This blog serves several purposes: Communicating with my students outside of the classroom, publishing my students' work, and it serves as a resource for both students and teachers.
Well school starts again on Monday! So, let's review some cool tools for making cartoons and animated videos. We will be using these tools in Semester 2.
First, look at the cartoon below. I made it with ToonDoon.
Hello everyone,
I just discovered a really cool tool for making music. It's called iNudge. My friend Christien Gagnier told me about it. Christien is a teacher at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Christien and I went to the University of Windsor together.
Click the play button in the music player below. Listen to the tune (歌) I composed (作曲した). It was easy. I just played. I didn't know what my song would sound like until I was finished! Try it! Tell me what you think. Please post a comment below.
Today was the midterm exam. You must be tired. Let's finish the lesson with something fun!
Here are some videos of a cartoon character called Grammarman. We have visited the Grammarman website before. We read the Frankenstein comic on the Grammarman website. Watch the videos. There are eight grammar mistakes in the first video. Can you find them?
Now let's read some comics made by students from around the world. These students are learning English - just like you! Some are Brian Boyd's students in Thailand. Brian Boyd is an English teacher in Bangkok and the creator of Grammarman.
Click this link: Student Comics Galleries. Read the comics in Gallery 1 and answer the questions on the Study Gallery Quiz. The Student Gallery Quiz is in the lecture folder.
You can listen to this blog now! Click "listen now". It's the button under the title of this post. Now you can listen and read. You can subscribe too. That means that every time I write a new post you can listen in iTunes. I was able to make this blog a podcast by using odiogo.com. I'd like to thank Isabelle Jones, a Spanish and French teacher in the UK, for introducing me to odiogo.com.
i-osmosis is an English learning website operated by my friend Abhishek's company Cactus Communications. Learners can get instruction in writing English for exams including TOEIC, TOEFL and EIKEN. i-osmosis has courses in writing for general purposes too. i-osmosis also has a Japanese website, i-osmosis.jp.
i-osmosis is having a contest called "How I learn English". If you're interested please visit this link: http://www.i-osmosis.jp/how_i_learn.html. Five Amazon.com vouchers worth ¥1,500 each are available. Good luck!
We all need role models (模範的な人, 手本). Language learning role models are especially important. My friend Sanae is one of my language learning role models. I think she is a great role model. She studied English in Junior High School and Senior High School but she didn't learn English. She wasn't happy that she didn't learn English, so she made an effort to really learn English. Now her English is excellent. She has written books about learning English and she is an English teacher. Please visit her website to read her story. Her website is called Sanae's Place.
This is a really cool website: freerice.com. It's a vocabulary quiz. For every word you get right some rice is donated to hungry people. At the start, you will get words from different levels. Soon, the website will understand your level and you will get only words at your level. After that you can level up. Therefore, this website is fun for everyone. I love it! I'm at Level 42. Please visit this website and take the quiz. Then visit this website again and write a comment. Tell me how you liked the website. Tell me your level. Tell me how many grains of rice you donated. I'm really looking forward to hearing what you think of this website! Enjoy!!
My friend Steven Nishida introduced me to a really cool website called makebeliefscomix.com. You can make your own comic using this website. I made the comic above. Try it! It's fun and easy.
