Old blog with New life....

Hi, everyone,

Today is the end of Week 10. As usual, I check Oregon local time when I do my assignment, hoping that I meet the deadline.   However, this time I check the time because I cherish the time that's still left.  It has become a habit for me to follow Oregon time.  Maybe one day I can visit University of Oregon. :)

I am glad that this old blog is not taken down when few weeks ago I couldn't get connected with it.  And it was because of that, I found another blog system, which I am using now. It is called WordPress.  A lot of my friends use Blogger, so I would like to keep this.  Even though this is my old blog, I hope that I can continue to add new posts and meet my friends here.  You are all my friends and are welcome to visit from time to time.

It's 10:38a.m. Oregon time.  I will say goodbye for now, but hope to "see you" soon.

Yaling, Taiwan 

I'm back again

Hi, I thought I was rejected by blogger because of some unknown technical problem.  But, now I am back. Yay!!

An improvement and a good opportunity to learn.

So Robert is helping me find out the reasons why less comments were given to my blog.  I really appreciate his suggestion and would like to share with all those visit my sight that might have the same situtaion.  :)


Following the quote from Robert's tips:
 1. post earlier in the week, rather than Sunday
 2.make the posts shorter, rather than longer
 3.add pictures, graphs, links or video
 4. make sure it is easy for people to add comments (comments on, language in English, no moderating required)
 5. leave lots comments on other people's blogs, and they start to become "friends" and want to leave comments on yours
 6. change the name from "learning to teach v.s. teaching to learn" to yaling, Taiwan/Ellen.

Let's see how it will work with my fingers crossed.

yaling, Taiwan.

Week 5 Discovery: Making a post with Web Poster Wizard

 It's  00:51 Taiwan time.  All my family have slept for almost 4 hours.  I am so surprisingly sober! Just created an online worksheet using Web Poster Wizard.  

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=155529

I also use Rubistar to create a Rubric.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?ts=1304355408

There are so many links that keep me awake! http://www.4teachers.org/tools/

Yaling, Taiwan

Week 5 Reflection on Technology in Classroom

Even though it's the first day of Week 5, my inner urge to learn flames.  A teacher is a good teacher because he/she never quit learning, with the belief that every student is teachable.  We are now in a digital world where distance is between "clicks of the keys".  If we don't not take it seriously to bring in technology into our classroom, we are standing in the way of our students' future. 

Instead of seeing myself as a teacher, teaching my students, I prefer to see myself as a facilitator to introduce technology to them.  They learn so fast once they are motivated and know the what they are learning for.  The more time I immerse myself in teaching, the more awe I have for the importance of a teacher's responsibility.

There is this website http://4teachers.org/ with DVD about Technology in the classroom that make my heart beat speed up.  It is what is happening now and it is becoming a norm worldwide.  We should think to ourselves whether to use lame excuses such as  short of financial support or parental understanding as ways of delaying our students' learning English through technology.  

These two DVD clips speak a lot to me.
 
Cyber Summit on 21st Century Skills: Kansas Technology Rich Classroom Project      by ptumarkin |   2009-05-14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu99aC8YK4Y&feature=player_embedded#at=110

A Vision of K-12 Students Today   by bjnesbitt  2007-11-28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&NR=1&feature=fvwp     
  
This project was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging their students.

 
I hope they speak to you, too.

Yaling, Taiwan

Change the World in 5 Minutes - Everyday at School

This is a meaningful DVD clip to watch and practical in our classroom. by FILMAUSTRALIA |     2008-03-17

Writing and Reading

Week 4, end week reflections


We are heading towards the beginning of the mid-program.


Writing, according to Chinese saying, last generations.  It is combination of thoughts, culture and spirits.


There are so many forms (types) of writing.  What I can introduce to my students is so limited.  And it is because of realizing this fact, I find the need to introduce to my students great websites to explore for themselves, if not now, can be in the future. 


It is said that the best teachers are usually the best students because they model to be one.  I have met great "students" in this class and believe that they are fantastic teachers. 


What I learned can hardly be put down to words because of the limited time and vocabulary.  Yet, life is a learning journey and it shall last until the last breath I have. 


Yaling, Taiwan

Good to know--Laurie's ESL Website.

Today, I go over again the assigment and hope to find new ideas or thoughts.  My desire is satisfied.  In this websites (Laurie's ESL Website), there are different kinds of exercises for students to practice.  There are five categories: ESL classes, Grammar, Reading, Writing, and Listening.  They are easy to be applied to the class to give students more controlled practice.    I will introduce it to my students and encourage them to use it as much as possible.  Here is the link.

http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/

Yaling

Using E-mails in my English Class

Today, I have a new discovery.   I also find few answers to my questions.

My discovery---  I find someone using e-mails to improve students' writing and typing skills like me.   The difference is that I did it more of between me and my students.  But Ms./Mr. /Mrs. Jarek Krajka have her/his students send words to key pal. 

I believe there have been many teachers asking their students to send them homework through internet, like e-mail or blogger.  This is not common with my students, though.  First, students  in my school  are not encouraged to use computers at home or at school.  In Taiwan,  English is taught by subject teachers like me, not by homeroom teachers, who spend most of the time with students and who have more "control/ authority" over students.  They don't want to give students homework or assignment that relates to computers.  Because if they do, they think they are asking trouble for themselves.   The parents might call them all night to make complaints about students spending too much time playing computer games with the excuse of using it to do homework.  And some students might skip homework because there is no computer or internet at home.

But this also why I find answers to my questions:   

  1. Ms./Mr. /Mrs. Jarek Krajka suggests that in order to prevent class from going disconnected because of the speed of internet, teachers can pre-download the website to be able  to review off-line.  

  2. I was always bothered by not being able to find key pals for students to write.  So one of my colleague and I  invited a class of students from one school that's about 30 kilometers far from my school to join a pen pal project.  That was 5 years ago.  There was a lot of correction needed before the letters were sent so we only did the letter once. At the end of that semester, we managed to help students from both school meet.  We all thought that was quite a successful experience.    Now after few years when I look back, there's great possibility that I can redo that project with the aid of computer.  This is the 2nd answer I found to my question.

  3. The organization "European Schoolnet" is quite a good website for students to know, especially for students in Taiwan.  We spend a lot of money and time on studying and taking tests.  It is really meaningful to me to introduce to my students that they can do great things for others and they have the right to learn how to do it. 

I am really thrilled to read on.   Though I am not finished yet, I will definitely come back to report more. 

Yaling, Taiwan

  

Delicious is so delicious!

This is program is so well-organized.  I am impressed with how it constructed and am expecting the grand outcome in 7 weeks to come.

This week, in class discussion, we read different articles about oral and audio skill building.  Though provided with 3 reports, they lead us to read even more. Articles like How to Teach Aural English More Effectively by Huan Huang provides some suggestions.  Regarding to oral teaching, I also found it interesting how teachers help teachers in the website: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=110123 .  By this week's discussion, more thoughts come into my mind when teaching my students or motivate them.

Delicious is a great tool.  I am so glad to know about and share it with people I know.  With the help of it, not only I bookmark my frequent used websites but also have a chance to surf other's favorite sites.  This is cool!!

Yaling, Taiwan

Too much to put in the class

After exploring so many websites, and there are still tons out there, it will be exhausting and confusing if I don't stop and think what I really need.  While browsing through all the links with ahhss and awwss, I could not but come to think: how am I going to make choices.  So many choices!  I am going to lose another night sleep and hope I find myself satisfied with my findings.


sleepless night...

Getting closer to you?

It's 10:30p.m. Taiwan time. I've been sitting in front of my computer for almost 5 hours, skipping my meals and not talking, verbally. A lot of time when we decide to put foward our effort or strengh to things we have our hearts on, there is this tiny sound coming to our ears, "what are you up to? what do you want? " How can we prevent students from ending up with spending too much in computer trying to finish their homework and not have time for family or friend or exercising? What are your opinions? I hope to hear from you, classmates. Yaling, Taiwan

Dynamic Search Engines

Week 2 discussion top: Web searching has really opened my eyes. I have been a loyal user of google and yahoo for most of the information I look for, even though, there were some time not finding what I had hoped to find. Through Noodletool, I came to the horizon where I can soar and explore and find the specific and more academic issue. I've log on several of them. Three of my favorite are: FindSounds, VoiceTread, Kaboose One website I had little kids visit often is http://www.uptoten.com/. There are two more that I like a lot, onestopenglish and learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org. They are quite helpful for teachers that look for ideas of classroom activities as professional development. Yaling,Taiwan

To what extent is the course linked to guideline of English curriculum in Taiwan

Like most teachers, I've been to many different kinds of seminars or workshops in order to bring in new thoughts, activities or pedagogy to my teaching, my students and my school. Some of the sessions were short like 2 to 3 hours. Some last for weeks or even years. The conductors or the trainers are mostly experienced teachers or writers of curriculum. What they shared in their sessions were all valuable to me and it didn't occur to me until I read this article regarding to evaluation of the curriculum and training approach in Flanders. (Martin Valcke, Isabel Rots, Marjolein Vereke, Johan van Braak). We may attend to great programs but not connecting what's learned to the guideline and at the end it turns out to be out of shape or it turns out to be brillient but still some kind of obscure not knowing where it pins to after some time. What do you guys think?

Finally!

Writing a blog is more than a personal thing nowadays. When doing it, we have the sense that people are "watching". It is a way of having people "visualize" what's in our mind but also a way to find people think alike vice versa. However, I'd embrace this chance of learning from others and put down what's learned in words so as to make the journey of learning concrete and visible.