You just don’t have to Kill Trees to get your point across.
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What’s on the Agenda for this week?
o WebQuests
o Speaking and Reading in One
o Demo of Sixth Sense
o Get Your Groove On
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WebQuests
I know you are wondering, “Gee BobbyJoe. What in the world is a WebQuest?”
Taken from http://webquest.org/index.php
What is a WebQuest?
“A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom March, the Educational Technology staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium.
Since those beginning days, tens of thousands of teachers have embraced WebQuests as a way to make good use of the Internet while engaging their students in the kinds of thinking that the 21st century requires. The model has spread around the world, with special enthusiasm in Brazil, Spain, China, Australia and Holland.”
Go to the website and check them out. They are pretty cool to set up. It’s not as much exotic fun and making photocopies out of Grammar books but fun all the same. Sometimes you just have to settle for second best.
I like them because they give the students something to actually do instead of regurgitating information that has been spoon fed to them. They have think for a change. Oh yeah! They have to be thinking English too.
The students have
o Introduction
o Task
o Process
o Evaluation
o Conclusion
The teachers get to decide just what goes in each section. As I said before, it’s a lot less fun than making copies of a Grammar book and it’s a LOT MORE involved.
Here is one about proper eating called Eating Under The Rainbow
Granted, it’s only for 3rd graders, but I think the language might be appropriate for lower level learners.
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Speaking & Reading in One
I have put together a little lesson about Nasreddin (Johara) and added a Voxopop (Online recording tool) at the end for students to answer the questions. Check it out.
Ganexil
Go to the site and see what it’s all about.
The students read the story and then make a recording with the answers.
Demo of Sixth Sense
This idea is really great. You can have an interactive teaching system that can be used on any surface as you walk around and it will cost about the same as a good mobile phone. Watch the video and you can see the possibilities. It will save all that lugging around of projectors and computers.
http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html
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Get Your Groove On
Do you ever get so bogged down with the realities of everyday life that you have lost your Groove and to paraphrase a former President of the US, Bill Clinoccio, “We’re in a kind of a Funk?” You can’t chalk it up to Culture Shock. You’re just having a real bad time of it all.
You have got to Get Your Groove On. Easier said than done. Remember a time when you were on a contract and you were having a really good time? You were doing all kinds of really cool stuff and both you and your students were having an excellent teaching and learning experience. Think back to that time. It was probably “Dam the torpedoes, Full Speed ahead.” That’s what you have to do now. Go for Broke and all the other motivational clichés you can dream up. Does it work? Of course it does. I’ll give you an example.
I previously worked in Kazakhstan for $300/Month for a Translators Institute (College). I got there and ask about a Curriculum-None… Syllabus-None… Books-None… I did have classes of young eager Russian and Kazak students who were raring to go. That was a Plus. Did I forget to mention that the chalkboard wouldn’t accept the chalk they provided? I did have a cool flat a couple of blocks from the school and another half block to my favorite adult beverage establishment. Oh yeah! Let’s not forget I had a final exam at 3pm and I needed copies of the test. Their answer, “You can get your copies at 5pm.” That was the best job I have ever had(next to my current job that is). I was completely FREE with no boundries on what I wanted to do with the classes. NONE.
While there I
o Got mugged and spent 8 days in the hospital (that is another story)
o Saw one of the muggers go to prison after a year dealing with Courts, DA’s and other strange stuff.
o I was constantly worried about getting killed by the muggers friends to shut me up.
o I did three Radio shows a week. Sat & Sun. morning and Tuesday night. I worked with three of my students. We had a great time. They chose the music and I did the rest. Two of them were on-air for the shows. I was a little weired out when they chose Tom Jones for the music on one of the shows but I would not interfere with their choice of music.
o Ran an online newspaper about the city. It was nothing mind shaking. Just stuff I saw and what I thought about the whole experience.
o Had two girlfriends, Russian and Georgian. They kept me alive and out of trouble.
o Played Blues Harmonica in this club with this brilliant Russian Classical Pianist that liked Blues and Jazz. This guy went on tours and won competitions.
o No AC in the summer and sometimes in winter the weather would get down to -35 Degrees C. No hot water for three winter months.
In short… I was vibrant, alive and always involved in something from the time I got up until I went to sleep. In the end, the remnant of the local KGB told the school not to renew my contract. Nothing Illegal. I was just having too much fun. So, you ask if I had my Groove On. Oh yea! It was definitely ON.
And, this is what you have to do where you are now. Get Your Groove On. You don’t have to be a squiggly little English teacher holed up waiting or the sun to come up so you can get your validation from your work. Yes, work is cool and you can definitely Groove while there but your total picture has to change. It’s a complete systems approach. Take care of the You in your life and the work will follow.
Of course you say, Students cheat on Tests yak yak yak, but consider this. At this place in Kazakhstan, the Vice Rector (Vice Chancellor) got up in front of the whole student body before the State Exams and told the students to get their cheat sheets made. They (Management) would get the examiners drunk and take care of the rest. How sweet is that?
If I can throw in one more Cliché. “Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’ all small stuff”
You don't have to Kill Trees to feel Macho or Feminine.
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