Incredible World of Podcast

 In my previous posts I was talking about the usage of  blogs within the classrooms, also I shared my opinion about   digital  children. I realized that this year we are going to get familiar with lots of technical developments which can be used in the 21^st century educational system. Today`s  my post is mainly connected with podcast. I remember when last year Dr, Madyarov told as to download iTunes and listen to different podcast episodes I was so confused. It was so unfamiliar and strange for all of us. But of course during time we were used to that. Last year we simple listened to podcasts and posted them in our blogs but this year the situation is completely different. That was great  now we had our own episodes I have never thought about that before. Now I can imagine how my students will be enthusiastic using all that kind of technological things during classes. In one of the articles I read that podcast influenced effectively on students listening skills also on their oral proficiency. Of course, firstly it would be challenging to use podcast because of technological issues as many students might not be familiar with it.  But this should not stop future teachers to use them. Students can listen to podcast not only by computers but using their mobile phones, Mp3 players or iPods. The main advantage of podcast is that students can listen to them on the go simultaneously doing other things.  According to Christopher Shamburg kids become consumers and creators of digital media, podcasting can  help kids  to  do interesting projects and create real life activities. In conclusion I would say that  podcasts  are really great. I am going to use them during my classes. I think students will be glad to share their ideas about what they listened to. 

Link  for the image:  http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=7YV3chPHQV3JbM:&imgrefurl=http://www.themobileindian.com/news/7869_Google-Listen-service-for-podcasts-to-be-discontinued&docid=be67ysFVAh4UbM&imgurl=http://www.themobileindian.com/images/nnews/2012/08/7869/Google-Listen-Removed-Play-Store.jpg&w=620&h=330&ei=VkiIULHVLYW

The usage of weblogs within the classrooms

During my previous post I was sharing ideas about digital children. I should say, that was great. I am still under the impression. I wish our schoolchildren in Armenia were like them. But let`s hope, I am sure they are going to be like them at least many of our children.  My today`s post is connected with self-learning.Actually I listened to Sugata Mitra`s talk about self-learning. I was happily surprised  that many children were able to learn lots of things connected with  new technology and what is  unknown  to them by themselves. Many teachers do not want to spend their time in poor places.As he mentioned children will learn to do what they want to learn to do. I think that idea was the greatest one. During his experiment in Dally he left the computer for two months and children were able to learn to use it by themselves in four hours. He said one very important things when children have interest then education happens. So it means that we can use new technology within the classrooms as our children will be more motivated.

Blogging is one the tools which can be very helpful. As famous blogger and educator Will Richardson mentioned blogging is a genre that engage students and adults in a process of thinking in  words. Blogs promote analytical and critical thinking, also promote creativity and so on. Keeping blogs can be much more easier especially for teachers as they save paper. Not only teachers but schoolchildren as well can update reflections and conversations in blogs. I think that would be great. But I cannot image to do all that stuff in Armenia. Many teachers are not able to use computers. Talking about myself I should say I have to go deeper into the subject in order to use it during classes. I do not think that now I am ready to use blogs during my classes every day. As it depends on my class  for sure.  

Link  for the image: http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=-rfE2fNliVBFWM:&imgrefurl=http://organicseoexpert.org/online-marketing-methods/social-media-marketing/blog-marketing/&docid=2ibvUEm5GuBnLM&imgurl=http://organicseoexpert.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/web_2_0_social_media_marke

21 st century children

To tell the truth my mouth was open when I was watching those children. Definitely they know much more about new technology than most Armenian adults. Yes, they are our future for sure. That is really great when school children can use new technology for their classes. As I remember many of those kids have different type of class assignments connected with the internet that was very motivating. We should accept one very significant fact that our children do not want to study using old type of methodology at schools. They want to use their creativity, their own style and new things. New technology can give them such opportunity.

 The traditional way of teaching does not have such value nowadays and we future teachers should take into consideration that. But it does not mean that we should not use books or board for writing any more. All those kids are curios to learn new things this fact stroke me most of all. Many of them help even their teachers or their parents to design personal websites. Of course, in Armenia the picture is completely different. Many children do not have personal computers at home which they can use for their learning. While introducing  his book ‘The World is flat’ Tomas Friedman mentions that people can work together with the help of new technology. More people could collaborate no matter where they live geographically. So we can consider this to learning as well. People even can learn languages with the help of new technology. When he  talks about ten flatteners he mentions several times that nowadays it is impossible to imagine life without new technology .We should be aware of new things and all those new things we can use not only in our daily life but during classes as well. In conclusion I would say that Tomas Friedman`s ideas can impact on us as future teachers greatly. As he says we can discover something accidentally the same thing can happen even during our classes. 

Link  for the 1 st image : http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/11/29/1322586940401/Children-in-the-digital-a-007.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2011/nov/30/sponsored-roundtable-lift-digital-age-barrier&h=276&w=460&sz=21&tbnid=YO-jOx99Jqz7BM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=142&zoom=1&usg=__Bml1LmS81kQ6NHE8tjHiNznmlA8=&docid=TPx8ziHJgXyRhM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=10uIUIHvJuqiiAfYvoD4DA&ved=0CD0Q9QEwCg&dur=302

Link for the 2^nd image: http://www.google.com/imgres?start=388&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=hJEnYSJNFVeV6M:&imgrefurl=http://www.thelandofme.com/blog/2011/3/17/how-has-technology-changed-childhood-in-the-21st-century.html&docid=-Yu2-r1TYx2QPM&imgurl=http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/1111162/13572705/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-01-at-14.54.07.png&w=500&h=330&ei=I4i_UKeNNI_4mAWIpYHwAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=594&vpy=348&dur=1382&hovh=182&hovw=276&tx=126&ty=104&sig=109605187291664981752&page=15&tbnh=139&tbnw=214&ndsp=7&ved=1t:429,r:91,s:300,i:282

The development of grammar - stages in grammatical growth

          

My post is based on David Crystal`s Encyclopedia connected with grammar leaning and  stages of grammatical growth. In my previous post I talked about the legal and scientific English, but this time I am going to talk about another essential part of language like grammar. As we all know grammar learning is a continuous process and connected with some stages as well. If we talk about children we should say that they are able to speak correctly without knowing the rules. They express the same word order as the  adults. By all means this do not accurse immediately,children and each of us need some time for that. We pass through several stages in order to express more correct grammatical sentences. Most of the children pass through holophrastic stage. In this stage children express one word which can have the meaning of whole phrase or sentence. For instance, a child can say daddy or papa when hears door bell. There are 50 words which children say most of all during holophrastic stage. Some of these words are uh – oh, down, baby, shoes ,coat and so on. It is interesting that words like mama and daddy are not the first words that a child pronounces. During another stage which is called two – word stage a child is able to pronounce Subject – Verb construction. For example, baby bad, baby like, gone milk and so on. I should say that this book gave us lots of information connected with the English language. Many things which are connected with the English language became more familiar to all of us.

Egypt - Abydos

ABYDOS

My current blog post  is from the Archeology: Egypt podcast. We all know that Egypt is one of the ancient countries in the world and there are many mysteries connected with that coutry`s history  and culture. The most attractive things in Egypt are pyramids by all means. Millions of tourists visit this country in order to admire fascinating picturesquare. So one of the famous archeologists Dr. David O`Coner was talking about Abydos. As he mentioned Abydos is one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt and during those days it was called Addju. Abydos lies  west of the Nail river and it is considered as a sacred city. Nowadays  many steps are taken in order to protect this ancient city from modern developments, as new buildings  are constructed here. Abydos was a mysterious place for many Egyptians despite having  religious importance. Even nowadays many Egyptians visit this city for religious rituals. Abydos has some important archeological features such as ancient symmetries  and temples .According to Dr. David O`Coner the pharaohs of the first dynasty were buried here, including Narmer the creator of this dynasty. But some pharaohs of the  second dynasty also were buried here. This city is famous for its temple  Seti I in the nineteenth  dynasty.
It is interesting that many pharaohs built temples in their honor. The same thing I can say about Armenian old cities and its Kings. I think it is really nice when a nation have cities that are very important for them.

Legal and scientific english

My current post is connected with the Legal English. According to  David Crystal`s  Encyclopedia of the  English Language the legal language is connected with the two varieties such as religion and science. Firstly, I would like to define word legal - means established  by or permitted by law, lawful. In legal English language is coherent like in science and shares with religion respect towards traditions and rituals. Here I have to mention that there are several types of legal English varieties. It is used in documents which are legal like deeds, contracts, wills, policies .In legal English the language of case low and spoken language of courtroom exists.The English legal language is interesting and unique. Legal language has to carry such responsibilities that other varieties of language does not have to. Legal English in this case has developed and complicate grammatical structure. Also it is repetitive and has long list of items like debts, bills, accounts…….
The English language which is used in the courtrooms is mostly connected with  smallest of grammatical and lexical characteristics. For instance, using modal verbs there should not be misinterpretation between obligation and discretion. Here I should mention the name of Sir William Blackstone whose Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765 – 9) was the very first comprehensive description of  the main principles of English law. Sir William Blackstone is considered as one of the most interesting personalities in England. My next chapter is connected with scientific English. Definitely it has challenging vocabulary, the structure and discourse of sentences makes scientific English more complicated. In scientific English there are some words which are the typical characteristics of those things. For instance, the name of plants characterizes them .In scientific English 62 % of words are lexical and 38% of words are grammatical. Such features like noun phrases with complicated structures are normal in scientific English. I liked those two chapters because they gave me a great deal of information about two aspects of the English language scientific and legal English. I hope my peers will like them also.

 

Life After Cancer

 In my blogposts I tried  to talk about different diseases from time to time. In one of my posts I was talking about  the  Parkinson`s  Disease. In this post I am going to talk  about breast cancer  and life after it. According to Yale Cancer Center Research podcast many women survived from breast cancer. Several patients were talking about their disease with  great enthusiasm and better hopes. One of the doctors said that most of the women  after finishing their treatment celebrate it with friends and family members. In this cases the support of family members is very essential  and they are involved into the process of treatment as well.The doctor also mentioned  that many women feel insecure and have some mixed  emotions after treatment but this is normal by all means.  As a matter of fact there are some treatment ways for breast cancer. For instance, treatment possibilities include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and immune therapy .Of course,  many patients feel secure after every week. It is really fantastic that many women start to get well and back to normal life. Breast cancer is the second most common disease during which it is difficult to concentrate on something. Most of the women gain weight and it is one of the basic problems.
Cancer patients are not active and they need to regain their physical functioning. One of the survivors said that at first she was visiting her doctor every three months, then every fifth and sixth months, then annually. She said that everyone should follow the guideline and visit doctors on time. It is really wonderful when such people have better hopes for future. They do not give up and struggle for their lives. Actually I like such posts because they encourage me.