Okay, I’m back in the country, the office and action…after a fashion. It’s not been an easy return which means that it hasn’t been unusual in any way.
Classes begin on the 21st (or 22nd?) of this month. That’s when the journaling will begin in earnest.
Later I’ll reflect on the future of the Carnival of English Language Teaching.
I would also like to begin a little series of posts entitled “The Truth about EFL”.
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I’m heading out tonight.
I’ll be reflectively blogging about teaching sometime after August 8th.
Cheers.
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I just added the most recent performance appraisal document to the blogfolio. The link is on the right under the Portfolio heading. Since the original document is too long, I’ve just posted the summative paragraph written by my coordinator.
I suppose the most useful thing I could do with that document is to do a bit of reflection upon it which means that I could blog a bit about it…and perhaps I will when I get the chance. I won’t be getting a chance soon. These are the final days of exams followed by the flurry of activity to depart on summer vacation. Blogging/reflecting is going to drop off quite a bit over the next couple of weeks…but maybe I’ll get some thoughts in before I go.
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Recently EFL Geek asked me why I continue to put up duplicate posts here and at the blogs.ie version of my blogfolio. Since it’s a bit of a long explanation, I’ll just post it here.
The spam was getting out of control at the old blogfolio which gave me the impression that no one was minding the store. The version of WP used at the blogs.ie address is old and I saw no signs of an upgrade coming. I think my frustration is apparent.
Edublogs.org looked like a good alternative. It’s free. The version of WP is current. It’s free. There appears to be good support available, and finally, it’s free. I thought that I would move over here in the Fall of 2006 when a new semester begins. That seemed like a good time to do it.
Then a commenter showed up on the original blogfolio representing himself as some one in charge of the hosting service. He said that a spam fix similar to the one that the host was using at blogsome.com would be on its way. I haven’t heard from the guy since, but the spam has subsided. A primary motivation for moving has been addressed.
As I continued to experiment with both sites, I realized that my edublogs.org site doesn’t allow me to tweak the HTML as finely as the blogs.ie site does. While I’m not a web-design whiz, I’ve found it useful to adjust the original template from time to time. I inquired about this but James, edublog.org’s founder, hasn’t gotten back to me on the issue. So, while I like certain things about the latest version of WP here at edublogs, I also prefer the access to the code of my template at the blogs.ie site. Another motivator has been neutralized.
Now I don’t know what I’ll do. Until I figure it out, I’ll be duplicating posts on both sites…except this one, which I think I’ll just link at the other place.
One more thing…this version seems to be where the comments come so I’ll need to give that serious consideration.
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In keeping with the portfolio aspect of this blog, I’ve added a video of my students and one of their projects. You can find it under Presentations on the right side of the screen.
Foundation One English students were required to research an object from everyday life and explain what contributions different fields of engineering make to its production. Part of this project is putting together a poster and explaining its content to their peers in an exhibition.
Technical Notes:
The video is formatted to be smaller than 5 MBs so I can host it from my free Geocities account. Consequently, it’s very low res.
I used XP’s movie maker.
I used about 2 minutes of a song by Rush without permission. (I’m ready to take it down when ordered. 
)
That’s pretty much it.
Enjoy.
The spam has gotten rather bad over at the other host and there just doesn’t seem to be an easy way to deal with it so I think I’ll be moving over to this host sooner than planned.
EFL Geek has already found me here and actually left a comment here so I’ll take that as a sign to get some content going in this new home.
If anyone else wonder over this way, watch this space as I’ll be blogging here shortly.
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As it stands now; I think I will set up house at this blog beginning in the Fall 2006 semester. That will give me time to finish up at the old place and take my summer vacation and start fresh with a new blogfolio and a new class/assignment to reflect upon.
Maybe by then I’ll also be able to come up with a way to drive some more traffic to my blog.
I’m thinking about setting up shop here.
The latest incarnation of this blogfolio exists here, but the host isn’t updating its version of Word Press so I’m considering moving here.
Consequently, I figured it’s also a good time to rethink my layout/organization a bit. I realize now that the greatest benefit of this medium is the interactivity of the journaling and not so much the presentation (hosting) of various artifacts of my teaching career.
Anyway…still thinking.
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