Hi everybody. As you might have seen, I have tried to group the guys starting from the songs rather than from the guys themselves, because this way things are much easier. I have used the data in the page: not all the guys have expressed their preferences, anyway, I think that now we have the groups and so the guys who are not included can choose what group to join. Please, invite them to consider the less numerous groups. I don't think it is a big problem if they don't like any of the songs: after all they have to work on the language.
So long,
Ale
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Yes, I mean one page for each group, possibly in a different blog, since we have four blogs at the moment. I don't think we'll need more. I completely agree on flexibility: anything can be change if we see it doesn't work.
As for the song, I propose the list only because I have seen that in Italy, Lithuania and Portugal guys listen to the same songs and I assumed, but I might be wrong, that also in Bulgaria and Spain the same songs are popular. If they work on something they know and like, everything can be easier. Of course, any other song can go: it is so easy to upload a youtube video and get everybody know a song that I don't think it might be a problem. Anyway I prefer a limited choice because I think it is easier for them to choose. The worksheet will be about the English language, won't it?, so I don't think "identification" with the song might play such an important role now.
Anyway, any suggestion is always welcome.
in discussion Hidden / Per page discussions » Songs and the English language
Thanx Ale. To your Qs
re page, comments, and word.doc - if we have 3 or 4 or more? groups, do we need a different page for each group's song? Maybe we do. I will trust your instincts and am ready to go along with that. I will wait and see how you do it on your blog and will do the same. If for some reason we need to change this form of communication, we could be flexible, no? re wiki ; also a word document could be published in the blog too, and if we use mail, with track changes, we could still have 'visibility'+team work; wiki could be 'pre-final'(before uploading it to twinspace) maybe - just thinking aloud.
re choice of songs - in Bulgaria we don't have this kind of top ten chart - MTV's charts here are the international ones,(not sure anyone follows that but songs become popular in their own way, through discos, through TV programmes, ..) we have only charts of Bg music published, so my students need to choose from what you(pl) have published(btw, this is the reason I haven't contributed to this list). Personally I am not familiar with the lyrics of these songs but this is not a problem, once the students choose what they feel like designing, I can always facilitate their work. So I don't mind students choosing from this list. I was just thinking if we this should limit their choice to it only - I assume not all of my students would 'identify' with these songs, but I might be wrong. Will spend some time these days to check out some songs from this list to see their potential for the task we are about to set out to accomplish. This is from me for now. Hope it's been helpful. btw Can you recommend some songs from this list pls? You sure know much more. Thanx.
Hi Tanya, it's not that easy to explain I am afraid. Anyway, what I mean is to create a page in a blog in order to give our students a "place" where they could work together on the same topic. Suppose a group decides to prepare a worksheet on a song. Well, we or they can prepare the main post and they could use their comments to write down their opinions, to give suggestions, in one word to prepare their work. When they have something ready, a sort of draft, they can write it in the wiki. We said that we would create a secretary for each group and he/she would be registered in the wiki to have the possibility to edit the draft. This way everybody can see how the work is developing and can contribute. If we don't want them to use the wiki, they could prepare a word doc. with their proposals and we could paste it in the wiki. I think a comment in a blog is more visible than a post in the twinspace forum and mails have no visibility at all. I don't know if it makes sense, we should try and see. Anyway, I am open to any suggestion, of course. By the way, do you agree that each group should choose a song out of the top ten list we have written in the blog?
in discussion Hidden / Per page discussions » Songs and the English language
I see your point Ale
When you say 'page', do you mean we should publish ongoing work there? Pages are not interactive, they would become too long(does this make sense? am struggling to express my meaning here), or perhaps you mean we should create a page to explain in general terms what is going on, and then publish 'posts' categorized under this page?
I agree on getting them work in pairs, but I am not so sure that communication through mail is the best way. We have four national blogs at the moment: what about creating a page in each one for each group? So everybody can see what and how everything is going on and be involved, even if outside the group. It's just an idea. What do you think?
in discussion Hidden / Per page discussions » Songs and the English language
My students also would like to be in pairs, so I agree with Tanya.
in discussion Hidden / Per page discussions » Songs and the English language
Hi all
My suggestions for group work:
1. Two students from each country in each group - this would make students feel more confident; and if one in unavailable for a reason, there would be the other to cover them;
2. Teachers monitoring groupwork - e.g. a teacher facilitating 1/2/3? groups - students need this ongoing help from us;
3. Comminication theough eMail probably best, and once work has been done, we could post files to international blog/wiki and twinspace.
Hi everybody, I have pasted on this page what Marta has uploaded. It's better to write on a page instead of uploading files, because this way everything can be read more easily. On the contrary, we can upload the worksheets we have prepared as samples. You can find mine as files attached to this page
in discussion How to organize our work and more .. / teachers' corner » students' chat times
I think that until things go better, we can use the blogs which, unluckily, at the moment are under maintainance and I cannot access them :(
in discussion How to organize our work and more .. / teachers' corner » students' chat times
Hi everybody,
I also have problems with etwinning. I can login but not my students. I´ve got an answer from our Swedish support, who had contacted Brussels and they gave some suggestions for solving the problems. I haven´t tried to deal with them yet but they asked me if : 1.there were any programs apart from the Browser, which might be blocking popups?!!
2. they also say it all depends on local client settings
What shall we do???
in discussion How to organize our work and more .. / teachers' corner » students' chat times
Just to say - cant download Mozilla, but I have the right version of the Internet explorer(as they say in the etwinning help section), maybe something in my settings is wrong, will try again later.
in discussion How to organize our work and more .. / teachers' corner » students' chat times
Hi Tanya, Mozilla is a different browser from Internet Explorer. You can download it - it is free - and then connect through it instead of Explorer. In my PC it works, my students on the contrary cannot enter the twinspace any longer :(
in discussion How to organize our work and more .. / teachers' corner » students' chat times
Thanx Ale
It's just that I have no idea what Mozilla is - this is all weird, how are we going to upload files, chat,etc…..Odd! I have also written to our Agency, no reply yet.
in discussion How to organize our work and more .. / teachers' corner » students' chat times
Hi Tanya, I had the same problem. I have witten the Italian agency but cannot help. Anyway I now can enter it through Mozilla instead of Internet Explorer. You should try some other PC and see if it works. Anyway, I have started a discussion for our students in the international blog, which is easily accessible for everybody.
in discussion How to organize our work and more .. / teachers' corner » students' chat times
Hi
I can't access twinspace - can you? No one of my students can either. Ca you help pls?
Thanx.
I have just posted two threads in the forum of our twinspace - thanks to Mozilla I can now access it. Ask your students to start using it so that they can get used to it. From home of course
As for the second step, I don't have enough students to form 8 groups out of them: I can create no more than four groups so I don't think I will be able to fulfill all the parts of the step.
Or I will try to make them work in a different way. I will discuss with them tomorrow
I think you'd better open the forum in the twinspace. I cannot access it: I have written the Italian agency and hopefully they will reply soon.
I can anyway create a new thread in the blog forum, but it is not so easy to access. Have you ever tried the ones which are already there?
Marta says "I have made some changes in the PROPOSAL of activites, timing… of STEP 1:
I have added section 2.7. which is about English words related to music in each language. Then students can compare the words found in all or almost all languages involved in the project. The reason, I have a very large group of students this year: 35! So I needed an extra activity. I think it's up to any member to work in all sections proposed (can you think of any other?)
I have also added, thanks to Ale's clarifications, the place (I mean, the wiki, the blog, the twinspace…) where we will use.
Please, have a good read at the proposal, (it's only a proposal) and please, give your opinion on the matter. I need to have things clear to start working with my students."
I was thinking which way would be the best to work on. I think that maybe ALL STUDENTS shculd work on section 1 and 6. Section 1 is a kind of general introduction and section 6 is the final product somehow. Then for sections 2, 3, 4, 5 we could create groups and each works on one (could they be collaborative: I mean, by means of a workshop or in mixed nationalities groups???)
