Learn 'how to say goodbye' with Podcast!

    Have you heard Podcast before? It's an excellent tools for teaching and learning a second language.

    What is Podcast? According to the Wikipedia, it said that, "A Podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication." (Wikipedia, 2011)

    Anyone can make a podcast by recording a audio or video just with a microphone or video camera, a computer, and web. In addition, you can subscribe it, and also download it to your computer or MP3/MP4 player to watch and listen it whenever and wherever you want. Here's a short introduction about Podcasting and its usage which named Podcasting in Plain English.

    And, for our following class, I want to use this piece podcast from ESL Podcast to teach you Saying Goodbye. As winter break is coming soon, you may want to know how to say goodbye to your classmates. In this episode, the host gives detailed explanations about different ways of saying goodbye, and he also explains a conversation between two people who talk about one's leaving because of the summer job.

    I want to you listen to it carefully and design a short conversation depends on the 'goodbye' topic. You can choose whatever scene or people you want, and bring it to our next class. We will share these conversations together and act it out in pairs or groups in the classroom.

    After that, I would like you to choose 2-3 partners of your classmates and make a podcast by yourselves together in gorups. And this will be your final project for this semester.

ePaLs -- A Global learning Community

   

    As you can see from the title, ePaLs is a excellent website which can be used by both teachers and learners as a communication and collaboration tool. These are many useful features provided that you can benefit from it.

• It's a vast information bank that you can find whatever educational information you want from 'collaborate' forum.
• You can search any classrooms of different subjects around the world, and find descriptions and course information about that class. Besides, you can also contact with that teacher directly via messages if you really feel interested in it.
• You can use 'advanced search'  to narrow your search ranges to specific country, langaue, category, class-size etc.
• You can also send and check your e-mail conveniently with other teachers and students.
• You can also make a address book as a contact/friend list, and send e-mail to a group or several individuals.

   
    It's really a easy way to communicateand collaborate with educational people online.  You can contact with people no matter which countries they live or what areas they majored in.

Using Photo Shows in Teaching and Learning

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

    This is a short video of Christmas song i've made using Animoto, which is a digital tool to tell stories using photos, texts, and videos.

    I can use this video to in an English as a second-language classroom. The level of the students will be Grade One children of elementary school. With such a video, I can not only teach students some vocabularies, but also teach them this interesting song which is named 'We wish you Merry Christmas'. In addition, I can also give some extra information about Christmas as an American holiday such as its orign, meaning, and ways of celebration.

    For those higher level students, I can show this video as a model of small project. I can let students to make a 2-3 minutes video to introduce one kind of American holidays using whatever pictures or informations related to it. They can make it by themselves or work as a groups.

    It's a good way to teach and learn by digital materials like this.

American Holidays

 
  Hello, everyone! Next week, in our L2 Culture class, we will learn some interesting Holidays in America. Here's some images of Bookr about American Holidays and we will have discussions about them.


Please choose one of them you like and prepare a short introduction about it.

• You can talk about the origins,  meanings, ways of celebration etc.
• You can also share your experience and thought about some interesting stories or incidents.
• You can find another holidays you like and introduce it in the class.

Objectives:

• Learn different kinds of American Holidays.
• Understand the meanings, origins, and celebrations etc.
• Figure out the differences between students' own culture.

Telling Your Stories In A New Way !

    Everyone has his/her own stories, and today I want to introduce you a modern way to tell stories which is called Digital storytelling. In the Educause article of 7 things you should know about Digital storytelling, the writer describes it as follow: "Digital storytelling is the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component."(Educause, 2007)

    Nowadays, it's adapted to education and used as a teaching method. in the UH article called Educational Uses of Digital storytelling, it said that, "The topics that are used in Digital Storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between."(UH, 2011)

     Moreover, not only teachers, but also learners can get profit from Digital storytelling program. Teachers can present a theory or give an instruction with Digital storytelling to create an audio-visual classroom. In this way, it makes courses more understandable and more interesting. In addition, 7 things you should know about Digital storytelling also said that, "Digital stories let students express themselves not only with their own words but also in their own voices, fostering a sense of individuality and of owning” their creations." (Educause, 2007)

    Furthermore, through completing Digital storytelling, storytellers can be given an opportunity to learn and improve own technological skills. Besides, it's a good way to connect content with realistic practice.

 

Photo by Jeff Mottle

    For searching more information, please refer to following links:

        7 things you should know about Digital storytelling

        Center for Digital storytelling

        Educational Uses of Digital storytelling

Twitter - a new way to teach!

    There are many different kinds of free technologies you can use in your teaching. Today, I want to introduce a excellent tools for you -- Twitter!

    Here's an article which can teach you 28 Creative Ways Teachers Are Using Twitter. It contains many functions you can use in blogs, for example, communicating with each other, making comments for others, and following others' posts.

    However, the most important thing is that Twitter also provides you with specific technologies teachers can use in education. One of them is 

2 Really Simple Ways To Send Audio Tweets To Twitter. With this, you can record a short instruction for the assignment or project and send it to Twitter for your students. In addition, you can also use Educational Twitter Chats Calendar as a syllabus. You can schedule each task of specific days for your students to discuss some topics or submit their assignments. Furthermore, teachers yourselves can also search the helpful information of teaching through Twitter. Here's an introduction which can tell you How To Use Twitter's Advanced Search Options to help you search things more effectively.

Useful Yahoo Group -- Learning with Computers

  

Today I found a very interesting and useful group in Yahoo Group, which is named Learning with Computers. There we can meet different kinds of teachers who teach different subjects and courses. And they all there to learn how to use computers more effecitively as a teaching tools. It's like a discussion board that every teacher can ask and answer questions of other teachers and discuss topics or subjects together. Through these ways, we can learn much more experiences and teaching tips with just sitting in front of a computer. I think it can be a powerful knowledge base for my future teaching.

Connectivism --- Education becomes no longer internal, but more external now!

At this time and age, technologies are changing rapidly and developing forward. We, teachers, should be aware of the influences of modern technology and learning tools, in order to act as a compass of knowledge for students. It’s a teacher who always leads the non-direction students understand their purpose of learning and light up their ways of learning. As George Siemens mentioned in the article -- Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, “The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.” And we can also share and learn more teaching experiences from other teachers with technological tools.

Also, George Siemens said in the video the Changing Nature of Knowledge that, “The learners themselves, the connections they form with each other, the connections they form with databases, with other sources of knowledge, is really a primary point of learning”, which means, “The network becomes the learning, the network the learners create.” Because of the changing knowledge and information, students will meet more challenge when they learn with technological tools such as computers. At this time, teachers should be a compass to connect students with learning, and in the meantime, connect different students with matching models and styles. In order to do this, teachers need to understand students capability and characteristics to help them and make right connections.

    Google Reader is really helpful and saving time. Once we add blogs addresses we can see all the new posting in the Google Reader at the same time.

    This is one of the interesting posts I found from Google Reader. It's from one blog named Free Technology for Teachers. In this blog, we can find many useful technology we can use in teaching.

    This post is about use YouTube Teachers, which teach you how to use videos in the classroom. I think almost every teacher use videos in teaching in recent time. However, many times, we spend much time for accessing problems. This technology can help you with all these tasks.

    Click on the below address and learn more about YouTube Teachers:

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/09/youtube-teachers-ideas-for-using-videos.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Education is changing

Education change challenge



I strongly agree about this video says: "Teachers need to exist in the spaces the students exist, understand their culture. You have no credibility if you are not where they are."

A good teacher should always think about what students think, what students want, and what students need. As the Cisco Systems said, "Moving from the one-room schoolhouse to the one-world schoolhouse is now a reality". With the changing and developing of the web and technology, we teachers should not only consider more about the tools and technology we use in the class, but also explore the most effective ways of teaching, always depending on students.

I dream to be "a good teacher" someday, who is loved by students inside their mind.

Technology and Web give a channel to Everyone

Every teacher should be aware of the strong importance and benefits of using technologies in the classrooms. As Blake J. Robert said that, “All language professionals need to become acquaint with the potential advantages of using technology in their programs. Without some general claims to success and media superiority, chairs, deans, and other decision-making bodies won’t understand or support new ways of teaching second languages with technology.”(page4) For example, with a class blog, the teacher can review students’ learning capacity so that adjust his teaching methods.

Students also can receive different kinds of advantages through using technologies such as webs. “It is misleading to talk about technology as if one were dealing with just a single, homogeneous tool; different technologically based tools render different advantages for L2 learning.”(page4) With blogs, students can not only use discussion boards to discuss some questions and issues in the class, but also talk about interesting experiences and stories.

“More important, the web gives all peoples a channel to express their voice, promote their self-image, and legitimize their goals. This sense of authenticity provides endless topics for cross-cultural analysis and discussions in any content-driven classroom.”(page5) As Blake said, both teachers and students can be given a route to enforce their teaching and study.

Blake, Robert J. & Dorothy M. Chun. (2008). Brave New Digital Classroom: Technology and Foreign Language Learning. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.

Protect your information on the internet

Dear students, 

When you do some activities on the internet, please take care of all your information. Here are some tips for you to protect your information.

1. Do not tell any other people your personal information such as name, address, phone number etc.

2. Do not tell any other people your password even though they are your friends.

    Do not make your passwords with your name or birthday.

3. Do not accept some strangers' application or gifts online.

4. Do not visit a strange website including unhealthy information.
    Your computer may be hacked by others or attacked by viruses.

5. Do not make a face-to-face appointment with strangers you meet online.

Here are more details about internet safety and keep your privacy.

Click the links to know more:                                                       

internet safety

 

Knows the Risks - Privacy Invasions

 

 

 

Using Blogs in TESOL Teaching

    Nowadays, people use more and more scientific techniques such as computers, internet, and websites. With this, teaching methods are also changing and many techniques and tools are used in teaching. One of the most popular and effective way is to use blogs in classrooms.

    Here's some standards about "national standards for foreign language education", which is from ACTFL(American Concil on the Teaching of Foreign Languages). Click the article name, you can see more information.

 

COMMUNICATION

• Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions
• Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics
• Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics

    It's a good way to encourage students show themselves and make progress through practice. Also, teacher can understand more about students' capability and choose a suitable way to teach them.

CULTURES

• Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied
• Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied

   It's a good place to meet all your classmates from different countries. Through blogging, students can share their personal experiences such as interesting stories, traditional culture, and special holidays.

COMMUNITIES

• Standard 3.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting
• Standard 3.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment

   It's a good habit to blogging and sharing. Students can use their second language to communicate and discuss with each other on the blog. What's more, they can continue blogging after one course, the class blog gives them a platform to write and comment in a second language.

Through blogs, students can discuss everything including articles, texts and research. All the way, Teachers can track students assignments, discussions and improvement in order to adjust their teaching methods. This is why we teachers are suggested to use a blog in our teaching.