ESL/EFL Sister Classes

Posting To The Student Forum

I thought people might find it useful to see, in writing, the sequence necessary in order for students to post in the Student Forum.  Pau and I (Larry) are just beginning to use it — since my US History ESL students are just now learning about Columbus and the conquistadors, they are going to write questions about them to Pau’s students in Spain.

First, each student needs to register at the Edublogs homepage, just like each teacher did.  They should click the box saying they just want a user name.  They should also make sure the “remember” box is not clicked.

They will then receive an activation code at their email, which they should click on.

Then, when they want to post on the student forum, they should first go to the Edublogs home page and sign-in.  Then they go to the Student Showcase blog and click on Student Forum.  They then click on the the “thread” of conversation they want to participate in, or start a new thread, and start typing.

If they want to make a comment on presentations that are posted in the body of the blog by individual classes and do not want to leave an audio comment on that Voice Thread, they can just leave a written comment in the comments section of that presentation and do not have to be signed into Edublogs.

Some teachers have checked out the Vaestro audio chatboard I’ve set-up.  I think that works very well, too, so am interested in having my class engage with others if and when you’re interested.

Larry

6 comments September 24th, 2008

Introductions from Spain in Forum

HI,  you all! Greetings from beautiful Tarragona in Spain.

Just a short note to tell you my students have introduced themselves in the Forum so they are ready to hear about yours!!!

Love

PAU

1 comment September 23rd, 2008

Greetings from Catamarca, Argentina

Hello everyone!

 I’m so glad to post here today! I’m Sebastian Mercado, a teacher from Catamarca in the north of Argentina. 

I would like to take part on this project with my students from a  Pre to Intermediate level. They are between 15 and 18 and they are nice people to work with. We are having classes every Tuesday and Wednesday at 18.00 GMT -3.Our Laboratorio de Idiomas “Nora de Luque” has a comfortable room with a computer, a projector and internet connexion.

I hope we have a good time, learn and enjoy this project and experience as well.

See you.

Sebastian

sebmer21.edublogs.org

1 comment September 10th, 2008

Audio Chatboard

As everybody knows, we have the Student Forum set-up on this site where students can communicate in writing with one another about different topics.

I’ve also been experimenting with an audio chatboard — basically the same thing that we have in the Student Forum. The difference is that students leave audio messages instead of written ones.

Here is the link to a Vaestro Channel Sister Classes audio chatboard I’ve set-up just as an experiment.

I thought it be good if teachers could experiment with it. I’ve left one message. You can listen to it without registering (it’s free and east to register), but if you want to leave a message you have to sign-up. You would listen to the message by first clicking on my message and then clicking the play button on the upper left. Then, if you register, you click on “reply”  on the upper right and start talking into your computer microphone. You can also leave a written description of your message.

This is just an idea. I personally would like my students to get speaking as well as writing practice. Even if only one or two other classes wanted to try it, too, I thought it might be worth a shot.

However, if people feel like it’s too much, or too complicated, I would understand that, too.

1 comment September 10th, 2008

Hi everybody… from Pereira, Colombia

Hi everybody

A warm greeting from Pereira, Colombia. I´m Guillermo López, EFL teacher at INEM Felipe Perez school. It´s great to be part of a project like this. You wouldn´t believe how much this post has cost to me. Not talking of money, but time and effort. Maybe some day Larry Ferlazzo will tell you. I still laugh about the ¨tech¨problem I had. By the way, thanks a lot for your support and patience, Larry, two  qualities for a teacher.

My students are now working on the project. They will present a real (at the classroom) and a virtual (online) exposition of the western region of our country, Colombia. They are both enthusiastic and scared. I hope everything will be ok. I have two 9 grades, with EFL beginner students from 14 to 16 years old.

Hope to see your posts over here soon,

Guillermo

2 comments September 8th, 2008

Isabel Neves from Benavente, Portugal

Hi everyone !

I am an EFL teacher and I teach in Escola Secundaria de  Benavente, in a quiet, small town in Ribatejo. I’ll be having a class of teenagers who are pre-intermediate to intermediate. Some of them are quite good. The challenge will be motivating them to participate in this exchange and get a computer room at school. I ‘ll be starting lessons in about a week and that’s when I’ll be presenting them this project. Hope to learn a lot from you !

Isabel Neves, Portugal

2 comments September 7th, 2008

Posting Mechanics

I thought it would be helpful to write a short piece here about the mechanics of posting.

When you want to log on to post something on either the teacher or student blog, or if you want to approve a comment from a student (all blog comments are moderated), or if you want to delete a comment that was made in the Student Forum (remember, those are not moderated), just go to either blog and click the link that says “Log in” on the right column. You will then be prompted to type in your Edublogs user name and password. If you have registered with Edublogs and sent me the email address you used, then I have already added you to both blogs as an editor.

After you log-on, go to “Write Post.” Write your post, and then click “Publish.”

Only you can post a student presentation on the Student Showcase. Students can leave written comments on the blog, and audio comments on a Voice Thread, without being registered at Edublogs.

Remember that students must be registered at Edublogs, too, in order to participate in the Student Forum.

It’s easy to embed a Voice Thread presentation, or any other web presentation, into a post. Just click on “HTML” and paste the embed code that your presentation has.

Here is a Tutorial on how to embed Voice Threads (or anything else) into a post.

Here is a tutorial on how to use Voice Thread.

Please leave any questions you have about any of this in the comments section of this post.

12 comments September 7th, 2008

Hi from Norway

I’m going to jump right in and take the opportunity to introduce myself properly. My name is Lisa and I am an English teacher at a small high school in Sauda, Norway. I am really looking forward to working with all of you, and hopefully our students will benefit from this project.

I have about 40 students who will be participating here, and I have already mentioned (briefly) to them that they might be given the opportunity to talk and collaborate with English learners from all over the world. They liked the idea and are eager to get started. Most of my students are 16-17 years old, and are at an intermediate level of English.

Looking forward to working with all of you.

4 comments September 2nd, 2008

HI from Spain

HI!

I’m not sure this is the place I am supposed to write or if I need to add it to any category… but I just wanted to try it and to say hello to you all. So, Pau from beautiful Tarragona in Spain greets you and hopes to encourage students to participate in your project.

Loads of love! 

4 comments September 2nd, 2008