mylife

2007-07-17T17:19:00.000+10:00

I think that if you want to see my postings you need to go to my teaching blog which is where I do more writing so that if they wish to my students can see.

Kylie's teaching blog
This should be a link to me and my recent spate of bad luck and car crashes

I am slack

2007-05-10T11:18:00.000+10:00

!Ok SO I have gotten a little bit slack ass I have been busy working on other things to establish. But a new group of students means that I have established a new round of blogs flooding blogger with more beginners to enjoy the wonders of the art of blogging.

trouble with passwords

2007-01-10T11:39:00.000+10:00

It really is difficult to remember all of those passwords that we get these days. I am currently locked out of most of my blogs and email accounts because I can not remember how to get into them. Silly me.

2007-01-09T14:32:00.001+10:00

Can not remember the password and name to my student blog so they are posting here!

Kensuke

2007-01-09T14:31:00.001+10:00

I watched the movie”The Lost World: Jurassic Park”.
This movie is about dinosaurs. But it’s not a serious movie. The theme of the characters in the movie survives dinosaurs. This movie is the second of the Jurassic Park series. A few characters continue appearing from the first movie of this series.
Dr.Malcom took Sarah from the island. There are a lot of dinosaurs on the island. But they were attacked by the T-rex. They couldn’t go back home. Then, they went to a building to call for help. After that, they could go back to America. But one T-rex followed them together. The T-rex rampaged around the city. Finally, they could return the T-rex to the island.
Maybe all of the actors are so serious, but they don’t look serious to me. They look rather funny. What’s more, this movie doesn’t have much of a story. If this is a serious movie, it’s a biggest problem. But this is an entertainment movie, so it’s OK to be able to enjoy this movie.

Rei

2007-01-09T14:31:00.000+10:00

January 9, 2007
The Lost World- Jurassic Park 2
Actors- Jeff Goldblum -Dr.Malcom
Julianne Moore –Sarah
Vince Vaugh
I have seen this series before, so I could expect the contents easily. Each time I watch the series I recognize that peace and calm are best.
Dr.Hammond made a world of many dinasours on a small island. But that caused a lot of death and damage to research workers on the island. Four years later, Dr.Hammond still hadn’t abandoned this project. He had continued this project. So when Dr.Malcom, who finished them last time, knew about that, he objected to Dr.Hammond and went to the island to rescue workers and stop the project.
The first half of the story was just scenes of people fleeing from dinasours. There were a lot of scary and thrilling scenes like the last movie. The latter half of the story was more surprising than the first half. A dinasour landed in the city and rampaged around, so it became a disaster. Finally, when it finished a dinasour was returned to the island. But many dinasours are left on the island.
I think the biggest meaning of the movie is to scare and surprise people by the pictures. I think that’s good. That allows people to blow off their stress. But that’s too exciting for me, so I didn’t want to watch it at first. But I was relieved this story didn’t have a bad ending. This series has many numbers, so I think all the series is like this.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park II

2007-01-09T14:29:00.000+10:00

The Jurassic Park are no main character their only have dinosaur.
The story tells about some people who went to an island and saw some dinosaurs.

They started to try to get photos of those dinosaurs, but they made those dinosaurs angry and they got lose.
They couldn’t get off that island; they tried to catch the dinosaur.

But was someone opened the cages and let the dinosaur escape so his dream was destroyed.
A Tyrannosaurus came and tried to eat them. One guy died.

They want to go back to a place where there is a telephone so they can get help.

At night, while they’re sleeping. The Tyrannosaurus came again.
They ran and some people died. They ran to the grass and other dinosaurs came to eat them. When they arrive the place can again content outside. While they waiting, a dinosaur has come again, they very scared of them. The women made two dinosaur fight and they ran.
The helicopter came and helped them get out. When they came back to their city, the man who caught the Tyrannosaurus came to the city, he wanted to earn money. But suddenly the Tyrannosaurus came out and tried to eat people.
It’s a silly movie and it was unrealistic. It’s difficult to believe that. Because of this I don’t like it.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T12:16:00.000+10:00

Merry Christmas to all. Probably not very PC but do not really care. Best of the season to all and hope the new year is terrific

A long time no Blog

2006-11-23T08:16:00.000+10:00

Wow it is easy to get out of practice with this isn't it? I have been busy doing lots of things and at the same time nothing. I think that I am in shock as I have not had to start summer school and I have nothing university related to think about at all. It seems strange.

I think I will be required to start some Tafe course just to keep myself occupied next year otherwise I will be a mess.

2006-10-31T15:38:00.000+10:00

Nilly,
My comments on your site are there Nilly aboout 4 from the bottom! They are not very long as I coould not find many anything wrong. Just one note was you could create a link to the site

http://dictionary.reference.com/. It is an online dictionary that is great as if it does not know the word it does an interenet search of other site for the word. I loved the colours on your site they were not too bright and this makes it eassy on my old eyes. Loved the topic and found the HP activites a challenge. This topic is great for long term students and short tour students alike. Can I use it with my class?

My reflection

2006-10-30T15:31:00.000+10:00

Well it is true that a second or even a third set of eyes is always useful. It seems that we never can see the mistakes that we make ourselves; we are just too close to the project. I had a few errors in my HP activities, such as one question having no correct answers (opps), and a second having a spelling mistake, located by fellow workers before I posted the Web Page. I should have also learned how to spell Moreton Bay before trying to establish that I was some kind of expert on the history of the region (Oh No!). Well it happens to the best of us.

The students from my language class who I tested it on seemed uninterested in this topic. I have always struggled to find things that they are interested and a happy medium between the doing nothing that they enjoy and the challenging projects that foster belief in their abilities and independence that I love is not possible. Perhaps I need to choose something that they enjoy like movies or sleeping (?!?) Perhaps my next attempt will involve links to music lyrics or popular movie stars official homepages so they can write a biography of their life or learn about their interests. Again however as I have not had a chance to try out the WebQuest on them they are perhaps not interested in the topic yet.

In order to interest my students I would have to make them read some of the information as one of those who reflected on my web page noted she did feel more interested in Brisbane after doing the activities, though both commented that they were a little bit of a challenge. These games I should have pointed out are designed to be done after learning about Brisbane as a kind of follow up galvanization of what they have learned and the English skills that they need. However all this aside given they were able to choose which area of history they researched I should have not made the crosswords in particular so challenging.

I could have also added pictures to the match and puzzles however I had considered this but many of Brisbane’s historic pictures are copy-written and there are not too many of the buildings left due the fire that ravaged Brisbane early last century. Still more colour perhaps may have made it more appealing to the students, as would have any pictures that I could have found. I also could have linked the history text to the puzzles that required it for completion. This would have meant that students would not have to keep clicking back and forth to figure out the things they did not know. This saves time and allows students to recheck facts that they are unsure of.

However one thing is certain, linking computers and the Internet to English lessons makes things more interesting for the students and the teachers as it challenges and motivates us to try harder. It also makes them more interested in a topic as one of the people who commented on my page noted, she is now more interested in Brisbane’s history then she was before. This extra interest in turn produces more competent language creators who are more focused on the task that they are involved in. It also helps to foster in learners that sometimes elusive trait of autonomous language learning.

currently reflecting

2006-10-28T18:03:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Jeff and Yvonne for their gret comments. I am currently reflecting and hope to post my full reflection in a few days. I have checked out a couple of the websites and I have to say that we all did a terrific job. Especially given that some of us did not have lots of skills or at least confidence in our skills when we started.

I have looked at Jeff's, Nilly's, and Mahsa'a and commented and checked out Julie's. If anyone does not end up with 2 comments let me know here and I am more than happy to help you out by commenting.

Congratulations to all of us.

My completed Web Page

2006-10-26T15:09:00.000+10:00

Here is my completed webpage. Please follow the link and prepare to be amazed by the wonder that is . . . .. . .

Kylie's Web Page

Please comment!!

2006-10-25T16:12:00.000+10:00

OK I have commented on one web page. Mahsa's page is amazing? I recommend everyone look at it. I will be trying to have my page posted by tomorrow but I jnust found some mistakes in my quiz so I have to fix it. Good Luck everybody.

Your Comments

2006-10-21T16:38:00.000+10:00

Thanks for all of your comments. Re anyone who wants to use a blog but students do not seem interested, I just set it up. Told them to write something then said I was going to put it on our blog. They can not freely write on it as I let two girls on to type something and not so favourbale things ended up being written. That had to be edited so now they email it and I edit it slightly. If they do not want it published I do not force them. They also get the choice of having no name on the post. THis way they know which is theirs but others do not necessarly know.

Now apparently tow or three of the girls have told famiily about the site and most want to see their stuff published.

My student's blog

2006-10-12T08:15:00.000+10:00

This is the blog that I set up for my students.

http://www.englishisreallyfun.blogspot.com/

My webpage

2006-10-04T08:41:00.000+10:00

Well after much confusion with Dreamweaver and other such programs I tried Geocities again and found that at least starting is eas.

Here is the begining of my

webpage

Kylie's webpage

Fostering Autonomy in a technology enhanced Inquiry based Foreign language classroom

2006-10-03T08:02:00.000+10:00

Well I read this article as I flew up to Townsville for my cousin's birthday party. It is interesting as it outlines the ways that technology can be used to foster autonomy in the classroom. Though I do admit that I would have been one of the very confused students that were mentioned in the study as I feel that autonomy is something that is generally not fostered in most learning environments. Whether it is somply that there is too much to get through each week, or that students seem to be unable to do it. I have tried leaving the responsibility for learning in my students hands but some of them are unable to accept that it is there responsibily. Two or three of them blaming me for there inability to complete the assigned tasks saying I never told them they had to do it. This is despite the fact that I told them every week for threee weeks but by the fourth week I had given up and by the fifth week I knew they did not care so I found it hard to.

I feel that discovery learning has its place but it is really important to show students what it is you expect them to do. You can not just hand them a piece of papaer and expect them to be able to produce the kind of work that you want them to. You must model or explain. Even if it takes more time than you might have available as this part is the one that will keep the students confidence up both in themselves and in you.

One of the students in the article commented something along the fact that she could have learnt at home by herself instead of doing the course and I think this is an indication that perhaps the person in charge of the course did not make themselves available enough to the students. Or perhaps did not explain or model what they wanted the students to do enough. On the opposing hand perhaps that student just needed a little more assistance to be weaned off the teacher feeding cycle that much of the education system places all of us in. In particular anyone who was at school around the time I was.

Life and Technology.

2006-09-21T11:25:00.000+10:00

I am really beginning to wonder when I will finish the new technological feat of creating a web page. I think hot potato looks good but I really need to remember to come to school with my computer because I have forgotten it today.

I think it is available at uni so I will have to do some work this weekend. I hope I will be able to finish it.

eportfolio

2006-09-16T15:55:00.000+10:00

Wow now I even have an E-portfolio. I am on the internet now. Do you think if I Googled my name more than just the artist from the US would come up? These are questions best left in the dark space that is the internet.

This is the picture that I added. Here is the link

Exploring the Blogosphere!

2006-09-16T10:00:00.000+10:00

This article which I found on the OLT is great. I am yet to finish but I am finding the way things are discussed is interesting. They justity the use of Blogs in class through Vygotsky's theory (1978) which states that meaning is created through social interaction. THis makes sense the students learn through doing. Theylearn the skills of editing through the self editing required when posting in a blog.

I am not sure that I think that the use of blogs in which you link to the source rather than cite will reduce plagerism. I would haope that the idea their thought are online open to use by anyone may encourage studenets to realise that they should respect the work of others.

They do provide meaningful use of language I think one of the most useful things that Blogs provide is the chance for students to post in both their native language and the language that they are studying. They truely are tools of communication that allow students to communicate with family and friends at home while showcasing their linguistic skills to those who read the blog. If they are communicating with language learners who come from differing cultural backgrounds they gain the benifit of language skills and a cultural perspective from a view different to them.

This article also raises the point that if you are going to be using them in class it is important to monitor the Blogs carefully this way you can eliminate any unsavory content that may appear.

The thing that the authors raise as the most important and the point that I agree with is that students control the imput to the website and they can see the product of their work. They can write for real porposes like expreessing their opinion also because the use of Blogs is relatively simple students are able to spend more time on the technicals difficulties of the writing not the problems of using technology.

All the Web Quests

2006-09-16T09:04:00.000+10:00

Wow I have just looked at a few of the webquests and they are great. Everybody has worked so hard and you can see in the results.

I think we have all come so very far.

Web Quests

2006-09-15T12:27:00.000+10:00

Well now that I finished creatng the webquest I finally had the chance to finish Tom March's article on What webquests are. It was interesting but raised lots of issues of the complexity of webquests. They are not really the simple things that they appear to be. I knew that the Quest I created had holes in it but I did not realise that I might have the major gaps that May now be present.

The things that March goes into create complexities that my toddler like understandings of technology can not yet grasp. I know that leaerning should be rich and engaging and I know that there should be more to the use of computers in the classroom than simply typing into word or using power point to create presentations. THough they are places to start.

I do however think that March ignores the fact that there are things that most students would rather be doing on the internet. Checking out fashions, emailing their friends etc. No matter how much fun I make the computer lesson I am yet to figure out how it is I can encourage my students to engage in the task at hand instead of going of in tangents.

I think that thw creation of a blog may assist in this but there is some resistance on the part of my school. They think that it will lead to students posting unsavory things, people posting unwanted comments etc. However I feel that these are all likely to occur in the activities and lives that the students encounter daily.

Random Thoughts

2006-09-08T17:14:00.000+10:00

Well most of you might know I have a fairly interesting class to teach. News is that most of the interesting students has gone home. I now have the most interesting dynamic with 5 Japanese female students and 5 Cantonese speaking Hong Kong students all of whom are male.

The Japanese girls won't work with the Hong Kong boys and the Hong Kongers just won't work. They seem to think that class is for very loud discussion about something, my Cantonese exists of 2 words both of which I will not try to write here as I know one is bad and I suspect the other is two despite being assured that it only means clumsy.

At least now I only leave the class shaking my head, not wanting to hit it against a brick wall.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-09-05T16:24:00.000+10:00

It has worked. It has worked. Yeah Thanks to Mahsa and Helen I could save every thing to H drive and publish it. I hope that I can add a link here. The evaluation and other tables have streached a little bit but I am happy as I was in such a panic last night I woke up and was unable to sleep from 3am to around 5. I will work on the table as there must be a reason that it has moved down to the absolute bottom of the page.

Ok the second test adding the link.

Kylie's Web Quest

Alright now I just have to edit the few mistakes out of my Quest and I can move onto the next step.

Panic

2006-09-05T08:07:00.000+10:00

Oh boy am I in a panic about this assignment. I could not sleep last night as I am worried that I will not be able to post in in H drive as I have tried but when I open the pages that are there it brings up the process creation page etc. I am going to try the useful ideas put on the chat forum by Helen and then go into full scale panic if it doesn't work.

Web Quests

2006-09-01T13:12:00.000+10:00

Now that I have started to read the Tom March Article I really wonder about how difficult it is to write a great web Quest. It seems that a mediocre one would be fairly easy to create but one which requires student’s to alter the material so that the information they find can not just be copied seems really difficult. It seems that he makes it all seem really easy but I think that given some of us are dealing with a lot of different kinds of student’s we have more problems.

I have tried hard to find something that will engage my students but the biggest problem for me is that I can not get my students to tell me what kind of things they are interested in. Every time I ask they say nothing or free time, or something that can not be discussed in class.

I really find that adding the internet and computers to activities really increases student’s passion for learning but they are so easily distracted by the other things that are available on the WWW and they have a real dependence on that translation website that turn previously sensible and comprehendible information into scrambled words that mean nothing.

I think that for many of the student’s that I have the best result that might come from a web Quest is that they will have to interact with others and help others as some of my students appear to be introverted and uncooperative when it comes to working with others. They also do not step outside of the boundaries of what they know. They won’t work with people who they are not friends with and this usually means people who do not speak the same language as them.

Does anyone have any idea on how I could get my students interacting better?

Reflection on Mohan reading

2006-08-30T13:21:00.000+10:00

I have just read two chapters from Pennington and Stevens booked on Computers in Applied Linguistics and have found some of the points with in the articles by Bernard Mohan interesting. As previously I had not considered the talk associated by the learning tasks assigned to students as being included in the language acquisition of our students. By this I am referring to any speech that takes place while the students are engaged on the task of language learning.

Associated with the web quest I had thought of some incidental learning as being linked to the way the group would be expected to work through the task, discuss the topic and work together to solve any problems that arise, however the incidental learning that could take place would be severely reduce if students are able due to similar backgrounds rely too much on their native languages. The discussion aspect that Mohan discusses seems to rely on students having to use English as a means of communicating with each other as differing first languages won’t allow for easy problem solving. This means that even the simplest and most basic of CALL lessons may have far greater impacts than first thought.

I think that it is important to use CALL lessons for more than just the online grammar exercises and typing tutor that might sometimes be forced upon us by the powers that be as lessons that engage the students and interest them are more likely to raise the incidental discussion that was discussed in this one part of Pennington and Stevens book. So far the most engaging CALL lesson that my students have had may not have raised a lot of English but made the students interested in something that involved English for more than twenty involved them typing a variety of words in a typing tutor style format, except that they had to type these words before they were eaten by a bunch of sharks. There was a lot of first language discussion however at least 4 out of the 12 students asked me what some of the words means and for me that was a small victory that while not the incidental discussion based learning that Mohan was discussing was I feel a form of learning none the less.

2006-08-25T16:59:00.000+10:00

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/

Yeah well that worked but at this stage I really ahve to admit to having troubles motivating myself. I am finding the WebQuest difficult and have been working on it perhaps to the detrement of readings. I have looked at some of the books listed on our Semester outline and am planning to look at the role of computers in SL development. I also want to read the Tom March article and a bit more from the prescribed text.

2006-08-25T16:05:00.000+10:00

I forgot to say that I put a link under my name on the wiki to WebQuest if anyone has trouble finding it through other ways.

This WebQuest

2006-08-25T15:55:00.000+10:00

I really have to admit that the one problem that I am having with anything created online is that once I step out of the comfort zone that is Microsoft works I lose that wonderful tool called spell check. Therefore my webquest is littered with spelling mistakes and grammar mess ups.

I Have a link on my wiki page to great free educational based pictures but I do not know how to insert a link on this blog.

More Saturdays at University

2006-08-19T12:03:00.000+10:00

Well once again it is a Saturday workshop and I am exhausted already. I have not yet done anything about having my students establish Blogs as I have to wait for the Tech guy to come back from China to ask if he thinks it would be OK. I do not want to create trouble on the server at work as the poor baby is already overworked. The computer server not the tech guy.

The Ekka

2006-08-15T08:19:00.000+10:00

Well it is that time of the year again where Brisbane nd most of Queensland goes just that little bit crazy for the show. Personally I could not think of a more boring way to spend that day. So I took the money it would cost to go to the show and went shopping. While $100 doesn't go far shopping it would have even less use at a show where you pay $21 to get in and from there on you have to pay for almost anything, Rides, food, showbags.

Have never really been into this annual event, maybe on day it will hold more interest.

More on Bridges

2006-08-09T11:24:00.000+10:00

Well last weekend I climbed the Story Bridge and this weekend I ran across the Gateway bridge in the bridge to brisbane annual fun run. It was good though fun run is a bit of an oxymoron but I enjoyed this head down, I-Pod on and just run for 12 kms, well perhaps not run for 12 km but at least 6 or them I was running. Kind of a cycle run. walk. run, walk, usually determined by a person that I decided was not allowed to pass me once I passed them and if they did I had to run again.

2006-08-04T16:41:00.000+10:00

OK all I need to do now is figure out how to get the picture from here to the profile. HMMMMMMMMMMM now how do I do that when it keeps telling me that there is an illegal character.

2006-08-04T16:37:00.000+10:00

1984

2006-08-02T15:19:00.000+10:00

Wow trying to understand the complexities of George Orwell's book is hard enough let alone trying to make ESL teenagers see the interest in it and explain to them it is a classic piece of English literature when all they say is it is boring.

Crossing bridges or climbing them.

2006-07-31T08:21:00.000+10:00

Well talk about your soft adventure. As lovely a view as it was now see that I am a little more courageous than I thought ass I did not find climbing the story bridge as exciting as I thought I would. I mean compared to highropes work and sky diving it is a little bit tame.

I am glad that I have done it but I think that the next spare $100 I have will go towards something with a little more adrenaline involved.

WebQuests

2006-07-28T17:19:00.000+10:00

I am now required to write a webquest as assessment for this subject I'm doing at university. Any ideas as to how this might be possible. I am never going to be able to do this. Am not sure that I will even be able to decided on a topic. Well I will keep trudging along and hope that my current fancy of "Famous Australians", not talking about the boring ones. (sorry Nicole, Keith, Eric, etc) I am talking Edith Cowen, Banjo Patterson. But not too sure just yet.

Understanding

2006-07-27T08:26:00.000+10:00

Well this week hass been really terrible for me as my class of students have transformed hormonally to monsters. They seem to lack what I thought was a common understand that all people are different and that the most important thing you can do is work you hardest to show people the respect that they deserve. It is my feeling that until the prove otherwise they deserve this respect siimply because they are humans and I am afraid that most of my students lack what I assumed to be a common beleif of most people in this international world.

What am I to do whne I can not even make them understand why we try to accept people even if we do not understand them.

2006-07-22T13:57:00.000+10:00

Reasons behind title myboomeranglife

2006-07-22T13:47:00.000+10:00

Just in case you all think I can not spell boring. My name means boomerang so generally it works its way into my various email and web things someway.

2006-07-22T13:35:00.000+10:00

Well so this is blogging. I would have thought that more effort was required to set one up but you learn something new everyday. Even on the weekends it would seem. I am so relieved as this is the final subject for my masters in Education and by the end of October I will have more free time than I know what to do with. I might actually be able to learn how to use all of the function of my camera.

The weather in Brisbane is good it rained a little last night so I guess I should be hoping that it was also raining near the catchment areas as Queensland is really drying up for the dams that feed Brisbane are only 28% full so they are basically almost empty.

My first blog

2006-07-22T10:47:00.000+10:00

Ok this is the first time I have done this kinda thing as I am a bit technophobic. I am not sure how well this will work.