Friday, June 10, 2005

Need help badly

Hello guys,

This is an urgent call- a very, very urgent call for help ;-)

I need to start doing my observation, and as you know, time is running out. I know you have been very busy with your careers, some of you may be starting new ones, some of you, maintaining and rejuvenating your jobs. Likewise, I have been very busy too and I'll be starting online courses this summer, not to mention, my f2f (face-to-face- classes in Wen Zao). Your blogs (Mei and Fina) have been very successful and I would like to congratulate you on that. Not many teachers, even in higher education, have the willingness and tenacity that you guys have. April? When are you going to start your own?

The messages that you've posted on our taiwanese-efl-yahoogroups have been very helpful and the reflective approaches have somehow influenced your professional development. I hope that you all will continue on what you have started.

Now, back to the purpose of this letter ;-)

I want us all to participate in a more active stance of your tpd (teacher professional development). I really wanted you to engage in an online lecture to be conducted by one of my invited foreign guest lecturers. I've got so many volunteers. I asked you one time about the time and date of your availability and many of you wrote Saturday, evening, so I am looking at Saturday evening from 8-11 pm. The session won't last that long but will go on for an hour or an hour and a half. This is what I want you to do (you must do!)

1. Think of a topic that you would like to learn more. This must be classroom oriented i.e. teaching reading, teaching spelling, teaching grammar, or even classroom management. The topics may vary and the topics may be divided into 2-3 online sessions. We could line them up.

2. Based on what you will be learning online, you will then practice or adapt in your classroom the things that you learned from the online sessions. This will be observed by me or via video (which I could lend you for observation purposes).

Are you ready for this?

If you don't have computers at home, please let me know so I could arrange for us to meet at home and we'll have a blended learning session (I'll provide the computer, internet and webcam so we could meet our online guests).

Are you with me so far?

If you're experiencing any difficulties with my requests, I would appreciate if you could let me know ahead of time.

Many, many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

Aiden

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