Now, I would do just about anything for Anne, so here’s a special edition of my PLN Quizzes, especially for Tech Tools Day participants. (Of course, you can take the quiz whether or not you are at Tech Tools Day!)

The quiz has five questions, based on five blog posts. Each has something useful to teach about technology and education.

Read the posts before you take the quiz. The main point here is to direct you to some excellent reading. You’ll also do better on the quiz. If you don’t like your initial score, you can take the quiz again. Again, the main point is learning, not grading. However, you will get a lovely certificate at the end of the quiz to display proudly on your own blog or web page

If you want to read about the motivation behind these PLN quizzes, go here. (If you’re unfamiliar with the acronym PLN–Personal Learning Network–read “What is a PLN, anyway?”)

This quiz is based on the following five blog posts:

The Best Kept Secrets of Highly Successful Edu-Bloggers Part 1 by Karenne Sylvester

Microblogging for EFL with Plurk by Nik Peachey

Wikis by Lucy Mellarsh

Creating your Digital Self Part 1 by Ozge Karaoglu

Commercials in the EFL Classroom by David Deubelbeiss

Click here to take the quiz –> What you can learn from my PLN quiz #6

Congratulations!

Anne Hodgson

Janet Bianchini

Sue Lyon-Jones

Michelle Worgan

Catherine Dorgan

Sabrina

These teachers answered all of the questions correctly on PLN quiz #4, and will soon be receiving their Horn and Kit Kat care packages

Now, for quiz #5. This is the final installment of the five quizzes I promised.  If you want to read about the motivation behind these PLN quizzes, go here. (PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, read “What is a PLN, anyway?”)

Tips: Read the posts before you take the quiz. The main point here is to direct you to some excellent reading. You’ll also do better on the quiz. If you don’t like your initial score, you can take the quiz again. The goal is learning, not grading (although you do get a very cool certificate at the end of the quiz!).

Since this is the final quiz for awhile, I’m going to send “prizes” to everyone who takes the quiz and gets a perfect score. If you are one of the first five to do so, you’ll get a package of Royal Milk Tea Kit Kats, plus something else from the previous quizzes. After that, you’ll get a mixed and matched assortment from the goodies left over from earlier quizzes, or what I pick up at the store.  Of course, if you’re in Japan I’ll be happy to substitute an “American” prize, and if you don’t care for sweets at all, I’ll substitute a non-food prize

Good luck and have fun!

The deadline to be eligible for the drawing is 11 pm on Wednesday , July 14th, in Japan. That’s 2 pm GMT time. For other times, check here.

This 5-5-5 quiz is based on the following five posts:

Criteria for a Good Cultural Training Lesson by Alex Case

Individual Differences Count by Mike Harrison

Video Fun for Everyone by Nick Jaworski

Love and Respect by Melania Paduraru

I Don’t Want to Say It, Sir! by Vicky Loras

Click here to take the quiz–>What You Can Learn from My PLN Quiz #5

This past week, some readers let know know that one of the links was broken in my post for PLN Quiz #4, and others let me know that they couldn’t access the quiz website. I appreciated the time they took to 1) try and take the quiz, and 2) tell me that there was a problem.

Since people wanted to read the posts, and couldn’t, and wanted to take the quiz, and couldn’t, I’ve decided to extend the deadline for My PLN Quiz #4 for five more days instead of posting the next quiz.

The intent of these quizzes has been to introduce great blog posts from members of my personal learning network, not competition or evaluation (you can re-take quizzes until you get a perfect score). These posts are all worth reading, so I think it makes sense to give everyone more time to do so. Chocolate is simply a nice reward for taking the time to explore these articles.

Speaking of chocolate, to try to entice folks to try again (after dealing with broken links and troublesome websites), I’m going to send “prizes” to everyone who takes the quiz and gets a perfect score. If you are one of the first five to do so, you’ll get the reward chocolates I mentioned when I first posted Quiz #4. After that, you’ll get a mixed and matched assortment from the goodies left over from earlier quizzes, or what I pick up at the store. If you’ve already taken the quiz and gotten a perfect score, it still counts. You don’t have to take the quiz again. But, if you tried and couldn’t take the quiz, or didn’t have time, you have another chance.

Tips: Read the posts before you take the quiz. The main point here is to direct you to some excellent reading. You’ll also do better on the quiz. If you don’t like your initial score, you can take the quiz again. The main point is learning, not grading.

Good luck and have fun!

The deadline to be eligible for the drawing is 11 pm on Friday, July 9th, in Japan. That’s 2 pm GMT time. For other times, check here.

This 5-5-5 quiz is based on the following five posts:

Paired and Group Writing Activity by Sean Banville

Teaching English in Brazil by Henrick Oprea

Being an EFL Teacher by Eva Büyüksimkeşyan

The Art of Teaching by Aniya Adly (aka The English Teacher)

EFL Teacher Progress Check: adult language learners by Karenne Sylvester

Click here to take the quiz — > What you can learn from my PLN #4

Congratulations!

Colin Graham

Catherine Dorgan

Harini Dwi

Janet Bianchini

These teachers answered all of the questions correctly on the June 23rd PLN quiz, and will soon be receiving their Macademia Takenoko no Sato and White Chocoloate Kit Cat care packages

Now, for the next quiz. If you want to read about the motivation behind these PLN quizzes, go here. (PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, read “What is a PLN, anyway?”)

Tips: Read the posts before you take the quiz. The main point here is to direct you to some excellent reading. You’ll also do better on the quiz. If you don’t like your initial score, you can take the quiz again. Again, the main point is learning, not grading.

As with the previous quizzes, at the end of five days,  I will draw five names from the pool of quiz takers who answer all five questions correctly. This time, the five “winners” will receive a package consisting of limited edition dark chocolate and almond Kit Kats and Horn cookies (sugar cookies wrapped around chocolate).  Of course, if you’re in Japan I’ll be happy to substitute an “American” prize, and if you don’t care for sweets at all, I’ll substitute a non-food prize

Good luck and have fun!

The deadline to be eligible for the drawing is 11 pm on Saturday, July 3rd, in Japan. That’s 2 pm GMT time. For other times, check here.

This 5-5-5 quiz is based on the following five posts:

Paired and Group Writing Activity by Sean Banville

Teaching English in Brazil by Henrick Oprea

Being an EFL Teacher by Eva Büyüksimkeşyan

The Art of Teaching by Aniya Adly (aka The English Teacher)

EFL Teacher Progress Check: adult language learners by Karenne Sylvester

Click here to take the quiz — > What you can learn from my PLN #4

Congratulations!

Arjana Blazic

Catherine Dorgan

Jane Barden

Katerina Zempeki-Stamelou

Leahn Stanhope

Marisa Parvan

These teachers answered all of the questions correctly on the June 18th PLN quiz, and will soon be receiving their Frambroise Kit Kat and Tanabata Koala March cookies care packages

Now, for the next quiz. If you want to read about the motivation behind these PLN quizzes, go here. (PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, read “What is a PLN, anyway?”)

Tips: Read the posts before you take the quiz. The main point here is to direct you to some excellent reading. You’ll also do better on the quiz. If you don’t like your initial score, you can take the quiz again. Again, the main point is learning, not grading.

As with the previous quiz, at the end of five days,  I will draw five names from the pool of quiz takers who answer all five questions correctly. This time, the five “winners” will receive a package consisting of white chocolate Kit Kats and Macademia and chocolate Takenoko no Sato cookies (they’re shaped like young bamboo shoots). Both are limited release flavors. Of course, if you’re in Japan I’ll be happy to substitute an “American” prize, and if you don’t care for sweets at all, I’ll substitute a non-food prize

Good luck and have fun!

The deadline to be eligible for the drawing is 11 pm on Monday, June 28th, in Japan. That’s 2 pm GMT time. For other times, check here.

This 5-5-5 quiz is based on the following five posts:

Children are Always Cute by Esra Girgin Akiskali

Responsible Racism – A Guide for Teachers by Darren Elliott

I’ll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours by Steven Herder

TEFL Bingo – Eyes Down for a Full House by Sue Lyons-Jones

I Know That I Know Nothing by Anita Kwiatkowska

Click here to take the quiz — > What you can learn from my PLN #3

Part of the series: My Personal Learning Network

Congratulations!

Anne Hodgson

Arjana Blazic

Janet Bianchini

Leahn Stanhope

These four teachers answered all of the questions correctly on the June 13th PLN quiz, and will soon be receiving their Kit Kat and Pucca care packages

(Why only four winners in the 5-5-5 quiz? Because they were the only quiz takers who answered all five questions correctly.)

Now, for the next quiz. If you want to read about the motivation behind these PLN quizzes, go here. (PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, read “What is a PLN, anyway?”)

Tips: Read the posts before you take the quiz. The main point here is to direct you to some excellent reading. You’ll also do better on the quiz. If you don’t like your initial score, you can take the quiz again. Again, the main point is learning, not grading.

As with the previous quiz, at the end of five days,  I will draw five names from the pool of quiz takers who answer all five questions correctly. This time, the five “winners” will receive a package consisting of Frambroise Kit Kats and Tanabata Koala March cookies. The Kit Kats are limited edition rasberry and chocolate flavor, and the Koala March cookies are a special release for the Tanabata festival in July (the koala bears are wearing their summer kimono). Of course, if you’re in Japan I’ll be happy to substitute an “American” prize, and if you don’t care for sweets at all, I’ll substitute a non-food prize

Good luck and have fun!

The deadline to be eligible for the drawing is 11 pm on Wednesday, June 23rd, in Japan. That’s 2 pm GMT time. For other times, check here.

This 5-5-5 quiz is based on the following five posts:

How to Integrate Blogging in EFL Teaching by Christina Markoulaki

Do It Your Way by Janet Bianchini

Without Reflection We May Be Planning to Stand Still by Jason Renshaw

EFL Teacher’s Kit for Surviving Kids by Shelly Sanchez Terrell

Feed the Grammar Guru by Anne Hodgson

Click here to take the quiz — > What you can learn from my PLN #2

This post is inspired by several things: The “It’s worth taking a look at this blog” initiative that had folks recommending blogs they liked, Darren Elliot’s call for us to find and recommend hidden gems from blog archives, and my own (long neglected) posts about “What I’ve learned from my PLN.” (PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, read “What is a PLN, anyway?”)

Here’s my little twist on the idea–a quiz!

The 5-5-5 Quiz

Why five? Partly it’s because five is a lucky number here in Japan, and partly because in Japanese the number sounds like “go” and I like the image of moving forward, but mostly because it’s easy for me to remember.

Five questions. Five days. Five winners.

Each quiz will have five questions based on five posts from five people in my personal learning network. Some posts will be from their guest post in my archives, others from outside blogs, but all are educators I have learned from.

If you take the quiz within five days of its publication, and if you answer all five questions correctly, then you’ll be eligible for a prize drawing (there’s no deadline for taking the quiz, just for being eligible for a prize). For this first quiz, that means that the deadline is 11 pm on Friday, June 18th, in Japan. That’s 2 pm GMT time. For other times, check here. Note: Be sure to read the posts before taking the quiz–you’ll get a better score!

Each quiz will have five winners, drawn at random from the pool of all takers with 100% correct answers. The prizes aren’t particularly valuable, but including them gives me a chance to indulge my love of 100 yen stores, and to share fun bits of Japanese culture. This week’s prize, for example, is chocolate. Japanese candy makers seem quite fond of limited release flavors. The Kit Kats are dark chocolate almond flavor, and the Pucca have a hard chocolate cookie shell filled with vanilla white chocolate. Not nearly significant enough reward to cause someone to read five blog posts if not already inclined, but a nice treat for a few who did

(If you happen to be a winner in Japan, I’ll happily substitute an equally “valuable” fun bit of American culture!)

This is just something for fun, and I have no idea how well it will work nor how long I’ll continue with it. But I have enough archived posts and prizes for at least four quizzes, to start!

Even if you don’t have any interest in the drawing, and don’t want to take the quiz (which asks for your email address so I can contact you if you do win), I hope you’ll take the time to visit these excellent blog posts.

The quiz this week is based on these five posts:

The Power of Play for Education and Language Development by Marisa Constantinides

It’s the Small Things that Count by David Deubelbeiss

I is for Imagination by Carol Read

Teaching Kindergarteners in Turkey: Enjoying Every Minute of It by Özge Karaoğlu

Learning Language or Learning Through Language by Tatiana Sobral

The embedded quiz isn’t working well at the moment, so you’ll need to follow the link to the online quiz:

Click here to take the quiz –> What you can learn from my PLN (June 13)

In one of our first conversations, we talked about how many EFL teachers feel “invisible” within our profession, and about how the Internet offers chances for invisible teachers to be seen and heard. Tonight he shared a poem he wrote about his initial experiences online and gave me permission to share it here.

The other two ladies mentioned in Hamdi’s poem are Carol Goodey and Shelly Terrell

Intersection on an e-ferry

My dear Carol, Barbara and Shelly
You are so gentle, so generous, so friendly…
One day I am sure you will win the trophy
You’ll gain a place in e-history
Nothing is better than being truthful and trusty!

I met them haphazardly on e-ferry
Joyful, gleeful and merry
They were heading for an e-tomorrow
Twittering as birds yearning for a day so sunny
Love, respect and support they agreed to carry
Their life is a long story
Made of pure sweat, toil and glory
Thank you Carol
Thank you Barbara
Thank you Shelly
I admired your kind spirit
Your supportive words
I promise I’ll never forget any

~~Hamdi Erestreams

A few days ago, a much younger colleague of mine in her first teaching year was complaining about how difficult it is to be a teacher and how stressed she feels when entering a classroom full of 14 year-olds who sometimes give her a really hard time. Too absorbed by my own problems, I left the teachers’ room without a word.

I went through “the business of the day”, got home, cooked something, had lunch and took a nap in the afternoon. When I woke up, my first thought was: “I’ve been teaching English for as long as she’s been in this world, she’s half my age and she’s got no experience, of course the 8^th graders are a handful!”

The next day I sat down in the teacher’s room and invited her to sit next to me. We had a whole hour in front of us before our next classes, so we could afford a chat.

“I happened to be in the teacher’s room yesterday when you were complaining about the 8th graders”, I said. “Are you OK, now? Have you managed to get over your anger?”

“Yes, I’m OK now”, she said. “I just can’t help getting annoyed whenever I have classes with them.”

“What exactly is it that annoys you?” I asked. “What do they do?”

“I’m not sure”, she said and she frowned. “It’s not like they do something to annoy me on purpose, I actually like them, I like all my students and children in general, that’s why I chose to be a teacher!”

Good point!, I said to myself. Now we’re talking!

“It just happens that, somehow, they get carried away in discussing things”, she continued, “based on a question I asked, a question which could have been answered in one sentence and I would have moved on to the other question and finish the exercise. But as soon as I ask a question and someone answers, there are always at least three students contradicting the one who answered, or commenting, or asking further questions and…”

“In English or in Romanian?” I interrupted her.

“In English”, she said “and then…”

“Is it always the same three students doing this?” I interrupted her again.

“No”, she said, “they’re not. But it’s all like a pay-back game among them! If one student contradicts another one’s answer, they are sure to get contradicted back as soon as they’re the first to answer another question! And it really gets on my nerves because I would like to finish that exercise quickly and move on to another activity, and I feel like they’re not letting me do my job, so I try to intervene, they raise their voices and continue their conversation, and I end up shouting at them and telling them they have no respect for me, and I hate it when they make me do that because they look at me startled and… hurt!”

“OK… calm down, there’s no need for you to get so excited, we…”, I said, but she interrupted me:

“Of course I’m getting excited, I get excited whenever I remember these moments in my class and I resent how I feel when this happens!”

“I see! How do you feel?”, I asked.

“Stupid! Powerless! Incapable of making twenty-five kids respect me and treat me as the teacher I am! Unable to control them! I feel so frustrated that I could burst out crying… I talked to the other teachers of this class and they all said they had no problems with these kids! And you know what? I didn’t have any problem with them in my first months in class, but I sort of liked them better than my other classes because they’re intelligent and spontaneous and I thought I would loosen up a bit and that’s when things went wrong and, in time, it became obvious that they have something against me, that’s why they do not respect me, because they don’t like me… ”

“Now-now… “, I said to her gently patting her hand while I asked myself: How could they not like her? She’s young, tall, slim, she’s got beautiful blond hair, superb eyes, she’s elegant and classy… They’re likely to love her even if they wouldn’t understand a word she says, which is not the case because her English and her pronunciation are very good! She definitely misunderstands some things and there may also be some miscommunication turning into a class management problem.

“Let me tell you a little secret”, I said. “Students’ love and respect for a teacher have nothing in common with class behaviour! Do you really think that some of your other classes, with quieter students, love you and respect you more? I’ve got news for you, dear! They don’t! They just fear you more, they’ve got less to say and they’re less confident with their English. Which of the two would you favour: quiet, insecure students fearing to open their mouths or loud, confident ones, expressing their opinions and exchanging ideas?”

“Well, of course I’d prefer the latter”, she replied “but why don’t they just do that in a more respectful way?”

“Respectful? Don’t you mean ‘organised’?”, I said.

She didn’t sense the trap.

“Yes, organised”, she dashed to answer.

“Well, class organisation and class management, dear, are a teacher’s job, not students’ proof of respect…”

She sighed in surprise and blushed. Good!, I thought.

“Tell me, have you read Lord of the Flies by Golding? Or seen the film?” I asked her.

“Yes, both”, she answered, her eyes staring at my face as if she were looking for clues to help her understand what I was hinting at. I’ll never know what detail on my face inspired her but a few seconds later she said:

“Oh! I know what you mean! The conch shell! The boy holding the conch shell was the one to speak, the rest had to listen to him! I should give them this rule and an object to pass on as they want to speak. What if anyone else interrupts?”

“They won’t be allowed to speak for the next 10 minutes or they lose the right to express their opinion on that issue”, I said.

She was smiling, no shadow of tension on her face now.

“Thank you”, she said.

“No, dear! Thank Mr. Golding for writing the novel! And thank yourself for being so sensitive to teaching that you’re asking yourself questions! Brace yourself ’cause there’s a whole career in front of you but remember this: NEVER shout at your students! Shouting is no proof of your love and respect for them! And one more thing: I’m here whenever you may have questions you can not answer yourself…”

She gave me a lovely smiley and a warm hug and left the teachers’ room. I stayed there for some more minutes, analysing my face in the mirror: could it have been the nose?…

I have been teaching English for 25 years, level K-12 in state schools and adults in LLL programmes. For the last 15 years I have been teaching mainly high school students (9th-12th grades) and adults.
Between September 1, 2007 and August 31, 2009 I was a county school inspector with Constanta County School Inspectorate, Romania.

Now I’m full-time back among my students, enjoying every minute of it!

(You can read more on Melania’s personal blog and her students’ blog. She’s @MellanieP on Twitter.)

I love initiatives like this one, that give us a chance to introduce great people to other great people. “Vale a pena ficar do olho nesse blog” means “It’s worth keeping an eye on this blog”.

I’m honored to be have been tagged by five teachers I admire whose blogs I really enjoy: Janet Biachini in Italy, Sheetal Makhan in Korea , Marta Mrozik in Poland, Sue Lyon-Jones in the UK, and Anita Kwiatkowska in Turkey. Their lists contain some fabulous blogs, and are definitely worth taking a look at!

Being a bit late to this party, I have two challenges. One is to find blogs that haven’t already been included in the lists that tagged me (half of my initial list would have been used up on the five women in my opening paragraph!). The other is to limit my list to just ten blogs.

Here is my contribution–ten wonderful blogs that I haven’t seen mentioned on other lists. They are definitely worth looking at!

Hopefully, the bloggers I’ve tagged will continue the fun. Simply copy the picture, paste it in your own post and include a link back here . Then, add your recommendations for ten more blogs (with links to those blogs). I’ve been amazed at how many “new” blogs I’ve discovered via these recommendations, and I hope the project continues to grow!

Here are my 10 contributions to this initiative, with a brief explanation about why I think these blogs are worth visiting.

Esra Girgin Akiskali teaches young learners in Turkey. Her posts are both insightful and practical. I’m particularly enjoying her current series, An A-Z Experience List of a Teacher: Teaching Very Young Learners.

Conchi Martinez de Tejada is based in Spain. She writes Ken and Karen. In addition to interesting posts about teaching young learners, Conchi also has a  growing collection of materials to use with you own children’s classes, wherever you teach.

Christina Markoulaki writes a blog for her students in Greece, but it’s great for teachers to follow, too. Christina’s recent post about Earth Day in her school is a great example of how to integrate meaningful content into children’s EFL classes.

Melania Paduraru inspires me in many ways. I’ve learned a lot from following her blog–about teaching, about the teaching experience in Romania, and about teachers in Romania. Melania is unflinchingly honest, whether it’s about the education system in her country or her own struggle with burnout.

The Teacher Talk blog on Azar Grammar has a great group of teachers blogging about grammar (of course) but much, much more. Ela Newman’s recent post about the role of L1 in an L2 class speaks as strongly to teachers in EFL classrooms as it does to those in an ESL setting.

I don’t know who Sputnik really is, or where he’s based (and for that matter, if he’s a he!) but his blog, The Tesla Coil, always stretches my brain. I first visited Tesla Coil after Sputnik left comments on mine, and I’m glad I did.

In her blog Learning to Speak ‘Merican, Vicki Hollett shares keen observations about language and culture. I had a chance to meet Vicky last year and visiting her blog is like enjoying coffee (or perhaps tea, in her case) and conversation with a friend.

Lexiophiles has “Love your words” as its tagline, and I do! They have great articles about learning language, but my favorite posts are their interviews with language learners. Lexiophiles also has a great collection of links to other language blogs. I’m thrilled that this year Teaching Village was nominated for their top 100 language blog competition (Thanks, Marisa!).

The ELT Global blog by Oxford University Press is a relatively new Publisher’s blog. At least, it’s new to me–I just discovered it while following the IATEFL conference. I like their 3-question interviews. I’m a sucker for interviews, anyway, and  I love that these are all based on answers to the same three questions: What’s your favourite ELT book? What or who has had the biggest impact on ELT in the last 25 years? What do you wish you’d known when you started out in ELT?

Tara Benwell writes, and writes, and writes, and her Write at Home blog shares the process of trying to balance a writing career with having a life. I started writing professionally when my daughter was a newborn, and Tara’s posts bring back many memories! You might have bumped into Tara in cyberspace without knowing it (Like I said, she writes a lot). She does the Site of the Month awards for TEFL.net and is a major part of English Club (her monthly writing challenges are great!).

Ten came too soon! I look forward to discovering more blogs through the next round of recommendations!