Flickr and L2 classroom

I made this photobook with Bookr. I think it could be used for my teaching past tense and "used to ...".

I would like to show this  photobook to the whole class and share my childhood stories with them. Via experiences sharing, the whole class practice the use of past tense and "used to " in oral discussion. As a homework, the students would work in groups and make their own photo book to introduce one thing happened in the past. They could talk about how their campus/neighborhood used to be like. They could also talk about their childhood memories. By making notes with pictures sharing, students can practice the grammar in a meaningful and communicative way.

Box of Chocolates

Are we going to talk about how to make chocolates?

Or are we going to talk about how much do we believe in “life is like a box of chocolates” ?

Yes, I am addicted to all kinds of chocolate but A Box of Chocolate is actually a blog set by Cecilia Lemos, who is an English teacher in love with teaching, languages, books, music and art.

I think this blog is interest and useful me because it shares kinds of English teaching activities which are very useful. Last week, Cecilia shared three activities related to Valentine’s Day which I found very inspiring. The post called Love is in...The ESL Classroom! These activities are not only motivating because they are so related to students’ lives but also they can introduce how different cultures react to the same issue or festival. Because we don’t have Valentine’s Day in Taiwan and most students have misconception about this day. Therefore, I think it’s a good opportunity for them to think about it via English learning.

Besides, Cecilia has shared her beliefs on teaching and various activities with attached documents, which I think very helpful for me to teach high school students or advanced adult learners in the future.

There are still numerous of blogs and websites that share resources and ideas for teaching English. And I think one of the biggest reason accounts for recommendation of this blog is that this is set up by a teacher who seems to close to me. By reading her posts is like listening to my classmates’ speaking. Moreover, her passion for teaching language and life motivates me to be an English teacher just like her. I am glad that there are so many resources I can use which would facilitate my future teaching.  

Ning: A Powerful Social Network for Learning

Social networking group is a kind of social software that people and share and exchanges ideas on specific interest or professionals. Ning is a good example of this.

Ning allows people to create their own free social networking site around any topics, complete with personal profiles, photos, videos, links, groups discussions, blogs and so on. Besides, a Ning site is totally contained. All the posting and sharing happens under the same roof. And the creator can decided who the participants are.

I think it is a great environment for both educators and learners. For learners, Ning provides them an opportunity to test out their writing skills in a communicative way by comments and interaction in between. Also, it can be a great place for students to present their works which could be a learning collection and resources on the Web. Take St. Joe H20 for example, it’s a Ning set by Sean Nash for his Marine Biology students. He not only built various conversations on the related subjects but also he invites experts to have dialogue with students, which activates the learning. According to Sean, the site becomes a living community and connects former and future students as well as a growing list of experts in the field. Therefore, the site enlarges the domain of learning. Also, by sharing pictures and video clips with peers and commenting and reflecting, the site forms a learning community that students believe they are belong to. Seam further addressed “Now my students never really “leave” our program; they are all just a click away from future interactions in a way that moves us together forward as a learning community” which impresses me a lot. I think the Ning not only enables students to learn deeper and wider, it also inspire students’ interest in learning, which is hard to achieve by a one-way communication between textbook, teacher and students.

For educators, Ning is equally useful because teaching resources are widely spread and easily attained; among them EFL CLASSROOM 2.0 is my favorite. There are forums that people discuss topics related to English teaching. People share all kind of teaching strategies and activities. People also share worksheets and ppt, which is so helpful.  People also ask questions related to English learning and teaching and other members would reply. I feel excited to see this website because it’s so great to share and learn from English teachers from all over the world.