Blogs can be useful for professional development as a ESL instructor because it opens up the ability for instructors from all over the world to collaborate in an informal setting. The ability for educational professional to share ideas and aid each other in lesson development means that the teachers can learn what works and what is a good way to critique any issues in their lesson pans. The self reflection that is involved with blogging allows the teacher to be able to put even more thought into the lessons they present the students with. As well as allowing them to keep a record of any issue that arose with the lesson plan any creative ways to fix the issue.
Blogs value to students can be equally as large as that for teachers because ESL students might not use english often out side of the classroom and blogs allow students the ability to post their best work online. It also allows the students to work together through peer review and critique to help each other grow as ESL students. Students learn from tons of different sources and a blog can allow them to share what they have learned from books or look at current news stories and share they opinions. Students can even share their interest in music and tv shows that are in english as long as the students are sharing and discussing it in english there is a chance for them to develop from it.
Performance Indicator - ESL.C.9-12.1.1.2: Students read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, interpret, and analyze information related to academic content areas from various sources.
Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteHi James! I totally agree with you about students learning from several different sources. I have found that online language games that are interactive (like Duolingo) or videos, music, etc. are really engaging (and useful) for language learning. Blogging is one more of those engaging features to add to the list!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that blogs are helpful both teachers and students! Students have the chances to learn the language in various ways such as books and music as you mentioned. And it would be some challenging but teachers should not overlook for using blogs! Because there are so many resources available online as well as opportunities to look back on their teaching! thank you for sharing your ideas^^
ReplyDeleteHi, James. I agree with your idea that blog can help ESL instructors keep a record of any issue arouse with lesson plan any creative ways to fix the issue. Because sometimes I used to use my blog for that purpose.^^ I think it is very important to 'share' students' and teachers' ideas with each other throughout blogs!
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