Hello EVO people,
I have been chasing the mountains all week to get some photos to show you how beautiful “my” mountains are! There are two rivers flowing into Grenoble, and one flowing out, which makes three sets of mountains which are very different from each other: the Belledonne, Vercors and Chartreuse. This means that you never get lost in town, because you just have to look up and you know which direction you’re going in. Why did I have to chase them – because the clouds gather on the peaks in no time at all, so dirving home from work, I would think, “Great – a clear day to take a photo”, and arriving home find that little wisps of clouds had spoilt the photo 🙂
But EVO is drawing to a close, and by becoming an Edublogs supporter I discovered that you can record a comment directly, so – although I haven’t had time to make a blog worthy of the name, if you would be so kind as to leave a message saying where you are and what students you teach, or what you think are the main advantages of these web tools for learning English, or any other advice you could give my students- who are all Physics and Electrical Engineering undergraduates – I would be absolutely thrilled !
so here, for you is:the Vercors, seen from my department at the university
Belledonne seen from my garden (and across the field of my neigbour, (who is a farmer):
And you can just see a glimpse of the Chartreuse behind the little hill (which is a moraine)”
Dear Elizabeth and students:
First of all I want to thank your teacher for the beautiful pictures she placed as a present for us. Your pictures are lovely! I visited Grenoble many years ago and fell in love with the place.
My name is Maru, I’m from Mexico. My students are teenagers and adults but I don’t teach, I learn with them. Why? The subjects are computer programs and web 2.0 tools. We are all learning together! What I do, as your teacher does, is to set the environments to participate and we all follow the course materials.
Over time BaeL the site grew, now we have participants learning Spanihs and participants learning English.
The advantages for learning languages using Web tools are many. First, I can get in touch with people from all over the world and improve my listening skills by checking the different accents and pronunciations. If I make friends who communicate only in English, that gives me the chance to improve my writing skills. If I participate with voice tools I can get more pronunciation practice by leaving voice messages or joining voice threads. Besides, web 2.0 are F.U.N. so I learn and at the same time I have fun.
You are very lucky to have Elizabeth as your teacher!
A big hug. Maru
Hello, Elizabeth and students.
I’m Dennis Oliver. I live in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. and am no longer teaching in an institution, but when I worked at Estrella Mountain Community College and at the American English and Culture Program at Arizona State University, I used the WWW as often as I could with my students. I think the Net can be a wonderful aid to learning for many reaons—among them, the fact that it provides an enormous number of resources for information on topics that interest each of us individually (which is certainly more motivating and real than most of what we read in textbooks) and the fact that today, a huge amount of realistic listening and speaking material is readily available online (which can also be a wonderful way to experience language in realistic settings).
When I was teaching, I found that students often wanted me to tell them what to do, and I was always happy to help when I could, but I also found that students generally learned more and remembered it better when they worked together and took personal responsibility for their learning; the Net has made both of these easier to arrange.
You’re lucky to have Elizabeth as a teacher, and I wish you and her success in your learning journies!
Best regards from Arizona, U.S.A.—
Dennis in Phoenix
Best wishes from the Grand Canyon State!
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Hi Elizabeth,
You live in heaven!
The photos you have taken tell it all!!
I am Hala Fawzi, an English language teacher from Khartoum, Sudan.
One the major advantages of Web 2.0 is the connection we make. See how apart we are, and , in the mean time, how close we are because of the use of blogs, yahoo groups, wikis and voice tools?
Have fun learning English and best wishes.
You are lucky to have such a teacher 🙂
Hala
Wow ! Grenoble is amazing !I adore moutains and rivers like you .I grew up in Midelt , a similar region to yours in the Mid Atlas mountains of Morocco .A few miles away from Midelt , Al Ayachi mountain which is 3737 meters high stretches like a rainbow in the south East of the town . I used to stay long hours contemplating the greatness and the beauty of this mountain especially when it was covered with snow .Oudad river crossing the town flows from a huge source at the foot of the mountain called Tatiwin .In my childhood , I used to spend summer holidays in the jugly areas of the river .There , I learnt swimming for the first time .There too , I caught my first birds with traps and sling shots .There too I had the dearst and the most terrible souvenirs of my childhood.
Now I am a teacher of English at Hassan II high school in Benimellal , Morocco .I have been a teacher of English for 21 years .This year , I teach common core , 1st and 2nd year Baccalaureate students .I like teaching English because English is a beautiful language . Moreover , I can communicate with the whole world .I love and respect students who are hard working and have a high sense of responsiblity because learning ,for me , is a mission that students should do successfully .It is a result of efforts students make ..I still remember when I was chased out of the class by my ex teacher of English when I was 17 because I couldn’t understand a single word of what he was sayning and I couldn’t catch up with my classmates . I was at the first year of high school which was the first year to learn English in the Moroccan educational .system . From that day I decided to learn English no matter how difficult it might be .Despite the scarcity of resources and books , I managed to become a brilliant student by the end of that year. Since then , I have been convinced that willing is being able .
Now the resources are abundant ! Web 2.0 tools are effective and free ! With a few click you can get the information desired .With a few click you can register your voice or publish a comment or participate in aforum . Moreover , teachers are more , understanding and motivated . Take the example of your wonderful teacher Elzabeth , she has created this beatiful blog just to help you communicate with the world and to learn English at your own pace . There are many other web 2.0 tools which you can try by yourselves such as chinswing , vaestro , voicethread , wordle , mychingo , webpaint , pbwiki , netvibes , pageflakes etc
Finally , I highly appreciate the efforts your teacher makes to introduce and integrate these tools in her teaching and I will be delighted to see the results of her commitment translated into your hard work and total engagement .
Happy to have visited your blog ,
Mbarek , Benimellal , Morocco
Dear Elizabeth Ann and students,
What amazing pictures you have taken. I love mountains too (Caracas is set in a valley with the Avila Mountain range at its North and several lower ones to the South) and yours in Grenoble are spectacular. The same thing happens here. There are no clouds early in the morning and in about 30 minutes or an hour, the peaks are completely covered. We have no snow, though, and our temperature is from 15-30 degrees Centigrades all year long.
I would love to have our students collaborate sometime but most of my courses are on EST reading comprehension and we have no computer labs available for all of them at the moment (I usually have two sections of 25 students each). It would be great to match them for a couple of weeks sometime.
I see you have been very active in BaW09. That´s great.
All the best, Berta
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Dear Elizabeth,
Your photos are truly wonderful. As I live in Grenoble myself, I can say we live in a wonderful town surrounded by the gorgeous mountains you captured so perfectly in your lens.
I am a retired ESL teacher, who is delighted to have experienced this digital revolution. The Web 2.0 is not only a fantastic resource library at the click of a mouse but also the possibility for people all over the world to share their creativity. Today students need not be passive listeners, who only regurgitate what the teacher has explained. They can organize their own learning and “teach” others what they have discovered. We can all learn from each other.
For language teachers like myself the Web 2.0 is the opportunity to listen to authentic accents in sundry tongues from all over the world and to learn how to “speak” these languages.
Thank you, Elizabeth, for reminding us how lovely our world is and how lucky we are to be able to share our feelings with others.
Marianne Raynaud
Crolles (Grenoble) France
Hi Elizabeth
just came back for a peek at your photos to remind myself of how beautiful Grenoble looks !
You’ve been working away on your blog too – it can seem rather frustrating at first when pupils don’t seem to pay much attention – but I keep reading the encouraging words in baw09 to keep me motivated !
I’ve just started the 31 day challenge on edublogs ( more like 93 days for me !) – have you seen this ?
bye for now
Helen in Nice ( soon Grenoble !)
Hi there!
I just wanted to tell you I’m so proud of you! Your students are really lucky to have you as teacher!
Congratulations for all you’ve achieved! keep it goin’
Elena 🙂