Education a focus on visit to Asia and China

New Zealand's Education Minister and Minister for Ethnic Affairs Chris Carter will be one of the first international politicians to engage with Thailand’s new democratic government when he arrives in Bangkok today.

He declared that “Thailand, and in fact all three countries [Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam], are also important education markets for New Zealand and I have a number of issues I will be discussing with my counterparts during my visits.”

As well as meeting with education ministers in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, the Minister will promote New Zealand as a destination for English language teaching for both tertiary and secondary school students from the region.

He said that “Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia are all trying to improve the provision of English language teaching in their schools and I’m keen to discuss how New Zealand can develop English language teaching in Vietnamese and Cambodian schools.”

“China remains the single largest source of visiting international students and I am keen to do all I can to ensure our country continues to be seen as a major provider of English language teaching for Chinese students,” Chris Carter said.

Source: Scoop

Filipino blogosphere

To accommodate the ever growing Filipino blogosphere, I've started a Filipino Blogroll on my two blogs (http://www.teacherinthailand.com/ and http://www.storiesfromthailand.com/). Those interested in link exchanges, leave a message here.

Earth Hour

Do not forget that tomorrow, Saturday, March 29, is Earth Hour between 8 and 9 pm.

Please put off your lights whevever in the world you are!

Fun with grammar workshop

McGraw-Hill Education, one of the leading school publishers in the USA, will organize a workshop on topic “Are you ready to have a little fun with grammar?” on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 from 9 am to 12 pm at Novotel Bangkok (Baudelaire – Moliere Room, B1 Floor) on Siam Square.

The guest speaker is Ms. Dinorah Pous, the author of various series of primary books for McGraw-Hill Education.

Thailand - Japan: Synchronous Interaction

Last months, the Database section of The Bangkok Post (see reference below) presented the first part of the Inter-Cultural Communication for Classrooms project which is run by the Thai Computational Linguistics Laboratory. In this project, students in two classrooms (one from Thailand and one from Japan) talked to each other, in real time, through the use of internet and a software that translated what the students said.

During the videoconference, only lower thinking skills occurred, the students being unable to engage in activities that stimulated higher thinking skills (due to time and technological restraints). It is a perfect example of synchronous videoconferencing, but the future success of the program depends on the technological part of the equation.

Boonruang, Sasiwimon. “Bridging cultures.” Bangkok Post (February 27, 2008). Last accessed March 3, 2008, from here .

Asynchronous education in Thailand

The King of Thailand started a royal-founded distance education project that used television as a tool of delivering the lesson. For this purpose, a special TV channel was set up. Classes filmed in regular schools were broadcast on this channel, with the teacher delivering the lesson, students asking questions and doing exercises together. Many students from remote areas in northern Thailand (usually from hill tribe families with low income, that could not afford sending their children to school) benefited from this free educational channel. Students were not only offered Thai and Maths lessons, but also foreign language classes (French, English, Chinese, and Japanese). Special testing centers were then set up for students that followed the television delivered lesson and thus eventually given a certification recognized by the Thai Ministry of Education.

This tool of asynchronous interaction may not be very popular in other countries, but in Thailand is the only way for children from remote areas to continue their education. Basically, the royal Thai distance learning project is a variation of lectures delivered via audiotapes and videotapes.

Top 20 books for boys

1. The Top 10 of Everything 2007 by Russell Ash
2. Strange Powers of the Human Mind (Forbidden Truths) by Herbie Brennan
3. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
4. I Know You Got Soul by Jeremy Clarkson
5. Guinness Book of Records 2007
6. 101 Things You Need To Know (And Some You Don’t) by Richard Horne
7. 101 Things To Do Before You’re Old and Boring by Richard Horne
8. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! by Robert LeRoy Ripley
9. The Boys’ Book; How to be the Best at Everything by Guy McDonald
10. Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser
11. How to Spot a Hadrosaur in a Bus Queue by Andy Seed
12. How to Avoid a Wombat’s Bum by Mitchell Symons
13. Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? by Mick O'Hare, Profile Books
14. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
15. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
16. King Solomon’s Mines by H Rider Haggard
17. Northern Lights (His Dark Materials) by Philip Pullman
18. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
19. Kidnapped (adapted by) Alan Grant
20. Treasure Island by R L Stevenson

Source: Times Online

Top 20 children’s books

A recent poll of United Kingdom adults between the ages of 16 and 65 has identified C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as the best children’s book of all time.

1. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
3. Famous Five series by Enid Blyton
4. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
5. The BFG by Roald Dahl
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
7. The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
8. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
9. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
10. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
11. The Tales of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
13. Matilda by Roald Dahl
14. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
15. The Cat in the Hat by Dr Suess
16. The Twits by Roald Dahl
17. Mr Men by Roger Hargreaves
18. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
19. Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton
20. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Source: Booktrust

Thai podcast

Are you a teacher? Do you want to improve your Thai?

Are you a student? Do you want to improve your English?

If your answer was yes to one of the above questions, then ave a look at this website: http://www.swp.in.th/podcast/ . Here, podcasts, in Thai and English, are uploaded on a weekly basis. The "authors" are students and teachers from Sriwittayapaknam School in Samut Prakan province. It's an excellent resource for people learning both Thai and English.

How to create an educational blog

During the second semester of the academic year that has just finished I started a blog (which is a website that allows readers to leave comments) for my class . It was a continuation of my first class website (the one on Google Pages).

The best thing about a blog is the fact that it allows readers to leave a comment and see their names and comments instantaneously on the internet. The coordinator of the project (aka the administrator of the blog) has full access to what is being written, with the “power” to edit or delete unwanted comments (such as SPAM).

There are two ways you could use a blog with your students:

a) Be the only one who is allowed to write posts and thus manage the content of the blog. This option is again teacher-centered, in the sense that the students can only comment on what you write. But you can also just ask a question in your post and let the students write their answers. (e.g. When do you usually do your homework?) By answering the question, the students not only practice their IT and reading skills, but also their writing skills. This is how I run my class blog. My students are too young (see point b). (They’re only 9-10 years old).

b) For university students, you could set up a blog in such a way that the students can actually post articles on it. For example: Your lesson is about global warming. For homework, the students have to write three ways of saving energy and post it on the class blog. At the same time, they have to leave at least one comment on their classmates’ entries. The teacher’s involvement in this kind of activity is just that of a monitor (and assessor), who doesn’t even have to intervene in the students’ discussion! Of course, if the discussion loses focus, you can always leave your own comment, asking the students to stay on task.

You will have to set up the blog by yourself, but it’s pretty easy. You’ll just have to log in with your gmail account here: http://www.blogger.com/ . In just 3 steps you’ll have your own class blog. Then you set it up in such a way that you give permission to your students to add post (they will also need a gmail account!).

If you need assistance, just give me a shout!

How to create a Google Pages website

The Google Pages platform will allow you to build a teacher centered website, in the sense that the teacher has control of what goes on the website and how it goes there. It was the kind of web-based project that I did with my students (here in Thailand) during the first semester of this academic year (2007/2008). Basically, what I did was to upload on a regular basis pictures and information that I considered relevant to my students.

There are a few problems with this approach:

- First of all, the teacher is in control of everything and the students’ involvement is quite passive. They just read the information on the website and all they can do is send an e-mail to the webmaster with their comments. Then, the webmaster uploads the messages on a special page dedicate to students’ comments.

- Second, the Google Pages platform is quite slow. At a point I reached a stage where there were too many pictures and stuff on the website and so it was taking me up to 30 minutes just to make a small change.

Nevertheless, the students loved it and although I don’t update it anymore, it still receives visitors.

To start such a website, go to http://pages.google.com/ . Log in with your gmail account (if you don’t have one, you can open one easily). In 10 minutes you could have a website on the WWW!

Online PGCE - day one

The first term I chose to do the Multi-Modal Texts and New Literacies course. Week one will be an introductory week in which all course participants have to write a short introduction and add a response to one of the other course participants. There are 3 students who are from Asia (two from South Korea and one from Thailand). The rest, 10 of them, are from different parts of Australia. The course instructor and the moderator are also from Australia.

Online PGCE course starts tomorrow

I enrolled in the online PGCE course at USQ for 2 reasons:

1) In the future I would like to teach in international schools. The PGCE will open many doors and employers will not throw my application in the trash bin anymore just because I’m not a native speaker of English. Actually, in a few years, I am considering relocating to the European Union, and I’m sure I won’t face such discriminations there as my country is also part of the EU!

2) Although I attended many methodology and teaching practice courses during my BA, I don’t have a degree in Education. The PGCE will solve this problem.

I don’t expect this course to be an easy one and I’m aware of the fact that I’ll have to put many hours into research and projects. But I am ready to do that. I even have my wife’s permission to take all the time I want for my studies! I’m also ready to sacrifice my after school and Saturday tutoring lessons (that bring more income) just to have enough time to dedicate to this course.

By taking this course I expect to widen my teaching horizon and become a better teacher.