Week four meditations :)

Time does fly, indeed! ABCD objectives seem ages ago, Delicious is a good friend already! 

This week we are "old hands" - having explored the listening skill sites, now it is time for the reading and vocabulary. Delicious is bubbling with new finds. At times I think I need one more life to explore the infinite knowledge saved for a later day.

The issue of concern made me more concerned about  what we are doing, are we doing it correctly and why is that we, teachers from all parts of the world, define a common problem - the lack of motivation or interest in our students. We (the teachers at our school) always feel guilty that we have not done enough, that it is somehow our fault. But Helo posted a video 

that once again led me to believe that they  are right to have high expectations from us. Overtaken by routine, complying with educational requirements, doing paperwork, marking papers, calculating grades - are we as creative as we would like to be?

I think a lot about my students these days - I often do, but the tasks made more aware of them now, made me stop and think. And not about the ones that bring us satisfaction and pride, but the ones who fail to fit. Long ago I chanced upon a video   -  it seems that everywhere people are having the same problems.

 

My students are intrigued when I speak to them about the project. They see a challenge. They started talking about the grouping, what they are going to make the others search. Will they manage to overcome their inertia and do some work on their own for a change? 

We are going on a trip to Spain early tomorrow morning. It is part of an European project, called "Intercultural competences and IT skills- a key to success". We are six schools altogether and this is our third meeting. We can take only four kids. The "boarding pass" was a sort of a webquest - to choose a partner country and search the web for some specific characteristics, concerning business protocol, and make a PowerPoint presentation. The results are amazing. The kids are the same. The inference is clear.

Have to go now. Will miss you :)

Love

Ellie

Delicious, Stress, and Learning to Hear - week 3 reflexions :)

I think that we are already used to the new pace of our lives - having one new responsibilty (the multiple tasks of the Webskills course) is helping in developing better personal organization.

Such is the aim of the Delicious we have to create this week  I had never heard of Delicious before, and at first panicked as I always do when i have to do something "technological", simple thaough it may be. The more I panic, the more complex a very simple thing seems, the more boggled I become. Suddenly the toolbar got three times bigger, comprising all the items I had stored, until the window  in which to write suddenly disappeared!  

However, when it was all over, and I could see the innumerable benefits it could have, especially for scatterbrains like me - the tags and description of sites provide clues so as to find the info I need  faster; besides the sharing function makes it possible to explore other people's secret sources of knowledge :) There was a bit of reward in the whole thing as well - when I asked my students if they had heard about Delicious, nobody nodded (or shaken their heads as is the case with us Bulgarians, when we mean Yes!!!). When I explained the benefits, some volunteered that I !!!! teach them how to create a profile and use it.

It shouldn't have taken me so much time, though, because it was at the expense of the more serious issue - Teaching aural skills. We have discussed the three articles in details, adding our personal experiences and beliefs, sharing URLs like crazy - my delicious listening tag bursting already! No wonder - the skill is vital, and it has been overlooked as a tradition. Communication is difficult as it is, and when we add the problem of not understanding, we are likely to end up with two people sharing monologues! I remember that when I was at university, we had a long and elaborate course on phonology, but not a single lesson on  how to overcome the problems of understanding. No wonder that only when the world became a global village and technology developed do we have learners who may not be able to speak, but understand when spoken to. And for me the classroom learning  complements real life exposure and may provide some guidelines for better understanding.  For complete understanding there a lot of other factors involved.

  The final task - commenting on the projects of our predecessors made me aware of the seriousness of the work to come! And of the gift to have so many people to discuss ideas with.

Thank you, guys, and Happy Easter to those who celebrate it.

Love

Ellie

ABCD model beaten! Project hazily defined:)

What a week! First, being stressed by the seriousness of the ABCD model - after the first reading of the suggested material I thought I would never make it. I dared tackle it only on Friday, when Donna had elaborated a lot on my colleagues' attempts and finally (thanks  to Eldin, Helo, Katty, Mariangel, and the others, of course) managed to come up with something that is sensible and practical. We are often asled to define the long-term goals, rather than the daily ones, whose results accumulate little by little in the little heads of our learners:)

And again this week - what an abundance of  useful sites, found via new search engines. A lifetime is not enough to explore the videos, magazines, the sites for teachers. Bing is my new fav, and Helo's http://www.blinkx.com/ http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ for books and videos are great finds.

And finally the project! An idea formed in my mind while walking far from the city, with the soft hills ahead and the blue sky above. It incorporates My map-ping, blogging, search engines, mysteries and only needs students' will and enthusiasm to implement it.

Next week we'll see :)

Spring is bolder, just like us

Blogging Vs Work :) or Blogging AND Work !

Blogging Vs Facebook is a challenge! 

We are so used to the little gossips, the bits and pieces of other people's lives shared with the rest of the world. In FB we write scraps, to quote Helo. The blog can give us the opportunity to express a belief and to voice an opinion. 

That is why on Monday, enthusiastically enough, I suggested the idea to my students. Some of Grade 11(my weakness - you will learn about them later on) pricked their ears:D. Some looked at me with suspicion. Some  with a new kind of respect. Some with surprise. Some with indifference. One boy was quite enthusiastic. I said it is not obligatory. Unfortunately, there was no Internet (bad luck!) so I couldn't boast with my accomplishment. In the end, I set it as additional assignment, that will bring extra credits. I told them about the ground rules, the forbidden expressions, the respect they are to manifest to their readers. "Who will read us?" - they asked. "And can we write about whatever we want?" The questions caught me unprepared. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the second question. As I teacher, I was thinking of posting topics and waiting for responses, may they be songs, or quotes, or videos, together with their writings. But of course I nodded several times and answered "Yes, and I'll write to my colleagues to find you "followers" from their schools." Now, if they create the blogs, I'll have to find these followers for them and only you can help me. I am sure you wouldn't mind and that your students might like the idea as well.

 The idea of the project is still vague in my head , but it has to include them, the challenge to all teachers!

 Here is a photo of them, taken two years ago on the Danube in Budapest :) Now they have grown wiser and nicer!

Getting Going

It a leisurely Saturday morning - quite bleak actually with a grey sky and a lot of wind, a perfect excuse not to go out but to spend the day in front of the PC, enjoying that new craze - blogging! Messing with the templates was such fun, and it felt so rewarding! It is so nice when something like that awakes the child in us.

I can't wait to see my students on Monday after the week's holiday - I am sure they will welcome the idea of going semi-paperless (thank you, Gil:) and being given a free hand to share ideas, memories, videos, links. I will give extra points for that to motivate them. It will also encourage the ones who are shy, slow and  introvert.  

We have been discussing happiness, success and achievement in the last module, so that would give them plenty of material to share. 

Here is something from me for a start

Three things in life that, once gone, never come back -  Time, Words, Opportunity;
Three things in life that are most valuable - Love, Self-confidence, Friends;  
Three things in life that are never certain - Dreams, Success, Fortune;
Three things that make you - Hard work, Sincerity, Commitment;
Three things in life that can destroy you - Alcohol, Pride, Anger;
Three things in life that, once lost, hard to build-up - Respect, Trust, Friendship.

Sometimes to realise this we spend entire lifetime. 

And a song  (the sweet Irish memories of two years ago have materialized without even realzing it). On this day two years ago I started a TELL (technology enhanced language learning) course in Cork.
  

Hello everybody:)

It took me every free minute today (I am on a short holiday) to cope with URLs, instructions, failures, frustrations, some tentative rays of hope, lengthy explanations what I am doing - to be able to create the thing called BLOG. I don't think I have much to say but it will record my efforts to become a more effective teacher by using e-means :) My mates seem very advanced and I will do my best not to be a straggler. I shared the song the Wall not only  because I love the way it engulfs me, but as a warning - whatever we do in the classroom, no matter what methods we use - we shouldn't be building "bricks in the wall"

Spring is still very tentative too, so that is whyI published this photo taken a few days ago from the nearest mountain