A blog for English learners & book lovers

This blog belongs to an English Teacher who likes to share interesting & helpful stuff about the English language. All rights belong to their respective owners.

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[lematworks]

[sunjongpyo]

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I share this Jackson Pollock for the memory of my dearest Tony Stark

insert *broken heart emoji*

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See the Glog! Arctic Monkeys: text, images, music, video | Glogster EDU - Interactive multimedia posters

Personally, I enjoyed doing this task. One thing I have learned during my internship is that students really like personalized tasks. Today looking at my past experiences as a student, the lessons I remember the most are the ones that give me a space to express myself. Glogster is a great tool on that. First of all, there is no paper waste. It is like the classical posters that we make in the classes, but it saves time and paper and any other material. And obviously, the results in these activities using Glogster would be much more creative than the touchable materials. 

I had to read from many sources to collect text to put on my glogster. I watched videos to find the appropriate one, as well as listening to some of the songs to add glog. More, I searched for images for 10 min. And while doing that research on the net, I realized that I used almost all language skills. So preparing a glog requires skills integrated- which is something we aim to achieve during teaching. 

In short, I really like glogster and surely I will use it in my teachings. It is fun, creative, integrates skills, respects every learner type, fast and easy to create, and environmentally-friendly. It almost all I could ask for both as a teacher and student. 

[artist-monet]

Water Lilies, 1918, Claude Monet

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Everything will turn out right, the world is built on that.

Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

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I’ve been playing the sims since 2004, It developed so much from the first versions as well as my interest. It was quite fun to record a video of my ‘the sims’ skills in action. This is only the tip of the iceberg, for the records. 

[wonderworldmotion]

[impressionism-art-blog]

The House at Giverny Viewed from the Rose Garden, 1924, Claude Monet

Medium: oil,canvas

[languagetrash]

Advanced English Vocabulary

For anon! Note: I’m not entirely sure what ‘advanced vocabulary’ actually means, so here are some posh-sounding words that I very rarely hear:

ameliorate - to improve approbation - approval, praise autonomous - independent condone - to accept something that is morally wrong convoluted - extremely difficult or complicated discrepancy - difference between two or more facts distend - to swell from inside pressure exacerbate - to make worse facetious - inappropriately joking about a serious issue fledgling - beginner, novice gregarious - sociable, fond of company hyperbole - exaggeration innocuous - harmless inundate - to overwhelm, flood juvenile - immature kerfuffle - commotion or fuss loquacious - talkative malleable - easily influenced, able to be moulded in to a different shape morose - sullen neophyte - novice or new converter to a religion oscillate - to move back and forth ostentatious - trying to attract attention phlegmatic - having a calm, unemotional disposition pungent - sharp in smell or taste quibble - to argue about insignificant details recluse - someone who favours a solitary life rescind - to cancel salient - most important scrutiny - critical observation tirade - long, angry speech ubiquitous - appearing everywhere verbose - expressed in more words than needed whimsical - acting in a fanciful way yonder - the far distance zenith - time at which something is its most successful

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[did-you-know]

“I never said she stole my money” has 7 different meanings depending on which word is stressed when you speak it aloud. Source

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On the importance of stress & intonation

[riverwindphotography]

Infinite Sunlight

gif by riverwindphotography, Aug.2017

[artist-monet]

View of Cap d'Antibes, 1888, Claude Monet

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WebQuest Evaluation

In the introduction part, there are pictures of cities in France; however, they are not contributing to the learning process, just there for the aesthetics. There is navigation, doubtlessly, however, the name of the cities, for example, are given at the very end of the WebQuest which seems distracting. The links provided for the activity are working. The introduction is clean & attractive. I mean, if it made me decide to evaluate it, it would make students work on it too. The introduction also gives brief information about what is about to come, however, is not observed to activate learner schema. The task is described in detail and meets with the standards (my standard here is to engage many language skills as possible). The author gives the example answers to each question, to see what is expected. I believe the task is quite interesting and engaging, as well as giving students an idea about different cultures around the world. Students use the internet and both in groups and individually create PP and share their finding in front of the class. I think there are many skills required to complete this activity. I would enjoy it as a student. It is quite clear, even the instructions to give are provided.  The author provided every little link to use during the activity, as well as foreseeing some problems and giving explanations on how to deal with it. For example, the cites that are given for the cities might be in French that the author suggests to find the ‘flag’ and change the language to English. Making students get information from different sources on the internet, is a big deal. Even google earth is included, as well as some real brochures of the cities. The sources are not enough for the task. There is a need for additional resources, you cannot learn much about a city from only one site. Sources seem a bit complex to reach the necessary information. Official sites of the cities are given, which does not seem right to me. There is a rubric table provided for the evaluation, and even the parts to evaluate, individually or as a group, is stated.

http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=38976

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Reflection on the Experience of Wiki

Hello! I lately got accepted to a wiki by ELT students. It was a great experience to get involved in such a great community. Although I didn’t have enough information about the usages of Wikis, I successfully managed to publish a page about my favorite education philosopher, Jacques Derrida. I understand the need for such forums, however, I think there is no way to trust that information. I will never use Wikipedia anymore. I, myself, trolled almost all the pages written by other Editors on the community. I must say that was the part I enjoyed the most, thanks to my sarcastic nature. If you see in anywhere that Noam Chomsky is seen with a lightsaber or Cem Alptekin with Lilo & Stitch, do not believe it guys. I am sorry for that. I enjoyed the task, especially the part where I’m expected to troll the pages. However, the task killed my trust in Wikipedia, which is quite sad since I am planning to write a thesis in literature, based on Wikipedia. I experienced first hand that the forums are not trust-worthy.

https://returnoftheteacher.tumblr.com/post/183995678733/webquest-evaluation

the link to the WebQuest evaluation

[riverwindphotography]

Along the shores of Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

gif by riverwindphotography, June 2017

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Here’s the study motivation of the day