Random Quote
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
KOTESOL: Selecting a Research Topic
Yesterday was the KOTESOL National conference. The first session I attended was by Jake Kimball on the topic of Breaking into Research. Jake gave an excellent presentation which was well recieved by the audience. Several people asked for his powerpoints, but Jake didn’t have a place to upload his powerpoint to so I volunteered my blog.
Here is Jakes powerpoint – Breaking into Research: Selecting a Research Topic.
——
To the woman I talked to in the hallway about blogging, my apologies for not remembering your name. The blog that I recommended to you was Larry Ferlazzo, check his blog and blogs he links to and I can guarantee that you will find something of interest.
Also had a good chat with Joe while waiting in line for the lunch that never materialized. We got to lunch a little late, waited 10 minutes to get a small bowl of rice and some wilted salad. Mmm tasty, not.
Contributors Wanted
I’m looking for regular, or non-regular contributors to this blog. Basically if you have something to say about language teaching, linguistics or language in general even only vaguely related you’re welcome to contribute. If you’d like to be a regular contributer, say 1-2 times a month or more then I’ll set you up with direct access to publishing without moderation.
If you just want to contribute a one time peice or be a little less regular feel free to use the guest entry form (you will need to be logged in first), which will send your submission to a moderation queue. 99.99% of the time, I’ll approve the entry as soon as I see it. The only reason I won’t approve it is if it’s spam or obviously a product placement in the form of a blog entry.
Contribute away.
Linking Policy revisited
Lately I’ve been rreceiving a number of requests for mutual linkage – mostly to commercial sites. I don’t do that and my policy is explained in this entry – blogrolling policy.
I will be making one exception shortly, but that is for a friends recruiting business, which coincidentally I made the web site for. shameless plug if you need a web site, a blog theme or anything web related, go to my web design firm, CreateSean Web Design for more information and contact me.
Seoul KOTESOL Conference 2009
The annual Seoul KOTEOSL conference is coming up in a few weeks on March 28. I’m planning on attending and will probably be spending most of my time in the “Research Strand” room – you can see what’s on offer by checking the schedule on the page linked above.
The Extensive Reading SIG is also having a meeting following the conference. here is the email I recieved – I will also be attending this meeting.
A few Extensive Reading Special Interest Group announcements and updates:1. We’d like to have our first ERSIG meeting of the year on March 28th at 5 PM at Soonshil University. This will follow the KOTESOL Seoul Chapter Annual Conference, which will run from 10 AM – 4:45. We were originally planning on having the meeting during the National Conference, but this is a bit late in the year for the things we need to get going.
The agenda for the meeting is as follows:
A. Set the ground work for our two main events of the year, the Extensive Reading Colloquium held during the KOTESOL International Conference, and our own Extensive Reading Symposium (held in Cheonan last year, tentatively planned for Seoul this year).
B. Discuss website issues (see next)
C. Discuss an ER Mentor program to help people set up ER in their schools.
D. Anything else ERSIG members would like to bring up.Not sure yet what room we’ll be meeting in. More on that soon. We might even make it a dinner-meeting at a nearby restaurant. Please let me know if you plan on attending.
2. Call for a new ERSIG Webmaster
Currently our Webmaster if Tim Dalby, but he’s moved on to a bigger position in KOTESOL and we need someone to fill his shoes. After much discussion with KOTESOL brass, we’ve decided that the ERSIG site should stay on the KOTESOL domain. This means we need someone who can work with the Drupal content management system. I’ve been assured that it is relatively user-friendly. Any volunteers?Hope to see a lot of you on the 28th!
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Mar 4, 2009 at 08:19 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | Conferences | KOTESOL |
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Moodle Grading
I’m in the midst of planning for the upcoming spring semester starting on Monday, though I actually start on Tuesday since Mondays are my day off. While setting up my homework for the first week in moodle I discovered that there is a new rating option.
Average (default)The mean of all the ratings given to posts in that forum. This is especially useful with peer grading when there are a lot of ratings being made.
I won’t be using this for the first homework, but have definite uses for it in the future. I love peer evaluation, but dislike aggregating all the scores. This will make things so much easier for me in the future.
I’m not sure if this has been in Moodle for a while or is new. I just upgraded last week, but haven’t really changed the way I grade things for a long time so it’s possible this has been around. Anyhow if it’s new to you, check it out.
