mpoole

During my own time as a student I never really thought of my LMS experiences as good or bad. They were just there. If I was to turn in an assignment via Blackboard, that’s what I was going to do. I accepted the use or absence of an online component without thought. As I develop this ESL course, it is my hope to do so thoughtfully, with good teaching practice prevailing. I am concerned about assessing students’ language skills at the start of the course. I do not want to overwhelm the students with too many assignments, or disjointed assignments that jump from one component of the LMS to another. As collaboration is key in an ESL classroom, I will focus first on creating collaborative assignments, then on individual. I’d also like to create tasks that help students to make good judgment on what English language sites are valuable and which offer information that is inaccurate or has an agenda.

I want to create a vibrant online community where students feel comfortable to explore English and make the mistakes that are essential to language production and retention. I want my teaching style to come through the computer screen so that students feel they are truly receiving instruction and aren’t simply being pointed from one assignment to another.