Building Teaching Skills

Rubrics have become an integral part of teaching and learning at all universities and places involved in ELT. EFL. ESL and others in the past few years. Here at UTN University, Teachers, directors and faculty developers have engaged in discussions in faculty meetings, in lunchrooms, and it certainly was one of the topics at the UTN EFL International convention recently held. Remember that assessment is not necessarily an either-or option. Instead, these assessment strategies can be used together in order to gain a better picture of your students' grasp of the content. In one workshop, they talked of tools for grading complex assignments, the purpose and characteristics of rubrics and the use of RubiStar was analyzed. At the end of the session, participants drafted a rubric for an assignment and gave and received feedback from a colleague. Benefits they reported include clearer complaints and more focused teaching. Of course there are also teachers who have reasonable reser...

Nelson Mandela Accepts Honorary Doctorate Degree

Practice your skills! http://www.testden.com/challenge/toeflibt/maintest.asp#_jumpto

Name of the lesson: Newscast (Name, type of student): University students aged 23 (average), intermediate to advance. Interaction: Pair-work then class  Duration: 60 minutes Materials: Computers with internet connection, word processor, webcams. Latest news downloaded from http://newsmap.jp/ or http://www.cnn.com/ (Cable News Network), Other material: Browser Rationale: Regularly when students are asked to give their opinions on topics they have a limited knowledge about and a little interest, they do not talk much about it because they do not feel confident on their ideas and of course they do not want to look stupid in front of others. Teachers should provide new ways for student to make them feel they are the masters of their domain on a specific subject. IntroductionReview of previous lesson:go to http://newsmap.jp/ or http://www.cnn.com%20/ and select the language (English), the country and the news they are interested in, this activates students’schemata. Obj...

If we look at it critically, our students always expect their teachers to do something different, when teachers do so, students feel motivated and it creates expectations and curiosity because they never know what the next class and lesson is going to be about. Implementing and e-lesson plan at least twice a week is a great way to engage students and the most important is that they always want to attend classes to know what the teacher is going to do, it does not mean teachers do not plan, in my case I do plan but just tell students if they ask me "tomorrow is something very interesting, different and exciting" I am not telling them the answer nor what we will be doing. It works. Last week, I planned to work on a newscast based on real news in the country and abroad. It went super well and they even wanted to upload some of the videos onto www.youtube.comand embedded them to their Facebook and hi5. I truly believe that implementing Blended Learning is using technology in and ...

Useful Web Sites for English Language Learning and Teaching The Internet TESL Journal http://iteslj.org/ http://iteslj.org/Lessons/ English Teaching Forum http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum-journal.html Online English Language Center http://oelp.uoregon.edu/ OELC teacher resources available from the Web http://oelp.uoregon.edu/teach.html OELC Web-based authentic materials for English language learning http://oelp.uoregon.edu/teach_authentic.html#Images Videos The Internet Movie Database http://us.imdb.com/ http://www.imdb.com/features/video/trailers/ Harry Potter video clip trailer Narrative:  Harry Potter. I have seen your heart and it is mine. They’re coming. You can’t fight this war on your own. He’s too strong. You don’t stand a chance. http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4079917337/ Lion King vi...

Dictionary of Difficult Words This commercial site offers a searchable dictionary of thousands of difficult words. http://www.lineone.net/dictionaryof/difficultwords/index.html Figures of Speech This privately maintained site provides definitions of various figures of speech along with examples from English literature. http://www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/williams/figofspe.htm   AskOxford.com The Oxford University Press offers tips for better writing, information on the origin of words, and word games and puzzles. http://www.askoxford.com/ World Wide Words: Exploring the English Language This privately maintained site offers weekly columns on the history of words and the development of new words and phrases; reviews of dictionaries and links to related resources are also provided. http://www.worldwidewords.org/ Guide to Grammar and Writing This privately maintained site offers writing tips and...

• 4 Blocks Writing Mini Lessons http://www.k111.k12.il.us/LAFAYETTE/FOURBLOCKS/mini-lessons.htm • So-Ho Mini-lessons http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/8405/minilessonmenu.html • Teachers.Net Lesson Exchange – Mini Lessons http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/875.html • Language-Arts Mini Lessons – Youth.net http://www.youth.net/cec/ceclang/ceclang-elem.html • Deb’s 4Blocks Page – Writing Mini-Lesson Links http://www.debfourblocks.com/lessonslinks.html • Cheri Summer’s Writing Mini Lessons http://www.cyberspaces.net/6traits/mini.html • The Writing Center @ KSU ~ Elementary – Upper Grades http://dept.kent.edu/english/WritingCent/mini.htm • Quillayute Valley School District – Writing Mini Lessons and Topic Ideas http://www.forks.wednet.edu/middle/7thgrade/foutspweb/foutspwebsite/lessons/writinghome.htm • Academy Curriculur Exchange – All Grade Level Mini Lessons http://ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/lang/elem.html • Elementary 4 Block Lesson Plans ~ LOADED with informatio...

This article appeared in the August 2007 edition of eJournal USA. Blog — Short for Weblog. A Web site that contains written material, links, or photos being posted all the time, usually by one individual, on a personal basis. (To) blog — Run a blog or post material on one. Blogger — Person who runs a blog. Blogosphere — All blogs, or the blogging community. Blogroll — List of external links appearing on a blog, often links to other blogs and usually in a column on the homepage. Often amounts to a “sub-community” of bloggers who are friends. Blogware — Software used to run a blog. Comment spam — Like e-mail spam. Robot “spambots” flood a blog with advertising in the form of bogus comments. A serious problem that requires bloggers and blog platforms to have tools to exclude some users or ban some addresses in comments. Content syndication — How a site’s author or administrator makes all or part of its content available for posting on another Web site. Moblog — Contraction o...