in businesses. In the last week I have learned alot of new technology and hope to learn more in the future. If any teachers out there are in the same situation as me or if you are a pro at technology use in the classroom, feel free to add your comments here to start a discussion for all teachers and learners to gain an understanding of the possible benefits when learning to use online tools.