Blog challenge Eleven #tagged + my questions

#eltpics by @foster_timothy

This is a follow-up to my previous post about the new blog challenge which was started by I-do-not-know-who and will end I-do-not-know-when.

My task is to name bloggers who I would like to tag and whom I would like to ask my 11 questions. I will try to name the people who I have not seen tagged by other bloggers (though I have not read all blogs). You can see that I'd love to tag some people who can't be tagged!

@naomishema
@aClilToClimb
@GetIntoEnglish
@esolcourses
@AnaCristinaPrts
@knolinfos
@bucharesttutor
@ does not have a blog
@ can't write in English
@ too busy

Here is the potpourri of my questions.

1. When is your birthday? (No need to mention the year!)
2. Describe the place where you were born (as some of you do not live in your native country).
3. What do you do first thing in the morning?
4. How do you relax? (Parachuting or abseiling would be met with a standing ovation!)
5. Do you like circus? Why yes/no?
6. Can you explain the difference between a sleuth and a sloth so that a child can understand? 
7. Can you swim? (I can't!) How did you learn to swim?
8. What are the first three words that come to your mind when you think of school? (Quick!)
9. Which (one) year of your life would you like to repeat? Why?
10. What is your favourite music?
11. What makes your day?

After you respond to my questions on your blog, you may treat yourself to any chocolate from the shelves below.

#eltpics by Roseli Serra

Blog challenge Eleven+ tagged by @seburnt

I could not find the first post that started this amazing blog chain of nifty personal revelations where you have to do the following:

1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
4. List 11 bloggers.
5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don’t nominate a blogger who has nominated you.

My thanks for tagging me go to Tyson Seburn who is the only Canadian I know (apart from Justin Bieber and Alice Munro, oh, and some actors).

Tyson has an intelligent blog or, should I say, a blog written by a highly intelligent person. Had I been born in an English-speaking family, I may perhaps be able to write smart responses to his perceptive posts... but I had not. I observe (on Twitter) how he changes his image still retaining that look of a reticent, yet interested professional.



Some facts about me.
(I never thought this was going to be so difficult - to pick just 11 things out of your whole life!)

1. My name Baiba was coined by a famous Latvian poet and playwright Rainis exactly 100 years ago and it has no meaning whatsoever.
2. I am an avid bookworm, there is NO day when I don't read. I can read in three languages - Latvian, English, Russian, equally fast. I can read almost anything, except Danielle Steel. When I have run out of reading stuff, I read a dictionary. For the life of me, I could not name ONE favourite writer.
3. I learned (about 25 years ago) and can recite Shakespeare's sonnet 116 at any time of the day or night.
4. In my teens, I studied in music school. My instrument is an accordion (because my father played it, I guess) but I can also play the piano.
5. In my youth, I did a lot of singing - I have been a solo singer in a group, I have sung in several choirs and participated in singing contests. Now I only sing at informal parties.
6. In people I value a sense of humour as the most important of all qualities.
7. I love driving, that is the only sport I do.
8. I am a coffee-lover. I don't drink tea. I am picky about coffee, and I was taught to drink good coffee by my eldest daughter who lives in Italy. I never drink instant coffee.
9. My favourite fruit is apple. I eat about 3 apples a day, on average.
10. I have been to 20 countries, mostly European, attending project meetings, PD courses or as a tourist.
11. I have never been to hospital except to give birth to my two children.

My answers to Tyson's questions:

You have 5 minutes to rescue one of your blog posts from oblivion. Which do you pick? Why?

I guess it would be the post inspired by @teflgeek The Domination Game because once I learned the game and adapted it to my needs, I have used it at the end of every semester for almost two years with most of my junior classes. Students love it!  

How did teaching become (part of) your career?

In fact, it's the only career I have made. And I could not have a different career because I studied for a teacher. But there have been hundreds of times when I wished I had chosen to do something else. Luckily, this feeling always dissolves.

Aside from weather-related impressions, how does Canada come across to you? If you’re Canadian, how do you think we come across to others?

Everybody knows that Canada is one of the most prosperous countries in the world. But what I believe is that Canadians are very independent, considerate and level-headed. (Don't ask me why.) In my ignorance I have a vision that Canadians are either English or French, so - what is a Canadian?

What career path could you have easily gone down had teaching not worked out?

This is easy. I'd have been either a hairdresser (I always cut my younger brother's hair until he stopped letting me do it and rolled my mother's and aunt's hair on hair rolls, they said no one could do it better) or a singer which has been explained in my comments above.

What characteristic of your Chinese zodiac animal sounds like you?

This is the staff that I don't read but my Zodiac sign is Aries and its description pretty much describes me. But don't seriously believe it!

What do you do vastly differently now than when you were a new teacher?

I am more tolerant, for sure. I know how a kid thinks, I can predict their reaction, I can see behind their emotions.

What book have you wanted to read but have never gotten around to it?

This is incredible but I usually get all the books I want to read. I have ordered tons of books from the bookdepository website (they have every book you can think of), bought them in the bookstores and borrowed from the library.

Out of these options, the best class size is… 1 student, 5 students, 13 students, 24 students, 50+ students.

For me, the best size is 13 (15) students. It's manageable, it's compact, it's easy to pay attention to details, it allows more individual help, it has better collaboration options, it lets any personality stand out.

Does your middle name have some meaningful significance, if you have one?

Unfortunately, I do not have a middle name. At the time I was born it was not a practice.

You will give a workshop to your colleagues. What would you feel comfortable leading a session on?

I have been doing it for years and the theme is always the same - technologies, digital tools for teaching and learning. I am proud that I am ready to give such a workshop at a moment's notice.

How do you feel about carpeted rooms in your house?

What a cool final question, totally out of sync with the others! I have no carpeted floors, it is not a tradition in Latvian homes. At best, we may have one large carpet in the living room. I think carpets are good for accumulating dust.

Merry Christmas, Tyson!

My questions for the bloggers I am going to tag will follow tomorrow.

Computers - friends or foes?

Recently I attended an award ceremony for the best teacher blogs 2012 organized in Latvia.
Yes, my blog was chosen as one of the best (so far, I'd like to add, because I am sure a new wave of talented and insightful bloggers will appear in no time).
While the recognition of my work was gratifying and inspiring, the discussions which followed the event made me think about the fragile reputation of technologies and computers, in particular.

It seems there are still lots of teachers who would gladly ban computers from students' lives blaming the machines solely for the kids' deteriorating physical bodies.

I get irrationally defensive when I hear vehement assertions that computers are to be blamed for the generation of weak, unfit children and their inability to perform well in sport or other physical activities. It reminds me of another popular culprit - PowerPoint, which is held responsible for all unsuccessful, unprofessional, boring presentations.

While I admit that computers can have a negative effect on two things - handwriting and eyesight, I can not get rid of the feeling that we would like to make computers account for physical laziness, inert lifestyle, too much eating, too few walks, parental neglect, lack of interests.

We forget to acknowledge that the use of computers develops young people's brain, their ability to cope with unexpected situations, their decision making skills, their reaction rate, their dexterity after all.

I don't even dare to hope that the time will come when schools here will approve of the flipped classroom method in teaching. That would be one straw too many...

I'd really like to hear your opinion. You can write in Latvian as well.

Summer holidays and computers

Image by Spree2010

I have been trying to accustom my students to using online sites for creating their personal pages. They started with wikis a few years ago, went on to using class websites and ended up with writing their blogs.

As an example, you can take a look at the class website of my 15 year old students which was mainly used for posting tasks and (sometimes) asking for their responses. Students learned to write comments and read what other classmates had written. Very often an online task was accompanied by a follow-up at the next lesson to ensure they would read what the others had written.


My 17 year old students tried out blogging last summer which you can see here. I created a class blog and each of them had a page (some students did not feel like doing it, the others worked all summer, so I did not insist). They could post on their pages their summer reflections and pictures. For all of them it was the first time they published something on the web, and they unanimously declared it had been a wonderful experience, though not exactly child's play.  


On the last day of school I discussed with my students what they could do online during the long summer holidays (on rainy days, on being-sick days, on I-am-bored days) and, not without a bit of resistance, we made a deal - they create their own page of choice and I give them grades in autumn.

I made several suggestions about the websites and tools they could use, depending on what they felt comfortable with.

Beeclip is a website for creating a personal scrapbook. If you gather your summer impressions in pictures and don't feel like writing a lot, that's the right tool.
Update! Beeclip has now been updated to Biteslide. It is a beautiful site for creative projects and presentations, and students can work on them collaboratively.

Diary is a free, personal online journal which is available to anyone older than 13 (Terms of Use). Write entries and post images on your page, keep it private or show it to everyone.

Penmia is a free, secure online diary for capturing your impressions, reflections and thoughts. Penmia lets you upload pictures and attach links to your posts.

Notepub is a free online notepad which can be made public or kept private. It allows you to write posts, upload pictures and attach files. It is simple and easy to use which makes it great for students.

Orbs is an excellent option if you'd like to share editing and posting on your page with another person. It allows to create a webpage with 2 editors for free so it's a fantastic opportunity for two best friends!

September will (or won't) bear fruit and I'm keen to see how tech-minded my students are.
 

Compare and contrast: #photoblog challenge

Spot 12 differences in pictures No.1 and No.2 - a task for primary level but anyone can try :-)

Inspired by my PLN.

Picture No.1

Picture No.2

The question: What was being built in pictures No.1 and No.2?
The answer is here:

Picture No.3

Less known blogging and website platforms

Even if you have your own blog or website, you may want to try out something new and swap WordPress, Blogger, TypePad or Live Journal for some newer platform.
Less known (used in the title of this post) is relative of course.

Here are some sites which offer services for bloggers or website creators. 
I have chosen only those sites which are free or offer a choice of a free basic account. They are listed in no particular order.

I'd like to recommend Weebly in the first place because it has a special version for education which lets you create a class website or blog with your student accounts. They can publish their projects, e-portfolios, homework on the site.
Editing of the page is very easy - you just drag and drop everything you need including photos, maps, videos, texts etc. I love the promise that there are no advertisements on your site.

Lifeyo is another blog building platform with an intuitive interface which can be used with students. I quote Richard Byrne from  Free Technology for Teachers: "LIFEYO's ease of use makes it easy to get students creating websites."
What is truly great is the absence of advertisements on your blog. It is also suitable for creating and publishing your portfolio.

Jimdo is a site which offers a private account for free with the storage of 500 MB.
I quote ReadWriteWeb: "One of the easiest tools we've seen for creating truly multimedia sites!"
There is a video tutorial of how to make a website in minutes. One of the best features of Jimdo is the wide choice of languages to choose from. This makes it possible to use a Jimdo-hosted website for the speakers of other languages, not only English.


The site which looks really cool is Jux which combines Open Source and Creative Commons principles. It requires no knowledge of HTML or other coding but it lets you play with themes, templates, widgets etc.
I quote the website: "Everything on the site is a widget than can be dragged, dropped, moved and reshaped willy-nilly. The basic site widgets include a text box, an image, a page title, a site title, etc."

SnapPages is somewhat similar to the Jux website. You build your site by dragging and dropping page elements and widgets. The basic account is free and offers a storage of 1 GB which is more than enough for a personal website.

A fast and free website building is promised by Webnode. It says "Even your grandma can do it!" which may encourage beginners to try this platform out.
There are hundreds of really beautiful templates to choose from. You can create photo galleries, polls, forums and add plenty of gadgets and widgets.

Sub Hub Lite is another web platform for creating your personal blog or website. It promises an easy and fast way of setting up a fully customizable website.

hPage is a totally free website building platform. It has a long list of features and many extras. You can choose between English or German to use on your site.

Moderating my first online course

[P o s t p o n e d !]
Next month I am starting a new course, approved by the British Council and the Ministry for teachers who want to learn new ways of using the internet with kids at school. This is a great course, challenging, demanding but also satisfying the needs of a caring, professional teacher who wants to be knowledgeable in Web 2.0 tools.

I am looking forward to this course not only because I will have to test my skills as a moderator but also as a blogger who has been blogging in solitude for about a year, writing for myself, as I like to remark. I would love to have comrades who would care to visit my blog and I would be immensely interested in visiting their blogs in return.

I don't feel like twittering or chatting but somehow blogging has an inexplicable appeal to me. A blog is like an open door to a person's thoughts and views. I would like to have a chance to be a guest to another world-of-mind now and then...

First blogging

I am sitting at the seminar about blogging and writing my first blog ever! I am not sure that I will continue with this but you never know... So far I haven't felt the necessity. Though I like the new Web 2.0 features very very much!