Post 10 (week 15) Evaluation of your Blogging Experience

Write about your experience using blogs in  

the English class.

Say:

> What you think about the experience in general
> How much you feel your writing skills have developed
> What you would like to include in the future
> What else you would like to write about


Wordcount: 200
Make comments on 3 of your classmates' posts.

Dear students,

Everything has a starting point and, inevitably, a final point.  We have come to our final blog to reflect on this extraordinary   experience.

I have really learned when and reflected   by reading all your blogs and sharing all our ideas. I think all the topics have been of our interests and have connected us to what we want to do and care for in life.

  Writing is a unique process that helps us organize our ideas and focus on the most important tasks you need to do. Also it helps us to keep a record of what we do at a given moment and then remember it in the future. That is the magic of writing. It perpetuates in time. For example, during these difficult weeks of strike and uncertainty, we were communicated through our blog.

In the future I would like to see more students writing about their dreams and concerns about social topics.

A final point to make about writing is that in certain moments it can be type of a therapy to let our ideas  flow out of our minds and give us some peace when we share with an unknown and silent audience.

Thanks for your creativity  and  for  sharing your ideas with us.

This is an experience I really enjoyed.

BLOG 11  A time when you felt successful at learning English

Say

• when it was
•  what you did
• why you think it was successful
• Say  how you have learned most of the English you know
• Mention anything else you think is important.

Write at least 200 words. Leave a comment on my blog and on the blogs of 3 classmates.

Dear students,

 Today is Thursday, so here we are sharing stories. Last post I told you about a talk in which the speaker talked about frustration and anxiety, but today I want to talk about stories of success.

Some time ago I attended a talk in which the speaker started by asking people about a moment in which they were successful at learning English.

I felt great because I remembered the time I read a complete novel in English, and I felt even better when I heard a lot of successful stories. Also I remember a time in which I helped an American at the immigration office. He had lost his passport, but he couls not explain that in English.

  I think learning a foreign language has a many rewards. I am learning Portuguese now, and even though I cannot give a speech like Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, I enjoy listening to Roberto Carlo sing  in Portuguese or watching Brazilian films.

Also I feel great when I learn new words and I find them again and I see that I improve little by little. These stories of success are the ones that encourage us.

What about you? Tell us about a moment when  you  felt a successful learner.

BLOG 10: A concert, exhibition, or talk you went to

BLOG 10:   A concert,  exhibition, or talk  you went to

Say:

Who performed or talked,

When it was,

Where it was,

Why you remember it.

Mention anything else you think is important.  Write at least 200 words. Leave a comment on my blog and on the blogs of 3 classmates.

Dear students,

 Today I’m posting a topic to help you develop your critical thinking, and, as usual, I will write about  it to share with you and to provide  a model text.

I remember  a talk or lecture I attended about six years ago.  The speaker or lecturer was an English teacher from Hungary, and he spoke about the frustration he experienced in England when he had to  speak English and express his emotions. The talk was at a Conference for teachers   at Diego Portales Center, which was the former name for Gabriela Mistral Cultural  Center.

 I remember this talk because I had never heard anybody sharing his/her feelings about the psychological aspect of learning a foreign language.  Most people think that learning a language requires just grammar and vocabulary, but the development of this new skill implies much more than that: it has cultural and psychological components.

 The first one has to do with traditions and customs that are developed depending on a number of factors such as the weather, the environment,  the main productive activities, or even the sports practiced  in the country where the language is spoken.  For example, a  number of idioms and phrases  originate from these activities.

The second important aspect is the psychological support that students need to learn a foreign language and to be motivated to do so.  That is why teachers must study general psychology, mainly to help students deal with frustration and  anxiety.