Our dedicated classroom building gives us the opportunity to build a center for international teaching and learning. We have just added benches to the 'back lobby' to provide seating so it seemed natural to try to define this area as a 'reading room'.
Today we rolled the book cart out of storage and into the 'back lobby' to give our students access to free reading materials. The books have orange dots on the spines simply to signal that they are part of our open collection to be returned to the shelves.
Immediate student interest prompted Moe to post a temporary sign. I was thinking of posting something creative to tie reading to increased vocabulary and thus to higher TOEFL scores. Any ideas? We'll be trying a format of open lending - borrow, read, return - for now. Next step might be to ask students to note their recommendations in the front covers or on a clipboard.
Certainly you and students are welcome to add your used books (cookbooks? travel books? fiction? poetry?) to the shelves and to borrow freely from the collection.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
New equipment in 2nd Street. - PowerPoint Remote, Tablet PC
Hi all,
Thanks to Karen, recently we have two new equipment coming in 2nd street classroom building. The first one is PowerPoint remote control, which allows you to control the PowerPoint slides when you are not around the PC. This way you don't have to walk back to the PC everytime just to press the mouse button.
The second addition is a Tablet PC, allowing you to write on the screen and project the screen content to the big screen. You can write on your PowerPoint to stress your point, or just start doodling on the screen if you want to make it an art class. Ursula has been our pioneer and tried out the tablet in her writing class this summer, and she likes it a lot.
If you want to try the two device to see if you can use it in your class, please feel free to contact Moe at 2nd Street building
Thanks to Karen, recently we have two new equipment coming in 2nd street classroom building. The first one is PowerPoint remote control, which allows you to control the PowerPoint slides when you are not around the PC. This way you don't have to walk back to the PC everytime just to press the mouse button.
The second addition is a Tablet PC, allowing you to write on the screen and project the screen content to the big screen. You can write on your PowerPoint to stress your point, or just start doodling on the screen if you want to make it an art class. Ursula has been our pioneer and tried out the tablet in her writing class this summer, and she likes it a lot.
If you want to try the two device to see if you can use it in your class, please feel free to contact Moe at 2nd Street building
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Salzburg Global Seminar
Although my work this week at the Salzburg Global Seminar is not directly related to our classroom work, it has been an extremely valuable week for making campus connections. There are 11 representatives from 11 different SJSU departments, so the opportunities to introduce SAL programs have been very good.
Our purpose this week has been to discuss ways to internationalize the campus with the outcome of making SJSU attractive to students, staff, and faculty as a place of global education. The lectures have gone well beyond curriculum and campuses and conclude with the very important role that education - especially international education - can and must play in addressing global problems. Not only is education the only successful road we know to controlling population growth (effecting food, water, and pollution), it is also the best means to changing prejudices and opening dialogs.
Come to think of it - I should have started by saying this week IS directly related to our classroom work! All of the lectures and powerpoints will be distributed on a CD that we plan to post on a website to share with all.
Our purpose this week has been to discuss ways to internationalize the campus with the outcome of making SJSU attractive to students, staff, and faculty as a place of global education. The lectures have gone well beyond curriculum and campuses and conclude with the very important role that education - especially international education - can and must play in addressing global problems. Not only is education the only successful road we know to controlling population growth (effecting food, water, and pollution), it is also the best means to changing prejudices and opening dialogs.
Come to think of it - I should have started by saying this week IS directly related to our classroom work! All of the lectures and powerpoints will be distributed on a CD that we plan to post on a website to share with all.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Home-Away-From-Home Lunches
At NAFSA this week, I was part of workshop on student support activities that address student needs during the cycle of cultural adjustment.
Suffolk University acknowledges the predictable low period in cultural adjustment when students seek out their countrymen for support. Suffolk sets up lunches for country groups in October and February just as the excitement of living in the US is wearing off. Returning students are invited to join tables with new students from their country and share their experiences in surviving and thriving.
The conversations have included such things as the best place to buy/find their homeland food or how to interact with a particularly "different" teacher or interactions with a nationality that they had not experienced at home. One of the results is that the students help each other through some of the challenges in housing, food, relationships.
Suffolk has a smaller student population and so is able to provide lunches for all. Perhaps SAL could do something similar after classes in the afternoon with snacks? Or provide some reimbursement if the students want to go somewhere to meet? Any suggestions?
A related idea was to set up Peer Outreach Partners (POPs!) to pair 'senior' students with incoming students. The success is more dependent on the pairs getting along well - something impossible to predict.
Suffolk University acknowledges the predictable low period in cultural adjustment when students seek out their countrymen for support. Suffolk sets up lunches for country groups in October and February just as the excitement of living in the US is wearing off. Returning students are invited to join tables with new students from their country and share their experiences in surviving and thriving.
The conversations have included such things as the best place to buy/find their homeland food or how to interact with a particularly "different" teacher or interactions with a nationality that they had not experienced at home. One of the results is that the students help each other through some of the challenges in housing, food, relationships.
Suffolk has a smaller student population and so is able to provide lunches for all. Perhaps SAL could do something similar after classes in the afternoon with snacks? Or provide some reimbursement if the students want to go somewhere to meet? Any suggestions?
A related idea was to set up Peer Outreach Partners (POPs!) to pair 'senior' students with incoming students. The success is more dependent on the pairs getting along well - something impossible to predict.
I'm very big on keeping an English only environment, but I can see real benefit in creating or supporting student support networks within their compatriot groups.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
EZ Slang Activities online
Randy Davis from University of Utah has created several sites for the ELI students. EZ Slang has slang vocabulary, audio files, and activities that would be interesting for our students. Very easy to use. This could be especially good in our ACC classes.
TESOL IT Fair
Perhaps just one more post from the NYC TESOL. Randall Davis runs the ELI lab at University of Utah. He gave a terrific presentation on technology in the IEP curriculum and also coordinated the Hardware Fair. I'm linking to the description of the Hardware Fair to give you an overview of the many possibilities that were on display. I hope these posts are inspiring us to try to new things ~ especially with Moe on board to help.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker is a great tool for our students to make short videos--probably for OC class. Suzanne Ludlum from Oakland Adult Ed showed us how her students make Digital Stories. Here are some results:
http://storiesforchange.net/stories
The idea is for the student to pre-write her story and then think of a sort of story board.
She can easily find images on Google images and save them or import her own pictures.
You insert your pictures, apply video effects and transitions, type over them using titles or credits or title overlays, and then use Audacity to narrate your story. You can have background music as well.
I'm quite interested in becoming more adept with this and after Moe gets other more pressing tasks under control, I want to work with him on this so that I can do a demo of it for interested teachers, OK?
http://storiesforchange.net/stories
The idea is for the student to pre-write her story and then think of a sort of story board.
She can easily find images on Google images and save them or import her own pictures.
You insert your pictures, apply video effects and transitions, type over them using titles or credits or title overlays, and then use Audacity to narrate your story. You can have background music as well.
I'm quite interested in becoming more adept with this and after Moe gets other more pressing tasks under control, I want to work with him on this so that I can do a demo of it for interested teachers, OK?
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