Halina's Webinar August 30th 2014

I am posting my video to introduce myself....

Songs to teach English: Footprints in the sand

Songs to teach English: Footprints in the sand
Music in English teaching.

Hey Jude - Paul McCartney, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Sting, Phil Collins...

My favorite singers. What do you think?

Music For Montserrat was a concert held on September 15, 1997 at the Royal Albert Hall. Musicians came together to raise funds for the Caribbean island of Montserrat after a major volcanic eruption earlier that year had left the island devastated. The concert starred musicians such as Phil Collins, Ray Cooper, Carl Perkins, Jimmy Buffett, Mark Knopfler, Sting, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Midge Ure, Arrow and many more, all of whom had once recorded at the island's famous AIR Studios.

The concert was arranged and produced by George Martin, with proceeds from the show evening, DVD and CD, used for immediate relief and also helping fund the building of a new cultural center in Montserrat. On completion in 2006, George Martin gifted the centre to the islanders.

For Carl Perkins this was his last major live performance as he died just over four months later on January 19, 1998

Bruce Springsteen - Save The Last Dance For Me (Live Albany 2014) HD Pro...

Drum Roll Sound Effect

Hi everyone,
Halina is waiting for you...

Sheryl Crow Performing "All I Wanna Do" (Official Music Video '94)

The lyrics for the song are based on the poem "Fun" by Wyn Cooper. Crow's producer (Bottrell) discovered Cooper's poetry book "The Country of Here Below" in a Pasadena, California used bookstore. Crow adapted "Fun" into the lyrics for her song – earning Cooper considerable royalties, and helping to push his book, originally published in a run of only 500 copies in 1987, into multiple reprints.
The opening spoken line, "This ain't no disco", is a reference to the song "Life During Wartime" by Talking Heads.When played on radio or at live performances, the line is also commonly changed to refer to the local listening area (such as "This is VA" instead of "This is LA").

Competence in Communication

The presentation is about how to communicate efficiently and the ways of improving communication skills.

My online activity inspired me to get reverting to my earlier research about effective communication.

From my view, connecting with the use of the Internet seems to be creating new questions about the way people communicate.

I am working to present a theoretical backdrop to the principles of the process of communication, as well as communications skills models.

My approach is based on the well-known model of the functions of language introduced by  Roman Jakobson. Although it is recognizable that Jakobson’s theory can be challenged on numerous grounds from a theoretical perspective, I have always been linked with his theoretical explanation of the purposes of linguistic communication.

“Jakobson and Halle’s initial statement of the principles of linguistic organization should be made available to all future generations of linguists. It builds a solid foundation for Saussurean thinking about linguisic oppositions and establishes distinctive feature theory as the basis of their formal treatment.”

Prof. Dr. William Labov, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics

Along with Roman Jakobson’s  functions of the language model, we can formulate some basic queries.

·       What is Communication?

·       The Categories of Communication.

·       The Communication Process.

·       Communication Channels.

·       Principles of Communication.

·       Interpersonal Communication Skills.

·       What is an online communication?

·       The Benefits of Blogging.

https://www.academia.edu/11562219/Competence_in_Communication_And_Interpersonal_Skills
https://www.academia.edu/11562219/Competence_in_Communication_And_Interpersonal_Skills

https://www.wiziq.com/tutorial/928605-sbf15-halina-on-competence-in-communication-and-interpersonal-skillshttps://www.wiziq.com/tutorial/928605-sbf15-halina-on-competence-in-communication-and-interpersonal-skills

Music Lessons Make You Smarter Infographic

Music Lessons Make You Smarter Infographic - e-Learning Infographicse-Learning Infographics

Education Online The Latest State of Research

There are both pros and cons of online education.

Online learning should be seen as a complement and extension of classical forms of learning. Not even the best online course can fully replace the personal contact with a teacher, or the human relationships that develop in a group.

All in all, traditional classes should not be replaced with online learning.

The Secret to Learning a Language in 10 Days- Revealed!

Traditional Tips for Beginners

1. You are like a new baby
   Babies learn their language slowly.
   First they learn to listen.
   Then they learn to speak.
   Finally, they can read and write.
2. Listen to English every day
   Listen to English radio.
   Watch English TV.
   Go to English movies.
   Use online lessons.
3. Make an English/ESL friend
   Make up conversations.
   Practise dialogues.
   Use beginner textbooks.
4. Read English stories
   Start with children's storybooks.
   Try ESL readers.
   Read advertisements, signs and labels.
   Try EnglishClub.com for Young Learners.
5. Write down new words
   Start a vocabulary (new word) notebook.
   Write words in alphabetical order (A...B...C...).
   Make example sentences.
   Always use an English-English dictionary first.
6. Keep an English diary
   Start with one sentence.
   How do you feel?
   How is the weather?
   What did you do today?
   Write another sentence tomorrow.
7. Visit an English speaking country
   Learn English more quickly.
   Stay with an English family.
   Hear native speakers talk.
   Have a fun experience.

Welcome to Halina's Conversational English

Halina's Conversational English Online

 

Join this free online course on WizIQ.

Are you unsatisfied with your level of English?

Would you like to become a fluent, as well as a forward-thinking speaker?
If yes, my course is exactly for you!

Course Highlights

• This course will help you to become fluent in English
• Astonishing learning methods that work in reality
• Make unbelievable progress through self-study; I'll be your tutor

Opening Meeting Class on WizIQ

http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/2438529-introduction-to-halina-s-conversational-english-course

 

The first class on the 17th of January 2015 is about meeting and getting to know each other.

The main topic is covering a short introduction to the values of being fluent in English as well as how not to learn foreign languages to escape from widespread learning mistakes.

Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly

 

 

Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová – Falling Slowly (from Once – The Movie)

Dave Dodgson: A year in review. Three Quick Ideas to Start your 2015 Classes | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

Dave Dodgson: A year in review. Three Quick Ideas to Start your 2015 Classes | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

 

Idea 1 - R&R: Reflections and Resolutions

An obvious angle to go for at the start of the New Year is Resolutions. However, this lesson can often have the same problems as resolutions themselves – generic, hollow, and something that is quickly abandoned or forgotten.

However, a couple of years ago while focusing on reflective practice during my MA course, I decided to apply some of the principles of teacher reflection to a New Year’s lesson for my students and the results were much better and it has now become a recurring feature of my late December/early January teaching.

1. First of all, I ask students to think about everything they did, were a part of, or witnessed in the year just gone. Their first task is to identify and list the three best things from the year. This is done as a silent individual activity with plenty of thinking time – it’s often harder for people to remember the good things than the bad!
    
2. Next, the students pair up to compare their personal ‘best of’ lists with plenty of questions encouraged.
    
3. To complete the T-P-S (Think-Pair-Share) cycle, each student shares what their partner told them with the rest of the class.
    
4. Now time to focus on the things that could have gone better. Again, students get thinking time to consider what didn’t work out so well (whether through their own involvement or something beyond their control) but they must also identify why these events could have been better. I generally tell them to stick to one or two things so the overall tone of the lesson remains positive.
    
5. Steps 2 and 3 are repeated as the students compare and discuss with a partner before sharing with the class.
    
6. And now for the resolution part. Focusing on those things that could have been better, the students must decide what they can personally do in the New Year to address these shortcomings, solve these problems, or make these improvements. Their goal in this stage is to write out two specific and focused resolutions (with help from the teacher to modify and reformulate when necessary).
    
7. These can then be shared either orally or through Post-Its on the wall or a class blog if you are into that kind of thing. Don’t forget that students will appreciate their teacher taking part in this process too!

Idea 2 - The best (and worst) of 2014

This is a more recent idea that I have used in the last couple of years as part of my game-based learning classes but it could just as easily be done with films, TV shows, music, or books if your students are not gamers.

Depending on what your class are interested in, before the lesson you should pick out one of the many ‘best of’ lists that circulate on websites and in the wider media at this time of year*. Try to keep it short – a top 5 is enough and it shouldn’t be more than a top 10. For low level classes, a simple list will do. Higher levels might be willing to get to grips with the write-ups that accompany the picks as well.

*There is an alternative to this, which is presented below.

The rest of this brief write-up will use games as an example but the principles are the same whatever media you choose.

1. Start with a discussion question: What new games did you buy/play this year? Again, give some thinking time before asking the students to compare their ideas in pairs and groups. In the whole class discussion, direct the class to identify which games they enjoyed and which ones were disappointing (it might be a good idea to get some of the titles up on the board).
    
2. Present each pair/group with the list you picked out before the lesson. Tell them which website/media source it is from and stress that it is just an opinion. Ask them to read through the choices and discuss whether or not they agree.
    
3. Task each group with drawing up their own ‘best of’ list for the previous year. How they do so is up to them – they might try to reach a group consensus, they could each choose one or two titles to go on a list, or they could vote. They must be ready to explain their choices to the rest of the class afterwards.
    
4. Higher level students could be asked to prepare an article introducing each game and explaining why it was chosen.
    
5. At the end of the lesson, students can refer back to the games from the past year they didn’t like and make an alternative list of ‘the worst games of 2014’. If you have time, you could present them with another article to kick-start the activity (plenty of the same websites that present ‘best of’ lists also have ‘worst of’ round-ups).

*As an alternative, you could not pick out a list for students to look at before the lesson and instead ask each group to search online for a list of the ‘best games of 2014’ and present it to the class This is a nice way to hand control over to the students.
 

Idea 3 – Word of the Year

This is a new one I tried out just before Christmas when I read a news story that the ‘word of the year’ for 2014 (as chosen by the Oxford Dictionary of English) was ‘vape’ (as in the action of using e-cigarettes). This is a rough outline of how I did the lesson:

1. Write the word ‘vape’ on the board and ask if anyone knows what it means. If they don’t (my students didn’t), ask them to first guess and then look it up (they will need to look it up online to find the meaning). If they do, great! Ask the person who knows to explain what it means and go to the next step.
    
2. Ask the students if they can work out why you presented them with this word (if they had to look it up online in step 1, they may have found the answer while searching; if they already knew, they may have to get searching now). Invite discussion as to why this was chosen as the word of the year.
    
3. Discuss with students how new words enter languages, especially their own native languages. Is it through common use? Featuring in a dictionary? Through an official establishment? (As many of my students are French speakers, we had an interesting discussion about the Académie Française and I also told them about the Turkish equivalent, the Türk Dil Kurumu).
    
4. Get the students to research previous ‘words of the year’ (they may also find an American version, which makes for interesting comparison). Did they know any of these words already? Which ones did they find the most interesting/bizarre? Why do they think these words were chosen? (One interesting trend my students spotted were the number of words relating to economic problems like squeezed middle and credit crunch, as well as the environmentally themed words like carbon footprint and social media related phrases like selfie, which they felt reflected our times).
    
5. Make a prediction – what words have been circulating in the media recently and could be the word of 2015?

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/davedodgson/dave-dodgson-a-year-review-three-quick-ideas-start-your-2015-classes?utm_source=07+January+2015&utm_campaign=ConstantContact+5+November+2014&utm_medium=email

Teaching with Technology: Week 1

What does teaching with technology mean to you?
To me teaching with technology means development of my approaches. 
Making my classes more challenging and more exciting was my reason to search for the different methods.

After over thirty years of teaching, I felt bored with my traditional technics and wanted 

to find some inspiration, as well as improvement.

Happiness is when... You Learn with Technology ?

Teaching to Learners of all Styles - Official WizIQ Teach Blog

Teaching to Learners of all Styles - Official WizIQ Teach Blog

 

http://www.wiziq.com/teachblog/learning-styles-all-learners/

 

 

Teaching to Learners of all Styles at Traditional Schools

When I think of learning, I do not think of school. I think of reading a book in a library, listening to audible (recordings of books) in the car, or sitting in the garden with a book or an iPad. I do not think of school. My learning styles involve out of the classroom experiences.

School Curriculum and Learning

Schools are complex organizations with a top-down management system that aims to promote learning. Every school has a written curriculum that binds all the stakeholders of the school. However, a school curriculum may have more in it than meets the eye.

Information for ALL

Society is continually changing as a result of the fast moving pace of technology. The Internet is now a major provider of information. Information is now available at the click of a finger. Teachers are no longer the sole providers of knowledge and  information. Learning is no longer limited to space or time. Learning can take place online at any time or from any location. Schools may lose their place unless they advance with the times. They do not need to mirror an outdated social structure. They can now integrate technology and open their doors to new and more challenging curriculums.

School Curriculum

A school curriculum is an organized framework that guides teachers and students in the required learning. It is similar to a contract between society, the state and educational professionals with regard to the educational experiences that learners should undergo during a certain phase of their lives. Both the school and the community have a say in the development of the written and unwritten or hidden school curriculum.

Hidden Curriculum

There are differences between written and hidden curriculums. Teachers teach and students learn implicit concepts and patterns. Some of these are written in the curriculum while others are not. Teachers may not be as aware as their students that they are transmitting unwritten or hidden curriculum ideas. Students may sense it much faster because some of these ideas force the students to behave in ways they do not always like. Students learn quickly that they have to conform to the rules of the school if they want approval.

Hidden Curricula serve a purpose:

• Indoctrination to maintain social status
• Set the stage for formal education
• Rules to complete formal education

Students acquire these and other hidden ideas while attending school. Many schools promote social norms and values that such as being punctual, competitive, waiting one’s turn, learning to accept hierarchy of authority, patience and other goals and functions of  society.

School promoted socializing codes of behavior may adversely affect students. Teachers convey many messages to learners from the outset of school. Some kindergarten teachers go as far as to control the children’s behavior and perception of the world in negative and often inappropriate ways. Apparently, youngsters adjust their emotional responses to conform to those considered appropriate by the teacher and school . Youngsters do not always feel at ease with being quiet and not being able to express their feelings. The hidden curriculum sometimes determines limitations to student behaviour in the classroom that may hinder learning.

On the one hand, the hidden curriculum may limit teachers’ instruction because it forces them to teach students how to behave in ways that may not enhance learning instead of devoting time to content and other skills that could facilitate life long learning. This takes time away from the written curriculum’s plan for learning. In addition, teachers do not always feel comfortable instructing students on socialization. They feel that these are things parents should be doing at home.

http://www.wiziq.com/teachblog/learning-styles-all-learners/

http://slidespeech.com/s/endxRSDben/

Better version, I hope.

SlideSpeech: New Year Celebrations in Poland_B

SlideSpeech: New Year Celebrations in Poland_B

I am so proud of this.

New Year's Day and New Year’s Eve, known in Poland as Sylwester (St Silvester's Day), marks the start of the carnival period, which features celebratory events like balls and parties. A fun tradition that has been popular for centuries is the kulig (sleigh rides). Many people in Poland celebrate New Year’s Day with dances, concerts, and meals featuring traditional Polish dishes including bigos (hunter’s stew).

Christmas in Poland 2014

For Poles, Christmas Eve is a night of magic when animals are said to talk and people have the power to predict the future. It’s a time for families to gather and reconcile any differences, and to remember loved ones who have gone before them.

Wigilia (vee-GEEL-yah), which literally means "vigil," or waiting for the birth of Baby Jesus, is considered more important than Christmas Day itself.