ESL/EFL Sister Classes

20 Comments Add your own

• 1.    mrferlazzo  |  January 18th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

  Hi, Everybody,

  My name is Larry Ferlazzo and I teach high school English Language Learners (along with native English speakers) in Sacramento, CA. They’re between fifteen and nineteen-years-old and are predominantly Hmong refugees from Laos/Thailand (I also have some Latino and Russian students).

  I’ve been a teacher for four years. Prior to that time I spent nineteen years as a community organizer working with low income people to improve neighborhoods. I have a blog (http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/) and a website (http://larryferlazzo.com/english.html) designed to help support English Language Learners.

  I’m interested in having my World History and Government classes try a few simple ways to connect and learn from other classes. I’ll be using technology a lot with these students this coming semester, but I’ll be using computer much more in the fall. This is sort of a “trial run” for me.

  It’s important to me that whatever we do helps support our planned curriculum so that it doesn’t add more stuff for us to do. Slow and sure is fine with me!

  I’ll share more specific ideas of things I’d like to do in the next post.

  Larry

• 2.    ritaz  |  January 19th, 2008 at 3:45 am

  Thank you very much, Larry, for opening up this common space to start gathering likeminded ESL/EFL teachers willing to join sister classes with their students through technology.

  I have been carrying out similar projects with my students for 4 years now, using Blogger and lately Podomatic, together with teachers in other countries (check my latest at http://caeb2007.podomatic.com).
  All my experiences have been successful and gratifying, and I still get messages from several students (I have different groups every year, through March-November, upper -intermediate level, preparing to sit for the CAE) expressing their new approach towards learning English to communicate!!, and how after opening their minds to using Internet tools and meeting other students all over the world they understood languages should be learnt with a different purpose in mind

  I am Rita Zeinstejer, in Rosario, Argentina, an advocate of the use of CALL for language learning, a member of “Webheads in Action”, the wonderful online community of practice focusing on the integration of CMC tools into our classes.

  I hope we can share another fruitful learning experience, I am very happy to be here.

  Greetings from warm Argentina,

  Rita

• 3.    Dot MacKenzie  |  January 19th, 2008 at 5:39 am

  My name is Dot MacKenzie and I am a teacher in Kuwait University. I am teaching English and low level computing skills to students in the English Language Unit that serves the Faculties of Social Sciences and Law. The students range in age from 16 to about 24. I have been teaching English in the Middle East for a long time, and have also worked in Asia for a short time.

  My current students range in level from low intermediate to advanced. They are computer literate and most of them have comuters at home. This should be an interesting project for them because they will learn more about foreign countries. Some of them are studying political science and sociology and may also like to have email pals in the other countries.

  I have a new blog on http://handsacrosstheoceans.edublogs.org/. This one is dedicated mainly to students studying in the Faculties of Social Sciences and Law in Kuwait University.

• 4.    Tibor Prievara  |  January 19th, 2008 at 9:08 am

  I am Tibor Prievara and I have been working as a teacher of English in Hungary for nearly 15 years. I teach in a bilingual secondary school in Budapest, we also have an IB class.
  I have been involved in several ICT projects (both for the Hungarian Schoolnet and now the European Schoolnet, the latter being the MELT Project - this is a huge database of free educational ciontent to be made available to all EU member states). Also, I have started and managed EFL websites here in Hungary - some private, others set up by the Ministry of Education.

  I’m interested in ICT projects as they help my students see things from different perspectives. So, besides learning about other countries, my ‘dream project’ would involve some intercultural aspect and debate on certain social issues.

  I must admit I’m really excited about working with you all and believe that our students might benefit from such cooperation.

• 5.    Mona  |  January 29th, 2008 at 9:30 am

  Hello everyone!

  My name is Mona Bran and I am from Timisoara, Romania. I teach English and French at the local university and most of my students major in Social Sciences. I said most because I also have a few groups from Political Sciences, Communication and Public Relations, and European Studies. Their level of English is upper-intermediate and advanced.

  I hope I am not too late for this sister classes project because I see you have all begun planning and organizing for a while now.. I would love to have this cross-continental teaching/learning experience! Moreover, I believe for our students it would be a great and unique cultural exchange.

  I have heard about your project from Moira Hunter who is moderating an online course I’m taking at the moment (how to integrate Web 2.0 tools in the ESP classroom). I immediately decided to send Larry an email, hoping we have a chance..

  Last semester I used a wiki with one of my groups and they loved it! Although it was time-consuming (especially for me as moderator :-)) I too enjoyed the experience. I am quite sure it improved their writing skills, since the students involved were posting all their comments in English. Also, all the articles they found connected to the topic were in English, so that enhanced their reading skills. So, what I am trying to say is that we could use for this project a wiki, blogs or the Ning (we don’t have problems with it here, it isn’t blocked). Any other tool you suggest will be fine. I’ll just have to become familiar with it first and then I can implement it in class.

  As far as the topics are concerned, I too think it’s best to start by introducing ourselves and our countries. For example our city (Timisoara) is the one in which the Romanian revolution started in 1989. I’m sure we could find interesting facts to share with you and your students about that crucial event and others. Someone mentioned popular music and that made me think that we could introduce our traditional folk music to you (Tibor, it would be great if your students did that as well, I am a big fan of Hungarian folk music). It’s not so popular among young people anymore but we still take pride in its diversity.

  What stereotypes do we have about each other’s countries? How will these be confirmed/rejected throughout our ’sisterhood’ experience? We come from different backgrounds but do we have similar interests? These are questions to consider and to include in the introductions, in my opinion.

  As for the actual topics, I think numerous social, political and cultural issues can be tackled. I particularly like Larry’s idea about presenting how our respective governments work. I don’t have any immigrant students but I did ask them (last semester actually) to choose a city in which they would like to live and work (taking into consideration the cultural and economic opportunities, but also the language, history, etc of that city/country). We could pick a few social issues and each group should do research and create a presentation about the situation in their country.

  I could go on forever but I don’t want to take more time from your lives I just want to end by saying that here in Romania we are in the middle of the exams session. The second semester starts on the 25th of February and finishes on the 30th of May. So we are available in this period

  I’m looking forward to reading your feedback.

  Thanks a lot

  Regards,
  Mona

• 6.    Larry Ferlazzo  |  January 29th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

  Hi, Everybody,

  After Mona contacted me I suggested she look at our blog to see if she thought her students, who might be a year or two older than some of ours, would be a good match.

  She seems to think it would be. It seems to me like she might be a good addition to our group.

  If, however, others think differently, or if you think the group is getting too large, please send me a email and we can talk privately. I will certainly go along with the sense of the group.

  On a different note, our District Tech’s Director promised me today Ning will be unblocked this week. Assuming that happens, I’ll try experimenting with my students starting their blogs there.

  Larry

• 7.    isabel neves  |  February 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 am

  I am a EFL Portuguese teacher for about some considerable time.. However it’s just recently that I have added web tools as one of my top priorities in my teaching methodology so I devote a lot of time to browsing stuff on the net and also to producing interactive materials tailored to the syllabus not only to enhance motivation but also because I like doing it . I hope to learn a lot from this community and if possible to establish links for future projects that can make students communicate using English.

• 8.    Larry Ferlazzo  |  February 3rd, 2008 at 10:00 am

  Hi, Everybody,

  Isabel teaches EFL to students (in Portugal) in the same age-range as the rest of us, and I invited her to check-out what we’ve been discussing and possibly join in the conversation.

  Larry

• 9.    anamariacult  |  February 5th, 2008 at 5:00 am

  Dear Larry and fellow teachers,

  I´m a constant reader of Larry´s blog and when I saw an opportunity of joining him in a project I jumped in.
  I´m very happy to see Isabel Neves here as we´ve been working together on another project as well. http://brazportblog.blogspot.com/

  I teach EFL to Brazilian learners in a language institute and my sts age varies between 14 to 20. I have different groups every 6 months so I´ll have the same sts from Feb to July. Using internet tools in my classes has shown me another dimension I hadn´t imagined before.
  Anxious to start,
  anamaria

• 10.    Ronaldo  |  February 24th, 2008 at 7:10 am

  Hello everybody!

  I’m from Brazil and I teach English in the capital of my country, Brasília. I’m a webhead and have already done some projects with my students, and would love to have some intercultural project this semester too. Just like Ana Maria, I’ll have the sme group only until the end of June, and I have already had them create their blogs (they’re only in the beginning yet) at http://finally5b.21classes.com, but I’m willing to join any other webspace, like ning.

  My students are high intermediate and advnced and their age ranges from 15 to 19 (with a couple of adults too…).

  Ronaldo
  ihopeitworks.blogspot.com

• 11.    halafawzi  |  March 10th, 2008 at 2:36 am

  Hello all,
  I am Hala Fawzi, a webehad from Sudan, who teaches EFL in University of Sciences and Technology in the capital Khartoum . I teacher Computer Sciences students. Their level is low, age 17-19. I have used Web tools with them for one semester and their responses were great!
  They will start their second term in about 10 days. I am sure they will benefit a lot her.
  Thanks Ronaldo for posting about this project and thank you Larry for your nice words!
  Hala
  http://tagananet2.blogspot.com/

• 12.    eramos  |  March 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am

  Hello!
  My name is Evelyn Ramos and I am a Student Teacher working with Larry Ferlazzo. I am honored to be assisting in such an exciting project involving so many students from around the world. I firmly believe the long term benefits for our students will be immense.
  I will be assisting Larry with moderating and posting Voice Threads that our students have created. I look forward to the future with all of you…

• 13.    Berta  |  April 12th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

  Hello everyone again,
  My name is Berta Leiva and I have been an EFL teacher in Caracas, Venezuela where I have worked mainly with adults and university students.
  I have participated in different EVO sessions since 2005, especially in the BaW and blogging groups every year. Last year I was in Bee and Patricia´s session and this year in Video with Sergio.
  I usually teach freshman EST reading comprehension at my university and keep a classblog each term for my students to practice outside the classroom. This is the one we usedthis term
  I have also used blogs with my graduate students in the Theory and Methods course where they write about their reflections about EFL/ESL teaching and learning based on the extensive readings we have each week.
  Next term (April 21st-July 11th) besides teaching reading, I will have a writing course where I hope to use many online tools for extensive writing, reading and reflecting.

  As I mentioned in a previous comment to another post, I don´t know yet about the characteristics of my students but they are possibly intermediate 19-22 years old.

  Cariños, Berta

  http://itwilldefinitelywork.blogspot.com/
  Here I have a post exactly on what to use for my new course (Ning, 21 classes, or Pageflakes) Whatever it is, if it has too much information, it can be quite overwhelming. So I hope to keep it simple

• 14.    mickstout  |  May 13th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

  Hi,
  My name is Michael Stout. I’m an English as a Foreign Language teacher in Japan. I’ve been teaching here for almost 11 years. I started at a language school, went on to do some ALT work at high schools and then I became a high school teacher. I worked at a rather unique school called Kanto International High School for four years. The school was not what you’d imagine. It wasn’t a school for expat children. Nevertheless, it was special. While I was there Kanto was designated a Super English High School by the Japanese Ministry of Education. I had the opportunity to participate in the very extensive revision of the curriculum. I started my blog, http://mrstoutsblog.blogspot.com/ , while at Kanto.

  At present, my full-time job is at a university. I teach 1st and 2nd year students. The 2nd year classes are content-based and I’d like one or two of these classes to participate in this project. My students are false beginner to low intermediate generally. Their confidence and willingness to communicate in English are very low. I think this project will go a long way to improving this.
  Cheers!

• 15.    marydimonaco  |  May 14th, 2008 at 8:23 am

  Hi Everyone!

  My name is Maria Rosario Di Mónaco. I am a teacher of English from Rosario, Argentina.
  In the last few years I’ve become increasingly interested in the new ICTs and their implications for language teaching and learning. I took a couple of courses on using the Internet for teaching English and also on designing materials for online courses.

  However, it was only after joining the CALL Special Interest Group coordinated by Rita Zeinstejer that I became really involved in the use of these new tools. So much so, that last February I joined the EVO sessions for becoming a Webhead, which, I must say, introduced me to a fascinating community of generous, like-minded people.

  Now I’d be delighted to offer my students the possibility of profiting from a project like this. I run a private institute for the teaching of English as a foreign language, with courses for a wide range of ages and levels.

  Being a newbie myself, my experience of web 2.0 tools is quite limited. Last year I started a yahoo group for our students to choose the video clips they wanted to work with in their video classes http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/chooseyourfavouritevideo/ This tool has been quite successful, maybe because students feel that this way they can have a say in the selection of the material they work with. Besides, the pedagogical gain has been enormous as far as writing skills are concerned.

  This year I started experimenting with blogs but I’m finding it quite difficult to get students (and teachers!) involved in this kind of projects. However, the idea of the sister classes sounds highly appealing and motivating. I’m sure our students (at least some of them) will love it.
  Looking forward to working with you,
  Mary

• 16.    marydimonaco  |  May 14th, 2008 at 8:35 am

  Hi again!
  I see that my comment appears with the avatar I had chosen for a blog I started in edublogs for my FCE students. You’re welcome to visit it, just clik on the avatar.
  Now I have to work out a way of replacing this avatar with a photo of mine.
  Cheers

• 17.    Ma. Elena  |  May 14th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

  Hi everyone,
  I am an English teacher from Mexico city. I work at a public highschool with teens.
  They love technology and I think I am ready for linking my groups to the world.
  We have been working on projects using web2tools, but the socialization was kept among ourselves.
  I think the motivation will boost if we open and share with others.

• 18.    Laura  |  June 24th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

  Hi everybody! My name is Laura: I’m an English teacher in Espejo, a small village near Córdoba (Andalusia-Spain). Our high school has a bilingual section which starts working next academic year! Wow! So many things to do! My web is :

  http://learningandteachingenglish.blogspot.com

  Have a look! keep on sharing!

• 19.    galobeasam  |  August 10th, 2008 at 8:32 am

  Hi everybody

  I´m Guillermo López, EFL teacher at INEM Felipe Perez High school in Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia.

  I´ve been teaching EFL for over 10 years. It´s been quite a short time I´m using ICT for my classes. Soon I´ll present a project to my School. It´s BILINGUAL AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION. I think all of you, and the potential of SISTER CLASSES PROJECT would fit in the curriculum.
  I really enjoyed reading everybody´s comments. There are so many great and potential ideas that I believe we all could benefit each other.

  I thanks Larry for his invitation to join the group. I´m sure if we keep on sharing our experiences and knowledge, everybody will get lots of resources to help our own EFL teaching- learning processes.

  Best regards to everybody

  Guillermo
  EFL teacher

• 20.    edelgado  |  September 24th, 2008 at 5:23 pm

  Hi I am Elena Delgado
  I work at a public highschool in Mexico city. We have been using blogs and wikis but I do think the best part of the TICS is reaching out for contacts with the rest of the world.
  Mu students are thrilled to particpate and share with others about their country .
  I am sure tis will be a great experience.
  Greetings form Mexico city
  Elena

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