ED638: Teaching with the Internet
Dr. Matilda Naputi Rivera

Reflection # 2

Looking at how much have I fared so far, I would say I’m improving a little in using the Internet. What I could not do so far is to access the Live Text. Every time I tried to get in, it said invalid login. I tried using my user and password given to me from those moodleroom people at UOG along with my COM-FSM user password, it kept rejecting them, saying they are invalid. So this is one thing that I could not do so far.

As for the reading assignments, I’m beginning to enjoy them and to get the feel of them. I realized how outdated I am on the new ideas and ways to improve the students’ knowledge in reading and writing.

I’m beginning to also understand that the Internet is a wealth of knowledge and that all I need is to use it. There are thousands of new ideas, new methods, new skills, used in different settings which I can tap those that are appropriate to our Chuukese culture and setting.

Recalling the motivation behind my pursuing graduate studies in language and literacy is the fact that students can not do well in English. One prominent reason would be the lack of trained teachers in the field. I know that one person would not solve the problem, but if we can show the teachers how they can improve their students’ abilities in reading and writing in English, provide training to those teachers, then maybe we can convince them to become active participants in the development of our students’ learning abilities in the English language.

As Dr. Mary Spencer, UOG Professor, pointed out in her study back then about our Micronesian students’ abilities in English, our eighth graders are equivalent to that of the second graders in the U.S. I know that here in Chuuk, this is still true as I teach developmental English Classes here at the College of Micronesia-Chuuk Campus.

Thank you very much.
Rick

Class reflection

ED 638: Teaching with the Internet
Dr. Matilda Naputi Rivera

Class Reflection Assignment#1

To begin with, let me summed up what I have been thru from the first day that I received the information tried to digest and understand it.

When I looked and reviewed the syllabus that you e-mailed me, I was so confused and my mind was totally blank. I really couldn’t do anything about it. To make matter worse, I for the first time, encountered terms like College Live Text, Moodle, and Blog in which I don’t have any idea what they are. This reminds of an activity that I used any time I teach a story or a new concept to my students. To make them understand what they’re going to read about, I tried to develop an understanding of the story by activating their prior knowledge and developing background information. It is through this course that I realized how important is to apply both skills.

Putting my self into the students’ shoes, I pictured how hard it might be for a student if that student doesn’t have any prior knowledge about the material being presented. It is through this experience that I affirm to always activate the students’ prior knowledge and develop their background knowledge any time I presented a lesson.

Going back to my reflection on this course, I am confident that I will catch on despite the fact that I am struggling to understanding what I should do in order to access these sites to doing my assignments.

As of now, I am able to get to the Moodleroom to send my assignment, enter the discussion forum to post a comment, and be able to give you my reflection of this course in your blog.

I am very grateful to you for widening my horizon that what I learned is an asset and will benefit myself as well as my students.

Thank you very much.

Rick