Project 52 - Week Four

Another hectic week with me starting full time work at the Lake School of English, lots of family commitments, and checking in on the EVO Crafting the ePerfect Textbook session any spare moments, but in particular, late at night.  

On Monday morning I had a lovely welcome and met my new classes.  A2+ in the morning, and B2+ in the afternoon.  A nice mix of nationalities, including Arabic, Japanese, Swiss, Argentinian.

I usually like to focus on speaking skills, but also ensure a good mix of all skills.  I recorded me reading a text about the woman who invented Ragu sauce on my Android and used it as a listening activity. I am going to do a short writing activity every day and then do follow-up error correction with lots of spelling tests.  The students are taking a mix of KET and IELTS exams and so will need to do lots of authentic reading. I used a new tool called festitext to jazz up my intro text:

I encouraged my students to send me voice recordings of their homework and I was delighted to see how keen they were to send me their messages.  I replied by using Vocaroo. 

A Special Day

Lovely gifts from Marion

JibJab egreetings from K

A fun JibJab birthday ecard from K was in my inbox and it made me smile!  One full of cats, I wonder why, lol, plus another one of a Flamenco dancer!

Janet, the Flamenco dancer

Muzy collage below showing a set of cushion covers with a cat design given as a present, some lovely cards, beautiful flowers from the Lake School, and a birthday cake from my parents.  During the morning coffee break all the staff was treated to a fabulous array of cakes and special coffee ..... it was a lovely surprise!!

Also, during the day, I was touched to see many egreetings in the EVO session Google+ community, and that was so nice!!

Shelly also mentioned me and other birthdays in the fab Week 2 Google+ Hangout on Air video session held on Saturday, which I have just finished viewing, and this was so thoughtful :-))

Whilst I am writing this up, I'd like to add a belated birthday greeting for Natasa, a fellow blogger and EVO participant :-)

In the evening I went to Jamie's Italian in the city centre and had a lovely meal there, with a truly decadent chocolate birthday cake arriving.  Sadly all my photos came out blurred as earlier I had dropped my Smartphone and now am hoping I haven't ruined the camera part forever...

Continuing with the EVO session this week, I was blown away by all the enthusisam shown by the participants and was inspired to create a simple mind map, using text2mindmap, as seen below.

Catching up with hubby today, I finally heard from him after 3 days of no news from Abruzzo, due to our problematic and dodgy phone line, which needs fixing asap!!  I was relieved to hear all is ok, and all the furbies are behaving themselves.  I do miss each and every one of them, including K of course.  I had a peak at what he's been getting up to whilst I am away, by popping in to view his blog.

Roll on Week 5!!

Project 52 - Week Three

Week 3 began with a very busy Monday.  I am clearing the attic for my parents as there is a leak in the roof.  These chairs date from the 1970s and they have to go as they are not needed anymore.  I have to find a new home for them asap, and my wish was granted!!  A charity shop is coming to collect them all next week.

I am writing down all the interactions I have with participants on the Crafting the ePerfect eTextbook session as with over 500 participants attending, it is easy to get confused and forget what has been written and I have commented on.

I got another nice notification from Slideshare re my 2013 stats!

It was K's birthday on Wednesday so I sent him a Voki message from Oxford with me singing Happy Birthday to him.  We are going to celebrate both our birthdays as soon as I get back to Abruzzo!

Thursday was spent at the dentist's and the news was as I feared. Something has got to go.... and I am a bit nervous about what is going to happen on Tuesday!  The clip art gives a clue....

Image source: http://classroomclipart.com/clipart-view/Clipart/Dental/dentist_with_patient_jpg.htm

I created my first Haiku Deck!

I heard from K in Abruzzo that the 'Sindaco' had turned up to view the state of our road.  Apparently it will be fixed 'in una settimana' = one week.  Hopefully by the time I get back to Abruzzo, the road will indeed have been fully fixed!!  Fingers crossed it won't look like it is below - just mud!!

Below I have added a Tagxedo summary of all the tools the Evo Crafting the Perfect Ebook participants have used in the first week of the session for the 3,2,1 Introductions.  

33 tools and still counting!

I am learning about so many different tools on the session, and just wish I had more hours in the day.  As of tomorrow, Monday 20th January, I won't be able to interact in the EVO session so much, as I will be teaching up to 20 students f2f every day, so my focus will be on them.. However, I intend to use new tools I have learned about as soon as I have time :-)

That's it!  It's been a most hectic week with no 'Me Time' whatsoever, but I am still in one piece, and have enjoyed 'the good bits' very, very much indeed!!  

The 'bad bits' this week have involved dealing with Italian beauocracy refering to my father's missing Italian pension.  It has been an absolute nightmare trying to sort it all out, and has taken up a huge amount of time this week, both with numerous emails and phone calls to London and Italy. My father has not been paid his Italian pension for one whole year.  I will NOT let this injustice get swept under the carpet.... and I am rather stubborn...

To close on a positive note, I am looking forward to the challenges of Week 4!! 

Project 52 - Week Two

What a rollercoaster week this has been!  I heard unexpected news from England on Tuesday, which made me book a flight back to England a week earlier than anticipated.  My wish for a peaceful and calm start to the new year was not really granted...

A visit to Penne for shopping on Monday. It's a beautiful historical town.

Freddy enjoying the views of the garden.

The state of our road is atrocious and I rang the Sindaco (Lord Mayor) on his personal mobile to ask him when he was going to fix it. He said he would see what he could do, but basically I know the Abruzzo region doesn't have enough money after the severe floodings and landslides......

Would you be able to drive down this 'road' in your vehicle???  It was quite a hair-raising drive to the airport yesterday morning at 5.30am.  Our 'road' is 1.2 kilometres long and it is now mostly washed away into the valley.  I asked the Sindaco to come and visit it for himself.  The land is moving constantly and deep ravines have formed in the surrounding fields.....

The ruts in the road are getting bigger and bigger.  The sheer amount of water has forced the land to open up, as you can see below!

Yes, it was quite a soggy mess for a while!!

Our ancient 4x4 is getting battered and bruised by driving in these conditions, and the mudguard has come off.  We intend to take this to the Comune when I get back to Abruzzo and ask for a replacement one to be ordered, as it is a comunal road, therefore it should be driveable for the public. Let's see what happens next in this saga.

This week has been stressful with the news of my mother being rushed to hospital on Monday, just 6 days into the new year, and me being in Abruzzo at the time.  I am happy to say that she is now back at home, and I will be able to help with her rehabilitation, and I am very happy I can do this, thank goodness.

EVO 2014

This week, however, has also been exciting due to the EVO session I am currently moderating called EVO Crafting the ePerfect Textbook.  I wrote and published a blog post about it on my main blog here.  I was delighted to see so many familiar faces and members of my PLN joining in and posting their fabulous 3,2,1 introductions. 

As one of the 15 session moderators, I am welcoming as many of the new members as possible, and so far I have personally greeted 201 participants!! 

There are over 400 participants to date, so it is well and truly a MOOC.  (Massive Open Online Course).  It's the first time in my life I have ever moderated such a huge number of  participants. I am enjoying it very much indeed, and had got off to a flying start at the beginning of the week, but now being back in England much earlier than expected means I don't have as much free time as anticipated. However, I will be catching up with the action whenever I can, and of course doing my best!! 

Finally, I was notified by Slideshare today that my presentations have been viewed quite a few times...  I am absolutely delighted to hear this lovely piece of news.

Let's see what Week 3 of 2014 has in store....

Project 52 - Week One

Thanks to Sue Annan for joining me in this Project 52 challenge! I really missed it last year, so we are both doing it again, just for fun.  It will be nice to have a record of whatever 2014 brings.

Images taken this week have been dominated by the festive period, and today the packing away of Christmas decorations.  The house suddenly looks a bit stark in comparision.

Will this lovely Poinsettia survive in the new year?  I have never had any luck with house plants!

I love using my set of Spode Christmas Tree plates as seen below:

My set of father christmas candle-holders are now ready to be packed away in boxes....

I keep all my Spode Christmas Tree plates and crockery in my old university trunk, which is now almost 39 years old! Below you can see one of the many badges I stuck all around the trunk. You can see one of Dijon University, where I spent a year studying French. 

Fluffy has been busy this week and he's made a calendar for January!  Let's hope it's a great month for him.

Welcome to 2014!

Welcome to Janet's Project 52.  This year I hope to post some images for each week.  Every Sunday I will aim to post a collection or summary of up to 7 photos. The image above was taken of what I could see on the telly, just seconds after the clock rung in the new year.