thomas leverett weblog

odds & ends

It's a busy time, and I've barely had time to report on what I've been doing, much less what everyone else is doing. So, here is a little from here and there.

TESOL
TESOL? I forgot to give an overview of what I saw. TESOL is at healthy numbers again, over 9,000. Seattle was rainy but nice. Weblogs were big; so was plagiarism; so were all things dealing with an influx of Saudis in American intensive English programs. There were more k-12 teachers there than I remember in the past. Next year's TESOL will be in New York City; will not start until Wed. night; will go through late Sat. (to better serve the NYC metro area's thousands of ESL teachers, no doubt, and maximize use of NYC's convention facilities)...

SIUC.EDU
I'm looking forward to a new SIUC web page (system). I don't know what precipitated this change, nor do I have a clue what to expect. We at CESL have an important issue with regard to the SIUC web page. Can an international, with limited English, find what he/she is looking for, with straightforward navigation clues and roadsigns? Can they make sense of what they find when they get there? Does the system give them a welcome, friendly feeling even when they don't know what a page is about? Does SIUC feel like a place that is international in character, friendly to internationals?

TOM 2.0
In the web world, people have started referring to 2.0 as a metaphor for the future. My hometown, Cleveland, has a "Cleveland 2.0" website that envisions what Cleveland should be like in the future. So, I'm embarking on my own campaign. Look for CESL 2.0, SIUC 2.0, and Carbondale 2.0 soon.

APA in REAL TIME
My new research interest- what people who present things online should do about APA style guidelines. APA has always made these hard to find. I am the impatient, democratic type- don't want to buy an expensive manual that is definitely out of date, and don't want to chase APA as it continues to hide its own rules. Several questions: Why should ESL/EFL writers be obliged to use APA for anything other than a teaching lesson anyway (since ESL is not sociology, psychology or any of the other academic fields that require APA)? How would the world respond to an online style guideline that was similar to APA, but always available, clearly written, and updated according to the needs of the online community? Finally, do writing teachers believe in the tyranny of holding obscure and hard-to-find style guidelines against their students, or do they do this, just because they feel it's their job? I put quite a bit of stuff online, and honestly, don't know the answers.

CLASS TO BEAT ALL CLASSES
This was a TOEFL (optional) class Tue. at 4, a week ago. In a class with a wall of windows and about 25 chairs, 32 people showed up at the beginning, and a steady flow of students brought chairs in from one side, one at a time, putting them wherever they could, and filling up the room, up over 36, 37, 38, most of whom had never seen weather as we know it. On the window side, the sky turned light, then very dark, then lightning cracked, thunder, rain, downpour, water slamming against the windows, then finally a siren and I threw up my hands and led everyone downstairs to find safe harbor. But it didn't end there. A lecture on tornados in the museum auditorium, perhaps given by a geology/weather student; an interpretive tornado dance; a woman dancer appearing on the weather map shining on the screen in the auditorium, at the same time. Beat that. Better than your average writing class.

BLUE STICKER
was stolen off of my '68 Ford truck today. I guess someone saw that truck and said, this guy's got a sense of humor. I did file a police report though. What can you do? I've got to get another one.

YOUTUBE
is the topic of our Newstalk class. Should be good. Lots of issues in the news with YouTube.

My students said something interesting the other day: "Around here, you can experience all four seasons in one day!" This was after it had snowed, in early April. I think we locals were able to relate to that.

Labels: creative, personal, siuc, youtube

posted by tom @ 10:15 PM