Pukman @ WinK: the community that time didn't forget

WAI : January

Months	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Totals	Adj. Totals
Blog posts					(A)	(× 10)
Book reviews	- - -	- - -	- - -	- - -	(B)	(× 10)
Posts w. pics	- - -	- - -	- - -	- - -	(C)	(× 15)
Posts w. links	- - -	- - -	- - -	- - -	(D)	(× 20)
Words					(E)	(× 01)

No need to add figures in the squares marked "- - -".

WAI: E + (D*20) + (C*15) + (B*10) + (A*10) =

For today's class, and for the last class on 25th January, we won't do anything new. These are good opportunities for you to ask me questions or to get help with any problems you're having, to revise earlier work, or to catch up. Some suggestions:

1. Write more posts
2. Update your LibraryThing collection
3. Make sure that your sidebar has: a link to your podcast; LibraryThing; Recent Comments; Tags/Labels.
4. Write comments on other people's blogs
5. Get together with a friend to check each other's English in some of your posts, especially in your podcast.

If you want to try Number 5, you could use the following checklist:

• Punctuation: Do you have ONE space after each period and comma, and ZERO spaces before each period and comma?
• Santangen: Did you remember to add an "s" in expressions like "He goes".
• Capital letters: Do all your sentences begin with a CAPITAL LETTER? Do people's names and names of places begin with a CAPITAL LETTER? Are there any other CAPITAL LETTERS for no reason?
• Structure: Is there a subject in each sentence? Do all sentences follow a clear pattern, such as S-V, S-V-O, or S-V-C?
  

Check out these interesting podcasts from students. If your podcast is not on the list, please email the URL to me!

• Toshihiro's podcast
  
• Yuki's podcast
• Shuhei H's podcast
  
• Yui I's podcast
  
• Moe's podcast
  
• Chiemi K's podcast
  
• Ayaka O's podcast
  
• Natsuki T's podcast
  
• SawaCast
  
• Patchwork Elephant's podcast
  
• Nanami's podcast
  
• Monoboo's podcast
• Asaya's podcast
  
• Kayasasu's podcast
  
• Takano's podcast
  
• Gaku's podcast
• Tomoe's podcast
  
• Kuroneko's podcast
  
• Night Sirius's podcast
• Mihoko's podcast
  
• Aimi's Podcast
  
• Megu's podcast
  
• Tom's podcast
• Snow Rabbit's podcast
• Tenjin Diary's Podcast
• Lumi-color's podcast
  
• TikaTika's podcast
• Goodswimer's podcast
• Momoka's podcast
• Asami's podcast
• Ekkachan's podcast
• Chihiro's podcast
• Kiwa's podcast
• Satoko's podcast

After juppun ha juubun, let's start work on one of our major assignments for this semester, Presentations about Kumamoto. In a group of 2-4 people, I'd like you to make a PowerPoint presentation of at least 10 slides about Kumamoto, and post the presentation to each group member's blog, using slideshare.

It is a good idea to choose a narrow topic: if every group does a general presentation about Kumamoto, with Kumamoto Castle, Suizenji Park, and karashi-renkon (or Aso, Kikuchi, and Kumamoto City), that won't be very interesting!

It's also very interesting if you can include some of your own photos, as well as things you can find on the Internet.

Remember that requirements for regular book reviews and other blog posts are the same as usual!

If necessary, I'll show you how to use Slideshare next week. But you might want to try it out this week, by joining (=Sign Up), making a very short presentation, and uploading it to Slideshare. You can delete this presentation later, when you have uploaded a newer one.

Today, you need to decide your groups and then decide your topic together. You should each write a short post announcing your partners and title of the presentation. Please use the short names of your group members, linked to their blog. (For example, if Hidetoshi Nakata was one of my group members, I would write Hidetoshi N.) Later, if necessary, you can change your title, and update your post. If possible, you should also decide today how to work together: for example, if you need original photos, will you go and take them together, and when?

If possible, I'd like you to upload your finished presentations on November 30th. Remember that these presentations will be very public, so you should try to help each other correct the sentences in the presentation.

As we learned in class, it's good to have Comments and a LibraryThing widget in the sidebar. You should also be using labels in your posts.

Next, let's add a Labels item.

Here's a good example.

In Basic English IV, your aim should be:

1. 5 posts a week, including at least 1 book review
2. 3 comments a week on other blogs

You also need to gradually start:

1. adding photos to your posts
   
2. putting links in your posts

I will show you how to do these things in the next week or two. And soon also, I will teach you how to add a LibraryThing widget to your blog.

Remember that you should send me an attendance email each class.

Please check out the Blog Feeds section at WinK Home!

Mr B. has explained how to add a comment feed to your blog. Please check out his post, and try it on your blog. The basic formula you need to add to your feed widget is:

• [YourBlogURL]/feeds/comments/default/?alt=rss

Add a page element at the top of your sidebar, being sure to choose the Feed element.

Hello, and welcome to the first session of Basic English IV. Sorry that our start was delayed. This class is focused on blogging. You're expected to post an average of 5 posts a week to your blog, and a minimum of 3. These posts should always include 1 book review.
Today we'll start by making a Google account!

Total number of posts
Total number of words
Monthly number of posts (October, November, etc.)
Number of posts with pictures (or presentations, or movies, or...)
Number of book reviews (link to each one)
Number of incoming comments
"Special things" (presentation, Kumamoto essay, etc.)

SIDEBAR:
Kumamoto links (at least 3)
Other blogs (inluding at least 1 from another class)
Labels

Please remember to write a "kansou" post just before or after this check! The deadline for both is February 6th.

The deadline for your final post of the semester is February 6th. Please do a blog check post (number of posts, number of words, etc.) and another post with some impressions of blogging in English.

In Kumamoto we have a wiki called kumamoto-i. It is a place with information about Kumamoto. It's different from other sites, because anyone can contribute information.

Your last assignment is to contribute some information to the wiki. However, this is an optional assignment: if you are too busy blogging you don't have to do it.

Let's take a look at the site. (Open it in a new window so that you can read this post at the same time.) You can see that it has various kinds of information about Kumamoto. Some of this was posted by Mr Tomei and me, some by students or other people living in Kumamoto.

The interesting thing about a wiki is that it's easy to add information. For example, if you have information about Amakusa, you would go to the Amakusa page and click "Edit", add some information, and then save. In this way, everyone's combined knowledge can be used by everyone.

If you do this assignment, you will probably want a little help at first. So please call me to guide you.

Alternative assignment
Go to English Trailers and choose a movie from the A-Z list on the right. Do all the activities from the top of the page to understand the movie, especially the cloze activity (fill in the blanks).

1. Did you do your blog check? (You cannot pass the course without doing this.)
2. Have you written at least 10 book reports?
3. Do you have at least 30 posts on your blog?
4. Isyour blog sidebar properly organized with blog links, Kumamoto links, other links, and labels?
   

1. Are there any gaps of 2 weeks or more in your blog? (For example, you missed one class and didn't write anything between classes.) This is a big negative.
2. Are there more than 2-3 weeks where you didn't write anything on your blog between classes? Also a big negative.
3. Are there many posts which were machine-translated? These will not be counted. (It's OK to use the computer translators to help you with a word or short phrases, but not a whole sentence.)
   

If you answered Yes to the 1st four, and No to the 2nd three, you're probably doing OK.

One more question: Have you done your presentation and posted it on your blog? If not, make sure that you learn how to do it today, and finish the presentation and post it before the end of the holiday.

Book Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Fairy tales: http://feeds.feedburner.jp/classic

Science show: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/default.htm

How many total posts?
How many words? (Calculate this last.)

How many posts
in October:
in November:
in December:
in January:

(use labels for the following)
How many posts
about books:
with links:
with pictures/photos:

Sidebar: Do you have:
a labels section: YES / NO
a Kumamoto links section: YES / NO
other blogs: YES / NO
(including at least 2 blogs from other classes in the WinK community: YES / NO )

Comments (look in your dashboard):
How many comments are there on your blog?

Here are two more sites where you can practice reading online. Remember to copy the text and paste it into rikai.com Also, it's a good idea to paste the text into Spreeder and read it through once very fast, before reading more slowly.

Here are the sites: 410 Reading Exercises, and Classic Fairy Tales.

How was the V-Check test? I recommend you take it twice a year until you graduate, to see how much your vocabulary is growing. As a guideline, you should aim for a vocabulary of at least 6000 words before you graduate.

Many people have quite a big vocabulary, but they have gaps at the lower levels, usually the second thousand words. These are the most important words so you should try to fill this gap as soon as possible. Take a look at the LDV list!

In my classes of November 21st and 22nd, let's all take the V-Check vocabulary diagnostic test. Diagnostic test means that it helps you to check your own vocabulary size. I will get the average result for each class, but I won't know who got what score. This is not used for assessment, but for research and for planning teaching.

Please use your GMail address to register. And please be sure to enter the correct class code when you take the test.

I've just found some interesting links related to chocolate. If you're interested take a look!

First, the Cadbury chocolate site. Cadbury is Britain's most famous chocolate company. I recommend the "Make chocolate in our virtual factory" game.

The biggest chocolate company in the USA is Hershey's. Take a look at some of the recipes.

Oxfam has a site called Chokky Central that tells us about how chocolate and chocolate biscuits ("chokky bikkies") are made, introduces fair trade, and has interesting quizzes.

Today is the last class in October, and soon the semester will be half over. After sending your attendance email, and writing your 十分は十分 quickpost, let's look back at the first few weeks of the semester and think about the remainder of the semester.

Many of you have little experience writing in English. And maybe typing and using a computer are difficult for you. So many people have not been able to write very much. So I have set a minimum requirement:

3 posts a week, including one book report.

Now, 4 weeks have passed since the beginning of the semester, so you should have written at least 12 posts + today's quickpost.

(In addition, my guideline is that you should write on your blog on 3 different days a week, i.e. class day and 2 other days. Sometimes, when you are very busy, this might be reduced to 2 days a week.)

Remember that the 3 posts a week rule is a minimum. Since it is quite easy to write 2 posts during each class, 3 posts a week is probably not enough for you to really improve your English. Once you have become accustomed to blogging, most of you should be able to write more posts or longer posts.

Also today, we will talk about pictures, and about links and labels.