Saturday 15 October 2011

Teacher Talk (23): Wherefore art thou technology?

Subject: Nice to meet your acquaintance :)
From: nuha
To: rahmahs@yahoo.com;
Date: Saturday, October 15, 2011 9:06 AM
 

Salam Puan Rahmah. 

First of all, I wud like to thank you for dropping by my blog some time ago which eventually brought me to your fabulous informative blog. FYI, I visit your blog almost everyday lately & I learn a vast of new terms such as lesson study, action research & stuff I've yet to explore. It takes time to catch up on everything but it feels great to discover new knowledge in the TnL of English.

I read your post "Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers- Get there!" with great enthusiasm. I couldn't agree more with you - teachers MUST  keep up with technology! I love technology as it helps me a lot in my teaching. I don't how I'll make do without it! I would like to share my little experience with using technology in my lessons. I still use the old dinasour - PowerPoint ;) Instead of just typing text, teachers can do a lot of things with powerpoint like adding videos, pictures & sounds (teaching poem for example)! I downloaded a lot of videos from youtube as well. Let's say, the topic is about teacher's day celebration, road accident or flood. So, I'll show the related videos to ss as set induction. From there, I get ss to talk abt the incident, ask abt their feelings & personal experience. Sometimes, I use songs or movie snippets to do revision on grammar. Like you, I share the teaching materials that I developed on my blog & FB.

Technology can do wonders to the TnL of English but many educators out there don't want to take advantage of it. It's sad when some teachers even refuse (maybe they don't know how) to utilize them & remain loyal to markers n white board (the modern chalk n talk). Some even say that they are too old to befriend technology (they'll be ashamed if they know you). 

Anyway, thank you for setting up this blog Puan. You inspires me & I believe other ESL teachers too. I want to follow your footsteps - to become a thinking teacher & teach with love.  

Assalamualaikum.


ps: actually i wanted to send a comment in one of your posts but i figured that this comment is too long 2b a comment? that's why i write an email 2u. i dont mind you publishing my name if you wish to put it in teacher talk. 

My reply

wassallam nuha,
thanks for your email. what a way to start off my day (with two papers not ready for presentation!!) i need help seriously. a refreshing email indeed! on top of that my room is so cluttered beyond imagination- nope i haven't had the mood to clear the files, boxes, bags on the floor...been very lazy lately :) well, am glad you find my blog useful and so is yours ok. you have a great blog. i was a reluctant teacher when it comes to technology but no more. incidentally i shall be sharing my online class project in the upcoming National Convention for Excellent Teachers in Kedah. i'm happy that my blog has connected me with so many teachers and would-be teachers, young and old. if i have inspired you, then i say Alhamdulillah...hope to inspire more :) i wish i had more time to spruce up my blog but this is about the best i can manage at the moment. thanks for visiting and for the permission to publish your email. the 'teacher talk' section has somewhat been very quiet of late, am wondering if if people are shy or i scare people away hahaha. have a nice day nuha! 
p.s. someone's going to be very upset am not using the correct punctuation :)


- the thinking teacher-



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