More information about this project

What's a blog?
A blog is a form of online diary (a simple webpage which you can write to from any PC with Internet access). If you can write an e-mail message, you can blog - it's that simple.

It's collaborative in that it's not a personal diary written by one person (though you can use a blog for that). Instead, several people can write (or "post", as we say) to the same diary. They can also answer (or "comment", to give it the correct term) what other people may have written.

Can anyone read it?
Well, it is a private blog, in that it isn't publicly listed but in theory someone could find it by chance (though very few other people actually will). When we've finished the project we'll take a vote on whether or not we wish to make it public (that is, for example, send the link to CeltaStars, etc).

When is the project going to run? Initially, it will run from 1 October 1 to 9 December 2005, a period of 10 weeks. After that, we'll vote on whether or not we want to continue it.

What's my commitment?
For the blog to work, we have to post regularly to it. Before you say "yes, I'd like to take part", we'd therefore like you to "commit" yourself to a minimum of seven postings plus seven comments over the 10 weeks the project lasts. Of course, if you want to post more regularly, feel free to do so!

Posts should be roughly 250-300 words, not more.

How much of my time will it take up?
We estimate that posting and commenting (and reading what other people have written!) shouldn't take you longer than about an hour a week.

What are we going to post?
We'd like to keep that open initially but we suggest any of the following: (1) an idea that worked / that I tried out; (2) a class that went well (and why) / … that went badly (and why); (3) a problem that I have / had; (4) a learner who has difficulties, I find hard to cope with, etc; (5) an interesting book, article, website, quote, etc

Who is going to post?
The authors of the blog are yourselves, people who are currently teaching young learners and have done either the young learners extension course at IH, or else CELTA; plus Lynn Durrant, who is one of the tutors on the former; plus Tom (who note, will not be teaching young learners this year).

What's the objective of the project?
The project has several objectives: (1) to reflect on the teaching that we do; (2) to continue learning about teaching, partly as a result of that reflection; (3) to share things, including our successes and failures in the classroom with others; (4) to learn a little about blogging and see something of its potential for language teaching.

What's the difference between a blog and a Yahoo group like CeltaStars?
One obvious difference is that on CeltaStars you get posts in your mailbox. To read a blog you actually have to go there.

Another difference is that a blog has greater permanence. An email you can trash; what you write on a blog stays there so you will probably find yourself being more reflective before you post.

As a result, and because we want to encourage reflection on what goes on in your classroom, don't -- for example -- just post "Help! I'm having discipline problems! Can anyone help?" Instead, attempt to describe the problem more thoroughly and tell us what you've tried and why that has or hasn't worked and why you think so.

Another difference is that CeltaStars exists to a considerable extent as a support group: you ask questions and we'll try and provide answers. The blog is not a support group: it's first and foremost a learner diary -- one which may or may not provide answers.

How to include a picture in your post

1. Click the "upload image" button

To include a picture in a "post", in the post editor, just click the penultimate icon to the right (the one that looks like a mountain and sky), shown above.

2. Pick your size and placement options, and then choose "Browse"

You then get a new window asking you what size you want it, and where to place it (left, centre, right...). Above, I've chosen "centre" and "large". (I've chosen "large" as in fact I've edited my image prior to uploading it -- something which you might not do.)

3. Browse and then pick the image you want

Click "browse" to find the picture on your computer (see image above), just as you would if you were attaching something to an email.

Here's how to post an image, in the Blogger "Help" section (always the best place to turn to for answers).

If you want your photo to appear in your comments, by the way, you have to add it to your profile.

Here's how to display your photo, in the Blogger "help" section. As that explains, you have to upload your picture in a post, copy the address of the picture (the URL), and then paste that into your profile.

Note that your profile photo has to be under 50k (which is well under the smallest size you will get from a digital camera).

In my pocket: another idea for a class blog

My daughter Isabel pulled Herbert here out of her pocket on the Metro the other day...

It occurred to me afterwards that we've all got things in our pockets or handbags or about our persons that are important to us in some way; I've got a penknife that my Dad gave to me over 30 years ago, a watch that friends gave me to say thanks for something I'd helped them with...

Now, couldn't we turn that into an interesting class blog? I mean, if we all pulled those items out of our pockets and took digital photos of them and uploaded them on to a blog (you'd want close-ups, like the one above, I think). A 50-100 word description to accompany each, and with a class of 12-15 people we'd have an interesting page.

Save those 50-100 words "as draft" and we could take a process writing approach to the production of the texts. And I think there's an awful lot of real use of language that could be got out of the taking of the photographs...

With young learners, maybe an item they have at home, rather than what they have in their pockets, might work better. They could also bring the item to class...

What do you think...?

New look for our blog, new blogging links

Meant to do this ages ago, but I've finally got round to changing the template. Actually, all I really did was some (ahem) clever copying and pasting: Sarah in fact did all the hard work. So we've finally got rid of all those dots, and our blog no longer looks like a site designed by one of our major Barcelona competitors...!

I've also added a series of links to provide you with a lot more information on blogs and blogging and what you might do with them (see sidebar, now on the right!).

Anyone fancy the idea of using a blog with a class?

Which is more important, grammar or vocabulary?

Here's a funny story about language, courtesy of "The Week"... It hasn't got a lot to do with young learners -- though you could ask which is more important to them, too, grammar or vocabulary?

The Week reports that Brazil's World Cup winning left-back Branco didn't have a very happy time at Premiership team Middlesborough. He is, however, fondly remembered by his teammates, partly because of a dressing-room speech he made before his debut.

The Week says that, despite speaking only the most elementary English, he "stood up, fists clenched, and made an exhortatory address (...) that rivalled that of Henry V before Agincourt".

"Pass... pass... pass," Branco told his teammates. "Pass... pass... pass... Goal! Win...! Lager... lager... nightclub!"

How's that for getting your message across?

Where do you stand (or sit?) in the classroom

Here's an article from the TeachingEnglish.org.uk site that I think is interesting:

"Where we decide to position ourselves at various stages of the lesson is important if we take into account the effect it has on our learners," it says. "Whether we are standing, seated or crouching in front of, to the side of or behind learners sends out a message with regard to what we want them to do."

Here's the whole article...

Activity for learning irregular verbs

Write a self-contained story of not more than 50 words, with as many irregular simple pasts and past participles as possible:

Examples:

I woke up in the middle of the night. I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, did a wee and then felt much better. [26 words, 5 irregulars]

I took off my coat and sat down. She had told me she didn't love me. I hadn't understood. But I thought she had meant it and I burst into tears. [8/31]

The fact that they have to play around with them gives it "cognitive depth". In order to get the past participles in they need to include past perfects, obviously.

Various useful links for teachers of YLs

I was looking for something on the OneStopEnglish site the other day and came across various things you might find useful.

Teaching Children
The teaching children section has -- among others -- things on all of the following:

• Beginning reading and writing with young children
• Ideas for activities in the classroom that can be done with very limited classroom and school resources
• Songs, and using songs with primary aged children
• Teaching vocabulary
• Storytelling

Teaching Teenagers
The same site also has a teaching teenagers section. Interesting items include:

• Teaching mixed abilities
• Getting teenagers to speak (!)
• Warmers
  

On both of those pages, by the way, you also have this link to Christmas activities ("for all ages").

E-mail newsletters
What I was actually looking for on OneStopEnglish was how to subscribe to their email newsletters. I'd suggest that such things are useful because it's better to have useful stuff come direct to you than have to go trawl Google-is-Evil for it.

This must be the registration page for their monthly update on what's new on the site.