Project Based Learning and Technology

At the beginning of the week I read the article of Susan Gaier on "Less Teaching and More Learning". I was very touched by her experience creating and adapting projects for her students needs. I automatically thought about low performance students that I would love to gather from different classes I know and would love to put them all together and share this kind of experience with them to help them build up more confidence in their language production.
When I started reading about Web Quests I honestly started trembling. For me it is very hard to understand how to apply it. I tend to be disperse and since I work with many teachers and know many students many classes come to my mind and want to brin remedial ideas for everybody. Well, I shared my fears and worries and doubts on nicenet and Robert's, Tony's and Perizat's comments and support on letting in flow and try to find an issue I could work with my students in a concrete way really helped me.
I decided to open a blog with my students. I shared with them my interest on continue keeping in touch with them during summer. They will actually not be my studenst next year so I wanted to open a space in which they could find me and continue practicing her English skills during summer, applying things I am learning with this great course. Perizat's support suggesting my kids to write me letters during summer and their impression on their vacations helped me focus my objectives a bit more. Again, I am so thankful for having your support. And Tony, you seem to be very calm, I need more of your philosophy of life :)
Anyways, my students were reluctant at the beginning in terms of having a blog and having to visit it every week and having to post something out. But then, after talking and sharing ideas they showed more enthusiasm and agreed. I am still waiting for parents approval, but I know they are aleady hooked with the idea of using technology to practice their language and show a "trade mark" being able to continue keeping in touch with me, their peers, use English and learn more things that will give them tools for their lives.
As for Rubrics, I also shared the fact that we are actually studying about assessment in different skills at the insititute I work with. We want to establish some rubrics we use as teachers and why not creating some rubrics that will help students self asess their process.
Rubrics definitely help kids know where they are going and what is expected of them. A single grade does not share that much, especially when we talk about language. We need degrees, we need explanations, we need words that tell us how much we are doing good and what we can do to improve.
I believe this week was very important for me. I honestly started trembling because I am facing new things, new material that I haven't used before, I am exposed to things I have been using too but now I have to apply them into technology. I need to have a good balance and smart application of tools. This is why I took this course, and I am feeling the pressure and how much I have to continue learning to know what it is outthere in the e-world. There is so much to learn and so much to share.