New Tricks

Learnscope finish

2006-11-08T14:10:00.000+08:00

This year's Learnscope project is now finished for me as well. On 27th October we had the WA E-learning experience in the Parmelia Hilton, where I had to give a brief (30 mins) overview of the project. There were also a lot of other speakers there who gave me lots of ideas for Learnscope 2007, so pencil in your Term 3 Thursday nights. The final report was sent off this morning so all that remains is one piece of paper to sign! Thank you for your participation!

Now, I know Jody, Shirley and Jean are busy creating hot potato exercises and Andrew ( who wasn't even on the project but came to my talk at the AMEP Conference has adopted blogs as his main vehicle of communication in Balga { http://balgastaff.blogspot.com and http://balgastudents.blogspot.com}), but I would love to know the products you others are creating as a result of the project. Please reply by posting a comment.

Finally to pass the time: in the project we looked at "wikipedia" but now there is "uncyclopedia" as well. Google it in and have a look at the Perth entry. Till later...

Survey

2006-10-24T13:29:00.000+08:00

Please see the results of the survey here.

Incidentally, I would like to hear what people understood by "Uploading files to the Internet". (questions 4-7). The survey is not what I would have expected on this point and I thought that you must have thought it not what it is. What is it? Well, after making your htm pages for your website, you upload them to your webspace. I introduced this using FTP. Was this what you believed it was.

After Week 10

2006-10-20T15:01:00.000+08:00

Well, the project is over but this does not mean that your barking should be. Don't just cast the notes aside and let it go, try and keep your skills up. I am available for JIT coaching if you need help and as mature canines, you get priority.

For those of you who have constructed a basic website, develop it. All the notes will remain on the Net for some time, so even if you can't find your file of papers you can always go and look at them here.

As I said, one of the speakers at the AMEP Conference was talking about "disruptive technologies" (ie innovations that completely change lifestyles) and he believed that blogging is one of them, so even if you think they are a waste of time, they'll affect you sometime. My mother didn't like using the telephone...

For your interest I will be making the results of the online survey accessible when all have finished it. Now, it may be that "individual final reports" have to be written for the Learnscope administration; your journals and other comments may suffice but I may have to ask you to complete a further report in the next couple of weeks. Shouldn't take long.

Finally thank you for your attendance and enthusiasm; I hope you continue to use your new tricks.

Review and Close

2006-10-19T08:54:00.001+08:00

Please be advised that after this evening's session we will be consuming antipasti and drinks to mark the final session of the Learnscope project.

In this ultimate session, please work by yourself – the aim is to encourage you to remember and remind yourself how to do the tasks. The notes will tell you all and your neighbour may not be there to help you next time when you really need to do it. If you have forgotten your handouts, please go to the Resources page , download them and print them off.

Task 1 (Image)

Task 4 (wav file)

Task 5 (Examples of Hot Potato exercises)

Task 7 (Triangular website examples)
Example 1
Example 2

SurveyMonkey

2006-10-17T18:16:00.000+08:00

If you missed the pre-Thursday survey in your e-mail, here it is again. Please complete before the session.

Click here to take survey

Session 10

2006-10-17T10:46:00.000+08:00

Don't forget that the final, last and ultimate New Tricks Learnscope 2006 session will be held on Thursday in the usual place at 4:30 pm (1630H).

This will be a review session and will cover most aspects of the project from the beginning, so even if you missed the last session(s) it will be of use for you to attend so that you can consolidate your skills.

Please bring your worksheets with you (you should have them in a nice folder) so that you can refer to them in the session.

See all 17 of you there (or was it 18?).

End of Term

2006-10-03T10:20:00.000+08:00

Yes, the term's over but Learnscope isn't. On Thursday 19th October at 4:30 there willbe lesson 10, which basically will be a review of all. I know some of you were a bit daunted by composing webpages, but we will be looking at everything in this session, so don't miss it. In the meantime, I will be reporting on the project at the AMEP conference and later at the end of October at the WA E-learning Experience,(where all the WA Learnscope projects will be presented) so thanks for doing the "Skills Audit" and thanks for your comments, although some of them were most surprising. See you next term.

Answers to the Quiz

2006-09-28T16:08:00.000+08:00

Congratulations to Jean who got all the answers correct first time. Close seconds were Sonia and Cathy with nine and also rans Wendy and Ingrid with six. Shirley H didn't understand how teachers at AMES find the time to waste on answering silly competitions and I must admit most of the entrants were non-teaching staff - except for the prize winner of course!

Nipper (Cathy knew this one without Google!)
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Cerebus (I accepted “Fluffy” from Harry Potter from Sonia- see picture on right- although HP wasn't around when Blake painted the picture of Cerebus below)
Toto
Kommissar Rex ( I accepted Inspector Rex)
Skippy aka Asta (Come on - his name was on the back of the chair)
Laika (Space dog)
Rin Tin Tin
Lassie
Bullseye (Sonia seemed to know this one without Google! - he's from Oliver Twit).

Some canine websites

2006-09-28T15:14:00.000+08:00

Well done to those who gave me their ISP details and managed to put up their webs! Check out their websites:

Cathy
Jody
Shirley H
Shirley S
Jean
Wendy (well Wendy made one but BigPond let us down with their user unfriendly interfaces)

Request for requests

2006-09-25T17:55:00.000+08:00

With all this excitement about the competition, please don't be too distracted and don't forget to read the main entry of this week below of Friday 22nd September entitled After Week 8 (9) with the picture of ... nearly gave that one away, didn't I? anyway the one with the gramophone.

Send me any requests, pretty soon.

and number 10

2006-09-24T13:25:00.000+08:00

More dogs

2006-09-24T13:22:00.000+08:00

Final competition of the term

2006-09-24T13:11:00.000+08:00

As it's the last one, it's a big one. Name the ten old dogs you see here. If you can't get all of them, then just send me the names of the ones you know. Maybe email me the answers to me at my work address. Prize to the first correct answer or the one with the most correct.

Ten? Yes the list includes five dogs above and the dog in the previous post.

After Week 8 (9)

2006-09-22T13:25:00.000+08:00

We were a bit thin on the ground yesterday... I hope that you will be able to catch up in your own time.

Most of the present have now understood the basics of planning and developing a web-site - you can go on and spend a lifetime building on this knowledge. However, we only have one more week (+ a review week at the start of next term) which is not really sufficient. We can, if you wish, continue as we did last night, however I would like to cover at least how you can transfer your website from the Z:/ or E:/ drive to the web. WestOne have offered me nothing of use and the college has no webspace. It is therefore imperative that you bring details of your own ISP next week so we can transfer your files up. You will also need to bring your UserName and Password ( the ones you usually use for your home email).

Originally, I did plan for Week 9 (10) to be a "Requests" week, so if there is anything else that you would like to know about, please tell me before, ummh, Tuesday so I can build it in to the schedule.

At home, apart from your onblog journal, continue with your website and work from the sheets to have a reasonable four-page site next Thursday.

The final competition of the term will be up shortly.

Week 8 (9)

2006-09-20T10:32:00.000+08:00

I hope to see you all tomorrow. I trust you have all been working assiduously to complete your websites by then.
What I intend doing:

Demonstration of how to receive podcasts
Continuation of work on your "web"site
Using the Masher to link Hot Potato exercises to your best advantage
Uploading to your ISP ( but you've got to find out the procedures first - call or look up your ISP on the Web).

Incidentally, Picasa has released a new version. When you open Picasa next, you may be asked if you want the updated version - definitely say yes. One improvement is that you can "save" your edits without having to export.

See you tomorrow

Missed Week 8

2006-09-15T08:42:00.000+08:00

Apologies to you for not making it yesterday evening but at least two of you were not against not coming... I don't really understand why. First to the competition. Sonia, Jean and Wendy got the right answer and I got a very strange solution from Pat and Sue. Perhaps you were put off by the potatoes from the previous week, but let me reiterate the question: "what concept links the four pictures on the left?". This one was really simple.

Anyway, I understand that the Joondalup library needs some time to order FrontPage 2003, so I advise you to go to the Staff Library and get FrontPage 2000 off Ingrid and install that where you want. It is not really much different from 2003. I will also put up the missing handouts soon for those of you who missed them. In the meantime , you could be finding out from your ISP the procedures for putting up webpages and also catching up with your journals. Some of you are at least 6 weeks behind. Just put up a paragraph or so on your blog and I will see you next Thursday (DV).

Week 8 Competition

2006-09-09T19:29:00.000+08:00

Here it is!
Same rules as last time - what concept links the four pictures on the left? Remember it has to be relevant to the sessions. Prize for the (first) correct answer (there's only one).

Runner up prizes for the most interesting and imaginative answer(s)!
(NB: It is not potatoes).

After week 7

2006-09-08T14:37:00.000+08:00

Well I am sorry you didn't like the competition... I thought it was obvious as we have been dealing with potatoes for the last two weeks and they should have just sprung to mind.

Re writing the webpages; I think we had a few problems with the concept of what we were doing (or attempting to do). Basically, I felt that it was important to emphasise that initial planning and having a clear idea of the structure of a site is paramount. This is why I wanted you to build this quadrilateral site and see how hyperlinks operate. Next week we will work through the book and see what comes out at the end of it. I also think that we will be continuing with FrontPage in Week 9. Now, you may not have a copy at home but you can ring up the library in Joondalup (x1122) and order one for a mere $16.50 (tax deductible). Sorry, but this is not open to Central people; you'll have to get one from your college.

Homework tasks: maybe work on your site and come next week with the minimum that all pages link to each other. Feel free to work through the book and learn more about what you can do with a webpage. You could also ring up your ISP and find out in detail what you have to do to upload pages onto the web.

I am thinking of a Week 8 competition, so keep watching this space.

Congratulations

2006-09-06T13:32:00.000+08:00

Well done Jean for being the first to send me an email with a sound attachment. Come on - there's only a day left!

Week 7 Competition

2006-09-05T16:27:00.000+08:00

What do these pictures have in common?
Post your answers as comments.
Prize for the correct answer (according to me) and failing a correct answer for the most original/amusing answer.

Week 7 - Front Page

2006-09-05T14:27:00.000+08:00

On Thursday we will be looking at building a rudimentary class website (as opposed to a classblog) and will be using FrontPage to do so. I would like you to think about how indeed you would like your site: a starting (home) page which then links to what pages? Hot potato exercises? Class photos?? Assignment due dates???

Initially, we will be saving the site on the Z:/ drive in your Staff folder (where you can then transfer it to the Student Access folder if you want your class to do the exercises). The Centralonians are advised to bring a USB stick to save their site on.

After Week 6

2006-09-01T13:45:00.000+08:00

What a mess the hardware is. Apparently there is some incompatibility between the soundcard and other bits so it doesn't record. Anyway, you got the idea of Audacity and how you can delete and edit sounds with a minimum of trouble. If you download Audacity and you want to export as MP3s so you can listen on your pod, ask and I will try to explain in more detail.

I am pleased to hear that some teachers are already using Hot Potatoes exercises with degrees of success and next week (or the one after) you should be able to write pages to link them up.

The man from WestOne went to Melbourne and I rang him on his mobile and he was at the airport so I rang his 2i/c and she was in a meeting yesterday and now she's sick today. so I don't know if we will get this webspace. You might be able to put it on your provider, so I reitereate, please post me the name of your provider and the plan you are on. It may anyway be jsut as easy to stick the exercises on the local server, but it would be good to be able to link them and for this we need a HTML editor (eg Front Page).

Tasks for home this week:
a) Sing a song and record it using Audacity. Email it to me as an attachment!
b) Send me any hotpot exercises you have created and bring them along next week on your stick.

Enjoy!

Week 6 Plan and Riddle

2006-08-31T10:02:00.000+08:00

Thank you "SM" and "CD" for your suggestions. You may choose between a Twix and an Emu Draught.

So in accordance with these, this is the plan for the next couple of weeks - the content is the same but the order has been changed. I am still having problems getting webspace so I think the best thing you can do is to "comment" your ISP (Internet Service Provider, eg iinet, bigpond) to me and I'll investigate how simple it is to (ab)use your webspace there.

Today (Week 6):
Demo:"How to use the Internet to get home".
Recording sound onto the computer and what to do with it once it's there.
Hands-on: sound recording, Smartboard and/or Hot Potatoes.

Week 7
Building your own online web (as opposed to a blog) with Front Page.
Practice and hands-on

Week 8
Front Page continued
Practice

I have also noticed that the post with the most comments was the riddle; so here is another to inspire you. Answers in by 1900H today.(Prize: a Twix or an EMu Draught). What do the following have in common with Hot Potatoes? You may use Google.
Song 1
Song 2
Song 3

Hot potatoes ready for delectation

2006-08-28T14:57:00.000+08:00

Please see the project hotpots demo page to see examples of the exercises people have created.
Well done the HT team for getting up there first.

After Week 5

2006-08-25T10:04:00.000+08:00

Thank you for coming last night and I hope you were impressed by the smartboard. I must admit it is much more versatile than I had expected and (given time, ha ha ha) there should be a lot of possibilities for use.

Because we had a hole in the session yesterday, I will just repeat what is happening...

The smartboard is there for all to use. If you want to play with it in order to see what it can do and to get accustomed to using it, just go the the Conference Room and do it. If there's no laptop connected, then ask me and I will show you how to set it up. Don't be shy - just ask.

I also think that hotpots is an extremely useful program for developing lab or home exercises, so please have a look at the sheets I gave you (you can find them here) and have a go at a cloze. As usual, the sheet should be clear if you follow it step by step. Call me if you have a problem. If you can, email the exercise(s???) you have created.

Don't neglect your journals and just write a couple of lines if you don't feel more inspired. Although attendance is great = (117%), you're not really meeting my KPIs which would upset the MD: - last week Journals = (31%), Homework = (56%). Let's try and make the expected 80% this week!

Finally, have a look back at the original program of activities (you can find it here )- as you see, we are doing things differently. What I intend doing next week is practice with hotpots and some suggestions how you could organise your exercises and then in the week(s) thereafter a bit on sound recording. How does that sound? If you are discontent then I won't know if you don't tell me. Please make any suggestions that YOU may have as a comment to this post, then everybody can see and (dis)agree.

And the picture? - nothing new about what is happening in China... ancient Egyptian mourners (20th dynasty).

Smart board

2006-08-23T14:50:00.000+08:00

There have been some enquiries about what we are doing on Thursday.
Basically, as you know we have just purchased an Interactive White Board (aka smartboard) which is now proudly standing in the Level 6 Conference Room. With purchase of aforementioned technology you also get 2 free demonstration lessons with Paul Fisher, so I have organised the first for tomorrow evening to take place at 4:30 pm in the aforementioend Conference Room. Please try and be prompt as we have a guest.
After the session, we will be able to play with the board and suggest ideas and ways we could use it in class.
See you all there...

UVic's Language Teaching Clipart Library

2006-08-20T15:36:00.000+08:00

Have a look at this link for more clip art online.
UVic's Language Teaching Clipart Library

Homework after Week 4

2006-08-17T18:44:00.000+08:00

1) Make a cloze or a gap-filler by copying a story from a news site into Word and then use the Cwik Cloze(C) technique to do the holes. Copy the exercise into your blog and insert a picture with it.
2) Make a form in word and e-mail it to me. Use my Groupwise address and ask if you don't know it. (We can't really put a "form" into a blog - it's very complicated to upload a form into a page on the Internet - for that we need a program that will enable us to write in webpage language (HTML)- blogs are very limited in what they can do).

3) Get out there and take some photos for teaching! If you haven't got a camera, book the school's. Put them on your blog!

4) Don't forget your journal! you can either put it on your blog or email it to me.

Week Four

2006-08-17T15:29:00.000+08:00

Today's plan

Overview of Learnscope – Ann Odgers, WA LearnScope Manager

Competition judging and prize giving

Picasa review and redeye

Formatting pictures in Word

Cwik clozes

Forms with Word

Group Planning

Learning product production

Activities:
This week I would like you to catch review and revise what we have done over the last three weeks and as an end product produce something that can be used with your class or your client group tomorrow.

Now although, you will be using the web to obtain the material for working on, you don’t have to put the material on your blog if you don’t think it is appropriate. You can save it in a Word document or put it into a Powerpoint show – main thing is that you are using the Internet for inspiration.

You can go through the last three worksheets. If you have forgotten them, look on the New Tricks blog and go to the Handouts link. You’ll also find a list of links there for all the sites on Handout 2 so you won’t have to type everything in.

If you choose to do your work in Word and you have problems formatting the pictures around the text, look at the Week 4 Handout which gives you a few hints. There is also a quick way of making clozes or gap-fillers from “liberated” passages from the Netand a section on making “forms”, which you can then use in the lab.

A clue and things unrelated

2006-08-16T16:09:00.000+08:00

The picture is a clue to the riddle.
irrefutable, irrelevant, irregular...why not irrelated? I apologise for the adjective that Sonia and Shirley H(?) commented on - but I do recall Anthony Burgess writing that a word is a word if a native speaker utters it. I'll find chapter and verse if you give me time. He is famed for writing "Clockwork Orange" which is just one of his lesser novels but he did write some interesting linguistic works as well.

A riddle

2006-08-15T16:01:00.000+08:00

What is the answer to these three pictures? Completely irrelated, this Thursday Ann Odgers, WA Learnscope Co-ordinator, will be coming to give a brief overview of theLearnscope program and chat to you. Please come at 4:30 pm.
Next week, Paul Fisher of Electroboard
will be coming at 4:30 pm to introduce us to the capabilities of the SmartBoard. His session will last about ninety minutes.

Thoughts after Week 3

2006-08-11T14:00:00.000+08:00

Just another couple of photos to show you how editing can improve useless photos - I just cropped this one... If you hadn't done any photo-editing before, then you now can see how easy it is to do and how useful it can be - just think how photos could improve your teaching materials! For those of you who had done editing, then I trust you agree with me that Picasa offers a simple means of doing a variety of enhancing and editing tasks.

I have decided to change the schedule next week and have a week of APPLICATION; by this I mean that after a demo of something, we will form into little groups (e.g. HT, Cert 2), brainshower (I don't expect you to storm) and then develop some learning materials from the web. Now, these don't have to be blogged up but can be in Word docs, (so we'll do a bit on formatting pics and text from the web); and then go on to develop some actual materials which you can use on Friday - do get thinking of what you can do! Incidentally, you can form a group of one if you prefer.

Also can you all please continue (sic) to write your journals - I can't get any feedback if you do not do so - and don't be afraid of the telling the truth, I am not afraid of hearing it. Please also have another look at the planned course content in Handout Week 1 and suggest some changes if you want.

Finally to remind you of the homework again:

Look in the Z:/Staff/Workshops/Graphics/ folder; crop and enhance some photos for practice (AMES teechers only)

Download and save the three images you will find at the following address: http://ameswa.iinet.net.au/learnscope/

Edit and/or enhance them and post them with comments onto your blog using Picasa

Write your journal

Think of how you can apply the knowledge and skills you have garnered in the last three weeks.

Coogee Beach

2006-08-10T18:57:00.000+08:00

This is Coogee Beach

Session 3

2006-08-05T11:25:00.000+08:00

For those of you who appreciate the mature male, here is a picture of Andy, who you met virtually last week. This pic also illustrates what we can do with picasa, the graphics program we will be looking at on Thursday.

The planned schedule for Thursday is as follows:

Demonstration of Google Earth (4:30 pm prompt)

Graphics theory

Picasa and what it can do for you: Editing, Enhancing, Collating, Sending

Dependent on time, we may also have a look at Picture Manager for more advanced editing techniques.

Now, some of you may have already covered some of these themes, but don't not come, there are a lot of exciting horizontal extension activities you can be doing, either with photo-editing or developing a blog for your students or with reviewing those websites on Handout 2 that you didn't manage to have a look at last week.

In case you have lost the handouts, you can find them here .

If you have one, can you please bring your camera with you and if you have some, digital photos on a stick, cd or card. If you haven't, don't worry, you can use my snaps of Rottnest.

Reflections after Week 2

2006-08-04T16:10:00.000+08:00

In the class, with the number of participants, it is necessary to ignore questions at times so that we do not get off track. If you have a question that wasn't answered then write it down and ask it in one of the slow times. The tone of the lesson will have to be benevolent despotism so we can cover everything.

It was difficult to judge the pace as some of you knew how to do the things we covered and some of you didn't. Those who still have problems - just go through the notes again. I do try to write them comprehensively. If you have any questions, then just ask it as a comment to this post. I won't be emailing you again and all communications will be up here.

If you are intending to use a blog with your students, then I suggest you open a new blog and keep the old one just for the Learnscope project. You don't need a new User Name or Password, but go back to the Dashboard thinggie and then "Create a Blog". Give it a different name, e.g. "Aloysius' Certificate 2 Class" (that is if your name is Aloysius) and a new blogspot address, e.g. cert2class [don't put spaces in web addesses, no upper case {it makes life simpler}and don't make the address too long, if people have type it in]. By the way, please don't delete your old posts, as at the end of the course we should(?) be able to see some sort of progression.

Finally, as we all know that the frequency of STM loss increases with maturity, here is the homework again:

1 Create a post with at least six links with notes and explanations which is relevant to your class or work at present. No japes this week.

2 Create a post and record your impressions of Week 2.

3 Check my blog http://ameslearnscope.blogspot.com more than once.

4 Choose a colleague, look at their blogs and comment.

But what I forgot to write in the Book, was that your post should also include a picture you have liberated from the Internet...

Skyping

2006-08-04T12:15:00.000+08:00

If you want to save millions and make Telstra shares even more valueless, read on.

To download skype, go to www.skype.com and follow the prompts.

If you also pop down to Officeworks, they have a super special where you can buy a webcam with head set for less than $50. This is the same model as I bought a few years ago and cost me near to $100 without the headset. This is an offer you should not miss.

Your links for Week 2

2006-08-02T16:00:00.000+08:00

To save you typing in all the links, you now have to go to:

http://ameswa.iinet.net.au/pclab/workshops/

and look around. I deleted the direct links because they may have been the cause for my page going wrong.

Homework

2006-08-02T11:14:00.000+08:00

I bet some of you are right tyrants when it comes to students not doing their homework - "what do you mean - the dog ate it!" "you can always find time..." "well you should have written it down; I wrote it on the board" "no hw, no lo".

Who's guilty of making similar comments? (mutterings in the background).

Well, with the notable exception of a few good souls (you know who you are), this is what I'm going to be saying to you tomorrow evening. If you didn't write it down or your cat did eat it then turn to page seven of your handout and all will be revealed. (However I personally am not revealing all at my age). You have got till tomorrow afternoon to do it!

Insh'allah, in the first mins of the session, there will be a Skype demo featuring Andrew of Menorca, so if you come late you'll miss it.

See you tomorrow.

My thoughts after the first session

2006-07-28T08:37:00.000+08:00

Well, I enjoyed myself anyway...

one thing I have learned is to deal with questions in the lab - usually with students, I jump from asker to asker. Last night however, everybody, but everybody, was asking simultaneously at the same time all at once and the only way to do it was to literally run around in circles and not answer in order of asking.

You? I know some of you WERE enthused, but I also noticed that some of you were a bit reticent and wondering what the point of it all is with regard to teaching... I hope that this will fall into place over the next few weeks. Blogging is one way - the easiest - to get stuff on the web and therefore be accessed by all, but it is not the only way, and for teaching purposes, not necessarily the best way.

Last night in bed, being mature and having nothing better to do, I ruminated on the course content and although they may not be directly related to teaching, thought you ought to know about other new online concepts which can be useful like podcasts, wikis, voip and moodle (yes I know, I'm just throwing in technojarg, where in older days we used to throw in a French phrase ici and la) . Anyway, I will be having a demo in the first 20 mins or so of each session while we are waiting for the latecomers, and if you are interested, we can go into more detail.

Please have a look at the other participants' blogs - there are links to the right.

A problem that did arise, was that some people seemed to get lost and end up on their viewed blogpage and then not be able to find the editing page. If this happens, , click on an orange B, go back to blogger home and just go round again. You may have to re-sign in ... but please don't resign out yet (ha ha ha - we're not that mature).

Finally, I forgot a couple of things... one was to have a break but I don't think it was necessary. When I was doing computing courses everybody just stayed anyway, it was just a skive-off for the lecturer. I also forgot to give out your "Staff Development" and" Talent Release" forms. I'll bring them around (but not to Central, sorry).

Don't forget your journal posting for this week and if possible, think of some blog applications for your class!

What can you do with it?

2006-06-28T14:14:00.000+08:00

Well this is what others have done - have a look.
This is a blog of available resources for EFL/ESL teachers
http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/

This blog was set up by a high school teacher for her students learning English
http://beeonline.blogspot.com/

And here are some examples of student blogs which can track the progress of their English – go to the first entry and see how they have improved.
http://www.lisanca.blogspot.com/
http://dianav.blogspot.com/

A problem solving page for ESL students in Vancouver
http://dearai.blogspot.com/

A class blog of links and information for ESL students; look at the student blogs on the left
http://www.upperint.blogspot.com/

What are your ideas?

Some snaps from our Thai holiday

2006-06-08T08:43:00.000+08:00

Views from our hotel and temples, but this is jsut to show how easy it si to put photos on the Web...

Lists of links

2006-06-07T14:27:00.000+08:00

Here is an example of a list of links

Worksheet generating programs on the Web

0 Microsoft
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/templates/CT062100801033.aspx
1 Wordsleuths
http://www.schoolhousetech.com/
2 Criss-cross puzzle
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/CrissCrossSetupForm.html
3 Crossword generator
http://greeneclipse.com/eclipsecrossword/downloadfull.html
4 Clozemaker – make your own clozes – print them off.
http://www.cict.co.uk/software/freestuff.htm
5 Literacy worksheets
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/
6 Over 600 worksheets on ESL activities
http://www.englishbanana.com/downloads.html
8 More worksheets on ESL activities
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/
9 Clip art for ESL worksheets
http://www.sla.purdue.edu/fll/JapanProj/FLClipart/default.html
10 List of sites for resources for teachers – take your time
http://sitesforteachers.com
11 More and more
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/quizzes.shtml
12 Health
http://www.mcedservices.com/online.html
13 Bev’s list
http://ameswa.iinet.net.au/pclab/bev/links.htm

You can also hide the links like this

Virtual ILC

Post it and your students can access it.

Reading passage

2006-06-07T14:09:00.000+08:00

MPs in plea for man on death row
By Nassim Khadem, Canberra
November 2, 2005

Singapore's high commissioner Joseph Koh was yesterday presented with a petition bearing the signatures of more than 100 members of Parliament and 300 parliamentary staff asking Singapore's Government to grant clemency to Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, who faces the death penalty for drug trafficking.
Nguyen was caught with almost 400 grams of heroin in December 2002 and could be executed as early as November 11.
Members of the Amnesty International Australia Parliamentary Group and MP Mr Bruce Baird briefly met Mr Koh at Singapore's high commission in Canberra yesterday to outline their concerns.
"We emphasised the case of Mr Van Nguyen himself, just saying (he is) a young guy, the first time overseas, he did a foolish thing but should not be punished in terms of the death penalty," Mr Baird said. "We asked him to think of the boy's mother."
Mr Baird said Mr Koh had been "very sympathetic" and would present the petition and their views to Singapore's Government. Mr Baird also emphasised the close relationship between Australia and Singapore, in terms of having fought side by side in World War II and the two countries having recently signed a free trade agreement.
Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry, QC, has also met Mr Koh and Prime Minister John Howard and will provide the Government with more information that could help his client's case. He said they were expecting a response from Singapore's Government in the next week.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that although he believed Nguyen's chances remained slim, he would make further representations based on the new information provided by Mr Lasry.
"We are in a very, very bad position in terms of being able to save Van Nguyen," Mr Downer said.
The petition follows a parliamentary motion urging Singapore's Government to spare Nguyen's life.
AAP

Questions
1
How are people trying to help Van Nguyen?
2
Why is Van Nguyen in prison?
3
What might happen to him in the next few weeks?
4
Who received the petition?
5
Who gave the petition ?
6
Why does Mr Baird think Mr Nguyen should NOT be executed?
7
Why does Mr Baird think that Australia and Singapore should work together?
8
Does Alexander Downer think that the petition will help Mr Nguyen?
9
Why is “very sympathetic” (l.24) in speech marks?
10
Where does this story come from?

Welcome

2006-06-07T13:53:00.000+08:00

Hello new trickers

Welcome to this blog. In it I hope to show you how to make your own webpages.

Blog is short for "weblog" and was originally designed as a sort of online diary - see the next entry - by the way this is a picture of the WA Learnscope mamangers and me taken at a meeting in April.