International Seminar English Teaching Materials - Review

Hello my dear readers of my blog.

too bad I forgot to bring my camera so I just take this photo from my instagram._.

In this post I want to share my experience when I joined a seminar in my town. The topic of the seminar was “Local Values in English Teaching Materials (Curriculum 2013 Perspective)”. It was held in Grand Mahkota Hotel Pontianak, March 16^th 2013. My impression of the seminar is AWESOME! It was a great experience to be there due to many knowledge I get. I want to share a little bit from one of the presenter on the seminar. There are two things that made it special, first is the speaker who is native speaker and the second is the place which is very cozy. The committee was doing very good job to bring an inspiring person, Joshua Yardley, MA. He is a lesson planning and classroom management expert (hehe I’ve  just googled it). The only thing about his personality I could get on his presentation is “He likes teaching so much”. Well, to be honest I just don’t remember what exactly his occupation but he is in English Teaching and Learning World that has many experiences of teaching in some countries. He joined English Language Fellowship and has already sometime stayed in Banda Aceh. I was so amazed in his presentation and I even recorded it with my phone (just because I was afraid to lose something hehehe).

From the main presentation which was presented by Joshua, I got many knowledge related to Teaching Learning English that will be very useful for my future as an English teacher (amin).  The presentation was begun with the illustration about the effectiveness of materials for instruction. The more materials presented by teacher, the better for the instruction because they have positive correlation.  But Joshua showed a new perspective of teaching. It started with Dogma 95 which is about film by Lars von Trier & Thomas Vinterberg and came to Dogma Elt by Scott Thornbury. The content of Dogma ELT is “Teaching should be done using only the resources that teachers and students bring to the classroom – i.e. themselves – and whatever happens to be in the classroom. If a particular piece of material is necessary for the lesson, a location must be chosen where that material is to be found.” From this dogma, it is clearly shown that the most important in teaching learning is the students and how we could bring them to the more interesting teaching learning process by materials that is about themselves. According to his that related teaching and psychology by a simple question “How are you today?” with a notebook and a pen we – as a teacher – can make materials which is more authentic and more interesting for students – because it is about themselves. I was explained a new approach – maybe for me – Language Experience Approach. First step they create a story in their mother tongue then the teacher or peer helps to translate so that students can learn based on their own story. I think it was worth to try for my future students and I will analyze how are students’ response about my teaching method. In that occasion, blogs and phones also shown as good media for teaching and learning process. For example, blog is a good media for the introverts and intrapersonal students. That is absolutely true because I am an intrapersonal and I like blog very much! Hahaha. There are also several website that Joshua shared for us, next time I will try it one by one and make a special posting on this blog. By the way I have tried the feature of www.wordle.net that provide us to copy and paste a writing or a address of a website and create a “word clouds”. It will show us the most often uses word on our writing or website. These are the example of my personal blog and this blog. You must try this! :D

this blog. cool, eh? haha

this is from my personal blog :D

A Vision of 21st Century Teachers

This video was posted on Youtube on 28 February 2010 by TheMCESC Channel. MCESC stands for Mahoning County Educational Service Center. Mahoning County is a county located in the state of Ohio. Honestly I don't know what is TheMCESC, I have already googled it and found their website but we must log in or something to access it. The creators of this video really opens my mind personally. Eighteen classroom teachers "speak out" on the topic of tech integration and 21st Century skills for students. I was showed this by my lecturer, Zainal Arifin, in the one of the meeting at school.

In this video teachers share how they and their students use technology as productive as possible. It also motivates us, as a future English teachers, to raise our creativity using technology. We can do many things by technology, the matter is when we will start and make our students engage.

I'm happy to share this on my blog, hope you guys can find and realize something after watching it.

Idioms Drill (2) - Let Bygones Be Bygones

LET BYGONES BE BYGONES

DIALOGUE

A: What’s become of Edith Jones? I’ve lost track of her.

B: I don’t know and frankly I don’t care. The last time I saw Edith she said something that rubbed me the wrong way.

A: Really? I took it for granted that you two were very good friends.

B: We were – until I got tired of her remarks.

A: Oh, come on. Let bygones be bygones. Life is too short to stay angry.

B: well, maybe.

A: I’m sure Edith would like to renew your friendship. Meet her halfway.

B: I suppose you’re right. Okay, I’ll turn over a new leaf and try again. As you say, life is too short to stay angry.

Idioms Drills (1) - Under The Weather

UNDER THE WEATHER

DIALOGUE

A : It’s a beautiful day. Let’s go for a walk.

B : I’d like to but I feel under the weather. I think I’m catching cold.

A : You’d better watch your step then. A cold is no fun.

B : I suppose it serves me right. I went outside without a coat last night.

A : You know the best cure for a cold, don’t you? Take it easy and drink lots of liquids.

B : I’ll do that. I don’t want my cold to go from bad to worse.

A : You’re right. It could easily develop into flu if you’re not careful.

Quote of The Day

The most powerful factors in the world are clear ideas in the minds of energetic men of good will. - J. Arthur Thomson

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. - Mark Twain

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. - Henry Adams

When a person praises punishments, 9 times out of 10 this means he is prepared to administer it rather than submit to it. - Anonymous

Schoolteachers are not fully appreciated by parents until it rains all day Saturday. - E. C. McKenzie

The secret of success is the constancy of purpose. - Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Inspiring Active Learning: A Complete Handbook For Today's Teachers by Merrill Harmin and Melanie Toth. 2006.

Tumblr - One of The Great Microblog

 Who doesn’t know Blog? For those who active in virtual word may very familiar with this word. IMHO, Blog is one of the social media that almost has complete features among others. It has so many functions and considerable as an easy social media to be learned in self-taught way. According to Wikipedia, Blog is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting discrete entry (“post”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first). The word of Blog itself has already been in Oxford Dictionaries. Blog, as a noun, is a personal website or web page on which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis. Blog, as a verb – blogs, blogging, blogged – is adding new material to or regularly update a blog or if the word of “blog” followed by object, means write about in a blog. In my own experience in blogging, I often some word with the root word is blog, such as blogsphere (the atmosphere of existence of blog), blogwalking (visit some random blog), blogger (person who blogging), and etc. Actually it is little bit difficult to define what blog is in words if you have already sunk in blogworld for quite a long time, all I know that blog has contribution changing my life.

Journals About Teaching Learning with ICT (1)

Using Blogs in The Foreign Language Classroom: 

Encouraging Learner Independence

by:
Kathleen Pinkman

Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan

The JALT CALL Journal 2005 [Vol. 1.1]

Abstract

This small scale action research study explores how the author incorporated a blog project into an integrated-skills foreign language class in a Japanese university. This project was an out-of-class project aimed at motivating students to take advantage of authentic environments outside the classroom in order to practice language skills and communicate with others. This study seeks to determine the usefulness of using blogs in the foreign language classroom, and to assist foreign language professionals interested in developing learner independence in their own learners by using this relatively new computer-based learning forum. Data were collected from learners through questionnaires and interviews conducted at the end of the term. At this time, learners were asked to reflect on their attitudes about the blog project and how it aided them in practicing English out of the classroom. Findings suggest that learner-perceived benefits of using blogs included increased interest and motivation to use English because of interaction with, and feedback from, classmates and teachers. There is also indication, however, that although the project helped to improve reading and writing skills, some learners were more interested in developing oral communication skills not directly addressed in the blog project. The findings also suggest that learners who participated in the blog project were interested in continuing to blog even after the semester finished. Further research needs to focus on whether or not learners did indeed continue using this resource after the course ended, and in which foreign language courses this project is most suitable.