My face for peace is an independent peace initiative of the German/Iranian artist Saeeid Dastmalchian and his wife Cordula, launched in October 2012 in Hamburg/Germany for giving face to the wish for global peace. This campaign takes place on line through facebook. www.myfaceforpeace.org
In their invitation they say:
Please show your face for global peace on www.myfaceforpeace.org. I am Saeeid Dastmalchian, an artist from Germany. For the realization of a peace book I need 10.000 people who upload their photo for global peace on the website. We will hand over the book to governments, organizations and people with key features, to claim their commitment to world peace. ♥ Please share and join this movement. Thank you ♥
We joined the project to show our faces for peace. It's an excellent opportunity to learn and practice English. Students are talking to the world and their messages are important and meaningful. By using Facebook, the most popular social network, they are participating in a global campaign that allows then to connect with the world and really grasp the purpose of learning a new language. They are excited to see their faces and messages and that they are part of the world. They also are sharing their messages with their friends and family breaking the walls of the classroom, commenting and getting comments from people of the world and getting digitally literated. This opportunity for reflecting on Peace is something that's really important in our country right now. Telling the world our messages becomes both real and meaningful.
We are planning to set an exhibition with all the messages in Second Life by the end of this trimester to share with avatars of the world and experiment with a new environment that integrate communicative tools. Also, we'll be making a machinima of the event.
You can join this world Peace adventure... Hope to see your face... just let me know.. :)
Greeting everyone.. we are in exam week!!! well, hope you all have had fun during the 2nd term. Now, What are some of the task we will posting in our blogs... Well, here they are:
Unit 3 Personal Items - Modern electronics 1. Take a photo of your bag and what it is in it. Describe what you have in there. Here there's an example: Jessica's blog.
I have a notebook in my purse.
I have a pencil in my purse.
I have a pen in my purse.
I have a marker in my purse.
I have a calculator in my purse.
I have earphones in my purse.
I have a student card in my purse.
I have a pendrive in my purse.
I have an antibacterial in my purse.
I have a lipstick in my purse.
I have glasses in my purse.
I have a hoodie in my purse.
I have a cellphone in my purse.
A: What's on the desk? B: There's a pencil .There's an eraser. There are books.
2. What's the perfect gift for you? Write a paragraph. Explain what's the perfect gift and why. Describe it. (heavy, light, new, large)
A: What's the perfect gift for you?
B: The perfect gift for me is a new cellphone. I love talking on the phone with my friends. The cellphone is new and light.
3. Exercises to practice: write them down in your notebook...You must do them all.
1. This, that, these, those
4. What are these? what are those? what's this? what's that?. Write six conversations. Add the pictures. A: what are these? B: They are pens A: What is that? B: It's a book.
2. Look for a photo with lots of people doing different things. Write sentences describing what they are doing. Use positive and negative sentences. Look at the following example:
1. The birds are singing.
2. The cat is climbing the tree to catch the poor little birds.
3. Paul is watering the flowers..... Paul isn't reading a book.
4. The ducks are swimming. They're not flying.
3. Interview yourself and two friends about your school life. Record your conversation ormake a video. Use the following questions:
How are you doing? What's your name? Where are you from? what school do you go to? What trimester are you in? Are you a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior? What are your favorite subjects? what classes are you taking this trimester? How are you doing in your classes?
This is a model of the interview..
How are you doing? I'm fine. What's your name? My name is Roxanna Bracho. Where are you from? I'm from Maracaibo, Venezuela. What's school do you go to? I go to Law School. What trimester are you in? I'm in the 3rd trimester at URBE, then I'm a freshman. What are your favorite subjects? My favorite subjects are Fundamentals of Public Law and Family Law. What classes are you taking this trimester? I'm taking six classes... five Law classes and an English class. How are you doing in your classes? I'm doing great in all my classes.
1. Draw a floor map of your house or apartment. Use the model in your book and describe it.
2. Tell about four rooms in your house or apartment. Describe what furniture is in them.
3. Describe your favorite room in your house. Use prepositions of place to describe where things are.
* You can record your voice and add images.
* Visit your classmates blogs, read their compositions and leave a comment.
* Don't forget to Make the internet exercises from the on line workbook.
* Check your homework with a tutor. Use the check-speller. Make sure there are not grammar or typing mistakes.
****************************************************************************** Level 3 Check the lesson here Unit 3 1. Complete the chart with 4 items in each category
2. Write a paragraph about your favorite supermarket. Use these questions to help you.
* what's the name of the supermarket?
* what are the different departments or areas in the supermarket?* what can you buy there?
* Where is it?
* Why do you like it?
3. Write a conversation about going shopping for groceries. You need to go shopping for groceries for a special ocasion. Make a list of the things you need to buy and the things you already have. Use some, any. 4. Write about your favorite place to shop for clothes, music, food, school supplies, a birtday present. Use these questions to guide you:
* what's the name of the place?
* what kind of store is it?
* what can you buy there?
* Where is it?
* Why do you like it?
Before you star working on your composition, draw a mind map with the help of those questions. Explain your mind map and write your composition.
Include a photo of your favorite shop and explain what you see you can buy there: Use some, any, many, much and a lot.
Don't forget to check with your tutor.
Post it to your blog. share your work with your friends in Facebook or Twitter.
Practice your pronunciation participting in the audio forum about shopping.
Have fun.
1. Post the mind map with your group story about a crime. Post the composition explaining the mindmap. 2. - Read a crime story on the news. - Write a summary of the story. Use the following questions: What happened, when? where? .. Add the link where you got the news. - Now speculate about it. Use these expressions to write your ideas: I's likely that..., I doubt that..., I bet that..., It doesn't seem possible that..., It's unlikely that... and there's a good chance that... 3. Work on the exercises with stative verbs: - Stative verbs 1 - Stative verbs 2 4. Write a short story about.. ghost, mystery, urban legend. Use adverbs of manner. Check the lesson here Unit 4
1. Write a paragraph to describe families in our country and your family. Use the vocabulary discussed in class. Use statistic terms and quantitatives. 2. Ask your friends about trends in your university. Conduct a survey. Write the questions of the survey. Write a report with photos, and statistics of what you found out. How many people did you talk to? what are URBE's trends in fashion, music, discos, movies, ...?
This is a recount of how my students have been using mind maps to communicate their ideas. My students are EFL students at university level. We integrate technology into a face to face class. We have three trimester at year. In a trimester, there could be 8 or 12 groups of 32 students each, interacting trough out our class blog or our Facebook group. Creating a little community of practice where students from different classes benefit and follow each others work.
We have regular face to face classes once a week and they connect through the use of online tools. We try to be a blended class that gets the best of two worlds. And I mean we try , since we have to follow a syllabus designed for a more traditional class following our English Center policies.
We use mind maps to convey ideas and present them visually as a supporting material for speaking about the lessons we have covered during our classes together. Students produce their own mind maps to answer questions. These mind maps collect the contents and experience shared during the trimester.
I am convince now that by using mind maps, students can produce oral language in a coherent, cohesive, clear, organized, and memorable way. It allows them to expand vocabulary and associate new and old words to images that help convey meaning easily and in a specific context. As, Steve Darn writes in his article about graphic organisers,
"These mind maps serve as a record of the learner's thinking process and it can be used to assess students' knowledge and understand of the content, thinking skills and creativity."
Most of the time when studying for oral exams, students try to memorize chunks or sentences to be repeated as robots. By using mind maps, students know what they are saying, and the ones looking at their maps or listening to them will understand what it is said even though pronunciation and fluency is not the best. It works great for low, intermediate or advance levels.
By bringing their own materials to be tested on, students confidence is greatly increased. Having practiced and recorded their reports on their mind maps give them confidence and their self esteem improves, so talking to others is not such a terrible thing to do in the new language.
The understanding and use of the words, structures and expressions learned in class stay with them. It allows them to visualized how much they have covered and worked on mastering a foreign language.
Creating a mind map requires the understanding of the basics of mind maps. In order to do that we look at mind maps created by other students, discussing critically what it takes to create a good tool that will help them talk in a clear, organized fun way.
They notice that mind maps use images, words and arrows to show relations. They are placed in the graphic in a specific way. And that they need to follow relations in order to read them and talk about them. Selecting appropriated images and relating them to concepts and ideas, informs the teacher about the knowledge the student has and allow others benefit from the knowledge shared in the map.
Students become creators that will inspire and help others to keep on creating. Knowledge amplifies and creates waves, students compare their work and evaluate themselves and their classmates. Resulting in a community that learn together and help each other.
Literacies and critical thinking are also present in the use of mind maps.
Here we have an example of a mind map of one of my students:
As extra practice and with the idea of integrating technology in our classes. They also write a script of the map to be checked and edited by a tutor or by the teacher.
Later, students read their maps and their voices are recorded in a power point slide. This help students practice their pronunciation and improve their fluency when speaking. They can also upload their presentations to Authorstream and share it in a social network like twitter or in our Facebook group where students and educators can leave comments on their work.
Finally on the day on the exam. Students display their maps in a poster in the classroom and talk about them by answering the questions of their teacher or fellow classmates.
Steve Darn, Freelance Trainer, Izmir, Turkey, who writes for the
British Council, summarizes some of the advantages of graphic organizers this way:
A graphic organiser (also known as a concept map, mind map or relationship chart) is usually a one-page form with blank areas for learners to complete with ideas and information which are connected in some way. Some organisers are very specific; others are versatile. Often, the information on a graphic organiser could just as easily be written on a form or list, but the organiser offers certain advantages:
Graphic organisers provide the learner with a different way of seeing and thinking about information.
Language barriers (words, grammar) are removed, so that learners can focus on the connections between information.
The visual display conveys complex information in a simple-to-understand manner. Showing (as opposed to telling) how information is structured is a way of facilitating understanding. In most cases, dual-presentation (visual representation plus is more successful than either approach alone, regardless of whether the student is a visual or auditory learner.
Analytical, critical, planning and creative thinking skills are developed. To create the map, the learner has to identify the relationships between items, examine the meanings attached to them, and prioritise the information and decide where each item should be placed on the map. Students are more likely to become strategic learners.
A lot of information can be converted into a structured, easy-to-read, graphic display. A large amount of information can be displayed to provide the "big picture" of a topic.
Changes can easily be made to allow learners to take different perspectives and clarify their thoughts. Organisers are easy to edit, revise, and add to.
Creating the map helps the learner to generate ideas and see the possibilities associated with a topic as the map grows.
Graphic organisers have multiple uses. They can be used to structure writing projects, summarise reading texts, organise and store vocabulary, and help in problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research and brainstorming.
Subject-matter is comprehended faster and more efficiently. Because the demands of processing the language are reduced, content can be considered at more sophisticated levels.
While organisers often represent an individual's arrangement of information, they can also be used at group or class levels. A class flow-chart of the storyline of a class reader may help all the students to follow the plot.
Since most graphic organisers use short words or phrases, and sometimes drawings, they can be used with all levels and with young and less-able learners.
The teacher is given a record of the learner's thinking process. Graphic organisers can be used to assess students' knowledge and understand of the content, thinking skills and creativity.
