Hungry Girl

This episode is from Everyzing. http://search.everyzing.com/viewMedia.jsp?res=371131215&dedupe=1&index=13&col=en-all-public-ep&sort=rel&e=21409915&channelTitle=Recipes&num=10&start=10&q=Recipes&ci=31&expand=true&match=query,channel&channel=110&bc=114,110&filter=1

This episode describes a popular recipe book, named Hungry Girl. I want to chose this as a material in a classroom because the topic is interesting and students will like it. Diet is also the topic that high school students care.
First, I will have students watch the news. I will ask several questions regarding to this site, such as " What is hungry girl ?" After sharing this content in class, I will have students watch this site again. At the second time, they can guess and understand the content easier. After the watching it, I will seperate students to 3-4 people group and have them write the reasons why " hungry girl" is good for diet. After this groupwork, I will have students watch this site and write down the recipe in the news. Last I will share the content in a class.
As an assignment, I will tell students to go to the website of Hungry Girl and write their own opinions about the website.
Through this activity, the students can enjoy listening and they might go to the website actually. Students can realize that the material used in a class is related to the real world. The visual of TV can help them understand English.

The usage of iTunes and Everyzing in L2 classroom

I want to use iTunes and Everyzing as English materials in different ways. About the number of podcasts, iTunes is more vaious than Everyzing. We can subscribe it. I want to use it for students to study at home as an assignment. I will ask them several questions or have them write their opinions on my blog. It is good listening practice for students because they have to listen to it several times. Furthermore, we can subscribe it. Gradually,students will be used to the vocabularies because of the same theme. They can increase vocabularies naturally.

As for Everyzing, I want to use it in a class. I can use this site to integrate listening and reading. The advantage of this site is that all podcasts have scripts. It will be helpful for students to confirm which word they can't recognize. If the podcast is difficult for students to listen to, first students learn and read the script or vocabularies. After understanding the content, students can listen to it.
Everyzing also has various podcasts from news to food. Teachers can know which topic is new now and choose it. For example, now presidential election has just finished. Students are familiar with several terms of policitcs. It is good timing to introduce political news relating to election.
Authentic and new material can make students be motivated to learn English.

Integrate iEARN and Cheswing

I want to integrate iEARN and Cheswing for global cooperation. Through iEARN I can get some projects and contact with teachers in foreign countries. For example, I am interested in the Folk Tales Projects in Pakistan. This project is to have students introduce their own country's folk tales to other coutries.

First I have students find folk tales of Japan. They have to translate them into English. Through translation, students will know how difficult it is to translate their customs or cultures into English because foreigners don't know Japanese culture.

After translating the folk tale into English, they record the folktale on Cheswing. Students can get several responses from the Cheswing. Listening to other countries' responses, they will know what foreigners can't understand in Japanese culture and are interested in.

Or I can use foreign falk tales. I can ask teachers through iEARN about what kind of falk tales they have. Students read a falk tale and write their thought. After it, they say their opinion on Cheswing. The people whose country's falk tale is read by students will response to them.
I think this activity helps students know how different or similar foreigners are through a falk tale.

Cheswing is good for knowing the world

I like Cheswing very much because of its simple structure. We just choose our interesting topic and listen to other people's thought and speak our opinions. I want to use it by integrating it into reading class. The textbook of Japan includes several topics, such as global warming, world heritage and so on. After finishing the topic, I want to have students post their opinions relating to it on this website. It is really fun for students. They have to use vocaburalies they learned in the textbook and they can get responses from the world. The textbook doesn't seem to be enacted in a real world. However, by combining this task, the textbook can also be authentic. Moreover, students can hear several accents of English. They will know English is not spoken only in America. I think it makes students motivate to speak English. They will not care about their own accents too much.

iEARN and ePals, exciting tool for English learning

I want to introduce iEARN and ePals for global cooperation. iEARN is the website which shows several projects for teachers. The splendid point of iEARN is that we can contact with the educator who condacted the project and ask our questions about it. We choose our subject and students' age and click it. We can see several projects which match our conditions. When we are worrying about activities, we can use it. We tend to rely on the same approach or method because it is hard to think of new approach. However, we can get useful information from teachers of foreign countries.
ePals also offers several projects but the interesting and informative aspect of this website is that we can have students contact with foreign students by sending e-mail. In the website, we can check which school is available. I want to use it in a classroom as an authentic material. Students can get living English and enjoy using English by communicating in e-mail with foreign students.

Comparison between Twitter and Pownce

At first, I kept using Twitter because it is easier and more intimate for me to use. I thought it would be useful if I use it in a classroom. However, Twitter has one problem of controling users. In Pownce, I have more detailed setting about privacy, where we can choose to whom we show our contents. About privacy issue, I think, pownce is better. Moreover, about sending files, pownce is more convenient. We can send a lot of files, such as text files and multimedia. If we pay $20 a year, we can send much bigger files. In Twitter, we can just introduce some website. By just writing some comments and enjoying it, I prefer twitter. Yet, when thinking of usage in a classroom, pownce is better because we can control privacy and send any kind of files.

Micro-blogging in Education

I found an article about usage of micro-blogging in education in this website http://teachingall.blogspot.com/2008/07/microblogging.html. When starting twitter, I had no idea of how to apply it to classroom. However, after reading this article, I could imagine the usage in a classroom exactly. My students are high school students. They really like to send message on a cell phone. If I take the twitter in the classroom, they will definitely enjoy it. In English class, having students write one sentence about the reading content is interesting. I guess they will try to write it because they just write one sentence. Using the micro-blogging in a classroom is also helpful because their parents can know what their children are doing now. Actually when children's age are in puberty, parents don't and can't know what their children think. People sometimes can't be bothered to write a lot, but micro-brogging can motivate even lazy people to write something. Just one sentence. It is the key.

U.S. Citizenship Test Officially Begins This Week

This article is on http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/. I am interested in this article because Japan will also have to think about immigration of foreigners in the future. After coming here, I noticed how important teaching English to immigrants is in U.S. This is really major issue here. When reading the article and checking the example of the citizenship test, I wondered how people who lack literacy of English could pass this exam and what the U.S. government wanted the immigrants to know. And the children of immigrants will have a situation in study. I also wonder how schools cope with this situation. Maybe teachers will teach them subjects in English. Who can support their study ? Teachers will be busy in their regular job. This isn't American affairs but will be Japanese affairs. I think Japanese teachers will face this situation in near future.

Social Network

I joined EFL Classroom 2.0 http://eflclassroom.ning.com/index.php. This site has a lot of interesting tips for English learners and teachers. For example, I can find many listening and reading materials depending on student's levels or their interests. I think it is really good because listening conversation is really authentic. Most listening materials I can find in Japan are news or lectures, where clear English is spoken. However, when coming to US, I found the conversation between Americans was different from those materials. I had difficulty in listening to English in a restaurant or shop. If I can use this material in a classroom, I guess students can enjoy a lot because the conversation sounds realistic.

analogy of learners

Some learners of today are like customers who drop at a convenience store to buy necessities. Recently many learners notice the necessities of study and restart studying hard as if customers found something necessary on the way to somewhere, and dropped at a convenience store. They might have been lazy students in school days, but during their job, they recognize the importance of study and are back to the field of learning. They know what kind of knowledge is necessary to acquire. That’s why I assume some principles of connectivism are suitable for the learners of today. Before restarting their study, they have already known what they need to study. They have ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. They will be able to choose significant knowledge and also find some connections between fields, ideas, and concepts because they have an experience of job. They know the world except schools. They can connect the knowledge with real world well.

My doggy, May

May likes sleeping very much. When my daughter can't play with her, she is taking a nap and waiting for the time she can play with my daughter.

The three ways in using a blog

1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts.

On the blog, I can use not only my comments but also video like You Tube. Showing it to students, I will have students write some comments about it. I can use not only Japanese but also American or other countries video. Through the blog, students will discover cultural differences too.

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual lauguage to
communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different
purposes.

Through interaction with peers or teachers, students can notice
what kind of explanation will be effective to communicate their opinions.
After receiving some comments, they will sometimes find
the person will misunderstand their opinions. In this case,
they will consider their expression and try to use the best way
to convey their feelings or ideas. I think this procedure is really significant
for students to learn how to communicate with others.

10. Students whose first language is not English make use of their first language to develop competency in the English language arts and to develop understanding of content across the curriculum.

I can offer many materials to students on the blog. Not only texts, but also sounds can I give them. They can use the sounds, such as news or TV commercial, as listeningmaterials. They listen to the material at home many times and answer the questions about the contents in their first language. If students writing level in English become advanced, teachers can change it to English. Or, about the content I give to the students they can talk with peers on the website. They will sometimes intake English more easily than just listening to in classroom.

English will be a compulsory in elementary school

Two years later, English will be a compulsory in an elementary school in Japan. I am wondering who will teach English to children. There are English teachers only for junior and senior high schools now. I don't think enough new English teachers will be trained in two years. I am anxious that the current elementary school teachers teach English to children. It is the first stage to learn English for them. If they fail here, a lot of children will dislike English. I really hope that English classes in an elementary school will be enjoyable. I haven't taught English to elementary school children. I want to know what point should be careful in an elementary school because I have a daughter whose age is eight years old.

The reason of coming to America

Hi, I am studying in America. My major is TESOL. I came here because I wanted to learn new methods of teaching English more. I was worrying about my teaching style when I worked in high school. When learning English, students looked unwilling to study it. They studied it because they knew English was important for university exams. I wanted to motivate them more. I knew there were several reasons, but I didn't know them exacly. Now I am on the way to find them gradually.
I would like to exchange opinions or worries in teaching. I am also happy to get something informative.