Christmas time

To all my current and former students, a very warm MERRY CHRISTMAS! May those moments around the Christmas table with your loved ones give you hope, strength and confidence in what you choose or have already chosen to do in the year to come.
All the best!

Blogging again!

Hi! It's been ages since I wrote something here, but now it's going to change. There will be tasks again and some more life. Most importantly, watch out for the new blogs that are to arrive any minute. I would like everyone to make the best of the project and use it not only to work on your English in a bit different way than you normally do, but also to get to know other students before you all graduate and disperse to different towns and schools. Your blog may be a place where you can share your interests, big and small discoveries, your sense of humor and perhaps some plans for the future.
To begin with, please write your opening post, where you introduce yourself and welcome your readers. Make clear what kind of blog you will be writing and invite people to follow your posts. It should sound encouraging. :)

Blogs and Websites Poll Results!

TOP TEN BLOGS 2009
	Blog	Rating Average (1-5)	Response Count	TOTAL POINTS
1	Elwajra's blog	4,22	23	97
2	Pixel's Bottomless Pit of Stupid Ideas	4,29	14	60
3	beti's blog	3,87	15	58
4	perfect transparency	3,5	10	35
5	Cherryland	1,94	16	31
6	Darth Goder	3	10	30
7	The Blog of The Beast	2,63	8	21
8	niech wam muzy będą spoko	3	7	21
9	Welcome home (Sanitarium)	2,5	8	20
10	Dżastina's blog :)	3,6	5	18

TOP TEN WEBSITES 2009
	Website	Rating Average (1-5)	Response Count	TOTAL POINTS
1	cherrychoco	3,28	18	59
2	everybodylies	4,33	12	52
3	greysi	4,25	12	51
4	allaboutkofi	2,93	14	41
5	stephenking1	3,09	11	34
6	gilmoregirls8	2,9	10	29
7	mydoggoldensite	3	9	27
8	ifeellikedancing	2,78	9	25
9	pixeluzny	3,33	6	20
10	dominicana	3,8	5	19

Congratulations to the winners!
Also, thanks to everyone for all the interesting posts, for sharing your opinions and interests with us, and for all the "fun" things, too. I hope your blogs will stay alive, so I'll keep watching them, just in case. :)

Happy birthday Hugh Laurie!

Something for quite a few House-addicts among our third-year crowd.

Goodbye!

I've been planning to write my farewell post at your graduation time, but since quite a few of you have written your goodbyes on your blogs now, I will follow suit.
I would like to let you see how this feels from the point of view of a teacher. Perhaps it is not very real for you yet, but most of you will be going through this sooner or later (just another aspect of being a teacher still there for you to discover). In short: it's tough. Year by year you form a certain bond with a bunch of interesting and unique individuals, who you see develop, and then a time comes when you need to let them go. You want them to go, because that means you've done your job. Still, it's not easy. One would have thought that after so many years a teacher would be used to this. Well, you will see :)


Best of luck for whatever you're up to guys. It's been great working with you.

Recommendation

Here is a new blogging assignment for you:
I would like everybody to recommend to us a writer, artist, musician, film director or any other person whose creativity you find worth other people's attention. I would like you to give good grounds for making your choice, say what fascinates you in that person's work, and place links to websites where that work is either presented or discussed (other than Wikipedia, which everyone can find).
There is one reservation: please do not write about groups/bands/teams. The focus is on individuals and their achievements.
I hope this time there will be no complaints about the task being too difficult. :)

Note:
If you do not get many comments on your blog, the best thing to do is start writing comments on other people's blogs. That's how it works - try.

Marc Prensky speaks at Cardiff

An interesting interview on using technology in ELT and on teaching in general. Food for thought for all of us, I guess. :)

Invitation to IATEFL Cardiff Online 2009

Online coverage of the 43rd Annual International IATEFL Conference 31st March to 4th April 2009

Cardiff Online is now live at http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009
Join us for interactive web coverage of this year's IATEFL Conference in Cardiff.
Watch keynote sessions and presentations live or on-demand and share ideas with teachers all over the world.
Follow all the action as it happens on the Cardiff Online website.

Future

It seems spring is having a hard time finding its way to us this year, but we may make an effort and start thinking in a bit more positive way. Here is your new task:
So far you have looked into your past: childhood memories, past Christmases, the place where you grew up, etc. Now I want you to see the future: please give a relatively detailed account of a day in your life five years from now, from dawn to dusk. Let it be a weekday rather than a weekend, so that we would get a glimpse of what you do for a living, for example. You may address your hopes, ambitions, plans or fears here - it's up to you. To be honest, I'm hoping for a lot of optimistic stories. Remember, though, that five years is not such a long time, so don't overdo it. You should be creative of course, but do make it sound realistic. Enjoy!

Goodbye, John

The first post in the semester should be enthusiastic and optimistic, but it can't be. As some of you may have already heard, we lost a very special person, dear to everyone who was privileged to know him. John Solan, who used to work at KJO as one of its most prominent lecturers, died on January 24 in Ireland. All I know is that his illness took him very quickly, in only two weeks. He was a very good person, a dedicated teacher, and an unforgettable figure. I will always remember how passionate he could be in his long disputes with other teachers about particular students or about some current events in the world.
If you have any memories of John and would like to share them, please do. This is not an assignment, merely an invitation.
Here is my little story - nothing to do with KJO, but a lot to do with what John was like:

Once John and his wife Monika adopted a dog from a shelter. It took them weeks to teach her to trust them and not to be scared of absolutely everything and everyone. They succeeded. After some time, though, the dog got very ill, and it was amazing how they struggled to save her. There was an operation, multiple visits to the vet, sleepless nights and lots of money. As far as I remember they got her out of it. But how distressed John was when all that was happening! A wonderful, caring person I am proud to have known.
RIP, John Solan.

Change

What a day! I think that the high spirits from Washington, D.C., have reached almost everyone around the world today. I've been a bit reluctant to raise the issue here, as politics is not a very popular topic with today's youth, but, on the other hand, what else should move you if not this "wind of change"? (Thanks, Mateusz, the phrase does suit the situation perfectly :) Obama represents a new generation of politicians, bringing new hopes and evoking a lot of interest in young people in the US and elsewhere. I'm curious if KJO students of English, who are part of the English speaking community, have any feelings about or comments on today's events. Can you find any emotions in yourselves concerning the new American president, or is the whole issue merely media hype for you? Is the US really making a huge step forward?
I promise the next topic will be a bit lighter :)

Teaching practice

Thanks for all the wonderful childhood photographs we have seen - it seems everyone's had lots of fun with this task. Now I would like you to go in
a bit different direction, and look into the future, rather than past. Your task now is to reflect on your teaching practice as an experience: how you survived the first lesson, what it was like to be "on the other side", what you think of yourself
as a potential teacher and of teaching
as a possible career.
Some of you have come to the college with a clear plan: to become a teacher of English. Many others, however, have come here out of general interest in or passion for English, but without any intention of actually becoming a teacher. Has anything changed, now that you've taught your first lessons? Or perhaps you have become only more convinced that this is not a job for you? Share your thoughts with your colleagues and other readers, please. :)