2011: The Year of Living Simply Yet Fabulously!

2011 was a simple year, yet full of exciting, fabulous events. My current life in the Abruzzo countryside is a mixture of down-to-earth living and connecting with people from all over the world via the Internet.

Helping K carry logs chopped for firewood in our jungle.

A new olive tree, my Xmas pressie!! This 3-year-old olive tree cost 8 euros from our local garden centre, Rosa D'Oriente in Cepagatti. Dr Luigi very kindly selected this Leccino variety for me. The idea that this olive tree will be here in a hundred year's time, long after I am gone, gives me a good feeling. It should withstand all that nature will throw at it and it will survive to grow into a venerable tree, I hope!!

The happiness I derive from living amongst chickens, cats, dogs, falcons, the occasional wild boar, olive groves and vineyards is one that invariably transcends having the latest material goods. However, I have to confess, I do get the odd pang of desiring something, but I content myself by saying I can't have it NOW, but hopefully at a later date. This usually does the trick....

I know this solitary lifestyle could be transient, so I am making the most of it, and yet at the same time, trying to do my utmost to further my teaching career, whether virtual or face to face, which is now in its incredible 33rd year!!

Many Heartfelt Thanks to....
.......all the wonderful team at The Lake School of English, Oxford for their continued support. I enjoy teaching there so much, and the course participants are always so keen! Many best wishes to all the lovely staff, and teachers and students I have had the pleasure of teaching this year.

In addition, I would like to say a very special thanks to all the fabulous team at The Consultants-E for making this year very interesting and varied with the different online projects I have had the pleasure to have been involved in.

To everyone I know, via this blog or Twitter or other projects I have participated in this year, I would like to say a very, very BIG thank you to my PLN - Passionate Learning Network. I appreciate all the support and guidance that I receive. I hope I can give the same back to you, I really do.

So, 2011 is nearly over and it's time for a few reflections!!!

Blog ChallengesI took part in 6 blog challenges! Thank you to each and every challenge organiser. It was a pleasure to be a part of the EFL community. Below are links to the original blogs, which hosted the challenges.

Dave Dodgson : Truth or Lie?
Vicky Loras: What's Your Story?
David Warr: A Word Cloud Blog Challenge
Adam Simpson: 11 from'11
Ann Hodgson and Brad Patterson: Compare and Contrast
Anna Loseva : ELT Workplaces

Blog Carnivals
I took part in two fabulous blog carnivals this year.
Eva Simkesiyan: Warmers, Fillers and 1st Week Activities.
Berni Wall: The Most Popular Posts on your Blog

The Year of Webinars and E-Conferences
I continued to attend and present at international webinars and Virtual conferences. I feel immensely happy that I participated in them and I still can't believe it's true!! My trusted and faithful laptop has taken me on a rollercoaster virtual ride and I was in 7th heaven!! Thank you to all the organisers of the following events!

Connecting Online 2011
Virtual Round Table
Reform Symposium 2011

The Year of Firsts!
I tried out quite a few new tools for the first time and you can see which ones in the Tagxedo below. You can find out how I got on with them by searching for the labels on the sidebar.

Scoop.it
My Scoop.it web curation site on Comics and Cartoons was begun in July 2011 specifically to house the links and resources connected to my Reform Symposium online webinar on Fun with Comics and Cartoons in the Classroom. I would like to say thank you to all my fellow "Scoopers" for suggesting new comics and cartoon sites and posts to add to this growing collection, which I hope is useful in some way! In particular, the BookChook blog has very kindly suggested lots of materials to add, and I appreciate this collaboration very much!

The Comics and Cartoons Scoop.it site is doing very well! It now has 100 followers, and has had 2,000 page views, with 1,200 visitors! I am delighted by this, and would like to thank everyone involved in making this particular project such a great success. I don't plan to curate other topics for the moment, as I already follow quite a few topics anyway. However, I don't know what 2012 will bring, so it will be interesting to see what happens in this area.

Electronic Village Online 2011
I attended a 5-week course in January 2011 on Digital Storytelling and learned so much from my lovely tutors and fellow participants. What I gained from the course helped me to produce my very own digital story called "An Idiomatic Love Story". This formed the central part of my first ever presentation at IATEFL Brighton 2011. You can find all the materials I created here.
The Year of SEETA Courses!
I attended 4 marvellous free online courses via SEETA and I had 4 of the best tutors in the world as moderators! Interacting with fellow teachers from around the globe was also amazing. If you would like to read my feedback on each of the courses below, please look under the label SEETA in my blog Sidebar!

• mLearning with Nicky Hockly
• Creative Reading with Marisa Constantinides
• Jazz Up Your Digital Storytelling with Ozge Karaoglu
• Humanism and Modern Technology with Hania Kryszewska

IASKU
A special mention to Chiew from IASKU blog for the fantastic interviews that he is recording with teachers from all over the globe. It was a huge honour for me to be interviewed by him during the summer. Click here to view all his guest interviewees.

ELTChat

I would like to say a big thank you to all the fab moderators and team of ELTChat, held every Wednesday at noon and 9pm UK time. They are doing stirling work in givng teachers from all over the world the chance to discuss pedagogical matters of great interest. I hope to be a more active member in 2012!! To find out more, click on the ELTChat wiki link here.

QR Codes

Writing a blog post on QR codes was one of my most researched topics this year and has led me to be curious about how they will impact on the future of learning. Already I can see that they are playing a big role in a lot of areas such as marketing a product, for example. Recently, I have read a piece on Motorcycle News quoted as follows: "BMW is now incorporating QR codes into the camouflaging used on disguised road-going prototypes, so sharp-eyed and curious onlookers can use their smartphones to scan the codes and go to an official website to find out exactly what they have just seen."
I have discussed the use of QR codes with my hubby K, and I think I have imparted a curiosity in him to find out more about their use. I am thrilled that he has taken on board some of the ideas. He is now busily researching ways to deal with such codes in his industry, high level motorbike training. He's already experimenting with a QR code for his blog home page.
To the left, you can see a photo I took of K riding home on his motorbike after testing out the new road surface!! It passed the test, thankfully. You can see the same photo here.







Wallwisher Resolutions for 2012
I'd like to invite you to add your wishes for 2012!! Hope they will all come true!! Just double click on the Wallwisher to post a stickie and add your wish or resolution.

#Reform Symposium for New Teachers 2011 - Feedback

The 2nd Reform Symposium was an absolutely fantastic success in my opinion and I would like to say a very big thank you to the tireless organisers and presenters and volunteers for all their hard work. Extraordinary conferences such as Reform Symposium don't just happen - they take hours of dedicated work behind the scenes to ensure there are no glitches and that everything goes smoothly.

Every presentation I attended was more than excellent - it was truly outstanding. I am sorry I couldn't stay up to view all of the sessions, but I will try to view the archived talks from the Reform Symposium site as soon as they become available. Each link to the presenter below has a forthcoming link to the recorded session as well. The links should be available by January 15th, so you will be able to view the presentations for yourself.

Elluminating Sessions
All the sessions were via the Elluminate platform and everything went very well. You can view a tutorial on how Elluminate works here. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to keep up with what is happening in education at the moment and it was very exciting to be a part of the audience. All the presenters had great visuals and there was a lot of audience participation via the chat box. People were also tweeting during the conference and I even managed to post a few tweets myself inbetween sessions. I have to confess that I can't seem to focus on a talk and tweet at the same time!

It was lovely to see names of people I recognised in my PLN and it felt really welcoming and there was a very friendly atmosphere and it was also a lot of fun!

I attended the very interesting talk on Glogster EDU by Jim Dachos and I learned a lot about its huge potential as a learning tool. Glogster Edu is used by a wealth of educators and students around the world. The EDU basic is free, and the Premium Glogster EDU comes with a lot of extra interactive features to experiment with. I haven't actually used this before and it is something I would like to try out in the future.

I attended Marisa Constantinides' excellent talk on Professional Development through Facebook and Nings. She told us how social networks help teachers with their CPD and showed a wide range of examples to demonstrate their effectiveness. Marisa plays a very active role on Facebook and her blog is number one on the Facebook network blogs. We were shown Marisa's very popular Facebook group page called English Language Study Group for Teachers and Learners of English.
I really enjoyed Marisa's talk very much and I learned a lot!!

The next talk I attended was the brilliant Opening Keynote presented by Dr Alec Couros. The Keynote was called Why Networked Learning Matters. Dr Alec Couros publishes all his materials and work online and he shares all his resources. He firmly believes in "open" education.

"If there is no sharing, there's no education"
I liked this quote in particular, "If there's no sharing, there's no education". This is so true. I agree it is great to share resources, whenever possible!! He also mentioned that when we blog as teachers, we are enlightening a lot of other people. I won't go into more details here as I highly recommend you view for yourselves Dr Couros' illuminating and very exciting talk. In fact I would like to see it again, as he referred to so many wonderful resources which are freely available. He quoted Downes 2010: "An education is something that we create ourselves" and this is possible in the progressive and evolving networking era that we are living in. I certainly feel that I am developing as a teacher more than ever before as I myself construct and develop my very own and unique "further education programme" with the help of the many resources available online.

"Love your students before you meet them"
For the last session I attended I had to set my alarm for 1.45 am in the morning! Was it worth it? Of course it was!!! I enjoyed every single moment of Greta Sandler's awesome presentation called "Creating Safe Learning Environments".

"Love your students before you meet them" is a memorable quote from the enthusiastic and amazing Greta Sandler from Argentina. In its simplicity, it is such a powerful and positive statement. Greta creates a very positive learning atmosphere in all her classes, where the key word is "respect". She does lots of collaborative blogging projects with her students and has achieved amazing results as you can see in her lovely blog About a Teacher. A great example of the type of work Greta is doing with her students with classes from around the world can be seen in this blog post called Diving into a Skyping Adventure . You can't fail to be inspired by her vitality and great passion for her job. Greta is also the co-creator of the "Blogs 4 Edu" initiative. This is an excellent project, and you can read more about it on the Blogs 4 Edu wiki.
You can read Greta's feedback of the conference in her lovely post "My #RSCON11 Take-aways."

Thank you very much once again to all the Reform Symposium committee for a highly educational and informative e-conference. It was a resounding success!!

Here is a list of all the presenters again for you to view the recordings of the talks when they become available soon. Have fun!!

2010 - The Year of Going with the Flow!

2010 has far exceeded my very modest but wildly unknown expectations. My sidebar notes started off the new year with the following lines: "I have no idea what 2010 will have in store for me, whether virtually or on terra firma".

Long gone was the person who planned everything meticulously. The Janet who always had Plan A, B, C and then even D, just in case of unforeseen circumstances. The person who had to know everything in advance. I wrote the section below on my blog on December 30th last year - 2009:The Year of Living Technologically.

The Future of 2010
Where do I go from January 1st 2010? I don't really know. I will find out.

Will my life change overnight? I very much doubt it.

Will I continue to do my best in whatever I choose to do? Yes, absolutely!

Will I challenge myself enough? I hope so. Nobody else on this planet will do it for me.

Will I continue writing my blog? Yes, I very much want to. It has become an essential part of my life.

Will I strive to incorporate new e-tools wherever practicable? I hope so.

Will I finally unleash the demons preventing me from creating a Power Point Presentation? Yes, I really really want to!!

Taking the Powerpoint Plunge
Well, my goal of finally taking the plunge and creating my very first PowerPoint presentation has well and truly been achieved. I have created 10 Powerpoints this year and I plan to do many more in 2011. Having waited so long to use this tool, I feel there is a lot I want to learn. How to insert videos and other media into my presentations is a modest goal for the new year. Many thanks to Noel for sending me some great and inspirational videos.

A Year of "Flow"
Many wonderful things have happened in 2010 and it has been an action-packed year which I would never have imagined possible at this time last year. I would like to say a huge Thank You to every single person (and furkid), who has contributed to 2010 being one of the BEST ever in my whole life.

With the help of my amazing PLN I have:

• presented at the Reform Symposium
• presented at The 3rd Virtual Round Table
• presented at L'Aquila for Tesol Italy
• presented at Tesol-Italy's 35th National Convention in Rome
• been an e-moderator on the Learning Technologies Forum at IATEFL Harrogate Online
• written 3 Moodle book reviews for Packt Publishing
• written a book review for Zen and the Act of Teaching by David Deubel
• attended an EVO course on Images4Education
• woked for Macmillan as a proofreader / editor
• worked for the Consultants-E on an exciting "DM2" e-tutoring course
• taught on Teacher Refresher courses at the fantastic Lake School of English
• been interviewed by Marisa Constantinides for ELTChat podcast
• joined and contributed to Blog4Edu comments crew
• written guest posts for the following inspiring blogs: A Journey in TEFL, Teacher Reboot Camp, Teaching Village,(can you spot Joey in the lovely images' collage?) OUPELTGlobal, & Bits'n'Bobs/ Show and Tell.
  
• written my favourite blog post of the whole year- 1955:The Look of Love
• taken part in a few blog carnivals including this one
  

On a personal level I have:

• enjoyed being with my family and friends in Oxford and Abruzzo
• been back to England on the back of the Aprilia Rally Raid Capo Nord
  
• had lots of fun with Samantha, the new furkid on the block
• written a personal book review of "R U Listenin'? by Terry Bianchini
  
• made loads of home made tomato sauces
• made loads of fig jam / peach jam / apple sauces
• have made loads of Tiramisu, courtesy of Chikita, Berry, Ken Cluckie, Filito, (& Norris & Nikita now sadly demised)
• tended to and helped pick lots of olive trees
• made lots of homemade birthday cards / special events cards and Christmas cards
• unpacked a few more boxes
• collected a few more owls!

The Future of 2011
So, what does 2011 have in store for me? Well, this time I do know a little bit about what is planned!

I would like to do a 5-week Tesol Electronic Village Online course starting in January. I haven't chosen which course yet because there are so many fantastic choices.
I am interested in the following courses:

• Mentoring 2011
• Digital Storytelling
• Village 2011
• Podcasts ESL - EFL 2011

Please do join me in experiencing the excitement of being a student again. It's a wonderful feeling!! I can guarantee you will learn a lot!!

February 2011
I am doing another workshop in L'Aquila for Tesol-Aquila Action Group on Wednesday February 2nd 2011. I am really looking forward to seeing all the amazing teachers again.

On February 5th I hope to be presenting at Connecting Online 2011. My wonderful mentor and former tutor on the Moodle for Teachers course Dr Nellie Deutsch has invited me to present online. It will be a great pleasure!!

In February I will be tutoring on another e-course on behalf of the Consultants-E.

April 2011
I will be presenting at IATEFL Brighton on April 17th. I can't wait to meet members of my fabulous PLN and fellow tweeters during that time.

I would like to brush up my very basic riding skills and do my CBT (Compulsory Basic Motorbike Training) again at Abbey Motorcycle Instructors.

I hope to teach on more Teacher Refresher courses for the Lake School of English.

An Open Year Book
The rest of the year is an open book, waiting to be filled. More book reviews are on the cards. Who knows, I might even get down to writing my own e-book. That would be really cool.

Finally, I hope to achieve the very important goal below:

I would also like to do the following:

That's it!! The rest, I really don't know at this stage. I look forward to the new year and to seeing how it will all evolve.

Once again, many thanks to everyone I know who has helped me develop as a teacher and helped me to do my best.
In particular, I owe a lot to the amazing Shelly Terrell for encouraging me to venture into the thrilling world of online conferences and presentations. Without her constant support, I may not have given it a go.

I wish all my readers and fellow bloggers, tweeters, teachers, and students I have taught this year, a very Happy and successful New Year.

"Don't just dream it. Do it!"

Have fun, and may all your dreams come true!!

Due

My blog was officially 2 years old on 9th November. I was in Oxford at the time and very busy, so I wasn't able to focus on doing a post, so here it is!

2010 has been an incredible year for Janet's Abruzzo Edublog. It has given me a lot of pleasure and I have met so many people and via my sidebar PLN, I have learned so much in the process. Thank you very much to all my readers for viewing my blog. I appreciate it a lot.

This is what I wrote on my first year anniversary called "Uno".

The Menagerie
Apparently, according to the recently introduced Google "Analytics" on my Blogger dashboard, which mysteriously just appeared, my most popular post in my second year of blogging is "Let Sleeping Cat Lie", which I did on the theme of animal idioms, a recurring topic. Incredibly, it has had over 1,200 page views!! As you may know, here in the wilds of Abruzzo, I am surrounded by my menagerie. The animals inspire me constantly to write up posts such as "Chicks'R'us", "And Then There Were Three" and "An Open Letter from Samantha to Valentina".

Here is a new Animoto that I have created:

Sadly, little capon "Al Capone" is no longer with us, as he was eaten by a wild Goshawk a short while ago. Life moves on, and I am now in the process of preparing myself for the arrival of a multi-coloured cockerel that will be named "Fred". Ever since I bought this Cockerel mug and coaster set, I have wanted to buy a similar looking chick. I would like to train him to wake me up at 6.45am on the dot! We haven't bought him yet, but it's good to imagine what he will be like......

Key Events
On a more serious note, in my second year I have reflected and given feedback on the live webinars that I have presented at, which include the Reform Symposium and 3rd Virtual Round Table conference. Both these online conferences were truly fantastic, and they were skilfully organised.

I have written book reviews on Moodle for Packt Publishing:Moodle 1.9 for Second Language Teaching, Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques, and Moodle 1.9 Theme Design :Beginner's Guide. I am currently finishing off my latest review on Moodle 1.9: The English Teacher's Cookbook.

I also enjoyed writing a book review of the wonderful "Zen and the Act of Teaching" by David Deubelbeiss.

Lifelong Learning
Why do I write my blog? Well, it is a learning diary, a place to keep all my ideas and emerging lessons, a place for feedback on what I have learned, a place to share new ideas, a place to keep everything under one roof, so to speak. I also write it to give encouragement to teachers who may not already have a blog, but who are tentatively thinking of starting one.

I never thought it would lead me to where I am today, but it has. It has completely revolutionised my way of life and I am very happy as a result. It has also made me a much better teacher and most importantly of all, it has allowed me to keep up to date with this new, fast evolving era of digital technology. Can you believe I was a technophobe just 2 short years ago?

However, I have to add, the image of the blackboard below is there to remind me that all will not be lost if technology were to let me down. Give me a basic board and a pen and I would be able to deliver my lessons, in the "Unplugged Way". You may like to read this fabulous series on the Dogme Blog Challenge by Karenne Sylvester on Kalinago English blog.

Education Needs Reflective Educators
A terrific new educational initiative has just been set up by Shelly Terrell and Gret Sandler in the shape of a Blogs 4 Edu wiki. "Education Needs Reflective Educators" is intended to help all new bloggers and existing bloggers to help spread the word. As Gret says, "Blogging is a great way to share what is happening in every classroom". Please do read through both blog posts and I hope they will inspire you to start a blog!!

I am thrilled and feel privileged to be currently tutoring online for the Consultants-E and proofreading for Macmillan. At the same time, I can stay at home and tend to my olive trees, my plants, check up on Samantha and co, and write my blog and tweet. I really couldn't ask for more.

I will leave you with a fabulous image taken by K in our garden. The thousands of starlings were flying over the olive trees and K was able to take this amazing shot. This is what life in Abruzzo is all about.

Coming soon!
Feedback from TESOL Italy
Back to the Grove
Moodle book review

My Top 5 Blog Posts for Reflection

Summer has been hectic and continues apace. Life in Abruzzo is full of gardening and animal tales, in addition to surfing the vast online Information Highway. Information comes in, is logged by my brain, digested and then is dutifully filed away in my memory bank somewhere.

There are 5 blog posts I have read recently, which I would like to highlight here, because they have resonated with me in some particular way. The eyecatching titles did not disappoint. These posts are full of personal thoughts, and practical insights. I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

Multitasking or "making a hole in the water" by Marisa Constantinides is a great piece which acts as a catalyst for reflection on what modern 21st century educators have to deal with on a regular basis. It is good to share such thoughts as we are all in the same boat and can help one another, just by listening and commenting.

10 More Twitter Faux Pas To Avoid When Building Your PLN by Sue Lyons-Jones is an essential read to guide you through the pitfalls on twitter. It's a very useful guideline to bear in mind for all tweeters.

Boomerangs:No blog post ever really goes to waste by Jason Renshaw.
I really like the encouraging message it contains about the worth of writing posts which may not receive views or hits at the time of writing, but which may certainly be appreciated in the future.

I enjoyed reading Vuvuzela Enters Oxford Dictionary of English by Jeffrey Hill from the English Blog. I am presenting at TESOL-Italy in November this year and my talk will be based on the theme of "Language Flows". I have already begun my research into my presentation, and am keeping tracks of useful links such as this one.

A Glossary to DEMYSTIFY the jargon of the online world by Sue Waters is an incredibly useful post to bookmark for learning about specific words used online.

A Fearless Kitten
I will leave you with a picture of little Samantha, who bravely took on 5 chickies today and managed to scare them away.....butter wouldn't melt, eh?

The Trout and All Things Christmas

The Trout in Lower Wolvercote, Oxford, was the scene of many an Inspector Morse episode. It was his local "watering hole" so to speak, albeit a very upmarket one indeed.

I had the great pleasure of partaking of two festive meals there very recently and both times were exceptionally pleasant and memorable, thanks to the very welcoming staff and service we received. The Christmas menu was excellent and portions were exceptionally generous. The setting was wonderful, the atmosphere enticing and the company scintillating. What more could one ask for? The perfect venue for a party event.Everything I had was delicious. In particular, the Goat's Cheese starter was excellent and I really enjoyed The Bailey's pot dessert which was fabulous. Baileys just happens to be my favourite Christmas tipple. So if you are looking for an eaterie with great atmosphere to spend a nice time at Christmas and New Year with friends, I would heartily recommend the Trout.

Just as a seasonal aside, here are Delia's fave tipples. In addition, here's how to make a Christmas Pudding!

Some Excellent Links to Fun Christmas Activities!
Ana Maria Menezes of LifeFeast fame shows you 10 fun, Web 2.0 inspired ways to send Xmas greetings this year. Have a look at them here. Ozge Karaoglu also has some fab examples of alternative Web 2.0 Xmas ideas here Which one will you be sending?
Prince Harry and his on-off girlfriend Chelsy have sent their Elves e-Xmas card already. I predict it's going to be the e-card sensation of 2009!
Karenne Sylvester from kalinagoenglish has some different thought-provoking ideas about Christmas here.
www.esolcourses.com has a great series of lessons with Christmas songs for ESL learners and kids. Slades's "Merry Christmas Everybody" is one of my favourite Xmas songs ever. Please click here for this lovely lesson. I bet you won't be able to resist singing along!!
For an original Advent Calendar 2009, please click on the "Bits'n'bobs/show'n'tell" blog.
Click here for two alternative Italian calendars from Italy Magazine.

A veritable "White Christmas" 2009?
My all time favourite song has got to be "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby. This year it looks as if it's sure going to be a true white Christmas.
I'll leave you all for the moment with the following extract from the original film.

Moodle:Perfect Timing

To Moodle or not to Moodle, that is the question. To be more precise, Modular, Orientated, Dynamic, Learning Environment. I have been intrigued by this innovative virtual learning platform for quite some time, and I find myself currently right in the middle of it, so to speak, for two reasons.
Watch this short Youtube video which explains what Moodle is.



I like this particular short Youtube presentation which links Moodle with Lego bricks



A bit of a Coincidence?

Firstly, I have begun to follow a 4-week Integrating Technology for Teaching e-course called "Moodle for Teachers". The facilitators are all highly skilled in holding Blended Online Learning Moodle workshops. There are over 120 participants from all over the world. It is incredible to see so many known faces from the blogging world and this is kind of reassuring for someone like me who believe it or not, still has an underlying fear of new technologies. The Moodle WiZiQ webinar on Monday evening was dynamic and involving.

Secondly, it is my great pleasure to announce that I will be reviewing a new (e)-book on Moodle by Jeff Stanford, called Moodle 1.9 For Second Language Teaching. It is literally "hot off the press", published in October 2009 by www.packtpublishing.com. It is pure coincidence that this event and my course have come at the same time and I guess, it was meant to be. My reading through the book from a learner's point of view, and from a prospective teacher's point of view will give me an excellent further insight into this exciting learning platform. Over the coming weeks I will be reading as much as I can through the relevant chapters of interest and I will write up a review based on my experience.

A Review
I will focus on the operability, functionality and practicality of the content of "Moodle 1.9 For Second Language Teaching" from both a newbie Moodler's point of view and from a future practising facilitator's perspective. I am looking forward to this immensely. From my initial brief overview of the book, I can already envisage it is an excellent, comprehensive and rich source of information for teachers, students and educators alike. An invaluable companion on the journey towards Moodle enlightenment!

In the meantime, to whet your appetite, here is a link to an extracted chapter of the book entitled "Listening Activities". If you click on the highlighted link you can download the whole chapter in pdf for you to read at leisure.

Now I must get back to doing all my reading tasks and assignments! See you soon.

Yes, I have! This is my answer to the question above.

Back into the Groove

Ups and downs are the usual ingredients of the hurly burly of life. The past few weeks have been a roller coaster. Riding high in the clouds one day, lying low the next. It is so easy to lose track of one's direction if one is not focused enough. One needs rugged determination, powerful will and extreme dedication to fly high. I feel I am "back in the groove"!




A Holy Familiar Reunion
Today the family celebrated my nephew's First Holy Communion at Corpus Christi Church. It was a wonderfully joyous occasion and it was made extra special with the presence of my dear mother. She was able to leave OCE for the whole day for the first time since she had her devastating accident four months ago. She is a walking miracle. I am very proud of her progress and her zest for life, which remains incredibly undimmed.

The Black Boy
A truly amazing celebration lunch was served in a new eaterie in Headington called The Black Boy. The choice of menu was varied and the meal I chose was perfect in every way. The portions were generous and everything was homemade. One thing that really stood out was the great attention to detail. Everything was organised to a high degree. Abigail Rose was the "hostess with the mostest" and ensured that everything went off smoothly and without a hitch. A lovely personal touch was that my mother and aunt were provided with lovely, plump cushions to ensure that they were sitting comfortably. Absolutely nothing was too much and we were looked after very well indeed. Would I recommend The Black Boy? Yes, indeed. It is tucked away in a beautiful corner of old Headington and has a long and varied history. I believe it will definitely become the "in" place to dine. If you are ever in the local Oxford area, make sure you drop in to sample the delicious food and at the same time, unwind in the relaxing atmosphere.

Language in Motion
I am now busy compiling examples of slang words that I come across in newspapers/magazines and of course, the Internet. This is in preparation for my Primary Teachers' Refresher classes called "Update your English" which I will be doing for the Lake School of English in July . The English language is constantly on the move and as a teacher of EFL, it is vital to keep up with what is happening. One of my favourite sites is wordspy.com. How many of these words in the Top 100 have you come across? I admit, there are a lot that are new for me, too!

WAGS in the News
Just today I saw this eye-catching headline about Posh Spice wanting to "ditch" her WAG image in order to appear in Vogue Magazine.
To "ditch" something means to get rid of something/remove something, which you no longer want.
WAG stands for the wife and or girlfriend of a famous footballer. It is now not so cool to be known as a "WAG".

Villa Santa Maria - a Review

A view of Villa Santa Maria taken some time in the past

A few days ago I visited a delightful little village located at the foot of a vertical rock called La Penna. Two things made me want to go to Villa Santa Maria. Firstly, my best friend Wiesia had just sent me a cookery book called "The Food of Italy" by Claudia Roden in which Villa Santa Maria was mentioned in the Abruzzi and Molise chapter. Secondly, K had just read an article in Motitalia, a monthly magazine produced by The Federazione Motociclista Italiana, in which there was a full page spread on "La Panarda Abruzzese" featuring Villa Santa Maria. It seemed more than a mere coincidence that reading the chapter in the book and the article in the magazine both happened on the same day. I had to go.

An Awe-Inspiring Sight


It was a scorching day when we set off in search of the fabled , world-famous "Village of the Chefs". The story is that most Italian and internationally renowned chefs are trained in the Culinary and Hotel Management School located in the medieval village. We drove through beautiful countryside passing Alanno, Manopello Scalo, Guardagriele, Lago di Bomba until we finally set eyes on Villa Santa Maria in the distance, set amongst rocks and .....completely and unavoidably dominated by an enormously high, ultra-modern bridge. None of the reviews/articles had mentioned this fact nor indeed shown any recent pictures of this awe-inspiring work of humankind!


A Jewel of a Restaurant


We came across a delightful "agriturismo" called "La Casetta" which was tucked snugly under the bridge above. We had the most amazingly delicious food in the grand culinary tradition of Villa Santa Maria, served by a charming lady called Antonella. We were offered fresh, homemade "antipasti", gnocchi, roast veal and potatoes, lemon pie, red wine (for me) and espresso.

Picture above of typical Abruzzese "antipasti"

To begin with, we were the only 2 in the whole restaurant and the service was discreet and impeccable. After half an hour, the restaurant became completely full with the arrival of a very lively, joyful, talkative, ravenously hungry group of smartly dressed policemen, and voluntary workers in bright day-glo yellow uniform. Each of them very politely said "Buon Giono" to us in turn as they came in and we said "Buon Giorno" back about 20 times in the space of a minute. They were also served quickly and efficiently by Antonella and a co-worker. We enjoyed the rest of our meal with "gusto" in typical Italian fashion. I would highly recommend eating at "La Cassetta" as the food is delicious, the ambience welcoming and the staff are very friendly and charming. Its unique setting is a fascinating feature.


An Intriguing Question


We set off into the village and walked up narrow, cobbled alleyways. We were invited for a coffee by one of the villagers as we passed her house. We politely declined in true grand British reserved fashion but if we had accepted there would probably be a fascinating story to recount.... We walked up and up and passed a beautiful church. We marvelled at the beauty of this tiny village. Everywhere we went, we caught glimpses of the monumental bridge. How had the villagers reacted to it being built right over their homes? Why was there no mention of this bridge anywhere? It was as if this bridge did not exist at all.



San Francesco Caracciolo



The patron saint of Villa Santa Maria is San Francesco Caracciolo also known as "Patrone dei Cuochi d'Italia (Patron Saint of Italian cooks). He was born here on 13th October 1563. There is an annual "Sagra dei Cuochi del Sangro" ("Festival of the cooks of the River Sangro) every October. Another good time to visit is during the first two weeks of August when Villesi from all over Italy and the world return to enjoy the festivities of the Feast of the Madonna in Basilico.

The Remains of the Day



We made our way home marvelling at what we had experienced in this lovely village. The end of the day was fabulous with the most wonderful sunset captured by K just as we came towards home.

I would love to hear from any "Villesi" from Italy or abroad. I hope I have captured the essence of your delightfully unique village.

Macmillan Webinar Feedback: Lindsay Clandfield - The Power of Lists

I have just attended my first live interactive Macmillan "webinar" hosted by the top ELT author Lindsay Clandfield on the "Power of Lists". The session proved to be very worthwhile and practical. The webinar was attended by teachers from all over the world including Russia, Turkey, Argentina, Morocco, Slovakia, Germany and Australia to name but a few. So it was a truly international and cosmopolitan mixture of people.

An effective talk
My computer behaved itself and everything went off without a technical hitch in sight. I was able to communicate short messages and do interactive activities via a text message box. The session lasted 30 minutes with 15 minutes at the end for questions from the floor and answers from Lindsay. The slideshow presentation was very effective with clear points and pertinent images. The timing was impeccable ( a sign of a good teacher, in my personal opinion) and Lindsay spoke at a very good pace. I felt involved and motivated throughout the talk.

Famous ELT lists
Lindsay explained his fascination with lists of all kinds and how they can be used in the classroom. His lists are always in groups of 6 things. We brainstormed 2 types of lists, personal and ELT- related, via our text message boxes. The six most famous lists in ELT are the following: I will write down the lists but not the subject matter- see if you can guess them:

1. go-went-gone
2. A1, A2, B1......
3. linguistic, intrapersonal, logical-mathematical....
4. noun, verb, adverb.........
5. monitor, input+1, natural order.......
6. the, of, an

6 things to do with lists
1) Take a list of your choice and get students to guess what the list is about. Eg

• JKRowling
• Bob Geldoff
• Stephen King
• Nick Hornby
  

The connection is that they are all famous authors who have also taught English at one time or another.

2) Dictate a list of the most disappointing sites visited by tourists round the world but leave out the first site. Ask students to guess what the first site could be and then as a follow-up, get them to think up their own list of best sites/disappointing sites etc. This is a very good communication activity and an excellent springboard for student production.

3) A fascinating site for lists full of chunks and common verb phrases is the following: grocerylists.org

Get students to do their own "To do" lists and thus present perfect grammar can be exploited eg
"Have you done the shopping yet?
Yes, I've already done it / No, I haven't done it yet.

Another useful site suggested by Lindsay is www.foundmagazine.com.

4) Lists are excellent resources to practise correct pronunciation and intonation.

5) Lindsay demonstrated an unusual icebreaker/speaking activity based on good things and bad things about having his particular name and surname. Eg with my name Janet Bianchini

Good things about my name?

• I am named after the famous 1950s actress Janette Scott
• Janet means "gift from God" in Hebrew
• I share my name with Janet Jackson

Bad things about my name?

• Not many people can pronounce my surname correctly
• Not many people can spell it correctly
• I used to be called "bikini" at primary school and I hated it

I like this activity as an icebreaker and I am sure students would have a lot to say on this topic.

6) Jumbled up lists
A good source of lists which can be jumbled up and then used to do a ranking / pyramid activity is the following from www.Nationmaster.com (for some reason, the site wouldn't allow me to hyperlink it here).

Finally, Lindsay showed us his blog entitled www.sixthings.net. I have just quickly looked through it and it is indeed a veritable "Treasure Trove" for EFL teachers like myself!! I will enjoy looking through it at leisure and will try to add it to my RSS sidebar for easier access.

Final thoughts?
An excellent webinar and I can't wait for the next one on Wednesday 10th June.
Thank you Lindsay for a stimulating seminar!

Abruzzo Review - Day 28: 31DBBB

Janet's Top Ten Adjectives
Abruzzo is a region spoilt for descriptive adjectives but here are my favourite ones:

• awesome
• rugged
• unspoilt
• breathtaking
• wild
• spectacular
• magical
• delightful
• picturesque
• mysterious

Food
The food is amongst the best and most delicious in the whole of Italy. Here are a few of the local products which I have tried. Recipes courtesy of "I Sapori di Abruzzo e Molise" by Carlo Natali.



Grilled "scamorza"
"Scamozza" of Abruzzo is a cheese famous for its softness and delicate taste. Grease it well with olive oil and cook over a charcoal fire. It is an excellent hors d'oeuvre served hot with salt and pepper.

Chicken, King Francesco's II Way
It is said that this descendant of the Borboni Monarchy especially liked this dish while out hunting in Abruzzo. Cut a chicken into pieces and fry it lightly in olive oil with chopped garlic, rosemary, 1 bay leaf, half a chilli, salt and pepper. While cooking, sprinkle it with white wine and add pieces of green olives, capers and pickles.

Janet's Top Abbruzzo WinesThe Abruzzo region is blessed with an abundance of vineyards which produce world-famous wines such as the following:

Trebbiano D'Abruzzo
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

I only buy the local wines produced in this area. I can honestly say that they are indeed fantastic value. It goes without saying that they are modestly and discreetly imbibed and enjoyed to the full!

Janet's Top 5 Cities to visit in Abruzzo

Castel del Monte - for its picturesque setting
Civitella del Tronto - for its medieval fortress
Santo Stefano di Sessanio - for its unique panoramic setting
Castelli - for its wonderful ceramics
Sulmona - for its confetti

You must not leave Abruzzo without visiting its magnificent national parks and seeing some of its natural wildlife in action.


To finish off my little Abruzzo review, here is a video from Abruzzo:Pure Italy.


Abruzzo: Pure Italy - The best free videos are right here


Day 28: 31DBBB Addendum
I have just spent a couple of hours on a wild, tempestuous, rainy, windswept Sunday putting this little "Abruzzo" Review together, using Wikipedia, the Internet and my own limited knowledge.
If you haven't been to Abruzzo before, then please don't let recent well-documented events put you off visiting this relatively unknown part of Italy. It will be well worth a visit, I can assure you.


Abruzzo Reference List
Have a look at these sites which mention Abruzzo:
In Italy Online
Go Europeabout.com
Sherman's Travel Magazine
Fiat 500 Tour
Irish Times
News.comau