Week 10: Farewell!

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This week has really been emotional for me! I have all these mixed feelings of great achievement and satisfaction for accomplishing this wonderful course, as well as sadness and emptiness for this great journey to be coming to an end.

I remember my excitement to find out that I was selected for this course. It was amazing! Yet, now I can say, I had no idea about how actually wonderful experience it would be. I was only wondering whether I would be able to do all the tasks and achieve desirable results; I didn't actually know how many wonderful new things I was going to learn and, above all, how many wonderful and different new people I was going to meet.

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I still remember the phrase Janja used in her first post on introducing herself. She said: "What a motley group of people we are!" I believe this is one of the most beneficial things of this course: connecting people from different parts of the world, different cultural and economical backgrounds, and giving them the opportunity to discuss topics of interest for all of them. And not only discuss the topics, but share ideas, experiences and give feedback to each other. This is actually where I've learnt the value of peer feedback.

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I really want to thank everyone, starting from the course designers and instructors to all my colleagues.

Yet, special thanks go to Courtney, one of the best instructors I've had throughout my education. Courtney, you have always been very resourceful, reliable, patient and helpful. Thank you for not only teaching us how to use technology in our classes, but also for setting a great role model of teaching!

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I would like to thank all my colleagues who have so willingly participated in all our discussions for the last ten weeks. Learning from you and with you has really been amazing! I have learnt to value collaborative work and peer feedback much more. Thank you all so much!

Week 10: Technology Integration

 It seems almost impossible that Week 10 has already arrived. I have a feeling I won't know what to do after this course finishes. But of course I will know what to do (at least in my classes): I have learnt so much!

This week we have been analysing our own technology integration level. I must say I am quite satisfied with what I've got so far. I've started integrating technology slowly but steadily. On one hand, I'm being very cautious not to overwhelm my students with new technology. On the other hand, technology has been very helpful and has opened numerous options that otherwise would not have been available. My classes are more interactive and the students seem more motivated. Even my communication with the students out of the classes has become more active and they are not reserved any more as they used to be.

I have to thank the University of Oregon, American English Institute and the USA Embassy in Serbia for giving me this great opportunity of attending such an informative and beneficial course. All the above mentioned positive changes are due to the information and inspiration I have received throughout this course.

Thank you!

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