Cambridge Results Online ... And then?

So, how did it go?

As from 1st February you can consult your Cambridge exam results online. If you need guidance on how to access your scores check out this previous post.

You may be certain that at this point I am very curious about my own students' results. However, I am quite confident they have learnt things that I cannot really measure. They are not recorded in standard ways. And yet, they mean a lot to us.

But I do need to know and learn myself from your results. They will help me to evaluate part of our experience together and do better next time. So here is what I would like you to do. When you access your results, you will see a pdf page with the details of your performance in all areas evaluated. That is your student's profile page. You are the only person who can access it because it is password protected. Please save it to your computer and send it to me by email.

I am also opening a wiki page called Exam Results 2007. You know the wiki rules: make that page yours. Feel yourself at home. If you are not one of my students, leave a comment here and join our conversation.

I wonder... I imagine you've been anxiously waiting for this day to come and know how you did. What do these exam results mean to you? What is next?


Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hunkdujour/373695263/

Thank You 2007 Students

End of 2007 Academic Year

Dear Students,

In an hour we'll meet again one last time. I wanted to write this post to thank you for sharing this learning experience with me. I also remember the people who had to drop the course. You certainly have taught me much more than you are aware of.

I would love to share some good news. Our last post on del.icio.us got a fantagtastic response. I want to thank this user for sending us excellent resources that I will use in future posts. So far the account is empty and it seems to have been opened just to share those links!

Our open classroom spirit is felt by teachers also. I want to thank Carla Arena and Alison for their collaboration spirit and ideas. I think you'll see our Collaborative Projects section of the wiki grow in 2008.

What will happen to our wiki?
I hope it grows and grows.Our wiki is a heritage project. By which I mean, that future students will
a) Benefit from your extensive production (so far over 160 pages). Your samples will be their study material. As such, they are as valid as the coursebooks you have used.

b) Edit your work. Our Collaborative Edition section is a work in progress that future students can improve, mix, remix, add...

However, this is not just for the benefit of others. Although your portfolio samples will be protected from further edit, discussion forums remain open. Forever.

By subscribing to your own pages, you will learn what students-to-come think of your work. You might as well learn over their shoulders by reading the conversations your work inspires. You see, same time and same place are no longer requirements to learn together. When we are online, we are in a third place.

I am happy you now know how to tag, RSS and open wikis. I hope you continue playing with Netbives and Flickr. Remember to think before you post.

I know, I know. This is the time for another kind of advise. For the killer exam tips and nervousness management! I hope that by now, you feel that, although a challenge, this exam is doable and you are well equipped to succeed. Now we know that what we need is not a collection of tricks, but some knowledge, a set of tools and sensible use of them. I hope that more expert voices, such as my last year students, drop their comments here and we all learn from them as well.

Oops! Time is up and I must cease.

Much love and success to all my students -past and present.

Claudia

Bookmarks are Tagtastic!

How can our bookmarks bring us together?
We all love surfing the net and discovering great sites. Then we bookmark in our browsers to find them again, we want to share with friends via e-mail (so last season!) and then... chaos. You like bookmarking so much the collection of links is unmanageable. Or worse, some computer crash makes you lose months of work at collecting! Ouch.

Wouldn't it be great if we had access to the bookmarks of people round the world studying the same you are trying to learn? Wouldn't you like to contact people who have saved the same sites you did? Like-minded people around make a difference.

Ok. Let's do it!
The trick is this. Forget about the Internet as a source of information. The Internet is folks trying to learn just like you. When we decide to share, we can create a meeting, a folksonomy. We can find each other.

Two key words here:
a) Del.icio.us -the tool. You'll need an account.
http://del.icio.us/
b) Tagging -the action. You'll associate key words to your favourite sites. What they are about and why they are important to you. Rule for good tagging: The more, the merrier!

In this 3-minute video you will see where, why and how to tag.



Video source

Del.icio.us for us is fantagtastic!

I've always loved bookmarking. I think it was my first natural step towards online learning. Apart from my fceblog account to connect with teachers, I have created an account for my class. You can find it here:
http://del.icio.us/tagtastic

My students are creating their accounts and joining our network. If you are a student, save the FCE Blog in your bookmarks, write a message in the description box and we'll find you.

Would you like to see what we are doing?
Here is our wiki page on bookmarks.

So let's tag away!


Special thanks to ijohnpederson for helping me shape this idea.

Vocabulary Feeds

Your Thoughts are Hungry for Words
Vocabulary is food for thought. If your mind is well fed, then you will be able to frame your ideas in speaking and writing better. There is probably nothing as frustrating as to have a gap in your vocabulary. Those moments when you want to explain something in a foreign language and the words simply do not come. To enjoy becoming a speaker of a second language, we need to eat words well.

It is important to vary the ways in which you try to incorporate new words. There is no best method to learn. Yet, if learning can be action, the practice becomes more effective and meaningful. Learning words is not about memorising. Not even remembering. Do you remember how you learnt every word you know? When you learn, you simply transform yourself.

Learning is a cycle. Learning vocabulary will require consulting dictionaries, exploring new contexts for a word in your readings on the Internet and finding examples. A bit of decontextualised -some mechanical or repetitive- practice may also help. One day you may surprise yourself using richer words in your writing. That's when a learning cycle ends giving way for another one to begin.

Did you know your learning can also transform others?

Learn Free vocabulary & Give Free Rice
Learning is a powerful thing. The people involved in this initiative launched on the 7th October 2007 understand it well. Their mission is to help provide food for people in need while you learn.

"For each word you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger."
http://www.freerice.com

Click there and you will find an ongoing multiple choice test. It is challenging for both: advanced students and native speakers. What is so interesting about this site is that it shows an example of learning both ways. You learn by choosing and the machine learns with your clicks too:

FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.

Click here for details on how playing the vocabulary game helps you and others.

So let's play and feed ourselves!

Attribution
Thanks to Lisa Parisi for the link.
Image: DSC_5596 - Vocabulary by theglauber
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theglauber/416091822/

Copyright notice
Unless otherwise marked, the posts at The FCE Blog are copyright protected. You may not reproduce entire posts without written permission from the author. As the United Nations WFP is asking to spread the word, this post is copyright free. So if you do not have time to blog, with this footnote I am allowing you to cut & paste portions as needed.

Please attribute:
via The FCE Blog. Reproduced with permission.

If you use the hyperlink of this post (http://fceblog..blogspot.com/2007/10/vocabulary-feeds.html), your blog spreading the word will be listed here so that we can read you and comment!
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Thank you!