tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51916412024-03-08T16:30:02.354+09:00Getting therejournal and workpad for developing thoughts on teachingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger215125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-91211930570067690522010-04-16T09:16:00.002+09:002010-04-16T09:22:01.060+09:00This is now my sixth (?) odd year teaching at the university.I have changed the rooms where I teach so that they are in the computer room with constant access to the internet, with screens and mike, and have moved the teaching time to the afternoon so students can get up on time...The room is much closer to the station so students don't have far to walk. The department also streamlined classes Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1153370077900891352006-07-20T13:23:00.000+09:002006-07-20T13:34:37.936+09:00This is amazing...I have spent the morning trawling through the spring terms of 2004 and 2005 to look for blog entries related to the vocabulary worksheet and autonomous vocab learning that I did, and about which I am now going to write (some kind of a) dissertation to crown my MA.Really deep, particularly as I cut and edit 2005 down to about 8 pages of word, to see how anal I am, with being lateUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1145957221329768772006-04-25T18:24:00.000+09:002006-04-25T18:27:01.340+09:00Ripping open the paper of a parcel from India to find inside my first book! Well, a chapter in a book, and here’s the reference:Renata Suzuki (2006) ‘Diaries as Introspective Research Tools: From Ashton-Warner to Blogs’. InSatish, D. & Rajesh Prabhakar, K. (Eds.) Blogs: Emerging Communication Media. Hyderabad:ICFAI University Press (pp153-168).ISBN 81-7881-773-XThe original is here: http://Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1134648665554127262005-12-15T20:56:00.000+09:002005-12-15T21:13:03.420+09:00Day 10 Thursday Presentations on Environmental and Socio-Economic TopicsI am reminded as I look at the orange attendance slips of my students where I ask them to write mini meta-cognitive comments on what they learned, noticed or found interesting, that the skill we were after was teamwork, using Q&A, repetition and so on to liven up the different voices, not just presenting one after the other.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1134625672046793902005-12-15T14:22:00.000+09:002005-12-15T14:54:49.330+09:00i fell asleep on the train and went past my usual stop, so I changed to a different train from usual and arrived. I need a coffee, I thought, and indulged in a latte while reading Bachman's (1990) Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing Oxford University Press.I really liked the idea (p.54, 55) that we have to think about the purpose of tests, and Bachman has two major ones mentiond, testsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1134553809795564942005-12-14T18:39:00.000+09:002005-12-14T18:50:09.813+09:00good presentations yesterday tuesday, altho I must say greening in china group simply hadn't read the article or begun to understand the need for relevance and quoting sources...great attempts to use mixing voices and questions for humor and teamwork, particularly the first presentation.Meanwhile i have spent the whole day making a fantastic end of term vocabulary,which I have decided will reviewUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1134179322419262962005-12-10T10:34:00.000+09:002005-12-10T10:48:42.430+09:00Digging into the backlog of marking and filling up my markbook. Interesting to note the discrepancies in Presentation 2 between the average and my own grade of a presentation.The system is five student markers, one from each of the groups listening to a presentation, and mine, added up and divided by six, so my own judgement is equal to that of one student. I discounted one student's rubric whichUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1134094960234892792005-12-09T10:50:00.000+09:002005-12-09T11:22:40.246+09:00This is Friday morning, and i have been seriously pressured by the thought of blogging this week. I even thought, what would happen if I just stopped? Like, if i just taught away and didn't blog?I then thought that that wasn't really a good idea, because the reflection that happens, and the sitting down to gather those thoughts (also for later perusal) and focusing for conversations with Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1133498901831597772005-12-02T13:24:00.000+09:002005-12-02T13:48:21.843+09:00Day 8 Thursday preparing for Presentation 3Feeling minimally better today. Began class on time, asking for vocab checking. managed to chalk up the day's time schedule, the article topics and my mollusc shell diagrams without vomiting, which is something.During the mini-test I wandered round asking people to put their student id number on the rubric cover of the article reports (Thursday class is Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1133496629273627962005-12-02T12:18:00.000+09:002005-12-02T13:10:29.290+09:00Day 8 Preparing for Presentation 3: Using an Article to explore environmental and socio-economicsI am posting this late because I have been SICK! I contemplated not going to class on Tuesday, spent half the night awake clutching my cell-phone agonizing over getting up at 5:30am for class and whether I would be able to, and then when I finally agreed in my mind to let hubs call up the university Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1133493015379381012005-11-24T15:54:00.000+09:002005-12-02T12:17:48.050+09:00Presentation 2 Financial English: Course Day 7This class had doubled up on topics, so we only had three in all for six groups, on Central Banking, on International Trade, and on Bankruptcy. As one web-savvy student helped get the monitor up on screen I explained the homework as on Tuesday, to prepare a twenty word vocabulary sheet and study one other topic in the ppts at eemsophia. I particularlyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1133491950872948392005-11-22T15:49:00.000+09:002005-12-02T11:52:30.886+09:00(Pasted in Dec. 2nd) I am not kidding the internet is down or slow or what have you, driving me crazy I can’t get into blogger or access student files from eemsophia.Today was Day 7, Presentation 2, focusing on Delivery and Survey Skills.Excellent, excellent! Next will be Teamwork, Enthusiasm and integrating reference to an article in the ppt.I was having the heebie jeebies in class at the start Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1132222944907662192005-11-17T19:10:00.000+09:002005-11-17T19:48:16.790+09:00THURSDAY day 6 Computer Room DayPicture a room like a banquet hall with two table rows of flatpanel desktops for students to sit on either side, and walls lined with more, for about 60 students. I have 34 today, and they all centred on the two banquet tables, lined up on both sides. The whole left back of the classroom is empty. I dump my bags at the raised teacher dais in front of the whiteboardUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1132037242898367862005-11-15T15:28:00.000+09:002005-11-15T15:47:22.913+09:00REBUILDING THURSDAY DAY 5 from memoryI would like to just revisit last week, if I can. I handed back marked vocabulary sheets with personal comments as students moved into the new ones, and asked students to return marked peer essays at some point during class. Two late comers worked together, and I let them carry on checking vocabulary as I explained the mini-test and handed out the papers. ThenUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1132036101829754422005-11-15T15:23:00.000+09:002005-11-15T15:28:21.830+09:00ooh and i forgot to say, one of the students in the last group i was working with said, hey, you spoke too much, we didn't have time to brainstorm! Well, why didn't you just tell me you understood and would I go away while you handle it? i countered. Hm, you make it sound so easy, they joked back.Well, I'm not really sure where all that came from, since I definitely had time with all groups, but Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1132035709877566772005-11-15T15:05:00.000+09:002005-11-17T19:10:13.330+09:00Tuesday Day 6Computer room D day, and everyone filled out a pink slip for presence, or a blue one for being late. i distributed an interesting article I found in the Japan Times this morning on Japan importing blue-fin tuna illegally caught by Turkey...thought it would be of interest, particularly to the two groups doing international trade.I passed it out as I went round groups asking if they Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1132034615496584172005-11-15T14:54:00.000+09:002005-11-15T15:03:35.506+09:00THE WHY AND WHEREFORE OF THIS BLOGDidn' t blog Thursday...just flaked out when I got home and was down all day Friday, still feeling washed out over the weekend and what with writing on my Bham gender paper on Monday and the Webbies conference ppt on Sunday I have been nowhere near blogging....So there it is, when do researchers not blog, well, when they are sick and exhausted!Now for the last Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1131435818122326462005-11-08T16:35:00.001+09:002010-04-16T09:25:35.747+09:00I’m having probs getting online with the network system here at home so I’m blogging this in word and pasting it in in case it gets lost being published, as has happened once or twice lately. I know this ends up with funny squiggles where the Japanese upsets blogger, but it’ll have to do. Doesn’t feel nearly as much like blogging not being in my lovely blogger window tho.I felt quite overloaded Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1130387426263567052005-10-27T13:12:00.000+09:002005-10-27T13:44:53.986+09:00Thursday Day Four, Presentations.Got into class 8:55 and began to set up the ppt stuff, one of my students was kind enough to help me. Took me ages to find cables, and then I couldn't get the laptop screen to show on the slide screen...as I got more and more anxious, the chime went, so I decided to ask students to hand in the summer assignment while I worked on the hardware issues a bit longer. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1130214838181010842005-10-25T13:27:00.000+09:002005-10-25T13:33:58.186+09:00Tuesday DAY 4: PRESENTATIONs!The homework:To learn twenty new vocabulary from the presentation handoutsTo read, rubric grade and comment on a peer's summer assignmentTo study one other presentation topic(ppt and handout) for a minitest when we get back to class in two weeks' time. (So load them in to our yahoo group, load them in!) Now if anyone's reading here they'll know I made that up on the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1129788089090829222005-10-20T14:43:00.000+09:002005-10-20T15:01:29.100+09:00Thursday, Day 3: Research Day in Computer RoomChatting to colleague i got into class with five minutes odd to spare, and handed out attendance slips, blue for on time, and green for latecomers.After the chime I asked all student to go to the merriam webster site and try out the pronunciation tool, and also the thesaurus. Amazing how many had not ever been, in spite of my mentioning it and havingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1129644218579858672005-10-18T22:32:00.000+09:002005-10-18T23:03:38.590+09:00Get a load of this: from Li Li, H. (2004/2005), 'Rethinking Silencing Silence'. In Boler, M. (ed.) Democratic Dialogue in Education: Troubling Speech, Disturbing Silence. New York: Peter Lang pp.69-86Thus, the pedagogical purpose of silent wait time is simply to entail verbal responses...it is clear that silent speculation cannot be observed and measured...the current accountability movement is Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1129641603571292202005-10-18T22:19:00.000+09:002005-10-18T22:20:03.580+09:00Tuesday, Autumn Semester Day 3How can it be raining again? Dripping wet by the time I got home, like I can see my puter freezing up as my hair drips on the keyboard sort of thing…I indulged in talking to two colleagues on the way home, about three of my students who are moving into their class, and the why and how of it, but I checked with the head of department, and all is well. I also had some Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1129186861177553542005-10-13T15:24:00.000+09:002005-10-13T16:01:01.186+09:00Thursday, Autumn Semester Day 2I began class by greeting everyone, reminding them of the meaning of the English intros to checking vocabulary (useful phrases for discussion) and asked students to go ahead and work with someone new. I helped a couple of people find new partners, and asked two to work with two newcomers, who had not done the homework. (I notice one signed into the yahoo group Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191641.post-1129012513569116242005-10-11T15:13:00.000+09:002005-10-11T15:35:13.576+09:00why, o why is my blogger in Japanese????sigh....This morning was vocabulary work, so I began the class greeting everyone and reminding them that the English prompts on the vocab sheet are useful in discussion, and so to please use English, and to work with someone new. I spent a little time explaining to the two newcomers, (they had both not done the work, although they have successfully joined Unknownnoreply@blogger.com