Blogs

Hi guys,

If anybody's still checking the blogs (I hope so - I'm still trying to make English-language suggestions and comments where I see a new post!), please make sure that you've all written the minimum of 5 posts, including a "last post" to conclude your position or somehow summarise your perspective on the blogs. See Cécile's post on the expatiation blog for a nice example...
:-)

If you haven't already written many posts, please do just write a few things about different aspects of your chosen topic. The deadline was extended to the end of your academic year by Mme Rivens, so you should have enough time to catch up if necessaey; remember! much of the grade is about your participation, not just English expression.

Take care on your placements everybody, it's been a pleasure seeing you and I'm sorry if we didn't get an awful lot of chances to meet up.

Dave

Assessment

Hey guys,
I emailed Mme Rivens as promised and she has posted an update about assessment on Moodle. I recommend everybody reads it! But for those of you who are on the blogs more than on Moodle (not sure who would take the time to browse my blog though!), here's a copy of the update:

Hello
I remind you that for the second semester, two elements will be taken into account for evaluation (50%-50%):
-the blogs (with the criteria announced at the beginning of the project, see earlier posts for details: content, regularity, language, presentation, etc) which will count for the language evaluation.
- the learning journal for the self-learning evaluation: it refers to everything you have done this second semester, as the blog may not be (and should not be) the only thing you have done, and as the reflexive process is essential in a self-learning environment. I will provide a questionnaire in order to help you formulate the important questions.
The final session of the 26th will be dedicated to group presentation and discussion of the blog activity (one group after the other, not in front of the whole group!).
For my research project (aiming at improving the project for future masters and at understanding pros and cons), I will ask you to answer a questionnaire online very soon. This questionnaire is not part of the assessment, it's really to have a feedback on the activity and it will be in French. Yet, I really need everyone to participate to make it meaningful.
Hope everything is clear now! Keep writing in your blogs!
Annick Rivens

Random general update

It's been a while since I wrote on my blog.. I don't really have a theme to talk about right now but I guess I should write some sort of update!

So I spent the weekend in Torquay celebrating my Grandad's 80th birthday with all my family. His birthday's on Valentine's Day, which is pretty cool. Here's a pic of Torquay, a seaside town in the SW of England (in Devon) and, if you've ever heard of it, the location of the famous comedy Fawlty Towers.



But it was a super tiring weekend at the same time. I came back this morning (Monday) and had to wake up at 5am to catch the Eurostar. I hope my students wont detect too much fatigue in my classes today..

If you're ever planning a holiday in the UK, there are some nice seaside resorts. Torquay is one of the most touristy, but Devon's definitely a viable candidate if you want relatively good weather and nice beaches. Corwall (the most south-west county in England) is the other possibility: towns like Newquay, Falmouth, Polzeth or Fowey. Newquay is actually pretty damn good for surfing, and there are surfing championships there each summer! I love surfing, wish I had more opportunities to do it, 'cos I'm still a total beginner!

:)

Project beginnings

My blog will contain project-specific information, which I will try and keep up-to-date in a similar way to everybody else. For example, I might give an overview of the week's best posts by you. I'll try and keep it informative, like a hub of information to which you can refer on the topic of everyone's blogs.

Also as soon as you have a blog, please e-mail me about it and I'll provide a link to it on my blog. That way I'll eventually have a complete list of all your blogs and you will be able to access each others' via my blog.

That's it for now! Happy New Year!

Themes

So these are some of the themes we've come up with today...

Music (in general / comparison of styles, e.g. metal, Indian music)
Film
Immigration and weapons trafficking (Bowling for Columbine, Lord of War, articles...)
Jean Claude Van Dam (his philosophy, interviews e.g. translation of some French interviews)
Sport
American cars (financial crisis affecting the industry?)
British culture and customs (e.g. using film as an example)
Travel (discussions about / with people doing an Erasmus next term)
Food
Dance
Art / Comedy (comedians, e.g. American comedians with video footage)

Welcome!

Hi! So actually this is my first ever blog - I'm sure some of you are far more experienced than me already! But I can see that it's really easy to post pictures (using the "Add Image" button)

Hong Kong skyline. This place used to be my home!

... And videos...

I used to love skating in Hong Kong - this is the main skatepark there.

This video's from YouTube - to post it, I found the video on YouTube and copied the "embed video" link into my post. The "Add Video" button gives you the opportunity to post a video which is already on your computer. If it's an internet video (like mine) then you'll need to do what I did.

But anyway you shouldn't have any problems >:-]