Did you miss a class? What to do?

Catch up with Chat!
...or under this posting


Hello everybody! As promised, I am opening a new section to cater for your requests.

Actually, no one has particularly asked for this new “gadget” but, I have seen you would like to exchange messages when you have been absent to a class and I had not allowed room for that yet.

This poses a little problem here. To begin with I must comply with my own rules for this Blog as stated in the Manifesto. This site is not meant to give or correct homework. That is what teachers do in class. This is an FCE Student after class companion (About this site reads: meeting point), especially for my FCE students, but there are so many candidates out there each year who might find our work useful that I simply do not wish to leave other students out. No way.

Second, there is a question of order and relevance of site posts. In the Site Rules I explained that I would try and keep entries organised and clear comments that are not relevant to the posting. The idea is that you can use this as a website that you consult from time to time, choose what you need from the previous posts links, and what you read there is always updated; always important today.

Naturally, there will be messages that are relevant for a short time only. The catching-up situation is a good example. It will be difficult for you to browse and find wherever you had posted the odd message with questions about last class. For that we need new space as well as a techie solution.

I thought about having our own chat for miscellaneous messages and leave the comments under postings for the topic of the posting only.

So I believe I am not breaking my rules by allowing you to exchange messages about homework. It is just the teacher who is supposed to mums the word here.



How to chat on the FCE Blog

In fact, this is more like texting someone to his mobile rather than chat. You leave your message there (or here below) and come back to the site later to see if any caring human being has left any answer.

However, if you are remarkably lucky, you might see that someone else is online with you. Mind you, the chat function will not tell you who it is out there, so you will be taking your chances.

Yet I see several advantages to this.

For starters, by leaving your messages in the chat, you will not be spamming your classmates’ inboxes about your missing a class. Not to mention the disappointment when they do not answer! So if no one answered through the site, they are just as busy as you. That’s why.

Second, there is a question of privacy protection. You will be signing your comment but your personal email or msn is not exposed at all.

Another practical advantage is that you may suggest new sections for the site from there. Or simply put any comment that does not clearly fit in the previous posts.

Finally, the chat icon is always there on the side bar. No need to lose time finding where the message was. It is on every page.

Hope you find this helpful.



The messages in the chat thread will date, of course, so I will be clearing them from time to time before they become as interesting as yesterday’s newspaper.

If you have questions you can email me at
fceblog@gmail.com
FCE BLOG
An afterclass meeting point for all First Certificate Students
This phrase has just taken on a new meaning here.



Thank you Gilda and Mariano for triggering off this idea. I am republishing here your comments, for they have little to do with the World Cup.