Week 4 Reflecion

Hello everyone,
This week has been a tough one for me and for Egyptians because of the unrest and the sad circumstances that Egypt is going through, but let's all pray to God that things become better and that peace and love prevails in Egypt and all over the world.
As for our work this week, I have learned again a lot of useful things about Skill-building Websites for Reading/Writing Skills and Technology-enhanced Lesson Plans."Technology Enhanced Lesson plans" from the University of South Carolina: http://www.ed.sc.edu/caw/lessons/lessons.html. This is a useful website with some lesson plans added, I liked some but frankly for some I did not think they were that nice, or they did not appeal to me. Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction (2000)http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html 
and the Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books (2004) http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html were also of good use to me to add to my knowledge.

This website Breaking News English  http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ was actually number one to me with listening activities and a full series (11 pages) of activities to use offline, including pre- and post- activities, pair and group work, vocabulary building, and more and other links that need a long time to explore, recommend and use, it deserved to be added to my Delicious page.
Other websites such as Lauri's ESL Website - grammar, vocabulary, listening exercises. The Flash ones are especially interesting. http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/ ESL Independent Study Lab - Michael Krauss http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html Activities for Students (be selective about what you choose) http://a4esl.org/ Many Interesting Things for ESL Students http://www.manythings.org/
and also the Additional Resources: E-mailing to Improve EFL Learners' Reading and Writing Abilities: Taiwan Experience (1999) http://iteslj.org/Articles/Liao-Emailing.html  Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension (2007) http://iteslj.org/Articles/Constantinescu-Vocabulary.html Microsoft's "Lesson Plans for Teachers" page, for augmenting your lesson with technology: http://www.microsoft.com/Education/en-us/teachers/plans/Pages/index.aspx. Though I did not have the chance to check every single link I find them useful for later use and worth being added to Delicious.
 The discussion board was full of ideas that are useful too and again it proves that two heads are better than one when you find that your classmates are always ready with new ideas. Thank you everybody.
The template of the lesson plan also proved to be very useful and it was great to read the lesson plans of  my classmates too and the nice comments of our instructors Sherie & Jodi that are always encouraging and informative that help one to learn from. 
Let's pray for peace and love to spread all over the world and let me add two more links to my favorite singer wishing all love and peace to everyone.

First We Need The Love - Zain Bhikha feat. Rashid Bhikha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9bPskkCvnc

Heal the World - Zain Bhikha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-59ngOqbCk 

 Hesham