Dear Anna Franca, Dani and Paola,

I have tried twice to respond in the blog to your comments, but unfortunately, I am "scaduta" and cannot seem to log on again! But, I did want to comment and hope that since I do not have Paola's email handy, one of you will send it on.

Having now taught 'solo' and side-by-side teachers here in Italy for several years in a number of different settings, I would like to comment on the blogging response. I wonder if it has to do with teacher's attitudes toward their students, level of teacher training and also, comfort level with writing in English. Just some thoughts. I so admire people such as yourselves who have committed to being bilingual and who can express yourselves so eloquently. Certainly, I think my own chances in doing so in Italian are slim at this ripe age of 58 (notice I omitted OLD!). But, the point is that we have to look at the English language teaching community itself and imagine how such an important group of people are not regularly attending teacher-training programs and are not required to join professional organizations such as TESOL-Italy. Frankly, all I hear about is how many hours they have to do, the drag of teaching, etc., etc., etc. But, wouldn't one think that if they gave up the teaching approach that bores them and their students and usually has minimal effect on the class at large, then all would be joined in a more mutually enjoyable and rewarding teaching/learning exchange? Until there is better teacher preparation, until there is a movement toward learning in English and not superficially about English, until English becomes a way to 'express' the inner lives of each individual, I don't feel that much movement in terms of interacting professionally and bringing about significant change over a large area of the population is going to work for quite some time.

I want to share a recent experience I had this week. I teach with 4 teachers doing 'lettore' at a well-reputed classical high school here in Venice. The students are engaged in "Fast Track' and a literature books, Voices and Views. Now, all classes are mixed levels, nobody really knows at what levels the kids read because this is never considered. Two classes, quite out of control with the regular classroom teacher, have now come into some semblance of participating in the hours that I have them. The teacher asked me to do . . Dickens. What could I do? For three weeks I have brought in new materials I took from the 'net and even graphically (sometimes using a few colorful words, I admit!) described London, had them imagine Venice in the same conditions, then we looked at a timeline of Dickens' life and tried to evaluate emotional, traumatic, normal experiences (he was a VERY troubled person), we talked about social reform, etc. But, at the end of the day, we had to do the piece from David Copperfield. Imagine their delight. . .I finally closed the book and announced in the hours I had left with them, I was not going to subject them or myself to such a didactic teaching text. .something suitable for an AP course in America or England perhaps. Now, I choose from my own materials to teach them to develop their independent thinking, reading and pronunciation skills in English. . those mispronunciations can be a source of potential errors! In two weeks, we will start a small project (I'm still working on the shape of it!) based on the film 'Freedom Writers." Next week, we will start a piece on communication about the work with animals in the sign language programs in the U.S. Why? to get them to think about acquisition, what it serves and how it shapes out lives particularly when we learn a new language which then can transport us into a new realm of experience and thinking. .and no, we do not learn culture by watching exchanges about "couch potatoes" in our latest version of . .well, you know what I am saying. I hope before the hours are up, we can read a chapter froom Stones in the Water, a book based upon a real life experience of a Italian-American who as a child in Venice was abducted with his friend when they went to Mestre. All in English. . . . By the way, a student told me that the teacher announced to them that the reason I was not doing Dickens was because I was American and since I spoke a 'different' version of English from BRITISH ENGLISH, I was not really able to read Dickens to them and so therefore, chose not to do it. Hmm. .my first degree in English was with an emphasis on British lit! This kind of narrow-mindedness prevails everywhere. . everyone too busy, too whatever to really figure out what they are doing in their classrooms (or not). So, for me, it has been a distinct pleasure. Keep pressing for change and keep haranguing those people to BLOG.

And, let's hope people realize that they can spend two weeks in America in English just as well as in England!!

Love to you all,
Nan

PS. Hi, everybody...I've just cut and pasted here Nancy's text: she sent it to me by e-mail as it seems she can't post it herself for some technical problems. I'm just a sort of 'go-between'... Yet, I do believe there are some interesting topics for discussion within Nancy's text, eg, British English vs American English in a world where we all have to cope with 'Englishes'....
Do we still have prejudices of this kind as regards English - while we have a great number of students - Italian, native Italian speakers - who gets to University entry texts and miserably fail..'cause, after more than ten years of compulsory educational curriculum still result unable to decently use their own native language...?
Luv :-)))
Dani

Participation is vital to the phenomenon of any CoP. Geographic dispersion and the usage of ICTs serve to heighten the difficulty of securing interest and participation. Human communication and sharing is always more forthcoming in an environment of physical proximity.

In any case, let's move on ...
1. Which Web 2.0 tools are we familiar with? Why should we use them in EFL/ESL classrooms? What are their pedagogical value? How can we integrate them into our ELT?

2. Go to Technorati.com and look for the search box there, ( usually on the right top corner of Technorati site). Enter key words relevant to your ELT area, and then see what results you get.

3. Post your feedback on this experience with ideas or ways you may integrate this technology in your classes.

Reading resource:
An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Tagging in Blogs , by Christopher H. Brooks and Nancy Montanez

FURTHER 'THOUGHT SHARING'...

What about talking a bit about 'Indicazione per il curricolo'?
Blogs, the Web might become a way to change things...
Yet, Is it really possible to think about such a 'change' while there are 'people' who still strongly believe there's no ...whatsoever difference between designing a curriculum on exit competences rather than one on objectives (actually resulting in vague 'contents')?
Last Tuesday, I spent more than half an hour to try and 'explain' to my maths collegues that starting from 'expected competences' was different from listing a number of 'objectives/contents'.
What do you think?
Can we really work for a Change'?
Dani

Further thoughts on blogs

Thanks Dani for sharing your thoughts!
You might want to read more at:
http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
:-))

What's a blog?...Whyshouldanyone decidetocreatea blog?

I created my blog just to learn how-to-do-it.
I still believe (though I'm 45) you can't effectively do something -and talk...about anything if you don't try and do it.
Yet, I realised a blog is no more and no longer simply a web-log.
Anyone who creates a blog is not creating a more o less 'personal' log book: he/she doesn't just want to 'log'.
We are finally looking for other people to answer, reply - be there. We are perfectly aware we are not writing a 'secret' diary: we are ontheweb, everyone can read us.
Since I first read my elder son's blog I read lots of other blogs, 'coze I wanted to understand why blogs were...-happening?
I realised there are lots of sort of 'blog competitions'...Blogs are a way to 'appear' (much more than 'being'?) as well as some Tv products are. You must 'collect' people join in, participate - write a two-three words comment just to ....I really don't know what or why.
Yet, I still believe a blog could/might become a very useful and effective communicative and educational 'tool' : we (teachers? lifelong learning grownup people?)just need to Use it.
Luv,
Dani

Try your hand at it!

Anna,
why don't you try your hand at it? It's simple ...
Here is what you do:
Go to https://www.blogger.com/start
Click on “Create Your Blog Now”.
If you already have a google or gmail account, sign in on the page that opens with that account name (if it is the one you want to use for your blog). You can always create a new google or gmail account for your blog if you prefer.
Once you sign in (or create) a google or gmail account, you will be asked forthe “Display Name” for your account. This is just how you will appear whenlogged into the blog.You also need to click the box to accept the terms and conditions.
On the next screen, you will need a title for the blog. (i.e., ESP for Law, Mary's Travel Diary).Then you will need a blog address. Have some backup names ready because your blog address may already be taken. Click on check availability to see.
On the next screen you will be asked to choose a template. Don't worry about this too much. You can change templates later if you want to.Click on the template you want. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click“Continue.”
Now you can start posting. Your blog is ready for your first posting.
When you have created your blog, please post a message on the TESOL CoP Blog adding your blog address. We would all like to take a look at what you have created.
Happy Blogging :-)))

Exciting Blogs

Dani,your blog is exciting! I like the song of "the Ancient Mariner", terrific for our classes,I think.
Your friend's blog is very interesting, too. I particularly like Emily Brontie and Charles Dickens; I think he portrays the industrial society in a very effective way, his descriptions are better than photos and stimulate readers' reactions, too. I should publish this as a comment but, sorry, I'm not able to publish comments this evening, I've already written one but it was cancelled, obviously I don't know why!

Hi!
I'm sorry but at the moment I'm a bit (....) busy and have little time to create a new blog. I'll do it, I promise!
In the meanwhile, may I send you the links to my own (lately created, just an experiment) blog and to another one, created by a friend of mine....?

http://himomehiteacher.blogspot.com/

http://thewasteland.myblog.it/

Adm: sancarlo
Pass: sancarlo
(you'll have to use these passwords to enter my friend's blog)

Luv,
Dani

This blog is great!

Hello, teachers! My name is Rosa Alcaro, I'm from Catanzaro. I teach at secondary school and I am a contract professor at the University of Catanzaro and University of Calabria. I know I'm very late, but I have had a lot of problems with Explorer in the last weeks. I'm particularly interested in ESP/EAP and CLIL. This is my first experience on a blog and I find this Tesol blog really great! I'm sure it would be exciting and useful! I 'll have the opportunity to exchange ideas and opinions with all of you! Thank you very much Anna Franca, for your invitation...

Thanks Paola!

Thanks for breaking the blog ice, Paola and showing us that it's quite user-friendly to create a blog. l've posted a comment to your blog...
Let's keep the blogroll ( upper left hand corner) going.

Paola'a blog

Dear everyone,

I have created it! What fun!

http://learnteachexperiment.blogspot.com/

Looking forward to your comments

Love :-)

Paola

A quick reminder

In case you already haven't done so, don't forget to go to
http://attendr.com/tesolcop to know where we are in the real world and:
a. join attendees list;
b. edit your profile;
c. upload your photo;
d. mark who you already know;
e. mark who you would like to know.
Thanks!

Ready to go??

Why not start our own blogs to use with our ESL students??
Here is what you do:
Go to https://www.blogger.com/start
Click on “Create Your Blog Now”.
If you already have a google or gmail account, sign in on the page that opens with that account name (if it is the one you want to use for your blog). You can always create a new google or gmail account for your blog if you prefer.
Once you sign in (or create) a google or gmail account, you will be asked forthe “Display Name” for your account. This is just how you will appear whenlogged into the blog.
You also need to click the box to accept the terms and conditions.On the next screen, you will need a title for the blog. (i.e., ESP for Law, Mary's Travel Diary).
Then you will need a blog address. Have some backup names ready because your blog address may already be taken. Click on check availability to see.
On the next screen you will be asked to choose a template. Don't worry about this too much. You can change templates later if you want to.
Click on the template you want. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click“Continue.”Now you can start posting. Your blog is ready for your first posting.
When you have created your blog, please post a message on the TESOL CoP Blog adding your blog address. We would all like to take a look at what you have created.
Looking forward to checking out the blogs.

Non-verbal communication2

I saw the video Antonietta mentioned in her post and read Anna Franca and Paola's comments. I agree with them: we often miss our students' non-verbal messages, but one of the reasons might be that we have so many students in our classes...You can't possibly 'see' what 25/26 children are telling you with their eyes, or bodies - unless most of them are 'shouting out' the same thing (which may happen, and sometimes happens). Yet, it's also a question of what you choose to look for or not look for when you are with them and you're trying to help them learning something new: if you focus too much on what you are doing as a teacher, you have very little chance to get some useful hint of what is happening to your students.
Anyway, what mostly impressed me in the video was the part about virtual communication.
I was a tutor online last year (and I've been practising a lot of virtual communication: skype, MSN, e-mails, chats, fora) and I'm sure there's some kind of particular 'non-verbal communication' even when you use written words to communicate... I can't really explain -at the moment - how it works, yet after some time you've been 'reading' a person's messages, you become able to 'feel' how she/he's feeling, what's going on: confidence, disappointment, uneasiness, enthusiasm... You can feel it.

And...as regards our students, most of them hate writing the so-called "temi di italiano" but, at the same time, write wonderful involving thoughtful 'things' on their personal blogs. Almost 'correct', from a linguistic point of view, too...

Very, very late... Going to bed
'Night
Dani

Blogs in Plain English

How interesting! Thanks for the link.
Hi guys!
I'm new to the list. I've been teaching English for quite a few years now, fist at school and then at Uni level. I'm interested in New Technologies, although I feel a little bit left behind at the moment (too many new things have come out recently, including blogs).
I hope to learn lots of new things from you all.
Take care,
Emy