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Real-time Map of Emergency Events Around the World 

Through Tekzilla I've learned about a neat use of Google Maps to display real-time information about emergency events around the world. RSOE is a service based in Hungary that is using publicly available data sets to create a continuously updating Google Map of emergency events. Click on any icon on the map to learn about the event. The types of things you're likely to find on the map are car, rail, and airplane accidents, seismic activities, outbreaks of illnesses, fires, and nuclear energy events. Learn more about RSOE in the Tekzilla video below.

from  www.freetech4teachers.com

Have you ever wondered why foreigners have trouble with the English Language?


Let’s face it
English is a ‘stupid’ language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France




We sometimes take English for granted
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.


If writers write, how come fingers don’t fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn’t the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?
If the teacher taught, why didn’t the preacher praught?


If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways?


You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as it burns down
And in which you fill in a form by filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!


English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn’t a race at all)


That is why
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch, it starts
But when I wind up this observation, It ends.

The Teacher's Choice: Permissiveness or Authority?

Pedagogical communication is largely attributable to the methods and means of governance which define his or her style. If there are psychological culture and desire it's possible for any teacher to regulate or improve his or her techniques and tools. 
 

Authoritarian style of teaching develops as a result of aggressiveness and force. This force is intended to suppress the unruly behavior of students. Aggressiveness takes the form of instructions, warnings, threats and condemnations, which cause frustration, resentment, anger and contempt towards to a teacher. Authoritarian style is usually accompanied by a disgruntled, spiteful, angry, sarcastic, angry tone of voice and facial expressions. It also develops complete submission to a teacher, inhibiting the development of capacity for self-regulation of behavior. As a result we can see an anxiety, concern, anger, resentment, hostility and even fear of children.
 

The democratic leadership style of teaching occurs when motivated requirements and friendly suggestions are inherent to a teacher. He or she explains the usefulness of conform to rules and provides them with a belief in their value. Such forms of requirements as orders, injunctions and orders turn into a motivation in a democratic style of teaching. A friendly voice, restrained facial expressions, calling students by their names all these can reinforce the confidence to a teacher. Forms of friendly suggestion may vary: from instructions, requests or admonitions to condemnations, warnings, rebuke or reproach. They express teacher's confidence, his or her approval or concern. Within this system of relations the children's skills of self-control behavior successfully develop. Such methods of interaction increase the credibility to a teacher.
 

If you want to put somebody on his own feet you should let him walk and fall, endure the pain from bruises and to choose the direction. And it is well-knowing that walking can be learned only on our own feet and through our own falls. Exactly the same we may apply to an education. And it is better to not dictate and press on students. Respectful attitude, open dialogue and friendliness are the ways to the success.

I've chosen Esref Armagan not because of his pictures themselves but because of his ability to feel the word, surrounding him; his amazing sense of reality. I wonder how he got it! Did he absorb it with the milk of his mother or is it just a kind of genetic memory? Agree that it's quite easy to learn how to use the colours and it's quite acceptable to improve the fingers' tactility, but how to understand the prospective, moreover, to express it on the sheet of paper? It is something that he cannot touch or physically explore. Don't overlook that he was born without eyes! He has never seen at least the slightest hint of the sunlight, not talking about the objects he draws. Hence, he's pictures are the projection of his inner vision.

But there is one more thing which has impressed me the most: it's his strong urge to art. Just imagine a ballet dancer with no legs! It's even sounds absurdly. But in spite of the circumstances he draws his amazing pictures. He dares to do and he wins!

"Mr. Armagan is an important figure in the history of picture-making, and in the history of knowledge. His work is remarkable. I was struck by the drawings he has made as much as by his work with paint. He has demonstrated for the first time that a blind person can develop on his or her own pictorial skills the equal of most depiction by the sighted. This has not happened before in the history of picture-making."

John M. Kennedy, Professor

Perception/Cognition Psychology

University of Toronto at Scarborough

Esref Armagan was born 42 years ago with no sight. He is an unusual individual, not just because he has been blind since birth, but because the art work that he has created has been all through his own efforts, his own trials, his own discoveries of methods that would work so that he can put on paper that which he feels in his environment.

As a child, Esref wasn’t allowed to go to school or to go outside to play with the other children, so he would pick up a nail and try to draw shapes on the cardboard boxes his father brought home from work. Eventually, he thought that he would try to draw the shapes of various objects that he was acquainted with. It soon grew into a passion for him. As he learned the names of the colors, he also learned what objects they went with. He devised a system for keeping his colors separate and he started drawing and painting.


For the past 35 years, Esref has been working to perfect his artistry. He works mostly in oils, using his hands instead of brushes.


To work on a picture, he needs absolute quiet. He needs to feel that he is “inside” his painting – in fact, as he explained , when he is drawing a picture of the sea, he wonders if he should wear a life jacket so as not to drown! Esref Armagan has had several showings in Istanbul, Antalya and Ankara plus exhibits in Amsterdam, the Czech Republic and New York. Although he has difficulty in finding ways to support himself and his family, he is looking forward to the opportunity to have more exhibits, to learn more about his craft, and to prove to the world that there are no limits to what can be accomplished.

 New websites that allow you and your students to create on-line comics and cartoons!

 Perhaps particularly useful for younger learners to help them practice their written language in a fun way, but I'm sure it could also be used with adults.


http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/


http://www.toondoo.com/

What are the current IT in EFL class today?

EFL students are limited in access to native speakers for authentic communication, be it speaking or writing.  As soon as they leave the classroom, they re-enter a world full of speakers of their own language, leaving them with little opportunity to use what they've learned. Various approaches to overcome this problem were designed for incorporating Internet based on communicative activities. Using informational technologies in educational process will from positive motivation as well. Nowadays Internet suggests different information and resources: 

• e-mail;
• video conference;
• possibility to publish own information, to create own homepage and to advertise it on web-server; 
• access to informational resources;
• reference books (Yahoo!, Google, galaxy, LookSmart,);
• searching systems (Meta, Google, Yandex);
• chat.

Now let's examine 2 technologies more detailed.

Blogs

Blogs allow individual students and teachers to set up their own blogs (‘weblogs’). Blogs has the potential for encouraging greater autonomy and self-direction in foreign language learning. Since they can be used for disseminating information or ideas, practising writing, reflective learning…Readers can comment on blog entries and other comments.

In my opinion, blogging has both advantages and disadvantages:

“+” In blogs students publish their writing and receive comments from outsiders, potentially leading to discussion and further use of the language.

“--“ One of the major difficulties of using weblogs in EFL is lack of participation from readers outside the classroom. Some form of mutual interest must exist between the writer and reader who respond in a meaningful way. Otherwise ESL learner blogs run to a high risk of stagnation.

Moodle

Moodle is the most known system of the distance courses. It is used in many universities around the world and translated into 75 languages. The advantage of Moodle is that any teacher, after a short training, can create his own courses of any complexity. The course may include: web pages, multimedia files, forums, glossaries, tests, assignments, and much more.

As we see, a teacher fills the course with a study materials and a student performs the tests.

Teacher’s materials vary. This can be aids for download, theoretical material for download and as a website and tests; forum for discussing problems and aims.

Students, performing certain kinds of tasks, get marks which are automatically saved in the gradebook. Teacher receives a report for all students and each student has a clear submission of their assessments.

There’re a lot of advantages in Moodle both for teachers and students:

+ This allows the individual work with students

+ Moodle is used for storing files of educational tasks as methodological piggy bank and it’s easy to make it visible to the students. You can share your materials with colleagues.

+ The system creates and stores a portfolio of each student: all works, ratings and comments to the teacher's work, all messages in the forum.

+ Moodle allows to monitor attendance and  the activity of students.

+ Moodle is usable when either teacher or students are ill.

+ You can connect 2 or more teachers to the course.

+ Student can do the tasks at any convenient time.

 

As you can see, using IT in EFL teaching carries a lot of opportunities for creative and developing teachers. But besides the little technical flaws there is one great flaw that can spoil all advantages in one second. The main difficulty that is encountered today is that not all the students have computers, printers or the Internet at home.

Fashion: Is It Good To Be on The Peak? 

Everyone wants to go with the times, but times change. And fashion changes as well. And along with fashion, people and their idols, consciousness and life itself changes. Fashion has (and has always has had) an incredible impact on the lifestyle of modern women. Every women want to dress in good taste, but not all of them are able to do so. There are women who are on the peak of fashion, but there are those who are trying to get used to fashion gradually, and by this time it becomes obsolete.     

             

We live in a perfect time when it isn't required to follow all the fashion trends; fashion today is more elegant and democratic then it was before. There is no need to completely change your wardrobe every season, it's perfectly acceptable to be aware of seasonal novelties and be able to apply these new items, reflecting your own taste and style. It's a great boon for us that fashion is independent and free of the age criteria and class prejudice now.  

                       

For the sake of fashion, which changes, women are ready to fit to standards not only fashionable clothes and accessories, but their face and even figure! When fashion demanded a high forehead all women completely shaved their eyebrows, eyelashes and hair to appear nearly half a head taller (you can verify this by looking at Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa')! When a pallor was needed, every self-respecting lady drank vinegar. For a long time a corset was a constant companion of fashion. It could make a thin waist and hips, a high and lush or flat chest and sloping shoulders.      

                               

Now here are shoulder pads, special cups for breast enhancement; high heels to lengthen legs... Blindly following the fashion trends one will lose one's individuality and be merged with the total masses. To avoid this every woman should find her own taste and preferences. 

                                   

Fashion is not a principle or policy to follow blindly. But it is excellent for cultivating our own good and meritorious way to follow rather than blindly imitating others.

What Does Friendship Mean in Your Life? 

Relationships take a huge part in our live. All we live in a society and every day we deal with number of people. Moreover the psychology of human beings is such that we need communication as an air. Hence nothing special that everyone wants to find in his life somebody who would understand him, love him, respect him and always be around. Friendship is relationship; love is relationship. All these are different kinds of connections between people. Can we live without relationships? Of course, not! Sometimes we are looking for seclusion but this is the exception which proves the rule.

In such notion as “friendship” adopted the following gradation: "real friendship" and "simple communication". Real friendship implies long relationship above time and distance. I am lucky to have 2 real friends in my life. We have been friend since our school times and we never quarreled! We never divided our attention or our boyfriends and we never envied! Just the opposite! My friends have always helped me and supported me, and I try to help them as hard as I can.

There are more than 10 years as we finished school. Some of us got married and someone lives alone; someone has two kids and someone doesn't have; someone lives in other city...But despite the time and distance, we are still together and we always find time to support each other in joy and sorrow!

Here are some ideas for presents that don't cost a dime, and show your love and affection. 

 

• Read your darling some Love Poetry
• Draw your sweetheart a picture of a Love Bouquet - it'll last forever!
• Go for a walk in a local park or garden, holding hands
• Sit under the stars curled up in a blanket, and invent your own
• Put together your own set of music for the night and dance together to Your Songs
• Pull out a card game or board game and spend the evening having fun together
• Curl up with photo albums and remember all the fun times you've had together
• Make thumb-print drawings for each other, adding cute sayings to them
• Use lipstick or makeup to give each other temporary love tattoos
• Call your sweetie up and sing a love song over the phone
• Learn some loving phrases in a new language and use them on each other

Origins of the Valentine's Day 
Heart Symbol 

If humankind weren’t reigned by feelings and emotion, this little symbol wouldn’t have conquered the world. The idea that the heart as the seat of emotion seems to be as old as mankind itself and with only very few cultural exceptions, the heart is worldwide regarded as the most important organ.

At the Council of Vienna in 1311, the church discussed the question if the soul of a human being resides only in his heart or in the complete body. It concluded the soul lives in the whole body, but maybe it is our habit to identify with our emotions that makes the heart so important to us.

From its origin, the heart symbol as we know it today had multiple meanings: from spiritual devotion to romantic love and even lesser feelings, the heart symbol was established as an icon, that is globally understood and gives form to the human passion and basic needs.
Rooted in Botany

 

 
The original form of the heart symbol is derived from plants. The ivy leaf was used as mere decoration in the old days of oriental cultures, where it showed up on amphorae and other painted ceramics since 3000 B.C. Adopted by the Greeks and later by the Etruscans and Romans, it entered European culture.

 
On Greek vases it can be found as stylized vine tendrils, often connected with the god of vine, Dionysus, who represented the passionate and sensual aspects of human life. So it carried mixed connotations already in its early stages when it appeared in the fourth century A.D. as a sign for a brothel in Ephesus.

The noble side of its meaning developed when this ivy leaf was used in the decoration of tombs. As the ivy is a very long-living and enduring plant, it served as a perfect representation of love and remembrance that goes beyond the grave. It’s also argued that the ivies growing close on something was seen as loving embracement and fidelity.

 Therefore the ivy leaf appeared on Greek and Roman gravestones and on early Christian graves in catacombs as symbol of eternal love.

The green leaf had already undergone a long journey and absorbed these meanings when the shift to today’s red playing card heart happened.

The Middle Ages’ courtly love and its literature is chiefly responsible for this. Inspired by antique illustration, the monastic illustrators gave the green leaf a new color—red. On pictures of couples a Tree of Life with heart-shaped leaves began to appear in the color of blood and love, giving it a more physical connotation. This paved way to finally take the leaf as symbol for the heart.

What Kind of Music Touches The Strings of Your Heart?

It's hard to say uniquely. So, maybe it's easier to say what kind of music I will never like and even listen. 

First of all it's so called “Russian chanson”. To write and perform the music you need something more than three primitive guitar chords and hoarse voice. I don't like Russian folklore, such as “Zolotoye Koltco” and the same. And finally I don't like "Heavy Metal" or something like that. It's too hard for my ears. It's really difficult to name it music when you can't catch the melody in the song. 

Once, one of my favourite writers, Boris Akunin, answering the same question said: “I like that kind of music which doesn't bore me.” According to his idea I can say that no-boring music can be music of any kind. But I think I know what music will never bore you. It's jazz and it's contemporary version, acid jazz.

I like jazz because it's the most interesting music at all times; it is music with soul. And jazz is the only one true music in the world. Improvisation in jazz is above all, hence to perform it you have to be a true professional virtuoso musician. Personally I prefer instrumental jazz with piano solo.

Listening jazz you can say that this is really live music. Somebody said: “Jazz is not even music; it's a painting which is drawn again every day.”

Don't try to conserve your love and don't count it. Don't be stingy: you can lose everything. And just the opposite: let your love bloom, share it, give it further and let it grow.

The great King had three sons, and he wanted to pick out one of them as a heir. It was quite difficult because all three were very smart and brave. And all were the same age (as they were  twins) so it was just impossible to solve. He consulted with the great sage, who gave him an idea. The king returned home and gave to each son a bag with flower seeds and told them that he should make a pilgrimage. It will take several years. And this is your challenge. These seeds are to be returned to me when I get back. And one, who will retain them the best, will be my heir.

And the King went to a pilgrimage. The first son decided to keep them in an iron safe.  When his father returns, they will be as they were. The second son thought to himself: "If I keep them as my brother does they will die. And the dead seeds are no seeds." He went to the shop, sold them and got the money. "When my father comes back I'll go to the store and buy new seeds. I will give them to the father even in a better condition than they were." The third son went to the garden and sowed the all seeds.

Three years later, when their father returned, the first son opened his box. His seeds were dead.

The father said: "What is it? These are not the seeds I gave to you. They should be able to bloom and give a wonderful aroma, and these seeds stink!" the son replied that they were the same seeds, but the father said: "You are a materialist."

The second son rushed to the store, bought new seeds, came home and gave them to his father. But the father said: "They are not the same. Your idea is closer, but still, you didn't make the right choice. You are a psychologist."

He went to the third son with a great hope and a fear at the same time: "What has he done?" The third son took his father to the garden. There were millions of flowers blooming around. And the son said: "These are the seeds that you gave to me. I will gather them and give them back to you." The father said: "You are my heir."

Those who conserve don't understand life, those who count will also lose. Just those who have the creative mind can understand it. That's the same with the beauty of flowers: it can not be conserved. Flowers symbolize love and love can not be conserved. It is not the coincidence that the flowers are the symbol of love in all times, in all countries and in all societies. Love is like flowers: if it blooms in you, you want to share it. And the more you give, the more it grows in you. If you continue to give soon you'll become an endless source of love.