VokiLicious

Week 3 dear mates- week 3!

I am officially announcing that "I'm still standing". How? Do not bother to ask for I myself have no answer for it. Last week's blogs had been evaluated by my very own student who said :
"Miss Ugeen,(that's what most of them call me) You got me lost". Well, the comment didn't bother me at all,on the contrary I became ecstatic! I was indirectly achieving what we all are striving for. We are passing it forward, and to the right people. During the weekdays, overloaded with daily routine chores and assignments, we are forgetting the core objective of what we are doing : Building teaching skills through the interactive web. What are our skills worth if we do not interact and involve our own students in the process?

We got used to ,so far, the excessive load of reading, however most of the time is it's paying off. Referring to Miller's article, I liked the approaches she described, and all the variety of activities she provided. However, stopping at the word "authentic" made all the intellectual commotions, and the rise of the questions. I realized that listening resources being 'authentic' or not are all important one way or another in the English teaching process. Moreover, CALL by Gong has opened the door for broader questions and simply made every learners dream come true in the sense that "Students are free to experiment, make and correct pronunciation errors without fear of embarrassment when only the system is listening and it offers only encouragement" (Hassan Rahmeh, Aural/Oral Skills Readings). However, what I didn't agree with CALL is that is it 'calling' for the replacement of the conventional/human interaction with tech-based interaction solely.


Coming to Delicious.com, it felt like a new game for me where I added constantly my new favorite 'gadgets'. Someone in their blog mentions it feels like a closet and I can't agree more, just shop for different sites/links and put them in your Delicious closet neatly instead of the messy aftermath you regularly get after 'shopping'!


While www.Voki.com was my darling of this week, though Shahnoza beat me to it by posting about it before I did. Thanks to her it is easier now to spread the Vokis! Voki is a personalized speaking avatar, which is a graphic representation of one's self , that definitely generates energy and motion to a still, static websites and blogs. It is so easy to create a Voki and so much fun. If I got so excited with it and created my own Voki, I wonder what my students reaction will be.


The different links/sites/websites posted on Nicenet by our mates also had a huge portion of the week. Shahnoza's power point embedding on blogs was a great idea. Charbel's cool new speech recognition software, Yudi's http://www.manythings.org/songs for listening songs, and Hassan's http://www.artofstorytelling.org/ for story telling used as listening skill building site, made my week rich and my online experience so far exceptional!
I just want to add one more link :Pink Panther Hamburger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz0IT4Uk2xQ.
For this I have to thank Robert, because I couldn't stop laughing, for I have used this same sample as an example for one of my Venezuelan student who just loved burgers and it was impossible for him to pronounce it. I was really surprised to see what I actually used in class (and we had a huge laugh about then) was edited and posted by our dear Robert on our assignment boards. I am on the right track after all! Thank you Robert.


End of week 3. Almost half way there. Longer assignment, shorter timetables, richer evidences, and stronger bonds. See you all next week.




Eugenie

Google, Doodle, Poodle, Noodle

Here goes a set of new puns and rhymes all the way through the end of week 2. ABCs and noodle-doodles. Are you serious?? YES! Things really turned out to be serious.So did my burning eyes. I challenged myself to three different blogs because I had so much to reflect upon, but I couldn't. I was just able to finish my first blog this week 4 hours ago (1.30am),and now goes my second one (almost 6 am), and again my kids are hustling on my bed trying to figure out how to build a 123 puzzle as I was trying with the ABCD puzzle. So we are not different after all.

This week was though; admit it dear friends! Or was it only for me? I like giving a certain identity to one of the classes I teach. I really enjoyed going on a noodle tool ride, because the ride paid off in many ways. I was looking for green ideas to tackle with my students in story hours, and I wanted these notions to be web-based. I found Podcasts : a full explanation of how to integrate podcasts to stories and books one reads in class, and in depth explanation of each step so that students can work easily. That was a first for me. A new "aha moment".

The week passed, and I had to put a certain identity to a class of mine. While identifying one of my classes, I understood the goal of the task. It was another "aha moment", an 'epiphany' that signified unexpected perception. I realized that the task was not just another assignment to explain it to our mates, or to be able to describe a class easily to a certain audience. It was a situation we were put in to see where our classroom stands, and to make us observe the different objectives our classes can achieve, having in mind their backgrounds, levels, and abilities with the most recent tools provided from the school. I saw that my class and I are standing on a very firm ground where everything is provided to them. I even shared this realization with them.

Coming to ABCD method of stating an objective, it was a first to me too. I just tried, applied, moved, chopped, created, and basically fought to come out with a brief, unified objective,and I couldn't believe how I finished with the final draft to post it to the room provided. I had to be done with it.

Reading a lot this week, following so many threads and links, and opening doors to new rooms and sites, igniting the engines of new searches made me all 'noodley-doodley' if I'm allowed to put it that way. However when I look back, week 2 was eventually a cool one for all the new results we get, for all the fresh prospects we discover, and for the several pleasant "aha moments" you get to be struck with. Let's not forget week 2 was an amazing outlet of thoughts and concept from a very dull wedding ceremony!! Congrats my friends we just survived week 2. You made it successfully, with all your limbs attaching to your body, to week 3.
Enjoy your new week guys!

Eugenie

It Is Said "Sharing Is Caring"

This week was not so cool as last week for me. In school I was overloaded with after school meetings, and had loads and loads of off-duty chores to do, needless to say I had to take care of my kids constantly, and attend a wedding which I didn't want to attend, and all the time sitting in the wedding reception I kept scolding and asking myself why didn't I think of getting my laptop to finish my tasks!!!(The ceremony was that boring for me)

Enough talking about my exhausting week, and enough spreading the negative vibe. One of the interesting tasks to have this week was searching the new links/sites provided by Robert . I've sought too many of the given sites, however I liked to share with my mates some of the links/sites I used in my classes in the past couple of years that somehow gave a positive effect on the general assignments I had asked the students for.  The most recent was ywp.nanowrimo.org. This site gives the chance to ANYONE  who is interested in writing a book/novel to participate. What I do to students is that I urge them to sign up for the 1 month program and decide how long they want their books to be (in word count),assign the target and just start writing in a month without looking back in order to get to their goal. This site dedicated to young writers was a hit among the students. It's worth a visit.
Funny it might be but I ask my students (especially the boys) to sign up for fantasypremierleague.com, and create their own teams for each game week and post their own thoughts and expectations for each match day with their other play mates and thus creating and encouraging an English post-ing environment which is 'healthy' and 'fit'.
Other worth-mentioning sites are Penguinreaders.com where teachers and students can find their own areas to find all they need to know about any story they're reading whether it is listed as solely Penguin Readers publication or not. Teachers can find quizes about Oliver Twist, worksheets on Phantom of the Opera, and extra analytical questions about Anna Karenina. Same goes with the students in finding any info related to their reading material.
My fellow mates can also give a look at Suite101.com to find lesson plans, teacher resources,classroom ideas/activities and so on.

I've gladly gathered information and sites, I obediently organized my resources, and visibly verified them. The rest is up to you. It is said that "sharing is caring". What do you think?
Catch you in no time.

Eugenie

Software,Freeware,Shareware,I -SPY-Ware

Week 1 has passed. The stress somehow deteriorated,because the unexpected is revealed, and the PUN on words has started. It was a pretty nice week getting to know the flow of events and the assignments, getting acquainted to our classmates,and getting to know ourselves that we still lack a large amount of familiarity, awareness, and understanding that is gained through experience or study. 

The entities that most caught my attention this week were Yudi's webquests,and Hot Potatoes,Chrabel's eagerness in creating his own class webquest, and in Nada's urge in finding a unique freeware/software to enable her students to animate their own story after making variations to it. Can I get more curious and eclectic than this? Well it is said "necessity is the mother of invention", so it seems we truly lack some necessities that's why we have this rush to propose , invent, and create. 

During this week I had few more questions thrown at me from another mate, which were both new and controversial for me. What influences an academic discrepancy among world's different regions? To tell the truth not in a million years would that question occur to me if it wasn't for Hassan. however the more intriguing part is I looked, I searched,and I spied to get some clues. In developed countries like the States per Se family Vs. socioeconomic status and that's what might influence academic discrepancy. Schools there have nothing to do with achievements, they're just means to a certain end. However in less developed countries SES has nothing to do with academic achievement unless it is only in some urban areas of certain countries. What might influence these kind of countries are type pf schools, and surprisingly enough ethnicity. For this tackled topic it's worth checking these sites :
 http://pics3441.upmf-grenoble.fr/articles/sopo/Social%20Class%20and%20Academic%20Achievement.pdf ; http://pagerankstudio.com/Blog/2010/10/academic-achievement-cultural-and-social-influences/.

I spied Hassan, and answered one question, and the other question is yet to follow.

The week passed by so fast and the criteria expressed, knowledge shared, and the 'spy-work' was massive! A new week, a new task, a new pair of binoculars. Catch you real soon with new clandestine infos. 

Enjoy,

Eugenie

A Giant Leap So Far...

I guess I made it to my blogging area safe and sound. I'm working since ever to reach here, and post my very first blog ever, however the process was a bit overlapping. I'm overly joyous for being able to contact my soon-to-be classmates.
 Long I wanted to start something new, and here came the chance to do something which I love in the company of so many cultivated minds. This is my first blog yes, and I feel taking a picture with it and posting it on the fridge door (and the family album),because it really felt like a journey to reach here and post this, that it deserves the regal attire on the fridge door. Well fellow mates, you have to bear my sense of humor, for I'm a very serious and organized person in life, nevertheless my sense of humor gets over everything when I start writing.
Tomorrow is week 1,and I have no clue what to expect other than what dear Robert has posted us generously for the past five days. It is said that we can blog our thoughts, assumptions, comments, or even connect with our fellow classmates, but sorry I can't find any of those to share currently. I'm just overwhelmed to meet so many new people that share the same commitment.
I plunged into education and teaching following my mom's advice reluctantly, a while later though,when I started the act of teaching, I realized I was molded to do this, to be a teacher. I just explain, teach, and talk endlessly to my students about literature, and language, and cultures, and the wealth we gain every time we read or utter a word, or even listen intentionally. Teaching for me is beyond the rough codes of semantics and syntax, beyond the conventional ordinance of literature. It's a lifestyle. My teaching is a way of life, and I teach my students how to live through language, through the art of language. However, in  this lifestyle, draws very significant constituents which are the tech-based skills. Here I reach to the common ground that we all assemble for.Taking this course will surely reinforce and furnish our knowledge of web based teaching skills, adding more innovative tools and materials which will,on its turn, assist our students to apply, practice, and better understand the 'lifestyle' of learning English interactively. 
As we say in Lebanon 'yalla '(come on!) guys gather up, and let's do this...Excited to catch you all very soon.