Forum+Some+Starter+Questions

Some starter questions
Use this forum to answer the questions below, which relate to school links projects and to some of the project ideas you will be introduced to over the course of this unit :


 * 1) Have you ever taken part in a school links project before with a school within your country?
 * 2) Have you ever taken part in a school links project before with a school in another country?
 * 3) Do you frequently communicate with a friend from another country? How?
 * 4) In less than a hundred words, describe the view from the window nearest to you
 * 5) Have you ever done any projects that have involved your students using e-mails?
 * 6) Have you ever taught your students how to write informal emails?

by [|Irina Dygal] - Tuesday, 8 November 2011, 02:42 PM || 1) June 2007 "Ecological problems of my town" 2) February 2008 "Customs and traditions in my Country" 3) November 2010 "Natural energy resources" ||
 * Projects with Poland
 * =  || I have taken part in 3 international projects with Poland:

by [|Natalia Kolotova] - Monday, 7 November 2011, 02:00 AM ||
 * my answers
 * =  || Unfortunately, we have not had any experience of  a school link project.

I frequently communicate with a friend from Spain but we prefer text messages - a mobile phone is almost always with us whereas a computer with Inet access is a random pleasure, especially during working hours. A night owl usually sees the lights of street lamps and the windows of the block of flats. The street is not very congested with traffic so several cars occasionally disturb peace and tranquillity. The chestnuts are getting ready for winter. So the main attraction of the neighborhood is the pharmacy with neon lights 24/7. Luckily, some of our teachers used email projects with their Ss so I had someone to ask if that is allowed (I am very careful about invading someone's personal space). What we often do at our unversity is giving creative tasks (creating a story, using the prompts given) which must be submitted as e-mails to the teacher. This gives more time for research and space for creativity as well as saves teachers' time to decipher Ss' handwriting.

Writing informal letters and e-mails is one of the criteria for measuring Ss' proficiency at our university so this is a regular element of our lessons. ||

by [|Nataly Katsaran] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 11:11 PM || [] My dream is to find a partner school on Schools on Line BC (we registered last November) [|http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org] but I'm really short of time this year. In Connecting classroom there is a project called "The View from your window", the works presented by different schools from all over the world are really amazing! If I look out of it I can see the backyard, two rubbish containers and blocks of flats in the distance. It's been raining all day and the road to the buildings is grey and wet, covered by yellow, red and green spots,...like my way to international cooperation with bright moments of being involved in them. Sorry for my pessimism, it's because of the rain. ||
 * Problems with projects
 * Problems with projects
 * =  || I saw the other threads and was really impressed how much my colleages have succeeded in international projects. To my mind any project work is a great opportunity to develope students ability to think about important issues and get experience in doing something useful. Sometimes we (me and students) do something but not much, usually in projects set or agreed by our regional educational department. It's not easy in our small town to persude the authorities that projects are the best way to prepare students for the real life and set up their free time. Everything like teachers' extra time, materials (paper, felt-pens, etc), events are held without any financial support and not many teachers want to participate. Besides some international projects are crushed in a bud (last moth our group failed in getting visas to take part in MUNOG 2011 because our administration didn't want to "interrupt educational process"). It's even difficult to find somebody who shares these ideas in my school. But we've managed to do smth. Last year we participated in Green School Project, the results were uploaded to U-tube

by [|Vera Moiseenko] - Sunday, 6 November 2011, 08:14 PM ||
 * My answer
 * =  || I have never taken part in any school links project. We even don't have such practice at school...

I communicate with my friend from other countries (Egypt, USA, Germany) using emails and Skype.

The view from my window is really colourful in the morning - we can enjoy red, purple, yellow, blue, grey and white smoke from plants' chimneys of our industrial town! I can watch one plant on the left and other one on the right. I can smell strange smog every morning and evening and hear loud noise of factories at night which shows that our workers work hard and they have chance to earn money. If one day we don't see such pictures it will mean that town is dying! So welcome our bright smoky sky! From my window I can see empty playground. In my childhood there was a slide, a roundabout, a sand box, a swing and several benches. So many children came to play there... But now it's ruined and empty...

As other participants I only used the task when my students sent me their e-mails on given topic or task. They haven't ever sent their emails to foreigners.

Of course I've taught my students how to write informal emails. ||

by [|Angela Moninets] - Wednesday, 2 November 2011, 11:20 PM ||
 * My answers
 * =  || Unfortunately, I haven't experienced such collaboration between schools, let alone countries. I do keep in touch with people from another countries, but we rarely chat.

My students have written informal emails both to me and to each other.

There is a small yard between my block of flats and the neighboring one. There's a children playground, where mommies and kids often play, run and scream. So it never gets boring. Now and then there could be seen a car passing by - as there's no parking space nearby, drivers look for a place to pull over. There are many colorful leaves on the ground. So a yard cleaner can often be seen sweeping the street or carrying away bulks of leaves. That is a peaceful spot with a lot of sunshine in the afternoon, which makes it a nice place to live in. [|Reply] ||  by [|Kseniia Rozdolska] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 05:58 PM || I have given the task for my primary pupils of the 4th form. They had to write me email-letters. I don't exactly remember the topic, but it was very interesting and fun for them to do thir homework in a different way. I always ask my pupils, when they are ill or absent to send me their homework (like projects or written activity) via email. I've taught my pupils how to write email, and our coursebook also has helped us a lot. There was a topic about email-writing. It was like an example, while we couldn't type the emails and sent them at school. The sightseeing from my window is not very optimistic, because there's a wall of the neighbouring house and four balconies of my neighbours in front of my window. I can see some pigeons, flying up the sky. Luckily I have an opportunity to see a little piece of sky. And early in the morning I observe how the sun is rising up to make our lives colorful and emotional [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Raisa Istomina] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 08:14 PM || I write emails to my friends and colleague who live in Ukraine and abroad quite often. Emailing is time-saving. My first experience of using emais for doing project was five years ago. My students and me went to the Internet cafe as there was no computer room with Internet access at the university. The student got the task to write a chain story (number of sentences was limited) and send it to another student. To manage the process we put the order of the students' involvement. For 50% of the students it was a new experience. I always teach my students how to write informal emails, as it's a part of the course. When I taught adults and there was Internet access in the company, I sent emails with the tasks to the learners, they did them and sent me back. We emailed very often.
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2033/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Kseniia Rozdolska" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2033&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || Unfortunately, I also have never taken part in a school links project before. But I communicate with my friends who live or study abroad through email-writing and Skype. The last one is the best thing to see each other in a real life with a help of a web cam.
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2040/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Raisa Istomina" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2040&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || I haven't any experience in school linking projects both within my country and in another country, though Projects are an integral part in my work for each unit.

It's 8:00p.m. now and it's dark outside, nothing can be visible. The only bright spot is my neighbouring house and the window in the kitchen outlooks my living-room. Also there is a pole with a lamp on it which illuminates the smaller part of the street. I can see no people at this moment, but I can hear noise of approaching car. The window in my room is open. There are no stars in the sky. [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Tetyana Yarmysh] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 10:13 PM || There are sites where all the exchange of information takes place. Normally we start our work with building up our own Team Page and making students' profiles. Intercultural dialogue is integrated in the learning process and after school activities and is beneficial for raising awareness in our students of their rights and responsibilities as Global Citisens. I enjoy the vew from my study. Its window faces the garden which is still beautiful in these late autumn days. Green lawns covered with bright yellow and brown leaves make you think that summer has gone and winter is just round the corner. [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Myroslava Loboiko] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 10:22 PM || [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Angela Moninets] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 10:33 PM || [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Nataly Katsaran] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 11:53 PM || [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Vera Moiseenko] - Sunday, 6 November 2011, 07:20 PM || [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Myroslava Loboiko] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 10:19 PM ||
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2041/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Tetyana Yarmysh" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2041&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || I have been the coordinator of various international school link projects for nine years. The geography of our partner schools is quite impressive, the Phillippines and Zimbabwe, Chech Republic, Hungary,Slovakia and England, Cyprus,Malta and Wales and even India. Not bad for a small school located in a small town, isn't it? Actually it is the most exciting part of my work as it motivates and encourages students to improve their English and develop intercultural understanding.
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2035/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Myroslava Loboiko" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2035&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || Wow, Tetyana, it's amasing[[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/theme/britcounv3_nav/pix/s/smiley.gif caption="smile"]]! You are doing a great job.
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2027/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="teacher" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2027&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || I wish I were your student!
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2038/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Nataly Katsaran" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2038&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || Me too... Why weren't any projects at the time I studied!?
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2042/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Vera Moiseenko" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2042&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || As I see Tetyana is the most experienced in providing international school link projects. It's my dream to start such project...but I even have no any idea what can be such projects about and what should we start with. Dear Tetyana, could you share some ideas of such projects and what we should start with? [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/theme/britcounv3_nav/pix/s/smiley.gif width="15" height="15" caption="smile"]]
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2035/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Myroslava Loboiko" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2035&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || **I should say that project work and school links in particular are greatly encouraged in our school. We can boast of long-term projects with the Novohrad-Volynskyi Collegium (Zhytomyr Region) as well as Oberwil Gymnasia (Switzerland). What is interesting about them that these projects and really very long. The one with the Swiss gymnasia is even longer than my teaching experience as it started in 1995 and the other with the Novohrad-Volynskyi Collegium called “People to People” began in 2002. Within this project we have got a web page in the social network Vkontakte ( [|http://vkontakte.ru/feed#/club5241963] ) which is one of the project products.**
 * Concernig emailing, I do like this way of keeping in touch and use it to the fullest writing to my friends, students and their parents. But I must admit that students are much better at using computers for emailing than their parents and adults in general. One more essential thing (and I support Raisa's viewpoint) is that the activity of writing informal emails is included into the school syllabus. When covering it I often ask my students to send me their written works by email. They love it.**


 * One more project we are currently doing is “Talking Cultures” launched by the British Council in October. It is an international online project so it involves students’ emailing. By the way, it is really nice to meet here one of the participants of the project – Liudmyla Ariutova. We are working in different clusters. (Hi Liudmyla, How is it going? I will contact you a bit later.)**
 * Finally, I couldn't even imagine how interesting it is to read my colleagues' descriptions of the view from the window (I am sure while reading the same lines we still draw rather different pictures in our minds) . Now it's my turn to give you a portion of mystery.**
 * I come to the window, roll up the curtain and ...... what can I see? - Nothing. It is completely dark outside. Nothing? Oh, no! What time is it? Oh, my God, it's already 10 p.m.! No wonder, it is as usual. Since the beginning of the course I haven't gone to bed earlier 1 a.m. - a real nightowl ( I can't help smiling having remembered Nataly Katsaran's picture in the social forum thread) Oh, ...... my eyes get adjusted to the darkness and I can see a tree in front of my window. Is there an owl in it? - No, it must have flown somewhere "on business". And I go back to my computer to get down to my business.[[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/theme/britcounv3_nav/pix/s/wink.gif caption="wink"]]*****

[|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Angela Moninets] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 10:32 PM || [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Vera Moiseenko] - Sunday, 6 November 2011, 07:30 PM || [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Vera Moiseenko] - Sunday, 6 November 2011, 07:10 PM || by [|Liudmila Ariutova] - Thursday, 20 October 2011, 09:56 PM || I have never thought that this kind of out of class activity can help students to understand thier own identity and the needs of the people who are in difficult situations. For ten years we have been supporting the kids who have such desease as cancer. We organize Charity Fairs for raizing money, concertc with the same aims - all kinds of activities help both : the sick children and the students at school. Students' character changes greatly. They understand how to be kind, not selfish, active, leaders. [|Reply] || by [|Nataly Katsaran] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 10:23 PM || [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Tetyana Yarmysh] - Thursday, 3 November 2011, 11:16 PM || I also consider the involvement of students in charity activities very important as a way to develop such traits of character as sympathy and kindness which we lack today. Every year we do fundraising by launching very exciting projects. We began this year with "We care!" project the first activity of which was charity concert to support our schoolmate suffering from cancer. The next one is going to be Paper Recycling project. [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Liudmila Ariutova] - Saturday, 5 November 2011, 09:16 PM || In November we have an action "Make a difference day" In December -"A week of kindness" In February- "Help lonely old people" In April -"Think, create, act" [|Show parent] | [|Reply] || by [|Vera Moiseenko] - Sunday, 6 November 2011, 07:03 PM || We also have 2-3 charity projects a year - we support some very ill students of our school who have to study at home. But it's not an international project...just local... and the help is not so great I think... But your plan,Liudmila, seems to be detailed and interesting. What kind of relation do you have with Chinese pupils? || by [|Helen Onyshchenko] - Saturday, 5 November 2011, 05:48 PM || To my mind, a school link project is not something to be planned or organized by a single teacher - there should be the consent and some guidance from the school administration and it's better to work on it as a group of teachers. 3. In the Introduction section I mentioned that I had made friends with some teachers and learners of English from abroad while visiting an ESL chatroom. I have known some of them for 6-7 years, we have become close like relatives and we often chat on msn messenger, exchange emails or connect through Facebook. 4. (What is this for?!!!) My window faces another block of flats. When we moved into our flat, the district was still new and there were no other tall buildings around our block. So we could enjoy a wonderful view on the park and an artificial lake. Unfortunately, with the time a lot of new blocks of flats were built around, having hidden the park from us 5. I did. But I didn't manage to organize them well so they didn't have 'a long life'. 6. We write emails quite often, as a writing task in our Coursebooks, but we didn't focus on formal and informal style yet. ||
 * Sorry, my writing can hardly be called a description, it just reflects my feelings at the moment.**
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2027/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="teacher" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2027&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || Myroslava, that's amazing what you do with your students. You are a marvelous role model!
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2042/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Vera Moiseenko" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2042&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || Myroslava, you are not only very hardworking but so imaginative!!!!!!!
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2042/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Vera Moiseenko" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2042&course=9"]] || Re: My answers
 * =  || Dear Kseniia, maybe your sightseeing is not so optimistic, but you ARE optimistic! Your last sentence is great and warm... ||
 * Charity work
 * =  || Have you ever taken part in charity work with your students?
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2038/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Nataly Katsaran" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2038&course=9"]] || Re: Charity work
 * =  || Dear Liudmila, YOU've been doing the great job! Your charity events are the right way to bring up Citizens and Humans! Keep on doing and never stop!
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2041/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Tetyana Yarmysh" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2041&course=9"]] || Re: Charity work
 * =  || Dear Liudmila,
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2034/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Liudmila Ariutova" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2034&course=9"]] || Re: Charity work
 * =  || Tatyana, your project "We care" is very interesting for us. Let's be in contact.Could we create our joint project. We made contacts with Japanese students and the Charity Community from Japan "Help Chernobyl kids" as well.
 * = [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/pix.php/2042/f2.jpg width="35" height="35" caption="Picture of Vera Moiseenko" link="http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/user/view.php?id=2042&course=9"]] || Re: Charity work
 * =  || Do you support kids of your school, your town, your country?
 * My answers
 * =  || 1-2. To my regret, I haven't taken part in any kind of school links projects yet. But I know that other teachers in our school did.

by [|Angela Nikishina] - Friday, 4 November 2011, 09:27 PM || I have many friends who live abroad,we talk on the phone,write e-mails,use Skype and Facebook. The window nearest to me is facing the yard.It is quite small and full of cars.From the seventh floor I have a very good view on the the private houses below,some of them are so beautiful.The bigger buildings are at their background.Shame the road to the left is always so busy! My students and I exchange e-mails.We often discuss with them how to write letters,at one of the classes this week we touched upon this topic. ||
 * My answers
 * =  || So far I haven't had a chance to participate in any school links projects within our country or some other.