Forumosa.com
Sep 29 at 12:12am by ObverseView
Well, readers, I’ve been a member of Forumosa for absolute ages, since the Segue days. It’s been a great community with lots of information, support and interaction about a huge number of topics. You can usually find me on the community under the guise of KenTaiwan98, with postings in Technology, Business and a few other forums.
Many of the contributors are locally based foreigners with lots of advice and views about all things in Taiwan, including the Politics. It’s really a great forum. Highly recommended if you are interested in Taiwan, looking to come here or already live here!
Kenneth
A-sudoku-a-day #2 and #3
Sep 27 at 6:06pm by ObverseView
Kenneth
stories
Sep 27 at 6:06pm by ObverseView
A recent report on The China Post Stated
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=27713
88% of students feel intense pressure to learn English: study
“According to a recent poll, a vast majority of students feel immense pressure to learn English.
The survey, organized by the People First Party caucus in the Taipei City Council, polled 1,180 fifth and sixth graders about their reasons for learning English. Eighty-eighty percent responded that they felt intense pressure to learn the language while 84 percent studied English at cram schools outside of their regular schoolwork.”
Actually, this plays very nicely, albeit somewhat late!, into the discussion of students learning of English… and their exam performance.
Are we placing too much emphasis on ‘traditional’ learning methods, at the expense of creating a positive environment for children to learn English?
Kenneth
Comments OffContinue Reading
Bidding for A Topic
Sep 27 at 6:06pm by ObverseView
Trump-A-Topic
The Game:
A pack of cards are dealt among players evenly, including the Jokers. The players have to bid for a topic called out by the teacher. The highest bidder wins. All cards are secret bids, but the bidding process reveals who is the winner when the teacher calls ‘bid’.
The winner then has to talk about the bidded topic for a time of 20 secs.
I’ve tried this game with several groups of students who liked to play cards a great deal. Worked well.
TESOLTeachers New Front
Sep 27 at 6:06pm by ObverseView
I’ve finally finished the new website design for TESOLTeachers, we’re
going to build
the base of the community with:
*Articles
*Downloads
*News Feeds (in RSS, etc)
*Selection of Links to TESOL Books
*General News Items for TESOL Teachers
*And lots more…
Best Wishes
Kenneth
Mambo: A Splitting Headache!
Sep 27 at 6:06pm by ObverseView
As you know, I’ve been using Mambo off and on for over a year, and now I have three active installations of the latest version. I have been experimenting with modules, and components, and stuff, to see what it can do. Just as I was settling into the most recent version 4.5.2.3, I read the following news as posted:
I’ve investigated the new Joomla, and since my installations are not particularly mature yet, I’m considering installing it at at least two of the locations. But I have so many questions… do themes still work? Which mods/components/mambots aren’t ready?
The demo at Joomla looks fine, but I’m still wondering kind of what all the fuss is about. Is Miro getting too greedy or does the company feel that it needs to be more ‘commercial’? … That much is evident from the website that I found the quote at http://www.tsmf.net.
More to come on this posting…!
Kenneth
sudoku
Sep 17 at 3:03pm by ObverseView
Yahoo! Groups - Check them out!
Sep 17 at 2:02pm by ObverseView
The owners of this website operate a number of other lists that
you might be interested in joining. They are listed below.
1. Pleiades Journal
This group discuss Young Learners of English (ESL or EFL or Second
Language) and is affiliated with Pleiades: the Journal of Teaching for
Young Learners of English. We welcome all teachers specializing in
this field.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PleiadesJournal/
2. Forums_TESOLTeachers and http://www.tesolteachers.org/forums/
This discussion group is for Teachers of English as a Foreign
Language, Literature and Arts. This group’s mission will be primarily
to provoke thoughtful discussion of teaching EFL/ESL and other
education-related issues; to make announcements of interest to the
group, such as calls for papers, conferences, new materials, links,
books of interest, etc,; and to provide a forum for our website
visitors to interact with us and each other on issues of relevance to
the profession.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Forums_TESOLTeachers/
3. ESL Writing Center
This group will help students to write better English! It was started
initially by Kenneth Dickson to help his students improve their
writing skills in English! All ESL students are welcome to join, get
help, offer advice, share their writings and interact at this venue.
The membership is not restricted to students of any particular age
group, but aims to help ALL learners of English who have trouble
writing, whether in Academica, Business, Private Life, or for
publication.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ESLWritingCenter/
4. HwakangJournal
The Hwa Kang Journal of TEFL Group is for TESOL and Literature, in
Taiwan, and the Greater China Area. We aim to
*provoke thoughtful discussion of teaching EFL/ESL and other
education-related issues of interest to Taiwan
*make announcements of interest to the group, such as calls for
papers, conferences, new materials, links, books of interest, etc
*provide a forum for our website visitors to interact with us and each
other on issues of relevance to the profession.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HwakangJournal/
5. Kuixing
This is a Discussion Group for anybody interested in World
Literatures, especially Asian, Asian Diasporic and Indigenous
literatures written in or translated into English. As a Discussion
Group member you will:
1.) Receive regular news reports and special announcements.
2.) Discuss important issues, both personal and professional.
3.) Engage others in healthy debates about topics of your choosing.
4.) Share relevant experiences related to teaching, reading or
writing.
5.) Seekadvice from other members.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KuiXing/
Best Wishes
Administrators
Kenneth and Timothy
Autosurfing: pleasant and profitable…
Sep 16 at 12:12am by ObverseView
Since I got sick in May, I’ve spent a few months investigating, and investing in the Auto-surf business. I was quite surprised when I checked through my billing to discover that I have almost earned the whole amount that I had invested. Not bad going, for something that isn’t really a business, or is it?
I joined the StudioTraffic Program first and that has been quite successful. It really is a great program. It seems well managed overall, but I think the writers of the website need a little help with their English at times!
I tried the 4daily program, but that has been less than successful, as I haven’t earned anything back from that yet. I am hoping that things turn around as the program is quite attractive and can be rewarding but right now things are just getting back on their feet after three months of problems. I’m waiting and seeing. I do recommend some caution here, but a small amount may be fine!
I also joined the 12daily program, and that has been fine, but it took a while for the payment to come in. It was 100% as promised and the program seemed to run fine, but logging in at 12pm Taiwan time was not recommended. Try after 1pm.
However, I did note that if you are interested in joining any of these programs, you need to arrange several ways to get your money in and out. The first that has been quite good is Stormpay. You can use this to upgrade and buy units at all three programs, as well as receive your earnings. StudioTraffic allows you to upgrade through Stormpay but payments must be received through Studiopay from now on.
How have I done? Well, overall… see tomorrows posting!
Kenneth
New magazine: Taiwan by Foreigners
Sep 16 at 12:12am by ObverseView
I’ve come across a recent magazine written by foreigners working and living in Taiwan. It looks quite promising in some respects.
You may wish to check it out.
