Name: MBE (jason)
After living in China for over 6 years, my life back stateside...
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(since 5.14.04)
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My blog has been added to a blog ring that can be found on the right-hand sidebar, at the bottom of the sidebar or by clicking here. It is, 'anything to do with teaching ESL or EFL' so far there are 12 sites listed, but I am sure that will grow as the word gets out!
The link from yesterday's post, AsiaTEFL, is for a newly formed TEFL organization in Asia. The website is new and with that there will be limits. I am planning to present a paper at the November conference in Seoul. It is similar to the paper I have just presented in Beijing, with the addition of RSS/XML technology. I also have more freedom for the paper length. I was limited to 4000 words in Beijing, but this conference limit is higher.
Several 'fellow bloggers' have commented on this blog and even added me to their links list. I am honored! I know it is hard to find information about blogging at the primary level. Even more difficult for primary ESL. I hope this will end soon. I plan to share all of my findings and hope to have feedback from others doing the same.
So far, I have seen that my students (from Korea, Malaysia, Germany and Japan) are computer literate to some degree. I am slowly introducing aspects that will be included in the blog for next school year and they have responded well. Their writing skills are lacking, even in their mother language, but having said this, they try very hard. They experiment with the language and handle feedback well. I know that this will be an enriching resource for them!
In the coming days I hope to add many of my personal favorite links as well as links to some articles that I have found interesting.
I want to first add: Asia TEFL 
I have gotten several comments about this blog and that is really great! I had no idea that anyone was really reading it. One comment was about an RSS feed. I am still working on it, but for now I have to say that I do not have a feed. Other comments have to do with using blogs in my classes and for now I am in the planning stages of using blogs in the fall with my beginning students and I will be sure to include the planning process on this space.
I am toying with the idea of setting up a school blog with my students in mind. And starting out with them commenting on what I have posted. It could be a picture, story, article, etc. I want to see how they can use the technology before I have them all make their own blog.
To add the already stressful day, described below, I read on the AJC newspaper website that an explosion had occured at a chemical plant near where my father works! I then tried to call home with no avail. When I woke up this morning I called and my mom and dad were both fine, but my dad had been sent home due to hazardous chlorine-based chemicals. It proves how fast something can happen and how helpless you can feel! 
I am finally back in Suzhou. I arrived at the Beijing International Airport at 1 pm for a 5 pm flight. However, the flight was delayed until 6:30, but that meant that I waited for 5 1/2 hours before leaving the airport. I could have almost flown back to Atlanta (not really). I landed in Shanghai at 8:20pm and the driver from the school was waiting for me. He had my name as 'ason' not Jason, but all was well. He was some kind of driver trainer b/c he had another younger guy there that carried my bags and then drove. I think that is how they attend driver training. Anyway, I finally arrived at my home around 10pm, 10 hours after I started my journey. The train would have actually taken less time, but who cares, right?!
As for the actualy conference, well...it was ok. I have attended many conferences and training sessions, but this was the first one in China. I thought that it was ok overall, but I think if conference organizers are going to invite overseas participants, then it is necessary to ask for some sort of advice from a westerner. I do not think that was even considered. The conference center was very nice and brand new. There was a swimming pool, bowling alley, sauna, steam room, several meeting rooms, etc. The hotel room was also very nice with DSL. That is always an added bonus.
Nevertheless, most of the overseas participants, with the exception of a few, were really rude. Every Chinese professional I met was more than happy to meet me and even sought after me for chances to talk and interact. I never met the conference organizer that I had had many e-mail 'chats' with. I was a bit disappointed with the actual presentations. The entertainment was FANTASTIC! One evening was 'singing and dancing' and another evening was a 'concert' and no expense was spared. There were many stars of the Chinese Mainland there performing and it was very enjoyable. Overall, I would rate my experience as a 5 out of 10. It was nice in some aspects and seriously lacking in others. I did not have the chance to attend past conferences to compare, but I would suggest that they would consult a western minded person next time to meet more needs of the participants.
My article presentation went quite well. There were about 30-35 people, and there were a lot of questions. I did run longer than expected. It was to be 25-30 minutes and it was actually 45 minutes, so it ran long, however, no one complained and it seemed to be of interest to everyone in the room. I am planning to re-work the information in the paper and add other issues to the finished paper. For now you can read the paper from the presentation at ELT and BLOGS. Please e-mail me with your responses/suggestions!
Well, I am 'connected' in my hotel room at the FLTRP Conference Center! Tomorrow I will be presenting my article about blogging and ELT. I plan to use this site as an example of what can be done. Stay tuned for more updates as time permits.
At 4pm today I will be heading to Shanghai to fly to Beijing. I will be in Beijing for 6 days and I plan to put all my thoughts and reflections on this blog space upon my return. If I can get on the web while away I will try to update...
Taken from the "Teaching Times" (www.teachingtimes.com) This is really a case of teacher training and educating in CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT:
I do want to recommend and suggest using the 'SharpReader' RSS newsreader. I have it installed on my home and work PCs.
You can find the reader at: http://www.hutteman.com/weblog/
I have put my pursuit of an RSS feed for this blog on hold for the moment. I am busy preparing a presentation and to plan lessons for my classes while I am away. After my return I will be back at it. I am still reading a lot of articles about blogging, RSS, XML, etc. I hope to write a follow-up article to the one listed in an earlier entry. It can be accessed online on the sidebar...
I am trying to find a way to RSS feed my blog contents. I have not found any tools in the editing console, but I am looking around for code to add to my template html.
I have put even more information on my website for teachers or people interested in reading some articles about teaching. I know that most of this stuff is really dry and boring, but I think that maybe one day it might be helpful.
Click on the right hand sidebar to get to the information.
As promised, I have posted my article in complete from at my home site.
There is also a link to my home page and the article's page on the sidebar. I welcome feedback and responses to the article. Like my blog's title, this is all in the beginning stages so it is a work in progress, in true spirit of the 'blog!'
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