9 Tools to Create E-magazines and Newspapers for Your Class
November 26, 2012
See on Scoop.it – Computer Aided Language Learning
When I worked in a public school in Japan, I remember how the students would make the front page of a newspaper to tell about their school trip to Kyoto, or other events. Now your students can go from analog to digital.
I am pretty sure as you introduce the idea to your students everyone will want to have a say in their next e-magazine. There is nothing much more rewarding to students then to have a proof of their hard work recognized in a publication of some sort.
Most of the tools cited here are easy to use and have user-friendly interface and they will let you create your own e-magazine or newspaper in few simple steps. Yet I would recommend your discretion as you use them with your students.
See on www.educatorstechnology.com
See on Scoop.it – Computer Aided Language Learning
Interesting post here, there is a top 100 Language Learning Blog Competition, and this is one of the nominees.
Foreign Language Education in the 21st Century has been nominated in in this year’s Lexophile/bab.la Top 100 Language Lovers 2012 competition again. Thank you, whovever is ‘responsible’ 
for this. Please click on this …
See on juergenkurtz.wordpress.com
http://www.librarydevelopment.group.shef.ac.uk/showcase/tutorials/lit_review/intro.html 
Literature reviews can be a complex process, and with the plethora of data out there to consume, (journals, books, the Internet) the University Of Sheffield posted this handy guide for those who need a little more structure to their research. To see the whole tutorial, click here or the image.
If you want to look at another way to approach a literature review, look at this
Motivation in 300 words
June 5, 2013
This article concisely describes the psychology of motivation and the basic underlying factors that increase or decrease it.
According to Ryan and Deci (2000) motivation can be broken down into three factors:
- Competence
- Autonomy
- Relatedness
Click the link to read more. Also included are links to other related articles on motivation.
Richard M. Ryan, Edward L. Deci, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2000, Pages 54-67, ISSN 0361-476X, 10.1006/ceps.1999.1020.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X99910202)
Good advice for creating a thesis statement.
May 11, 2013
Good advice for creating a thesis statement.
I came upon this via Twitter from a friend @gotanda to be exact and I couldn`t pass this up.
The University of Indiana Writing Tutorial Service or WTS for short gives some very excellent guidance on developing a thesis for a paper. While it gives advice for those assigned to a topic, it also offers advice for unassigned topics, which help not only student writers but also old hands like myself who need to write, but mentally wrestle with early part of the process.
My favorite part is the final one which provides a guide to determine the strength of the thesis. This also is excellent advice.
For the teacher this can be also valuable for your learners, and the content can be utilized for in class activities, such as a discussion about the effectiveness of a thesis statement. You can choose a topic and the students can generate a thesis statement, probably this is ideal since it may be something that might not be threatening. Then have them evaluate and come to an agreement about the impact of the thesis regarding the shared topic.
Enough about what I think… for thos those who want to read it here it is.
Happy blogging!
May Madness and Joomla sitebuilding!
May 7, 2013
Dear teachers, bloggers and everyone else who have been following me.
First I want to say that your support is appreciated, and not in a small way too. It feels good to offer something to others and while I do not really know. (except for those who comment and the stats) who reads what I write, I still appreciate it.
As you may have noticed, I have not been updating this blog as much as I would like, but please stay tuned. The magic will come.
For the most part I have been building a website for my work actually, and this time a portal site via Joomla. If you ever find yourself building a website with this content management service ,then by all means check out this video. It has helped me immenselyBuild a Joomla Site in One Hour with iLoveWebDev
But the hard work pays off in the end. For those interested in teaching English in Japan, especially in the Kanagawa prefecture, I have built a site for those looking for support. Please click here to see and if you are a teacher in elementary school, junior high or high school, please feel free.
Literature Maps by Creswell
March 5, 2013
Creswell in his book details how you can use a “literature map” in order to create a lit review. Check it out here!
100+ Google Tricks for Teachers
February 27, 2013
See on Scoop.it – Computer Aided Language Learning
From super-effective search tricks to Google tools specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time.
A must have for any serious Googler!
See on www.teachhub.com
A fun novelization of The MacArthur Digital Youth Project
February 14, 2013
If our COETAIL reading about Digital Youth didn't grab you, maybe this novelized version will. In Cory Doctorow's Pirate Cinema, the characters and situations from the MacArthur report come alive in a digital Dickensian London.
- SOPA and PIPA become the Theft of Intellectual Property Act.
- The ubiquitous surveillance state, ASBOs, and moral panic about the depraved youth of Britain remain the ubiquitous surveillance state, ASBOs, and moral panic about the depraved youth of Britain.
MAJ: Best Moodle Innovation Award ベスト・ムードル・イノベーション賞について
February 7, 2013
See on Scoop.it – Computer Aided Language Learning
Planning to go to this conference. Hope to learn a lot since I am new to Moodle.
See on moodlejapan.org
子ども中心ではじめる英語レッスン・Teaching English to Children in Asia
January 10, 2013
子ども中心ではじめる英語レッスン・Teaching English to Children in Asia
Cover of English Version
I think if there was ever a more influential book out there for teaching EFL in Asia this text written by David Paul is the one. It is my personal favorite.
In the early days of my teaching career when I was fresh and in need of some guidance, this book lead the way for me especially when I had to teach younger children. The best part about it is the philosophy: child-centered learning over teacher-centered learning. Is the ideal teaching situation one where the students are told what to learn or is it discovered on their own in the right conditions? How do we deliver content and at the same time encourage our students to “discover” English and not be too dependent on the teacher at the same time?
This text, along with others, will be based on a two workshops I will teach at the Kanagawa Institute of Language and Culture in the Summer of 2013. One will focus on the elementary school context, the other will be in the junior high/high school context. I hope I can shed light on some of these questions in my workshop. The focus will also be on how to conduct cooperative language learning as well.
If you click the link you can find a copy but strangely the Japanese translation of this text is out of print, which makes me wonder how it was received in Japan.
A Calm Teacher Makes a Calm Classroom
December 20, 2012
5 Ways to be a Calmer More Effective Teacher by Michael Linsin
Five, all you need is five bits of advice to have to teach students in a calm, collected manner. Interesting advice is here for teaching language, and for teachers in general.
A lovely blog
November 29, 2012
Hello everybody,
A fellow blogger Chelsea Brown sent me this award a while back, and since I was taken by this simple gesture, I figured I would pass this along. I know it took me a while to get this together, but here it is.
Now according to these rules, I need to describe seven things about myself.
Well, here we go,
- I live in Japan.
- I love my son, and he is the most precious thing in my life right now.
- I teach people, and people teach me. It`s not an easy job, but I think this is a choice that I feel good about. Of all the occupations I considered, this one can let me sleep at night.
- I teach English and at the moment I am training teachers in Japan on how to be better English teachers for their students, schools, communities.
- I am an artist, and I try to approach the challenges, and problems in my work and life in an intuitive manner.
- Also I am a researcher in applied linguistics and corpus linguistics. The concept of data driven learning is very appealing but also very challenging to apply in the classroom.
- The one quote that I live by: “In the beginner`s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert`s mind there are few”- Shunryu Suzuki.
Now my five favorite blogs:
1 corp. ling.stats|Statistics for corpus linguistics= If you want to learn how to use stats this blogger is quite thorough.
http://www3.nufs.ac.jp/~yoshi/teaching.html
2 One page I really enjoy is on Scoop it. and that is by a fellow colleague Marcel at the Kanagawa Institute called Internet Resources for Paper Based EFL which functions as a site for teachers to access tools for creating worksheets, games and other time-saving tips for the language teacher.
Internet Resources for Paper Based EFL
3 Another WordPress page which is devoted to 21st century applications for learning with a particular focus on young learners is
4 If you are interested in criminal justice, CrimeDime is the source. I haven`t seen many posts lately but I hope to read more soon. The info you read about crime, law enforcement, and the prison industrial system in the US, this can be quite an eye opener.
5 And finally I have to give some Linux love to A Psycho Path who writes some excellent advice for those who use Ubuntu like myself. Check out this when you have a chance.
http://sosaysharis.wordpress.com/
So according to the rules those of you who I mentioned try to pass the favor by talking about yourself, and choosing 5 of your favorite blogs. I know we are all (myself included) busy so no pressure here.
Thank you Chelsea for awarding me with this and for everyone`s support.
