esolbloggers

dissertation 1

2006-08-17T16:24:00.000Z

After much procrastination I have started writing an introductary chapter. Still feeling a little wobbly about whether this is the best thing to be doing with my time right now, with so many things to be done on the house before Brutus arrives in November. Am i really going to be able to juggle late pregnancy, full time job and MA dissertation? Need to remember to be honest with myself about what I'm able to do and be accepting of whatever decisions I make.

Found it quite hard to start writing today. Written bits, read around issues linked to professional development then written a little more. Not sure if CPD is the route I want to go down with this or whether focusing soley on the structure of the network is enough. This would mean looking at peer obs, (possibly linked to formal obs?); oral and written reflections and action research as a ........ tool for CPD? So it always seems to come back to it. It's not CPD as such, more like AR as a tool for being a better teacher, being better at helping your students to learn and being content and challenged in your own role in that. Is this what CPD is?

analysis and writing

2006-05-31T12:13:00.000Z

Interviews - It is really important to have the tape when interviewing someone. When V and I did the pilot with Julia we both took notes as well as taping it (on her XDA2 mobile phone). After the interview we checked through each others notes and we both pretty much had to same information. However, there was a problem with the recording and so this is the only interview we don't have a transcript for and we both feel that while our notes give us the gist but the detail and the flavour.

we have both really really enjoyed transcribing - after all dire warning we had been given about how much time it would take. neither of us thought it took too long.

Writing - this has been a really useful process. It's made it clear that we have achieved what we set out to achieve, even if we were a little bit hazing about what the actual process would be. The template sent from Lancaster was very useful and we have gone through each heading systematically. The analysis this afternoon has been very tiring but so useful, we have both been looking for and finding trends as we read through the transcripts, and V started looking through the blogs, where we hope to find evidence to back up the interviews.

Learner forum - it was interesting to hear Vs comments about Maria's forum, how i felt it was very different to the ones i had led with other classes. I kept very much to the questions, whereas Maria was much more open and I was unsure is this was due to a) having Ss from different classes and therefore not having a shared project, b) her expereince as a researcher or c) other interests in teaching, learning and technology. It was much more difficult for V to pull out the threads/trends for our research questions, and again we discussed whether this was lack of experience on our part, lack of flexiblility or something else.

So we're leaving today with almost 2000 words under our belt and confident that we will end tomorrow with a reasonable first draft to send to Paul and James.

learner forum notes

2006-04-26T11:09:00.000Z

I can't believe it's been more than a month since i posted. so many things have happened that i now feel a little sad that i won;t hvae my reflections of my time though it here. But it's been such a busy time (at home too with the wedding) that there has been no space at all the be able to reflect in writing. When i have some spare time i will try to write something, and i guess it will be interesting to see how my memory of my reflection read.

I have just spent 1 1/2 hours typing up my notes from the learner forum and listening through the tape. It has been so so useful to ahve the tape, as i think i did get most of the key points in my notes, but the tape definately helped to flush it out and add extra explanations.

I have all three of the classroom forums to write up and i have 2 tutor interviews in tape to do. I will need to chase Anita for the copy of Julia's interview 'cos this was recorded onto her PDA, and i now regret not taping the interview with Alison.

I'm really looking forward to starting to write this all up, but also a little apprehensive, as with only 3 weeks to inspection time is going to be really really tight.

I will be really interested to see how the learners forum, led by Maria, compares to the ones i did in the classes. I already feel that i was much more directive with my questions, while Maria allowed the discussion to flow more freely, so there was a lot of information that was much more indirectly related to the proejcts their teachers were doing - but also very much linked to their own learning and their views on this. very interesting.

coming along nicely

2006-03-19T20:28:00.000Z

feeling v upbeat about the project. V and I ran a pilot interview with Julia on Fri which went well. It highlighted a couple of issues with the questions and we have to go back to our original research questions to ensure we're asking what we need to be asking. but on the whole it went well. we recorded it and took notes at the same time. When we reviewed the noted we had pretty much the same information so we both feel confident that doing them alone will get the same data.

Maria has offered to come up to lead on a focus group with the learners, so we need to get our fingers out and get that organised. I know we won;t be able to speak to all the learners, but i guess that's never possible with research anyway. It will be really interesting to see what they say next to the tutor interviews.

I think that's about all i need to say. Everything going well :-)

lack of blogging

2006-02-22T22:10:00.000Z

Saw DP briefly this week, his Ss took the cameras home over 1/2 term and he returned them this monday - he said it has gone well but didn;t have time to discuss it. I think that Tina went to observe him Monday, but disappointingly neither of them have blogged it. I have been cathy of little brain and blighted with a dreaded flu-like bug that keeps mutating and coming back for more. Emailed the group on Mon to remind of meeting next Weds, about peers observations and to get blogging - no response as of yet.

It's been really useful having mini email chats with maria, feeling a little frustrated as at home and can;t access work mails. Would really like to be able to go back and review them, esp for tomorrow. Really looking forward to the residential.

What is it about writing things down that i find so theraputic? Is it just me? What haven;t the group embrassed the reflections? I know FMC is writing hers in a notebook, not sure about the others.

other STs

2006-02-04T17:26:00.000Z

just want to blog this quickly before i go onto the netowrk blog to record my Thurs class.

Had an email from DP last week saying he;s missed that last AR meeting and hadn;t thought of anything for his class and therefore wouldn;t take part this time (but would still help to run it (sic)) I emailed straight back saying (in a nice(ish) way that it wasn;t ok, he was an ST and therefore T & L was our remit and if he couldn;t be seem to be being creative in the classroom how could we encourage others too? He came straight down to the office.

I had to work really hard to get him to even talk about his classes. He deflected ever attempt until i said in the time was have been spent discussing why he can;t do anythign we could hvae put a plan into place for what he could be doing. TB then joined us and there was some more general chat before i brought it back to his teaching and i told him about the cheap digital cameras and how i had let my Ss take them home. He said he never really used images in his class - and bingo. we had a project for him. Huurah

peer observations

2006-01-31T19:55:00.000Z

I went to observe Beth 0n Monday morning then she returned the favour and came to see me on Tues. It has been a really positive expereince. After my class today Beth asked me which I found most useful - being observed or observing - and i very quickly wanted to say observing, but then had to check myself. I did get a lot out of seeing her, especially as it was so related to my project (and i got to steal her De Bono PP), but it was great to have her in my class today. I was a little nervous about the session, I told my Ss at the beginning that there was a lot to do (i said there is 8 hrs of work with only 3 hrs to do it in!).

What I felt most benefitted having Beth there for was her thoughts regarding the students. Firstly their reactions during the class to the discussion on making decisions and about the change to allow students to make some decisions about their own learning. Secondly at the end of the session when we had a quick review of the session and they said they really enjoyed the lesson and felt it was very different to what we had done previously. This was especially important as I was not sure HOW different it was to what I would normally have done, except for the De Bono PP. The rest of the class would have been the same.

I'm feeling quite upbeat about the lesson on Thurs (when i get around to fully planning it!) There's nothing like a winger. It would be interesting to see how they respond to Tina's Life in the UK class when she asks them what sort of things they want to cover.

Jan meeting

2006-01-25T19:42:00.000Z

I have been quite blown away today. After attending training on the new standards unit materials then going to our AR meeting, it has really struck me how wonderfully creative we are in the classroom.

I have come home and read through the blog. The first 2 posts took me to some student blogs, firstly Beth's L2 class, then Tina's new E3 evening group. The L2 blog has demonstrated how the Ss have embrassed this medium of communication. There is a real mixture of posts and comments. I can see why Beth says there has been a coup in her class - they seem to have really embrassed the idea of taking a lead in their own teaching. Tina's class blog is very new, but already there has been so much work done. The response from her posted questions is quite fantastic, I'm so impressed by them. Some of their answers were more insightful than some teachers i know!

There are 2 things i would like to say about the meeting today: about the peer obs forms and the individual projects.
After much (internal) deliberation I'm glad that we decided not to give the proformas first, but to brainstorm ideas. The two groups approached it from different angles, and although their finsihed products looked different i think they really did the same thing. We got a little bogged down with 'observation'- thinking about what was needed, but once clarified that this was for no-one but ourselves there were some great ideas. I'm very excited about being able to observe different people and hope to start with Beth on Monday. It also became clear to me in this session that the form had to be developed for the tutors, not for our evaluation. If there is any useful data on the forms i think this will be a bonus, but the forms shouldn;t have been developed from the evaluation perspective.

i know i had said that i wouldn;t be doing a project myself as i have enough to do already - but i really can;t resist. I don;t have it fully formed in my head, but i would like to try something similar with my E3 grp that i did with the L1 grp - getting the Ss to think about what they will cover in the classes. What has been great about this is that Beth took this idea to her L2 grp who have embrassed the whole idea and given her a great project.

FMC was the final person to talk about her project, which has been going since Nov. so she had a couple of great stories to report back - that one student has been writing stories at home to bring to class and another (new to IT) emailed her from home on sunday evening this week! As one of her aims was to encourage indepedant learning, and learning outside the classroom, these 2 events are really positive signs. We also talked a little about why the students may have embrassed this technology so much - is it the tech. itself, is it the way she introduced it (by explaining about the project and giving them 2 networks to choose from, ie giving them some ownership), or something else? it would be really interesting to find out.

She also talked though some of the things she has been doing with the social network - one of them being quizzes - which Beth and I agreed would link in really well to her L2 class (which i will teach CALL to from this Thurs) and i was just thinkng about how great it is that the network has created this link. I talk to Beth a lot about teaching, and FMC, but rarely do the three of us chat. If i end up using social networks with the Ss it will be down to the network.

everyone is doing such great things, i would just love it now if they would blog it!

planning for next session

2006-01-19T19:16:00.000Z

some questions and issues that have arrisen in the past 2 weeks:
1) having spoken to Paul I think i may have finally been able to seperate out my different roles in this project. This has been done by called the part V and I are involved in evaluation, rather than research. This really helped today when meeting with the other STs to plan the next session on Weds. They also acknowledged that there was confusion between roles within the proejct.

2)discussed with other STs how setting up and running with the network has been impacted on beacuse of the NRDC project. Tina said that it has been both positive and negative - positive that it's been an external motivator to keep it going, that there may have been a chance that it would have folded, esp. as my role as ST has changed. I said that this was a shame to think like this, as this kind of a project was exactly what i thought being a ST is about - creativity in teaching and learning and supporting tutors in the classroom.
We then talked about other areas in the college, and how each area is at different stages, and that SfL is actually taking a lead in teaching and learning, and being innovative- in it's INSET programme, supporting new Ts, teaching, etc. This project is just another step in this. She also talked about her own difficulty in switching roles - between taking a lead in developing the network and being a tutor within in and needed support for her own action research project.
3) what kind of support is needed for the ind tutors for their projects? is this something that the people at NRDC can support with, or is this different to the evaluation that the bid is about? this is one of the reasons i haven't responded to Maria yet, as I'm unsure what support is needed and how we can best utilise her skills. V and I are well supported in terms of gathering the data from James, and it's been great to see Paul at Lancaster, the last 2 ten min f2f meetings have been really useful. I realise it;s such a long way for Maria to come up from London.
4) re:the fourth meeting of the network. V and I met last week to talk about the peer observation forms, and what we needed in terms of evidenec for the evaluation. Is this/could it be the same thing as would be developed for the network had we not be invovled in with the NRDC? I would like to think so, but I d think that a peer ob form for the network would be different that a sfl or cross college form.
V and I took the form from the ESOL effective practice study as a starting point, and eliminated unnecessary info and added some others. We then thought it was a useful process to go through, and therefore ask the network to undertake the same exercise. However, having met with the STs and talked about how long this may take, i don;t want this meeting to detract from everyone sharing their AR projects and getting support from each other. Therefore, is it more useful to just present the form that will be used?

A final thought from me
I've come to realise that this project incorporates everything that I love about all my different roles. I am getting to do some research, which for the past 2 years has had such an impact on my practice. I'm working with other tutors developing their CPD, and my own practice with both my E3 and L1 class. All this is wrapped up in an e-learning package - both in terms of how the network is communicating (the blog) and the ind projects themselves - some are using blogs, social netqworks, digital technologies. How exciting. :-)

esolbloggers

2006-01-12T15:42:00.000Z

You might be interested to know that I showed your blog to someone who is thinking of doing omething very similar with a group of teachers linked together through an action research project. Blogging had never occurred to them and they think it is a great idea. It looks like Dewsbury College is at the cutting edge of developments in the action research field.

Paul

Hello

2006-01-11T11:31:00.000Z

Cathy has invited me to join your blog so I thought I would introduce myself as a way of seeing whether I can make this work. My name is Paul Davies from Lancaster University and I am here to help you with the action research project at your college. If there are any questions you can let me know through this blog.

Paul

What info I want out of interview?

2006-01-10T15:25:00.000Z

Thinking over the meeting with James I realised that it was all getting rather foggy and that I need to record some of it asap. I remember he asked us what we wanted from the interview and talked about the merits of unstructured vs more structured interviews with practitioners. What I want to know when they have finished their mini projects is the answer to the questions that you wrote in your 5 things + more. So I want to know
how far they have travelled,
will they do it again,
would they experiment again if they had the network for support,
would they experiment again without the network
did they feel that peer observation was useful as observers
did they feel peer observation was useful as observees
how do the senior tutors feel it went
do they feel there was any benefit
will SMT implement something similar and provide organisational support for continuing this
from learners I want to know if they noticed a difference
how it made them feel about the college
did it make them feel included in a higher level of things
did they like experimenting

If I think of any more I will post them

5 things

2006-01-10T14:00:00.000Z

Thinking about 5 things I want to have achived by the end of the project I have come up with these: First I want to be part of a finished product. So I will find a lot of feelings of satisfaction by being able to hold a file or folder or booklet in my hand and say 'we've done that'.
Next is having gained insights into people and what makes them tick as teachers. What they choose to work on if it is outside their comfort zones will be interesting in terms of what it tells us about them and their own perceptions of themselves as teachers. For example Tina thinks she is a bit control-ish in the classroom.
3rd is the idea that all the tutors are working together in a supported way. Tutors often work together unofficially. Well they attend meetings and insets which are considered working together with the sanction of the org but I feel that this is an opportunity for them to really work on their own interests with support and that is an outcome I will feel is a real achievement. As teachers we are not give the breathing space and support and rewards to really develop in a way that meets our needs. I hope this will give that to the tutor's taking part.
4th is the feeling of doing something that challenges me academically. Teaching ESOL students is challenging in its own way but it isn't academically challenging. So I will feel that my mental/ academic barriers will have been stretched.
5th is the charting of distance travelled for all of us, senior tutors, researchers and practitioner researchers. It will be interesting to see the impact of the growth, if any in all of our attitudes and development and also to see how long it lasts. It might be that the project is till impacting on people's practice in months or even years. So I would like to do a follow up interview in a year with these tutors to see if they can see long term changes which aren't accomodated in the project because it is so short.

action research meeting

2005-12-14T21:47:00.000Z

Third meeting of the network, feeling very good about it. As i was sitting listening to everyone discussing their ideas for their own action research projects and how they were going to involve the learners i felt very proud. It was so close to how i pictured the meetings to be. A chance for tutors to support and encourage each other in being creative in the classroom.

There were 8 people there, (including Vasiliki and myself) only one person was honest enough to say they hadn't had any useful ideas. A couple of others had some general ideas while 3 people were more specific.

There was only 1 person not available to attend who's still interested. A couple of people have dropped out, with no discussion. One person feels like she needs to pass on it this year due to taking on a new role, and not having enough 'space in her head' to be able to put enough into this. She has agreed to be interviewed about her experiences so far and would be interested if it ran again next year.

What I hope to have achieved

2005-12-12T21:20:00.000Z

I am feeling much more positive about the project than I was last time I posted. After speaking to Paul in Lancaster he asked me to think of five things I hope to have achieved by the end of the project:

shared lots of good practice with other sfl tutors, (esp. in thinking of creative ways of including the learners in action research - i have recently added the brackets and italics as, if i am totally honest this is interesting to me but not a large aim)
to have evidence to show SMT that a foramalised network impacts positively on teachers and learners (and teaching and learning) and put a convincing argument to them to fund such a group through INSET.
to have introduced other tutors to the idea that practitioner research is beneficial and interesting.
to have experienced carrying collecting, analysing and writing up different kinds of data.
to have been creative in the classroom.
to have presented the project to others, either in workshop or a publication.

OK, so that was six. Having planned the next meeting for this Weds with fellow STs and discussing the NRDC project with my fellow practitioner-researcher has also settled me a little. I am feeling a little more confident about splitting up the different roles I have within the project. And after speaking with vasiliki I am starting to feel excited about the project again, esp. about starting to think about organising collecting the data in the new year. There is a lot to do but it's all feeling quite managable.

It will be really interesting to see what things V adds about what she hopes to have achieved by the end of the project.

multi heads

2005-11-24T11:54:00.000Z

I'm feeling a little pulled and need to try to organise my thoughts. I have just posted on my Gazzag blog reflections on my L1 class, and asking them to agree content for the next 3 weeks. This I can see as useful data toward the NRDC project.

Now i need to put my PRLI head on - how the network is working, how the move the project forward and what I and V. could/should be doing at the stage.

I guess it's understandable that others havn;t embrassed the blogging fully. There are only 3 other tutors that have posted anything so far. I sent an email to suggest sub-groups, b'cos it's a lot of work to click onto each inds blog and check/read their posts. This is where i am wondering if a single page blog on blogger would have been more useful as there would have been only one page for everyone to go to. I guess it's something to think about and whether it is too late to change or not.

One of the reasons we chose gazzag was the facility to add photos, which has just reminded me that i wanted to bring a camera and take pictures of my Ss working today - and i forgot. If this is my baby and I forgot - how can i expect others to????

I think the next network meeting has to be v. practical, with small groups discussing ideas and practical help for how to move forward. In terms of evidence, could it be anecdotal? the tutors reflection on the lesson/asking the learners for feedback? I don;t want to put practitioners off my asking them to collect a lot of things for their own small project.

I've also been thinking about action research as a cycle - we talked about at which stage we included the learner. What stage am I at? I'm already in the cycle, having thought about it, had a small practice, got feedback, thought of a new idea, tried it, reflected, etc. I guess the next question is - will i do the same thing again for the final 4 weeks after Xmas?

Creating Community With Blogs

2005-11-21T21:50:00.000Z

The following link and text has been quoted from another blog, where (as described) I highlighted the text and selected 'blogthis' at the top of the page.

Creating Community With Blogs: "That blog has a “BlogThis!” button you can put into your web browser. This is important for my classes because I have the students share research. The “BlogThis!” button allows you to select a paragraph on the webpage and when you click on “BlogThis!” in the menu bar of your browser, it opens a window that is a mini-posting window; it contains the title of the page, the URL, and the text that you selected. The student can also write a note (why the information is useful) and then click on “post” to publish the information to his or her blog."

This is a new tool for me in blogger, but would be very useful for the students when researching for thier stress assignment. I need to research how this can be done with non-blog sites.

more class blogs

2005-11-17T20:48:00.000Z

had the second session with the L1 group, who seem very very keen on using the blogs. I don't remember the L2 Ss being this enthused, but them i am feeling more confident about using them this time so this may be being reflected.
I made another change in my class today. I wrote up the aims of the session and told the students we didn;t have time for everything, they had to discuss in groups what to include in the lesson and what could be eliminated. One student in particular was highly pleased with this, but others were quite quiet about it. I think next week i will take this a stage further and take the SOW in, give them options for sessions up to Xmas and let them choose. It may work.
Had 4 students who couldn;t access thier invites to join the blog, so had to work with a partner who created their profiles and viewed others blogs. I do like it when students work together on the PC, it looks like the collaboration is supportive. Again, something i need to ask them about.
Next week I may add some links to stress sites to the blog for them to look at, make notes on and reflect on in the blog.

new class blogs

2005-11-10T11:33:00.000Z

The students said they really enjoyed the class today and they spent a long time on their blogs. I think it will be good to have just a single blog, as they are less confident that the L2's in using the tehcnology and would need a lot of support to go onto ind. blogs. This way they can easily see and comment on each others' writing.
A big difference with this group is that they are thinking about accuracy. Accuracy was never an issue with the higher level group, and while they didn;t mention it neither did I. However, even the first task today using Mind Genius they were checking and commenting on each others' spellings (in a fun but supportive way). So we talked about this at the end and they want me and each other to check for errors.
A second difference is about what they can write. Some of the students were very hesitant about starting to write and found it difficult to know what to say. Once they had discussed with me what their ideas were they were then able to start. This was reflected in our feedback when i asked them if others could read and comment on their blogs. The class was divided, but it was agreed for now that only members would be able to comment, and it was those who had difficulty knowing what to write who were worried about their mistakes who didn;t want others accessing it.
This has definately given me something to think about in terms of using blogs with an E3 group. Much more support will be needed.

inspiration

2005-11-09T21:42:00.000Z

our office has gone blogging crazy. i come back after 4 weeks away and everyone's at it! Beth has set up a single blog for her level 2 ESOL students, then Julia told me we had less than 8 weeks left with our L1 students so thought i;d better get blogging with them. So i ahve also set up a single page blog and hvae invited them all to join. This will be a different experience than with my L2's as they all had a blog each. The L1 class is quite small and i thought it would be interesting to compare.

Tina has also set up a blog and i have developed a social network for the action research network to register with as support for each other (and as a tool for data collection for the NRDC project)

I'm also considering setting one up with the ILT champs as a means of communication across college. It would also be a good way to share interesting links and articles.

hello

2005-11-08T17:14:00.000Z

hello

this page has inspired me to try a similar activity with my new evening class - I'll keep you posted.

Tina

Evaluating Internet Quizzes and E-learning

2005-11-02T20:24:00.000Z

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to my blog.

Here are the four links that you will explore to fill in the handout I have given you.
1. Countable and uncountable nouns. Read the instructions carefully. If you get stuck follow the link to find an explanation.
2. Articles – Health Club There are 16 multiple choice questions. Click on the button to find the answer.
3. Articles – the class vrs all Read the short explanation. The first practice links you first to a quiz on animals which demonstrates the use of articles. Return to this page and complete the true false questions. The second practice is a gap fill exercise.
4. Articles Choose the correct article.

When you have completed this and discussed your opionions with another group please feel free to explore these sites further. There are other useful sites for ESOL learners linked from the student Intranet. Find one site you like and give a short presentation describing it's main advantages.

Hot Potatoes

Hot Potatoes is an authoring software. Try these exercises to find out more.

Once you have finished to 2 minute challenge you will complete a JQuiz. Follow the instructions here, use the printout or another option is to watch this movie. There is sound in these so the earphones will be needed from C054. Please remember to return them when you have finished. If you find watching demonstrations in this way useful follow this link to find others.

Writing good multiple choice questions. We have talked today about the importance of feedback. Here is a useful tutorial to help when writing on (and off) line materials.

Here are some other ideas that use technology in the classroom.

1) Picture Logging (Plogs)
Before I was brave enough to try blogs with my students we did some picture logging using Ploggle. Have a look at the finished product and think about the skills (both IT and English) was was practised.

group 1
group 2 The password is photostory

2) Blogs. If you scan though my earlier posts on this blog you will see that I introduced blogging to my level 2 (higher intermediate) group last year. Here are a couple of examples of their blogs if you are interested. The comments the students wrote to each other are quite interesting.

http://lenkafra.blogspot.com/
http://sesol.blogspot.com/

3) WebQuest. I first used WebQuests with a level 2 group as the Internet really lends itself well to higher level students. As part of the NRDC ICT Effective Practice Study I also investaged the use with Entry 1 (beginner) learners.

International food - level 2
Shopping - entry 1

Here is a WebQuest you could complete to investigate the various technologies available for use in the classroom.

WebQuest on e-learning

I hope this session has inspired you to think about using technology in the classroom :-)

the addiction of blogging

2005-08-01T15:20:00.000Z

i know i've not been totally great at keeping up to date with the blogging thing, but today i am being reminded about just how addictive it can be. Into week 3 of my summer hols, and just spent a really really great week in barcelona with Richard and a couple of really good friends.

But with just one week til i'm back in work i knew i had to get cracking on my blog assignment for my masters. Before the hols i had an afternoon in the libary at Lancaster, mad a ton of notes and came home with a small pile of books on literacy and ICT and various shades in between. This was my starting point this morning. Having written up all my notes from my class interview and looked though the student blogs i thought this would be a good place to start. i think i could be wrong.

spent the morning reading, but not really taking anything in, prograstinated a bit, went for a swim and was about to hit to books again when i typed ESOL blogs into google. what a revelation. books, pagghhh. I've just been reminded this afternoon of that initial addiction i got when i first started blogging. it just goes on and on and on, and there are some really interesting stuff out there

i read a history of blogging, written in 2000, when blogging was just starting to get going. it maked me feel so behind with everything, and yet in my (small) world i'm seen to be at the forefront of using technology with learners. how can that be? i've only just thought about adding a link to my blog, when originally that was what blogging was all about.

The most interesting (non-educational) blog i read today was things i've learnt from blogging. he's got 25 comments for this. i remember the excitement when i got my first comment, and thought about this when posting to my students hoping they would feel the same way. but i think i'm just too much of a waffler to get anyone to read my blog.

blogging nerves

2005-07-16T12:35:00.000Z

doing some reading around different literacies, I've been thinking about blogs and how/where they fit. what are the conventions of blogging? having noticed that my student's comment on my blog used shortened forms (familar for email and texts) and very imformal punctuation (as i do with lack of capital letters). At what stage of my blogging history did my writing change/adapt? when i'm writing i do go back to change spelling errors, etc, but i would think that i still follow many of the conventions of writing Standard English.

i've been particulary thinking about why i was so nervous about using blogs in the class. i was never really sure how the students would react to every lesson starting/ending with posting (creating a new consevatism in my sessions? - Breen) but what other norms do i have in my class. Often i will email the students a rough outline of plans for the class, often with links to the work they would be doing. by 10am (to allow late-comers and logging on) i usually gather the group together and do some kind of activity (linked to either my session or something their other tutors have been doing) before then splitting off again into groups/pairs/individuals.

i also do very little individual work in this class. when i was planning thier exam prep classes this usually involved my talking to their personal tutor about particular grammar/skill weaknesses then researching links to Internet quizzes from which they could choose to complete. It almost felt like a cop-out, like i wasn;t 'teaching'. Yet at one time (b4 my involvement in the ICT Effective Practice Study) this was the structure of the majority of my lessons (my inherent conservatism?)

so i was nervous about using blogs as i was uncertain that this new conservatism i was creating would not be well recieved by the studnets, that they wouldn't see the value of it and i wasn't confident that i could 'sell' it to them.

how will i feel about it next year? i'll have L1 and L2 CALL classes AND be personal tutor to an E3 group. How will the different levels cope with it?

happy blogger

2005-07-06T19:34:00.000Z

another of my students has posted a comment on my blog. hurrah!! :-) we had our end of year party this morning and the class had got cards and flowers for all thier tutors and stood in front of all the ESOL students to present them. Many of them won;t return as they have taken their L2 exams and it's time to move on. it was a little tearful. I will realy miss them. i've had a really good year this year doing the CALL class, they ahve been really open and receptive to most things that i ahve tried with them. (everything except the writing of student life on the bbc i think!)
i almost can't believe how the blogs have worked out. it was on;y 2 weeks ago on my live chat that i happened to mention the blogs, then the tutor suggested that i could do my assignment around them. the next day was my final class with the group so i prepared the evaluation lesson. i think there really is quite a lot to be said about them.
one thing i have noticed at first glance at sabir's comment is the informality of his text. he has minimal use of capitals (i i ahve in my posts) he has used slang (rite, coz). i will look more closely but i didn;t notice this at all in his (or the others) postings.
i really hope they do continue to use the blogs and to enjoy them. they really a great medium.

weary blogger

2005-07-04T20:29:00.000Z

i am so incredab;y tired. been to liverpool on the college trip today and i am wipped, who would have thought this would be more tiring than a normal day of teaching?
i am going to use the student blogs as the basis for my next assignment for my ESOL debates module. i am a little unsure what the main focus of the assignment will be, but it has been a really interesting experience so it's worth exploring.
i did a group interview for my last class with my Lr group, and we talked about literacy in L1 and L2, learning english in their own country, and an evaluation of using blogs. I had been disappointed in the fact that the students hadn;t continued to use their blogs in their own time, but they gave 2 reasons for this. One was that they were unsure what to write (on class i always gave them topic ideas) and secondly that they were embarrassed about thier english and the mistakes they make. This was really intersting as i had never checked their blogs for errors, comments were always about content. Although we had never overtly talked about this they hadn;t picked up on it either way. they didn;t notice that i wasn't proof reading thier work, or encouraging them to proof read their own, nor were they conciously aware that i wasn;t proff reading.
how has using blogs improved their literacy in L2? this is a more difficult question to answer. I didn;t do any pre- or post- assessment tasks, all i have is thier blogs themselves. one of my main aims for using the blogs was for them to record their thoughts and ideas, and to write in English for fluency rather than for accuracy. a blog is an ideal medium for this.
how much does it being a global medium influence it's impact? how would it have differed had i asked them to keep a paper journal? I wouldn;t have been able to comment at any time, nor would they have been able to comment on each others. other staff/tutors wouldn;t have been able to read and commetn and the studnets wouldn;t have been able to read blogs from around the globe.
i would like to think about other ways that blogs can be incorporated into the classroom. there are so many around now. the guardian news blog would be an interesting medium to explore.

long time no post

2005-06-28T20:01:00.000Z

it has been a really long time since i last posted, it has been all so manic. i've submitted a bid for a research grant from the NRDC, i've finished the module 1 assignment (luckily they kind of completmented each other). i had been managing to keep up with the ESOL module but have gotten a little behind for this last unit so i have some serious reading to catch up on. i also now have to start thinking about an assignment for this module (no rest for the wicked) but Kathy had a great idea for me to do something around my student blogs.

the L2 students continued to add posts during the lessons, and commented on each others, really positively. however, they never posted outside of the classroom. so i based our final lesson together (after their exams finsihed) on literature and L1 and L2 literacy. It was a really interesting session, and i've started to write my notes up and hope to base an assignment on this. They gave 2 reasons why they didn't post outside the classroom, one was that they didn;t know what to write, the other was that they were concerned about thier mistakes. so we talked about why i didn;t correct any of their errors on the blogs, and how i thought fluency was more important than accuracy on a blog.

when i've jsut looked at my blog tonight after a while i found lenka has added a comment. it was a real surprise, especially seeing what i had written about the other students.

gotta go as battery low. will think more about what i can do for assignment. no rest for the wicked

final blog before presentations

2005-05-19T09:02:00.000Z

The students had their first practice for their presentations on Monday and knew that today was the final final practice before they present to an audience next Monday. I have told them we will move rooms to have a smart board in 30 mins, giving them time to reflect on the class on Monday and what they have done in terms of final preparations.
Some of the students have taking 15 mins to open and read the email and log onto the blog. Two faster students had written 5 or 6 lines by this time.
Two students who weren't here on Monday asked if they could have some time to change or add things to their slides. I've been mean teacher and said no. They didn't come to class AND haven;t finished when they hvae know the timetable for this project for 4 weeks. I think it's up to them to make changes out of the class (mean?)
ok, time to go practice!!!!

student blogs

2005-05-12T09:08:00.000Z

My level 2 students now also have blogs of their own. We started by setting up the accounts after discussions about the meaning of community and how technology has created an international community. The following week they started to look at their profiles and researching other blogs who have similar interests.
There were a couple of problems with this week. A couple of the students forgot thier password or user names so had to create new ones. And this caused the same problems as the week before, in that the user names they were trying to use had been taken already. What most of them have ended up using is thier name with 2005 on the end and this seems to have worked.
Today is the fourth week for some of them to be posting. I'm surprised by a couple of things. On a positive note they say that they really like writing thier blogs and seem very keen to be doing it in class. However, no-one has written an entry in thier own time, and last week I was off sick but they didn;t post anything even in the class time.
The second thing I'm surprised about is their weak IT skills. Some of the students have very good transferable skills and have had no problems logging in, posting, adding comments, etc. But many of them have needed support through all the stages. They're not sure where to go to start (which site - even when i've emailed them the link!), they're not clear about the process of logging in and get confused between viewing their blog and posting within it. And the biggest surprise to me is them forgetting thier user names and passwords, and their poor study skills where they've either not written them down or have forgotten to bring their files with them! These are supposed to be higher level students, many of whom are hoping to go to university!

questionaire reflections

2005-03-04T11:21:00.000Z

I'm still very happy to have chosen the mentoring as the focus for my research, although other ideas still pop into my head. I was reading the article on action research today which was talking about asking students to keep diaries. I am still interesting in getting the L2 group involved in some kind of research. It may be interesting to get to keep a blog during the presentations. Last year we asked them to reflect on the process after the event, if we started preparing for it a week earlier could be have them reflect on it in journa format throughout? How distacting would this be to the process? Would they be happy to have their journas accessable by others?

Back to the mentoring. Initally I thought about talking to the people who had attended the mentoring, then it was suggested that I use what is said to indicate what I could look at in the moderation reports. I am also going to do a very short questionaire which I will send to all staff in the department. I'm hoping this will set a context of old/new/experience within the department.

I'm aware that this questionaire needs to be short, for two reasons. Firstly if I want people to fill it in. I recently sent a short questionaire about the use of e-learning and I only got a percentage returned (not clear exactly how many, but it was all the usual people who did). Secondly, I need to have the time to do something with the data. There is no point in collecting lots of data then having no time to analyse it.

So far I have asked some closed questions about job, length of time and if they took the mentoring. I know that some existing staff we invited to the mentoring but didn't attend. I'm not sure why they were invited (but it was because they were refered by CC, as a kind of remedial training-which could be seem as negative) and I would be interested to know why they didn;t attend. Should I also ask to interview them and look at their moderation reports?

Do I want to add an attitude survey? what imformation would I gain from it? Would it be useful?

How can I use the data to inform my interviews? I want to do a semi-structured interview. This would give me more confidence as I would have a starting point for the interview, something that would be comparable across interviews, yet leavnig room for them to say what they feel is important.

I've already spoken to 2 people who have said they are happy to be interviewed about the mentoring. What about the 2 people who were part of the LSC project and were mentored? Is this where the idea of mentoring came from? Do i need to look at some background to how it came about? Talk to Sally and David? Could this be more informal? Catch them over coffee?

I need to think about time scale. Only 3 weeks until Easter. I need some interviews done by then so I can look at the moderation reports over Easter. Do I need permission to look at them? Or are they property of DC? Ethical issues.

Grounded

2005-02-15T18:01:00.000Z

I'm feeling confident that I've made the correct choice for my research project. I think it will be interesting and useful to look at the mentoring system. It's something that's new to the college, and the department, and definately something that can be expanded on and developed.

The LD was useful again, although in the beginning I was feeling a little out of my depth with it all. It seems like the last two weeks LDs have hihglighted just one or two important issues for me. Considering I still feel a little like I don't really remember what's been said in each session, having these insights is really important. How does the number of things remembered as important compare with face to face discussions?

The posted discussions are becoming more of an issue. I didn;t post anything for unit two, and I'm down as someone who should post a lead discussion this unit. However, there are already 3 leads so I don;t really feel under pressure for that, but I do need to get my head around the readings and post something. Again, it's something that I would have a different feel for were it face to face.

I need to start thinking in more detail about what data I want to collect, who I can ask to take part and how big I want it to be. As Paul said - practitioner research won't change the world!

ESOL blues

2005-02-10T04:06:00.000Z

I've not been having a good couple of weeks. I've felt like I've been treading mud or something. Like in a dream where you're trying to run but getting nowhere.

I think I may have finally put my finger on it. I'm frustrated by the admiistrative chores of my job, which up to Christmas meant I was working so many hours. After Xmas I started the masters, which, if I am to complete in my own time means I have to be leaving work at a resaonable hour to have time and energy to devote to it.

The focus of this frustration has been vent on the waiting list. I spoke to Janet at the beginning of term to express my discontent and her response was that she needed me to keep it, but that she understood that it may not be run to the best of my ability due to time constraints. This was a smart ploy - she knows that I'm not really someone to do this, that I will continue to run it well. One of the reasons for this is that I know it'll be so important in Sept. when we start to set up new classes and want to invite people in. Letting it slide now will just create more work later.

One of this things that had been going through my mind was that starting the masters was an issue. This was the one thing that had changed since Xmas (oh, and have 3 new evening classes starting with three brand new tutors - my role growing my another 100% since I started the job 18 months ago) I was very motivated during the first unit, I lapped up the readings, enjoyed the posted discussions and was excited by the live discussion. However, unit two has been more of a slog. I've been coming home so tired, that I've been beating myself up over not starting the readings. I made a start on writing something for the posted discussion, but it was so big that the more I wrote the more confusing it got and it wasn;t really suitable for posting.

I went into the live discussion quite dispondent, feeling like I really needed to talk to SOMEONE about. This LD was somewhat useful. The tutor's idea to think about the project as a pilot, and therefore small, was useful, but I didn't feel to really get any feedback about my actual ideas. There are so many people in the room wanting to talk about their ideas. Reading the transcipt back also reflects this, there are some conversations going on but it quite difficult to follow them and respond to something meaningfully or to get any meaningful feedback. The transcript from the Thrus session, where there were only 2 people and the tutor, seemed much more constructive. It actually flows as a conversation with some interesting points being made.

So a criticism of the LD would be the size of the group. It would be interesting to see how the others feel about this. So right now I'm feeling like distance learning is really challenging my motivation, whereas if I had a class to attend, even in the next couple of weeks, I may feel more inspired.

The other interesting thing that happened this week was a lunch meeting I had with the other senior tutors. I mentioned my ideas about having some kind of mentoring/focus group with tutors that are not new or ahve been refered to the current mentoring system. We also talked about setting up a system for supporting new tutors. It was this that I'm really interesting in, not filling in databases, and it's this that the masters will support me in developing.

So, to conclude this long ramble, I've made a huge effort to leave the office on time all week and have succeeded! I have not been home after 6pm all week. I wanted to do the same 3 weeks ago when friend Rach. was staying over and failed terribly! I'm most proud of myself. What that means is that I had a brain to help Rach with her PhD last night, and tonight I'm reflecting on what a mess my life's been so far this year! Progress.

finished plogging

2005-01-27T11:55:00.000Z

We completed the plogs this morning in class. Unfortunatley I only had 4 students, one was new and other was absent last week!

So I paired the new student with the strongest student and she explained about the activity, showed her the site and they completed their captions of the photos together.

www.pitmans3.ploggle.com the password is photostory

The second pair needed a little support to remember how to add captions (and their machine was running frustratingly slow) but they came up with some great captions on a theme of the jungle. They talked a lot about what they wanted to write and changed each one a number of times until they were satisfied.

www.cathy.ploggle.com

I think it was a great activity for collaboration, they practised all four skills, and have produced a lasting record of their work in an amusing format.

I asked them to add a password, firstly because I was unsure if they would be happy to have thier photos available to anyone and secondly as a reading instructions task. I asked them if they are happy to share there photos online and they said yes, which is why I've added the links here.

What this task doesn't do is incorporate the sharing/interactivity of comments that blogging can allow. This task was set up in a way that excluded this element of blogging. I am still a little sceptical about how this can work with ESOL learners, this task was short and self contained. This was to give myself a little more confidence in this new technology, to see how the students would respond to it. In terms of technical literacies there are mixed abilities in the class, some students pick it up very fast, whereas others need a lot of support. One disadvantage of group work is that some students don;t get the chance to physically practice themsleves as the stronger students dominate.

blogging craze

2005-01-26T22:49:00.000Z

blogging is just everywhere! I came home early Monday with a tummy bug, was flicking thro' children's TV when I found Grange Hill. What were they doing? Blogging!

I have another colleauge having created something in 'multipy' - a blog? And an email from a another colleaugue who's wanting to use blogging with her learners.

I used plogging the last 2 weeks with my L2 group. The first week was really a practice, getting used to the technology, and then a paper exercise that would lead into the ploggle exercise. It highlighted their weakness in reading instructions clearly. I'd talked to them about password protecting thier ploggle and not having it showing on the from page, but my instructions were purposefully vauge as I wanted them to explore for themselves, working as a team and reading the instructions.

Last week I set the task up and they did really well. They were not so creative with where they went to take the pictures, but some of the pictures were really good. They had to set themselves into a tableaux of a scene, 5 or 6 random scenes. Initially I wanted them to then write a story from these pitures, but I may jsut have them finish off the captions and move on. The exams are looming and their mocks also highlighted their weakness in reading for detail.

Off to look at some other EFL people's blogs. What a joyful life I lead on a wet Weds evening!

online learning

2005-01-20T19:34:00.000Z

I started my masters last week. I have finished the set reading for unit one, posted a new discussion, responded to others and taken part in the live discussion.

I'm still feeling confident about it all. I was concerned that after the initial weekend, where we got to meet our group and the tutor, I would find it difficult not being physically with other people. But so far all is well.

The VLE is simple enough to use. Although the some of the returning students were saying they had had some difficulties with it. They were saying there had been some changes so this may explain it.

The live disussion was fun, and not quite as manic as the practice one on the induction weekend, maybe this was because we were quite focussed on what we were talking about. I had heard other modules had been more social in their chats, but i am pleased that we asked to be kept on topic by the tutor.

One thing that is more difficult about having been involved in an online discussion rather than a face to face one is that i find it more difficult to remember what was said. Conversations are more memorable and specific points stink in your mind. But having read others points I'm not sure that there is really any one point that has stuck in my head. But I guess a plus side to this is that I can log on again at any time to re-read. Maybe I should think about taking notes from the writing in a way that i would take notes in a more traditional discussion.

I have been thinking about how I could involve my students in some kind of research. It's not appropriate for my E1 group, but I think it could be something interesting to do with my level 2 group. We could talk about research, what it is and who it's for. Maybe do something about them asking other learners their opinions on ILPs, especially the other ESOL learners. We could all design a questionaire together, which would link to forming questions, writing for a purpose, etc. We could talk about open and closed questions. If they interviewed some students, this would be excellent listening practice as they could tape it and look for similarities and differences between responses.

But how would this be relevant to thier learning? Would they want to look at something about themselves- so maybe i should just ask them. What puzzles them about learning a language. What could we do to try to answer these questions?

First time blogger

2005-01-05T21:10:00.000Z

I always find it a little comforting that life throws things at you that you can't seem to help getting involved in. And as with all things unexpected more than one thing comes along at once.

The first weekend of Jan '05 will see my last two years of indecision squashed as I start my masters at Lancaster University. All thanks to a bunch of coincidental conversations and hurried applications.

I became aware of blogging (or rather Moblogging) about a year ago, and in September several small, cheap cameras came into my posession. Since then I have mulling around different ideas to use blogging with my level 2 ESOL group. Then this Xmas I experimented with plogging (www.ploggle.co.uk) and published what some may call slightly embarrassing photos from an Xmas party (http://thewigparty.ploggle.com If u wanna see these you'll have to email me for the password) . I found this kinda fun and easy and have thoughtof some activies that will make good use of the site and cameras for my classes, while encouraging collaborative learning and building confidence. I have also joinedd an online conference in Weblogging with ESL learners just today.

Oh the wonders of coincidences (and blogging)