Shelly Terrell Hosts The Young Learners (23rd) Edition of the ESL / EFL / ELL Blog Carnival

The lovely Shelly Terrell from Teacher Boot Camp has just hosted the 23rd Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival with a special emphasis on Young Learners. She has put together an amazing array of posts in the form of a Vuvox slideshow. Shelly has kindly given permission to her readers and followers to embed the presentation below. These posts and links are extremely useful for all teachers of Young Learners. Shame I'm not teaching Young Learners now, but I will make sure that I highlight this compilation in all future teacher refresher courses!



Click on the link to access the whole post on Shelly's blog. Have fun!!

Q&A:17th Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival

Mary Ann Zehr from Learning the Language Blog has just hosted the 17th edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival. Mary has created a great question and answer type post with 20 fabulous blogs from around the world. The topics range from lesson ideas on how to use Voicethread, playing Bingo, using fun and games with Very Young Learners, using visual prompts including flickr resources, the value of poetry, communal writing, education philosophy and much, much more. Even Joey is featured! A veritable feast of blogging delights!

17th ann answer around bingo blog browsing carnival communal delights edition education efl ell enjoy esl fabulous fashion feast featured flickr fun games hosted ideas including joey language learners learning lesson mary philosophy playing poetry post putting range resources thank together type unique value visual voicethread world writing young zehr

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Please do take a look through the 17th edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival and enjoy browsing through all the great ideas and resources. Thank you Mary for putting them all together in such a unique fashion.

Carnival Extravaganza in Prezi by Kalinago English

The much anticipated 46th ELL/ESL/EFL Blog Carnival has just been published by the inimitable Karenne Joy Sylvester from Kalinago English blog. It is presented in the form of an absolutely amazing and interactive PREZI. The post contains 18 lessons, which have been categorized for ease of use. The categories include Young Learners, Teenagers, Business English, General English and English for Specific Purposes. Have a look through them. I guarantee you will find something practical that you can use and adapt for your own classes. You can read the full list of lessons here.

Many thanks to Karenne for such a wonderful collection of lessons. I am thrilled that my Powerpoint lesson on the Power of Images has been included.

Read all about it! 15th EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival

The 15th edition of the EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival has just been published by the amazing Shelly Terrel from Teacher Reboot Camp and it is a very comprehensive and fascinating read. There is a wealth of input and Shelly has organised all the entries very well. My blog is also included in the Technology section! I would like to say a personal thank you to Shelly for giving me the encouragement and opportunity to participate in this wonderful carnival.

Among the excellent posts included in the blog carnival, and there are too many to mention them all, I particularly liked the following.
It's the Small Things that Count by David Deubelbeiss. The post gives some great pointers on how to conduct a class effectively and highlights some of the small details of day to day teaching that in fact are so important in the bigger picture.
Powerpointing Me by Karenne Sylvester on her Kalinago English Blog. I found this post useful because it shows what can be done with PowerPoint Presentations. Allowing students to create their own presentations to teach grammar points is a great technique and one which is very rewarding for the students.
2010-The Year of the Personal Learning Network? by Graham Stanley on Blog EFL, caught my eye. PLN is an acronym I didn't really know about until last year so it's interesting to read Graham's thoughts on what lies in the future for these 3 very powerful letters.
You will have to go over to Teacher Reboot Camp now to read all these articles in addition to the other fantastic ones in the carnival. I am sure you will enjoy them!

The 30 Goals Challenge
Shelly Terrell has recently run a brilliant series of challenges on her blog called "The 30 Goals Challenge". A free e-book is now available and you can share it with other teachers in your PLN or embed it in your blog as a reference for what can be achieved if you really put your mind to it. I have found this series to be very inspiring and have already set myself some goals which I hope to achieve in 2010.

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ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival

I remember attending the circus a long time ago in my childhood. It was the one and only time until today. The thrill of the big trapeze act, the clowns, the fearless tightrope-walkers performing at dizzy heights. The fear intermingled with the excitement. The skill of the acrobats, the dexterity of the jugglers. The laughter, the applause, the popcorn. The huge audience in the big top, loving every moment. Priceless memories.


The Greatest Show on Earth
I was thrilled to be featured in the 13th Edition ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival as a trampolinist! Other great circus acts include Larry Ferlazzo the Ringmaster, Karenne Sylvester the Lion Tamer, Shelly Terrell the Aerialist, Barbara Sakamoto the Acrobat, Chiew N Pang the Flying Trapeze artist, Nik Peachey Pyrotechnics and Sound, to name but only a few of the amazing acts in the circus.

Thank you ELL Classroom for organizing this fabulous show.

Blog Carnival : Kalinago English - Advice for NOOBIE Bloggers

I follow Karenne Sylvester's excellent blog entitled "Kalinago English" with great interest. It is always full of brilliant ideas and lesson plans. A while back Karenne wrote this post here inviting bloggers around the blogosphere to write about their experiences and tips for new bloggers. A reminder was posted up on 25th June called "Advice for NOOBIE bloggers in ELT (carnival reminder)". This posting has just prompted me to write up a brief analysis on my personal experience of blogging.

Janet's Top 10 Blogging Tips

• Be on the look out for post materials from all walks of life
• Read other blogs and comment on them
• Find your niche and develop it
• Stick to a set format
• Try to include visuals- pictures/videos
• Try to think of appealing headlines to grab readers' attention
• Don't get discouraged at the beginning. Read my posting called "All Quiet on the Blogging Front"(I was really down in the dumps that day re my blogging experience - I am so glad that I persevered).
• Do suitable research for your posts
• Add links to other sites where possible
• Write from the heart and most importantly of all, write with passion.
  

My Bejewelled Notebook
I love looking out for posts to write about. My secret is that I keep a bejewelled (of course) note book, (thank you Dora!) which is the central hub of my blogging experience. All my ideas, inspirations, random thoughts are contained within. Without it, I wouldn't be so organised and there would be no references to past, present and future sources. I leave various stickies to remind me of certain points.

Inspiration - Where Art Thou?
I read newspapers, magazines, books. I read news on the Internet. I read other blogs, I watch the news on telly and I listen out to what people are saying at home, in social situations, in the street. Anytime, anyplace, anything, anybody, anywhere is a constant source of inspiration. Basically, life in general can be turned into a lesson or a posting.

Blogs in the Blogosphere
Onestopenglishblogs has become a bloggers' paradise for me. For new bloggers, it's definitely the place to be exposed to a rich source of ideas, information, styles, subjects etc. It's an extremely useful point of reference and it is very handy to have over 100 ELT blogs all in one place!

Analytics
I don't really have any idea of what is successful or not on my blog apart from readers' kind comments. I installed clustr maps some time ago and that helps me understand if people are reading my blog or not on a weekly basis. I enjoy doing a religiously keen general "check" every Sunday morning to see if the viewer numbers have changed. My average seems to be 60 viewers a week and I am absolutely thrilled that so many people are logging on to what I have to say. It is a real bonus and this definitely keeps me "on my toes".

Losing one's Dignity?
Eight months ago, in November 2008 when I was still relatively new to blogging, the one thing which somewhat terrified me was the final act of the "Press Publish" button scenario. I was motivated to go public and hence, viewable on the entire web, (as opposed to staying "private"- open by invitation only)by Nik Peachey, who personally imparted these words of wisdom to me. "What have you got to lose, except your dignity?" I followed his advice, and the rest is history. I realised that if you are writing for yourself primarily, the rest should technically follow. Publish only what you yourself would like to read if written by someone else. I suppose that is a logical piece of advice.

My Final Tips
DO NOT BE AFRAID. Enjoy yourself. Have fun. Treat your blogging experience as a virtual, online diary of where you are now. In the future, you will look back on these halycon days....
Finally, A very BIG thank you to everyone who has helped me get to this point in my life. I feel so much more confident now and I love writing my blog.