F.Hauyon

FisHProyect or My POdCast...

2008-12-05T06:47:00.001-08:00

PODCAST: Fish, Life under the sea.

Intended Students:

This podcast was created to be used with a group of 45 Chilean students, whose first language is Spanish, and who are in 6th grade of middle school. At this level, they have one year of learning English; they are familiarized with the sounds; the spelling ; and some basic vocabulary. These students belong to different social backgrounds, but they share, as most of kids, a clear interest in technology. At this stage of their learning they are ready to work with some grammatical construction, verbs and start to develop some creative writing.

Objectives:

For "The Vertebrates series" the objectives are the following:

Language: Learn comparative structures (as...as, bigger, smalest,etc ), recognize vocabulary related with vertebrates animals ( fur, scales, eggs, cold blood, fins, etc), learn positive and negative structures (Have, Don´t have)

Content: Learn about vertebrates animals, their main characteristics and the differences between different species.

For " Fish: life under the sea" podcast the objectives are the following:

Language: Learn vocabulary related with fish structures ( fins, scales, cold blood, gills), positive and negative structures (have and don´t have)

Content: Become familiar with the diferent parts of fish, discriminate between fish and other species.

This series has taken vertebrate animals as a path to learn language. Mainly because, this topic has a direct relation with contents that the students are revising in other subject, at that level. In this way, this series tries to intergrate contents between different areas of learning.

Elements that make this podcast comprehensible:

This podcast is presented in a multimodality way; attached to the speaking text, are the written words and videos related with them. The series has been thought to be interconnected; vocabulary items are used repeatedly in the different podcast; comparisons between different species relate one with another, and reinforce the contents.

Strategies that based this podcast:

Teaching language through content: This podcast takes the fish as a topic to achieve language learning goals.

Lesson should include the four modes: In the podcast we can experience read and listening. The activities that go next to the podcast; as write sentences; or discuss about the differences between groups of animals, include speaking and writing.

Lessons should have meaning and purpose for learners now: The idea to present a vertebrate animals series is to work with something that is relevant with what the students are doing in other subject, work with something that they know is important for them to learn about.

REFLECTION 6: If only she knew...

2008-11-26T23:33:00.000-08:00

It has been very difficult for me to find a situation to critizise. Mainly, because I think that Mrs. Rose is doing a great job with the children she teaches, I have seen everyday how she works and how the students have been proggressing in their learning. It is also true, that the situation which she has to face is not very easy; students from differentes cultures, ages and educational levels.

If I had to make any kind of suggestion to this class. I´d say that Mrs. Rose has to pay more attention in the integration of the different groups that exist in this class. In this clasroom is very common to see students get together with the people of their own country, and speak in their L1.

We have learnt that the acquisition of a language happens in social interaction. In this classroom, you can see a lot of division between the students. This can be explained, because the class is new and the students know each other just since September. Maybe, their are just living a proccess of adjustment. Even though, I think that the teacher can develop some activities to promote the cohesion of the group.

For this purpose I have chosen some sites that can help:

http://www.tech4learning.com/frames/integration

http://www.smartthinking.ukideas.com/Microsoft%20Create%20Play%20and%20Learn%20%20%20%20April%202006%20%201.pdf

http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:3VkjHzIAEuAJ:www.trinity.edu/org/sensoryimpairments/HI/SS/HI%2520-%2520Chap%25206%2520-%2520I.doc+social+interaction+activities+in+the+classroom&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=cl

REFLECTION 5; Response to a question about English teaching.

2008-11-24T21:55:00.000-08:00

My answer in Judi´s site:

http://www.everythingesl.net/askjudie/index.php?r=10316

I was wondering how I can help the parents of my ELLs to bridge their own fear of learning English? Any suggestions?
Thanks

There´s no doubt that parents are essential in their children development. Because of this, create in them a good disposition to learn and to help their children with their English is important. In order to do this I´d try to create activities in which students ask their parents for information ( ex. family recipes, family trees, stories) To make parents feel part of the proccess of learning their children are living can result as a motivating activity for them, and can trigger their interest for English.

I recommend you this site, in it you can find more tips to involve parents in the learning of English.

http://www.csos.jhu.edu/P2000/tips/index.htm

About my answer:

I think that my answer is based on what we saw in classes about the TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork). We´ve learnt that the role of parents is important in children education, and that we ,as teachers, must be willing to create links between the students´homes and the school. We have also learnt ,that it is important to take into account our students´ first culture and first language.

Reflection 4: Podcasting my way to mastery of English

2008-11-23T18:00:00.000-08:00

I´ve always believed that a teacher must be someone with some manage of cultural issues a little higher than the common people. We need to be able to talk about almost any topic. I have chosen three topics that are very interesting for me, personally. But I think that the three are related with my students´ interests in Chile. The first is:

http://www.pcworld.com/video

These days, the discussion about technology; the latest gadgets, the fight between the companies for the control of the market and the appearence of new uses for internet has turned into material for daily conversation. Everybody seems interested in this topic. This site provides interesting and updated information about technology.

Some videos to check:

http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,938-page,1-bid,0/video.html

http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,840-page,1-bid,0/video.html

http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,952-page,1-bid,0/video.html

The second site I´ve chosen, is related with one of the topics that I like most; and that kids mostly want to learn about, specially teenagers. Music, I think that this site, is the main source of pop music in the world:

http://www.rollingstone.com/videos

In the videos section, we can find information about what the magazine is publishing every month, in the words of its authors.

Some videos to check:

http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/video/24280827/cover_video_100_greatest_singers

http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/video/24414712/new_music_report_guns_n_roses_and_beyonce

Last but not least, there is a site related with my favorite sport: soccer! I have found a great webpage with good videos about soccer. This site contains information about the UEFA tournament which is the most popular soccer competition around the world.

http://www1.uefa.com/magazine/index2.html

Some videos to check:

http://www1.uefa.com/magazine/edition=776484/newsid=776484/videopopup.html

http://www1.uefa.com/podcast/video/videoid=774636/videopopup.html

I´ll check these sites every week, because for me is important to be updated in these topics. I think they can work as a listening practice for me. Anyway, I think that from these pages I can find videos to be used in my teaching. All the pages have great quality in sound and image, and the topics are close to my students interests.

REFLECTION 3: A topic in language education that I want to know more about.

2008-11-19T21:26:00.001-08:00

I´d like to know more about substitute teaching, some advices for this work ,and good strategies to work as a subtitute teacher. During these days in the high school, I´ve faced twice the situation of a substitute teacher in the classroom. These two teachers have shown me that trying to fill the space that another teacher has created is very difficult. In just some minutes the teacher has to stablish a good relation with the students.

This situation made me think about it. I´d like to know if there´s any special place or program to train substitutes teachers. This dimension of the teaching job called my attention also because is common in my country that teachers works as substitutes in the begining of their careers.

Talking with Mrs. Right, the ESL teacher in the school, she told me that here in Spokane substitute teachers need to have a teacher certificate, but that´s not true for all the states in the U.S. In other states, this kind of teachers just need to had finished high school. The situation is similar in my country. there´s no special preparation for substitutes.

Here are some sites related with the teaching as a substitute. I´ve learned through this site three things that a substitute teacher needs to have; they have to be creative and be prepared to face any kind of classroom environment, they need information about almost any topic ,and from my search I can say that substitute teachers don´t have any special preparation. They are available just in the case of an emergency, they are not suppouse to be well prepared teachers.

http://www.qnet.com/~rsturgn/

http://www.csrnet.org/csrnet/substitute/

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8020/subtips.html

I think that this kind of teachers need more preparation. The cases I saw here and my experience as a student in Chile tell me that, these characters are just in schools filling the schedule, just keeping the kids in the classroom.

REFLECTION 2: Websites that might help.

2008-11-16T14:04:00.000-08:00

A SMART "HOOLIGAN"

“Shevchenko”, is one of the most advanced students in this ESL clasroom. I gave him that name because of the famous Ukranian soccer player. This student is a great fan of soccer as I do but I have to admit, that he knows more about European soccer than I. The other day, we started a conversation about soccer and he was so eager to speak. He shows fluency and accuracy in his words ,but most important he was motivated to speak.

Here in the U.S, soccer is not as important as it is in the rest of the world. Many of the students in ESL classrooms have as their favorite sport soccer. It is something that people from different countries share. I recommend teachers use this sport as a link between cultures.

About this particular student I´d suggested some soccer pages in English.

http://www.uefa.com/

http://www.premierleague.com/page/Home/0,,12306,00.html

I think that these sites provide interesting reading for this student. Through this pages he can improve his reading skills. And maybe, he can create a kind of weekly paper to put in the classroom with soccer information. Why not?

REFLECTION 1: A case of effective language learning

2008-11-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

With a little help from my friends.

The second hour was about to begin and the room has already some visitors in it. In this ESL classroom the doors are open for anybody who wants to give some help. The students here are from different parts of the world, this is reflected in; different L1, cultural background, ages and English levels. The visitors in this clasroom are some American students from the same high scool.

The class starts, Ms. Ross gives the instructions: Students have to go to the bookcase, pick up a book and begin reading it. The visitors help students; Reading with them, helping them with the pronunciation of some words or just listening to these beginners English learners.

Then, the students have to write about what have they read. The information required was: Name of the book, what it was about, name of the author, what you liked about the book and who you read with.

Analysis.

The effectiveness of the activity was proved when Ms. Ross checked what the students have read. Everybody has something to say about their books.

I think that this activity is learner-centered. Students worked almost by themselves; They chose what to read (content meaningful for them), which is also motivating for them, and later develop the questions about the book. The teacher here is just an observer of what is happening in the classroom.

In this activity, we can also see the importance of social interaction in learning a language. The students have the opportunity to receive feedback from English speakers who were from their same level age, rather than just from the teacher. This activity was very personalized, each student can work with someone individually.

THE CLASROOM STORY.

2008-11-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

Strategies.

Text tour: the teacher makes a revision of a text and explains all the steps she follows in order to understand it. She gives advices to the students about going first to the images attached to the text ,and used them to get a general idea.

This strategy show us the "thinking-out-loud model" in which the teacher explains how she performs the activity of reading. without giving order, just suggesting what to do to understand a text.

For me this strategy is useful because is not authoritarian. Moreover, The students are eager to learn what your strategies to learn are. How you do it to learn.

Teacher Stories: The teacher tells an authobiographical story. To catch their students attention she uses pantomime and is very expressive with her words.

I think that tell our students a true story about us is great, because with them we can share with them about us, creating stronger relationships with them. It is also important the way in which we tell the story. We can used several non-verbal aids to make our stories funnier and to catch our students attention.

The last strategy was not so clear for me. But I think that the first two are very good and I would like to used them in my class. I like to tell stories but I am not so good with the non-verbal expression (I will have to work on that). Anyway, I think that both startegies help to create an environment of trust in the classroom.

About my future students

2008-11-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

What I would like to know about my future students?

When I start to teach next year. I think that there is some important information, I would like to know about my students. This information can be very useful in the preparation of the material to teach.

I´d like to know:

- What their main interests are. (hobbies, likes and dislikes)
- How worried about their children´s education their parents are.
- What their level of English is.
- How proficent in Spanish they are.
- What kind of resources my students have access to.
- What different groups in the class are.

Run_ons...............My Bad!!

2008-10-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

Some of my errors with punctuation....my bad!

Learning a new language can result very difficult because of this I believe that stablish conections between the previous learning of the students and the new language can be help to create comprehensible input and help to reduce the affective filter of our students.

Learning a new language can result very difficult. Because of this, I believe that stablish conections between the previous learning of the students and the new language, can help to create comprehensible input and help to reduce the affective filter of our students.

In order to apply this principle in my classroom I would try to link the information from other subjects with the teaching of language, integrating the disciplines.

In order to apply this principle in my classroom, I would try to link the information from other subjects with the teaching of language; integrating the disciplines.

several times we see in clasrooms lists of grammar exercises, we work in laboratories in wich we listen tapes again and again.

several times we see in clasrooms lists of grammar exercises; we work in laboratories, in which, we listen tapes again and again.

Because of the use that teachers have given to the technological devices. The kind of activities they develop have the same characteristics that the traditional activities have such as teacher-centered activities, students do not move from their seats or silence is the golden rule.

Because of the use that teachers have given to the technological devices. The kind of activities they develop have the same characteristics that the traditional activities have; such as teacher-centered activities, students do not move from their seats or silence is the golden rule.

The proud, the principal and the teachers show about the school was so big that I think that this was a trigger for the motivation of the students and for the success of this school.

The proud, the principal and the teachers show about the school was so big, that I think that, this was a trigger for the motivation of the students.That explains the success of this school.

Blog Reflection "ESL/EFL Teaching. Principles for Success" Chapters 2, 6 and 10

2008-10-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

Teaching language through content:

I think is important to put our students in a friendly enviromment when we are going to teach them something that, most of the times, is an unfamiliar for them. Learning a new language can result very difficult because of this I believe that stablish conections between the previous learning of the students and the new language can be help to create comprehensible input and help to reduce the affective filter of our students.

In order to apply this principle in my classroom I would try to link the information from other subjects with the teaching of language, integrating the disciplines. Speaking in english about the topics my students are learning can result in a "win & win" situation, because I as a teacher can introduce language content and I can also make a revision of the students knowledge of the others areas of learning.

Learning takes places in social interaction.

Many times teachers tend to forget that we are teaching a language and do not remember what a language implies. Language is communication, teachers seem to do not have this in mind when they create their activities. Many times the teaching of a language is seen as any other subject, as a science, because several times we see in clasrooms lists of grammar exercises, we work in laboratories in wich we listen tapes again and again.

Social interaction is vital in learning a language in my teaching. I think I will do a lot of group work, pair dialogues and debates. The development of the social skills in our students is one of the most important abilities to develop in the school.

Faith in the learner expands student potential.

I think that this is one of the critical points in the chilean education. I have heard many times that teachers just criticize their students and do not believe in their potential. When I first have a class here in the states I was surprised about the amount of praise the class received during the class, most of the time the teacher is reinforcing the effort of the students with a good comment (well done, good, nice, etc) I think that we have to be more positive in the way we see our students in Chile.

2008-10-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

Homework: You can choose one of the following for your homework. Either compose a letter to Alanis explaining what she doesn’t seem to know about irony OR rewrite the song so that it DOES contain instances of irony.

Alanis Morissette - Ironic lyrics

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's as tasty as a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's just in time as a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic... don't you think?
It's lovely as rain on your wedding day
It's timely as a free ride when you've already paid
It's nice as the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought? It figures!...

CHAPTER 6 Learning take place in social interaction

2008-10-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

3. Technology has often led to LESS interaction in language classrooms. Why? How can we "fix" this? Create some activities that demostrates how technology can be used to lead to more interaction.

Because of the use that teachers have given to the technological devices. The kind of activities they develop have the same characteristics that the traditional activities have such as teacher-centered activities, students do not move from their seats or silence is the golden rule.

We can fix this by using the technology as a place to gather, the internet is a source that can enable us to have social connections between our students outside the classroom, this can help to reinforce the social relationships in the school.

Activities:

The creation of blogs to interact outside the classroom.

Make a movie using computer programs (group project)

Collaborative creation of posters (different purposes)

L2 students have to send e-mails to native English speakers (pen pal letters)

Teaching demo: Teaching language through content

2008-10-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

Teaching Demo: Teaching language through content
Content focus: The Discovery of the Americas.
Grade level: 2do Medio.

1. Write objectives on the board.
Content objective: History: The discovery of the americas.
Language objective: Listening comprehension, Writting past tenses.

In groups of four people each of them go to de URL and listening for the first time the video, the teacher asks for doubts. Now teacher gives the following questions to each group:

1. How was the skin of the people in the eastern side?
2. How did they think the earth was?
3. How did Colombus think the earth was like?
4. What was the name of the queen who supported Colombus trip?
5. Where did Colombus Wanted to go?
6. What were the name of the three ships Colombus had?
7. When the travel started?
8. How many months lasted the travel?
9. What name Colombus put to the island?
10. Where Colombus really was?
11. How many voyages did Colombus made after his fisrt travel?

In the computer students work freely stoping and rewinding as they wish to find the answers, to complete the questions they will have twenty minutes. To finish the activity, the teacher provides the right answers.

JIbiA ...04 o 05 no me acuerdo...

2008-10-03T16:55:00.001-07:00

Videos

2008-10-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

One day, one of my teachers at the university in Chile told me: " A teacher must have something of an actor, everyday you must entertaint your students in order to caught their attention no matter your mood you must pretend you are fine"

"Gina's social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers"

2008-09-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

Social Distance

1. Social Dominance. Whose social group is more dominant?
In this case I'd say that there no clear dominance between the groups, Gina knows the work of the teacher. We would work as equals in order to achieve the goals which is learning spanish.

2. Integration Pattern. How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the mainstream?
They can integrate the spanish speaking culture in a good way, nowadays spanish speaking culture is everywhere in the U.S. It also depends in the motivation of our students.

3. Enclosure. To what extent does learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, clubs?
Learners in this case have a close relation with Spanish speaking culture, U.S.A has a lot of spanish speakers and different parts of the culture are also accesible for learners (Music, Food and traditions) they can find opportunities to use the language in context in many places.

4. Size. How large is the group?
There is no information about the size of the group.

5. Cohesiveness. How much does the group "stick together"?
There is no information.

6. Cultural Congruence. How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home culture and the target culture alike or different?
There are similarities and differences but I think that the U.S is living a proccess of multiculturalism in which several cultures are living together so there's no barriers between different languages.

7. Attitude. What attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?
I think there is a respectful attitude between cultures, understanding differences with tolerance.

8. Intended lenght of residence. How long does the learner intend to stay in the new country?
No information about this.

Psychological Distance

1. Motivation. Does the learner want to learn the new language?
She is eager to learn the language. Gina is always saying how much she wants to learn spanish. I don't know about the rest.

2. Attitude. How does the learner feel toward the target-culture group?
I think Gina has a positive attitude toward the spanish speaking culture.

3. Culture Shock. Is the learner suffering culture shock
There is no cultural schock for this group, they are all in their country. The relation with the target culture is limited.

LOco un poco nada mas

2008-09-30T00:07:00.000-07:00

Bilingualism....homework

2008-09-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

1) I need if you can give me a description of the students in your school, just a general description with some information about social status, the family structure, the relation between parents and the school. I just need a general view of how are the students in your school.

"This school is mainly middle class people oriented, but we have any kind of students, students with parents who are doctors, or lawyers and students who live in poverty. We try to teach anyone the same no matter the social background. In this school in particular, as a religious school all families are well built. Most of parents are involved in their children development and participate in the several activities that the school has"

2) I need a description of a bad english learner or a good english learner (as you want), some ideas of someone you know and the characteristics of this student

"I have a student who is always asking me questions, She always get good grades, She is always trying to get the best marks in the tests. She doesn't have any behaviour problem and participate a lot in class. As far as I know both of her parents are profesionals so she has her parents example. She is the kind of students you say, no matter the method She is going to learn anyway".

Analysis.

I think that the example the teacher gives is a typical situation, always in each room there's a student who is more advanced than others and who is willing to learn. Almost always their parents are people with certain cultural knowledge. This kind of students have been borned surrounded by a stimulating enviroment in their houses. This type of students can be a problem for the rest of the class, because they are always demanding more and have a faster pace than the rest, for us as teacher could result difficult to provide them challenging activities, but I think that we must be able to give our students the activities they need, with differentiated activities we can work with the entire group at different levels.

School visit to Bridgeport and Brewster.

2008-09-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

"Really wonderful things are happening here for students achievement". Jim Smith, Superintendent of Bridgeport.

If i have to choose something to talk about this visit, I would talk about Bridgeport school, because I saw there so many interesting and positives things about how a school can improve their students performance. They seem to be worried about every little detail that can helps their kids to learn more.

The proud, the principal and the teachers show about the school was so big that I think that this was a trigger for the motivation of the students and for the success of this school. All this attitudes toward the learning in the school works as a Self-fulfilling prophecy in which students have been seen as capable people.

Questions.

What things that you see in these schools do you think can be implemented in the chilean context?

Mention one clear difference you see in these schools in comparison with the chilean education system

Do you think that it could be posible in our country to have college classes at high school?

ABOUT SEATTLE...

2008-09-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

When I first knew that I was going to Seattle the first thing that came to my mind was "I´m going to the craddle of grunge". Latter I was going to see that the picture that I have made in my mind was a little different from reality.

Write some words about our experience in Seattle is as difficult as it was to try to visit all the interesting places in the city in just some hours. In spite of the few time we had the experience was amazing, the city presents to us as a big cosmopolitan city, full of culture, with different people everywhere. I don´t remember the exactly schedule we had there, but I can remember two things: I think I had never walked as much as I did there and the other is the places I saw.

For me the best places that I visited were the "Pike Market Place", The Aquarium and "China Town". The market reminded me "La feria" from my city, lots of colours mixed. The aquarium was an unique experience, being in the dome surrended by water and fishes was very exciting. Our visit to "China town" was something surreal, it was like visit another country without moving from the city.

At the end, Seattle was a lot more than I though it was. I really want to come back there.

ABOUT CHILEAN TEACHERS BELIEVES

2008-09-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

1. What role do you think technology does take/can take in learning?

Technology can help us a lot to teach our students, mainly because students are more willing to learn than in an usual class, they show interest when they see a computer or any other kind of technology, and thus we can catch their interest and they will retain the information sooner and they will not forget what they learnt.

2. What role should the learner take in the classroom?

Students should always be active, which means they should look for information, if it is required; they should answer and ask questions; they should participate even if they don't understand.

3. What role should the teacher take in the classroom?

The teacher should guide students, and not give them the answers or activities, because they should manage to discover, to learn how to get the answer, how can they make a sentence, or any other thing.

4. What does good teaching look like?

I think that a good teacher looks like a very worried person not only for sts's marks but also for their personal problems, and that teacher is very active with their students, they do different things so sts can be willing to learn.

2008-09-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

Activity demonstrations:
Written expression.
Level: Intermediate.
Activity: Photo novels project:
In groups students will create a story to be made in a photo novel format (photo novels are a genre of comics illustrated with photographs rather than drawings. They are popular in Spain and Latin America, where they are called fotonovelas, and have also gained popularity in France).to create the photo novels they have to take the necessary pictures for the story and with the help of the website chosen they will add the text to their photos.
Technologies used:
http://comiqs.com (This site allows students to create dialogue bubbles in photos)
Digital camera (To take the pictures that are part of our photo novel)

Aims: Development of a authentic piece of text.

I chose this web site because is very useful in the creation of the photo novel, and also because it is easy to use.
Step 1 Create an account. http://comiqs.com/accounts/register/
Step 2 Add the photos to the site (photos, upload)
Step 3 Add the text.

1. Interaction: The activity is made for students to interact, to share ideas, to work as a group with the help of the site creating the photo novel.

3. Meaningful Activities: I think that the opportunity to attach words to images is good, is use of language in context. The activity also gives to the students the opportunity to use language creatively

4. Exposure to/Creation of varied language: Each group will create a different text. The group can know about their classmates’ histories.

5. Right Amount of time/Feedback: It is very easy to use the site. It provides all the information we need to use it.

6. Appropriate for Styles, Personalities and Intelligences: I think that the resources used are very visual but the entire activity involves others things as to be creative or to write properly.

7. Motivating: I think that to create something original is always a motivating challenge for students.

8. Student-centered: Students will do all the work; teacher will give some advices only if he sees necessary.

9. Autonomy: As I said before once students learn how to use this web they can work on it whenever they want and of course they can increase difficulty

10. Multimodal: Written and visual clues, mainly.

11. Comfortable Environment: For the development of the activity the web site is very friendly for the user.

Chileteach Delicious

2008-09-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

http://delicious.com/chileteach

Today we have learned about this site who is very useful for people who tends to forget web pages like me. Through this site we as Chile teach can store all the links to find the different information we need and we like.

I also create my own account, I going to be constantly updating it:

http://delicious.com/fhauyon.

I had forgot to mention that yesterday we work with image and video sharing web sites.
we visited:

http://photobucket.com

http://www.youtube.com

http://www.teachertube.com

and http://www.flickr.com

In flikr we created an account, mine is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fhauyon

I just added one of my drawings there.

THIRD BLOG REFLECTION

2008-09-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

E-Books and the Tablet PC
Robert Godwin-Jones
Virginia Comonwealth University
January 2003, Volume 7, Number 1
pp. 4-8

The other day, I was commenting with a classmate that we are so used to read in paper and that we are not so accustomed to read in the computer. In the last years the use of E-Books has increased notably, with the pass of the years the amount of written material available in the internet has increased significantly.

This article makes a revision of two devices related with the reading and the computers: The E-Books and the Tablet PC. The first is related with the appearance of books in a digital format and the second with a device made to read this digital material as well as to write and interact with the texts.

These tools combined can be useful in the way a student can store big amount of information in only one source (The pc) and in the way they can interact with the text (adding notes, hyperlinks to reference works). There also some drawbacks to take into account: The texts tend to be in different formats, this could make the search for texts difficult, and the tablet pc are still very expensive.

In my opinion, these are the information sources of the following years. Year after year is more the amount of information that is available in the internet; the change from paper to digital is coming, so we just have to get used to it.

URL: http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num1/pdf/emerging.pdf

PODCASTS

2008-09-02T10:59:00.001-07:00

PODCASTS FOR ME:
http://www.eslpod.com/website/#
http://a4esl.org/podcasts/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/how2/
http://www.simpleenglishnews.com/sports.shtml

PODCAST FOR OUR STUDENTS:
http://www.simpleenglishnews.com/25088lpgaenglish.shtml
http://www.china232.com/

PODCAST FOR SPANISH LEARNERS:
http://www.notesinspanish.com/category/beginners-podcast/
http://www.rojasspanish.com/podcast/RojasSpanishPodcast.xml

PODCAST THAT COULD HELP IN MY CLASSES:
My podcast would present to my students topics related with them, with their surroundings, in English I speak to them about Chilean affairs working with different contents, I would try to start a discussion through my podcast presenting debatable topics.

2008-09-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

SECOND BLOG REFLECTION

2008-09-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

“Messaging, Gaming, Peer-to-peer Sharing:
Language Learning Strategies & Tools for the Millennial Generation”
Robert Godwin-Jones
Virginia Comonwealth University
January 2005, Volume 9, Number 1
pp. 17-22

The text begins defining two concepts: “Digital Natives” who are the young people who have born in the last years and who have a close and natural relation with technology and “Digital Immigrants” who are the people, older than natives, who try to work with technology but is not something natural to them, they did not born surrounded by technology as “Natives”. Clarifying these concepts the author begins a revision of some of the latest and more popular devices and programs and makes some comments in the use and utility of them in language learning. Instant Messaging and Mobile Communication, Peer-to-Peer networking and the iPod Phenomenon and Gaming are described and analyzed in this article.

The concepts of "Digital Natives “and "Digital Immigrants" caught my attention I think that this is a reality we as teacher can avoid, many times our students are one step beyond or knowledge in technology. I think that we as immigrants have to make the effort to be updated always because the different technological devices can help to our work and also because our students live in an environment surrounded by technology. Even though there still so many teachers who are afraid of working with computers and prefer to work more “traditionally”.

The other important idea that I rescue from this text is the existence of a "third space”, which is not the school and neither the house that is there for us as teachers to exploit. In this space our students feel comfortable and spend a lot of time developing important skills. "Sites for socially and materially distributed cognition, complex problem solving, identity work, individual and collaborative learning across multiple multimedia, multimodality 'attentional spaces' (Lemke, n.d.), and rich meaning-making and, as such, ought to be part of the educational research agenda"

LABOR DAY WEBQUEST

2008-08-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

Read the following questions and find the answers on the URLS that are giving to you below each question.

1.- What does Labor Day means?
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/labor-day/index.html
http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm
http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=59226&display_order=3&mini_id=1060

2.- How do people celebrate in different states?
http://www.nyctourist.com/labor_day.htm
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/watts.htm

3.- Find the words that are hiding on the word search game. Click on the URL to play.
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/word-finds/community-helpers.html

4.- Follow your teacher’s instructions.

FIRST BLOG REFLECTION

2008-08-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

"TO GLOSS OR NOT TO GLOSS":
AN INVESTIGATION OF READING COMPREHENSION ONLINE
Lara L. Lomicka
The Pennsylvania State University
Language Learning & Technology
Vol. 1, No. 2, January 1998, pp. 41-50

So many times in my years as a student of English, when I have had to read a text I have found myself trapped in a word I cannot understand, and if the dictionary is not near, I misunderstood the meaning of an entire paragraph.

This article makes a review in the use of glosses as a tool for reading comprehension and explores different uses of them and the introduction of technology to improve their results (using images and audio to support the word meaning). The article also describes an experience with a limited group of students using this kind of devices. Although more research is needed, the data from this pilot study suggest that the use of multimedia annotations may aid comprehension and the development of a situation model.

In my opinion when students read a text, one of the most difficult challenges they have is to get lost for not knowing a word, when this happens students feel frustration and the work becomes impossible to solve. Many times the solution is going to the dictionary when it is possible but I think that the use of dictionaries interferes in the process of reading. Glosses constitute a good possibility to help our students in their reading comprehension and in the acquisition of new vocabulary.

Is important to remark that the use of audiovisual aids that help in the contextualization of concepts is very important and has a direct relation with our learners’ styles. The use of a software that provide additional help in the understanding can gives us, as teacher an opportunity to be multimodal.
The article: http://llt.msu.edu/vol1num2/article2/default.html

Working with inspiration

2008-08-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

During these days we have gone revising different aspect concern with the language teaching and the use of technology in it. We have been learning about the relation between this two fields and how they can work together, we have knew also the different visions specialists have about technology in language learning. There's people who thinks that technology always provide positive effects (Technofile), there's others who believes that technology is not the answer and they try to avoid it (Technophobes). The third group is related with the believe that the technology should be oriented with the proper activities (Instrumentals), the last group are the people who thinks that we have to be more carefully in the use of technology, we have to consider several aspect that the use of technology can produces in or students (their social context).
Another important part in these class has been the opportunity to get in touch with different technological devices (websites and softwares, mainly) we have learn how to use them, and discuss about their application in the Chilean reality.

USING WORDLE

2008-08-28T09:28:00.001-07:00

2008-08-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

About Facebook as a tool for teaching language

2008-08-27T22:13:00.001-07:00

Facebook

URL: www.facebook.com

In the last days it has become one of the most popular sites in internet, with more than eighty millions of users worldwide and valued recently in more than ten thousand millions of dollars. Facebook is by now, the best social network in the internet.
I would use facebook as a way to interact with my students and also as a source of authentic conversation with native speakers, through facebook I can also create quizzes about grammar easily.
Here are some comments based in the possible application of facebook to language teaching practice:

Interaction: With this social network students are able to have interaction at two levels synchronized and asynchrony through its walls and with the instant messaging application it has.
Authentic audience: This website allows our students to have interaction with people from English speaking countries.
Meaningful activity: Interacting with real audiences, student can develop their skills to communicate efficiently.
Exposure, creation of varied language: It can provide opportunities to use language for several purposes. Teacher can search for different people in order to make students have conversations or write posts each other.
Right amount of time and feedback: Teacher can help students outside the classroom; classmates can help each other with their assignments.
Motivating: Facebook can result motivating for our students in the way it is a popular site in our country, everybody is in Facebook nowadays.
Comfortable environment: As a site that everybody uses Facebook can be seen as a common place for students.

The drawbacks in this social system are paradoxically related with the great amount of functions it has and how this can results distracting for our pedagogical goals. Lots of games and quizzes not related with language learning can easily caught our students’ attention.

.,-{´+¿'01!!!!

2008-08-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

Starting something ...

2008-08-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

If I had known that I have to write something about my experience here (in English!) I probably had prepared a list of the things that have caught my attention these days. (squirrels, crows, pawaw, the food) There have been several things, here everything is a little different from Chile, there's so much to talk about, but I have already wrote some things about this on my facebook, so if you want to read about my days just go there, I don't want to write all the things again. sorry :)
I think that I going to write here from now on.