linking
We have a new assignment about linking, so I'm practicing and showing linking to students. In our assignment, we are to link to a band, performer or song that we like.
That's easy for me. I like
my sister. Take a look!
poetry!
there's nothing like it...
more history
The early CESL Todays were very interesting...whenever you really know people are reading things, you write better.
In the first poetry contest, people wrote some pretty good poetry. You can read it yourself. You don't have to be a master at the language to know what sounds good and what fits together. It's really everyone's language. Those students did very well with what they had. One poem has won national recognition...but all were inspired, in a way.
That's what I'm hoping will happen here...If you watch the weblogs, some pretty interesting things are happening. The poems aren't up yet, but they're out there...for everything you see, there's quite a bit more out there waiting to be put up there for you to read. I'm hoping this work will stick around (though of course it's everyone's choice), it'll get better, they'll bloom. Look around. See what people are doing...it's good to be part of it.
It's a new world with each spin...
As you realize that people are watching, you begin to perform, you begin to enjoy it. At least I do. In every language!
-Tom
Hello!
The lighthouse is from a recent trip to Minnesota. These days I've been using it as a kind of symbol. Of what, I don't know. Is anyone out there? I dare you to
write a comment...
Poetry
In the last CESL Today Poetry Contest, a student named Adam Abdulkadir Alamin wrote a poem called "Refugee" which recently won praise and was read at a public event in Minnesota. We'd like to find him and tell him of this honor; but, he's dropped out of sight, as far as we can tell. He was from Eritrea. Can anyone help? More about this later...
a bit of history
CESL Today started around 1994. The idea was that if students read and wrote about what was around them, they would gain basic fluency by living and thinking in English more. There was another theoretically attractive aspect: that by communicating in the real world, finding things they
wanted to say, they could learn
at the point of need (Marie Nelson, I believe, coined that term...). Anyway, CESL Today was successful for a while; it published interesting things for a while; it became a window for other people to see a little of CESL through our own eyes.
Never is the need for this greater. Keep on! -Tom
Introduction
New to this? Join the crowd. We are jumping into weblogging at a time when you still need to know just a little basic html to make a link, just a little to insert a picture, etc. But it will soon be SO EASY that the whole world will have a few of these...I myself already have at least three others, which will be linked soon. I came to realize that I needed one for professional things, to explain who I am, what I'm doing, etc.
This spot will be my personal bulletin board, to tell about the new weblog project here at
CESL. We are trying to generate student interest in reading, writing, and joining the personal-publishing revolution. We are connecting to each other and showing each other how. Stay posted; links will be added as soon as possible!
