Losing Weight

4 months ago, I've decided it's time to do something about my weight.
                  
I have gained more than 20 kilos over the last 4 years. While being pregnant I've gained 25 kilos but after giving birth, I managed to lose only 10. I was left with 15 extra kilos.
Now, it wasn't the first time I thought I should lose the weight, but I felt I was too weak to do so.
I had so many excuses!!! "I don't mind the weight" I kept telling my friends and myself, but honestly - deep inside I was desperate to returned to what I used to be... 57 kilos!
Something happened and I don't know exactly what it was. But one day I woke up determined to start exercising and dieting.
I looked for a private trainer and I found one thanks to one of my friends (thanks Hila)!!! 
Anyhow... I started taking sports lessons! First time in my life - and it wasn't easy! It still isn't!!
Twice a week I went to the studio where I had to walk/run/jog on the stepper for 30 minutes and do all kinds of exercises (no jumping at all!! which was brilliant!)
Well - that was so hard!!! I can't forget the first time I stepped on it! I wanted to get off after only 5 minutes!
Really it was hard stepping...  The second time was hard and also the third time! 
I remember telling my younger brother about the stepper and he told me I shouldn't give up and that he experienced it and it takes time to get used to it... I didn't believe it but I didn't give up.
My trainer, Galit set up a menu for me (as she says it is not DIET it is  HEALTHY life-style). No more cakes, cookies, ice-cream, pastries, dough, etc... I have started to eat whole wheat bread and a lot of vegetables (which I always liked so it wasn't hard for me to start with). I must say the new menu wasn't so bad! Leaving all the goodies wasn't even hard as I thought!
During the last 4 months I had eaten only ONE piece of chocolate cake at my daughter's End of the Year party.
Today I have my own stepper and I can easily stay on it for an hour or more!!! Yes! No problems at all!!!

That's the one I use. Air Climber Stepper. So cheap also!  

 I call it "My New Boyfriend".

Don't get me wrong, it has been ONLY 4 months! I didn't stop and I am not thinking of it. I go on with the menu, although I let myself eat more than at the beginning. 

I go to aerobic lessons once or twice a week plus I do the stepper 3 times a week for an hour to burn fat.

With Galit, the personal trainer I work on the stomach and hands for waist and arm reduction. 

You probably want to see how I looked and how I look now right??? 

So, here it comes.....

                             

I started the process with 72 kilos! Now I weigh 59.5 kilos!!! 

Look, the all purpose of this post is to let you know:

If I did it - everyone can!!! 

It is only a matter of setting limits, determination and will!

ClassDojo

Many times I deal with behavior problems in class. Kids (not all) are rude, spoiled and that makes teaching hard. It's true that teacher all over the world are not appreciated enough.

And then I found ClassDojo.

http://www.classdojo.com/

ClassDojo is a behavior tracking tool. 

The teacher needs to create folders for each class she (he) teaches and add the students' names (you can add special avatars to each student - which is quite cool, as the student can pick his favorite avatar). At the beginning of each lesson (or at any time) you can check the students list (see who's missing/ not ready/ sitting/ talking/ standing etc...) and share the information with the parents and the students at any time. You can also print out good behavior certificates and use it on you Smartphone/ tablet and more....

It is well known that students especially the young ones LOVE getting certificates, stickers, 'surprises' and there's no doubt they will love ClassDojo. You should try it... Create an "imaginary" class and try how it works. I have decided to use it this year and see how it goes... I will update you guys :) 

Oh....and I totally forgot the most important things about ClassDojo --- It is absolutely FREE!!

O.K, so how does it work?
First as I said create your classes and add the students' names.
At the beginning of each lesson check attendance.

It is so easy!! You should only check the ones who are late or are missed. 
Then you should begin you lesson as usual. Whenever you want to give positive or negative feedbacks to one of the students, click on the student's name and choose positive or negative and the feedback you want (You set up the feedback's title when you set up you classes)....

   

At the end of each lesson or period you can look at the overall report.  When you see the green number, that means the students has a positive feedback or more depends on the number shown. If you see a red number that means he has a negative feedback/s.

And you can also see a progress report like this one:

Let me know what you think about ClassDojo... :)

I just LOVE it! 

Fakebook

Fakebook is a great tool for teaching second language.


Let's say we want the kids to explore, learn more information about a specific topic, read about a special person etc' - we can use Fakebook for that.
The kids create a Fakebook page (just like in Facebook) for the person, animal, thing, tense (it can be a page for the present tense, grammar rules....) place, book and more...
In their Fakebook should enter certain data (each teacher can decide what she wants the kids to explore) such as: birth-date, place of living, characters (if it's a book) and more...
Then they can add YouTube videos and Status/comments. If they save their Fakebook page and give their friends the password, the teacher can ask the kids to go and comment on their friends' Fakebook.


Here's an example for a Fakebook page.
You can see we learned about Van Gogh. Pay attention to the posts published by other kids in class. One had to create  a page for Elvis Presely and so you can see he added a post on Van Gogh's page.
This is a great interaction, enjoyable task to give children!
What do you think?

A Shy Girl

During the last few weeks we have experienced strange things with He-Lee.

She seems to afraid of crowded places (well, even 5 people is crowded for her) or places she doesn't know. This leads to crying and a request to go back home. For example 2 weeks ago, we went to a birthday party. We know the family and He-Lee knows the 2 children. They are her friends. She ran all the way to the house, as she knows the way but once we opened the door and she saw more people, babies and children she went back outside asking to go home. When that didn't help she went into to restrooms and sat on the toilet (saying she has to pee) for 20 minutes!!! When I finally got her out, she started crying and we had to take her back home. 

Yesterday at her day-care End of the Year Party, she didn't want to enter the room (even thought she knew everyone!!!) because it wasn't her usual classroom. She stayed outside in the hall (dancing, singing and doing everything the other kids did inside). It took her 30 minutes to enter the class and participate... Only when the kids went out to play, she ran to play... 

Now I realize it is perfectly natural, but it is really annoying. How long will it take for this phase to over? We can't take her anywhere... 

She won't stay in shows (we spent too much money trying!!), she won't go to parties, and she won't talk to 'new' people...... 

Voki :)

Let's discuss Voki!!!

I think that this application is awesome. A great tool for teaching second language.

There are so many ideas and so many things to do using Voki – It is unbelievable.

One of the ideas I had is using Voki to teach body-parts or at least review the new vocabulary.

Another idea I had is using Voki for oral practice. Recording yourself and listening to it makes it a good practice.

You can see the exercise by clicking on the Voki icon. 

I also use Voki in my assignment for students who are facing difficulties in reading. That way they can listen to me instead of struggling with the reading. See an example in my DrawSomething activity.

I haven't started mentioning the students' enthusiasm when it comes to Voki.

They just LOVE it! They love creating all the different characters, making some imaginary UFOs, animals and more…

I believe that by recording your voice the students can improve many things. For example:

They listen to what they say and can easily correct a pronunciation mistake.

They can also practice a dialogue for class or practice telling a story.

Of course there are many other ways for recording, such as the Sound Recorder on your PC (start menu – all programs – accessories – sound recorder) but what can I say… I love Voki. I think it is more enjoyable and interesting to watch and listen. Moreover, the Voki character can be embedded to any forum, blog, site etc… which makes it easy to use and easy to watch.

Don't Panic Mom!! I have got LICE!!

Yesterday when I went to pick up my daughter from day-care, I was told my beautiful, most amazing child has lice!!! OH MY GOD!!!

I was shocked at first, only wanted to scream H-E-L-P!!! 
The worst has happened!

We got home; I grabbed my purse, put He-Lee in her bike and ran to the nearest drug-store… I asked the pharmacist for the strongest stuff he has. We got home 5 minutes later (God Bless! I live right in the shopping center!!) and He-Lee along with myself were drowning with Hedrin Once (on the package it says the lice are gone in 15 minutes)….

It took a long time to use the Nit Free terminator comb (HARD WORK) and I only saw one big black louse, but many small ones or maybe there were nits … I have no clue.

Now, combing my own hair was a tragedy! Lucky He-Lee she has thin hair not like her mom, who deals with a thick, black, curly hair!!! That really was a mess!

I have no idea if I got them all out! This morning I saw He-Lee itching, but only once – so I am not sure. When she comes home later on I will comb her hair once more to be sure we got rid of the infestation!

        

Technology in the ESL classroom

Well, during the last year I've been giving a course on "Technology in the English Classroom" for esl teachers and I must say I enjoyed it so very much, that I've decided it's time to get my M.A degree in technology in Education. I've enrolled and been accepted already and it will start after the holidays sometime in October, 2012

I really think that it is necessary for today's students to have the opportunity to use computers, tablets, smartphones, smartboards, magiClass (www.magiclass.com) etc as it is part of their daily lives. They are using these devices every single hour and it is our job as teachers to cope and go ahead and learn, make new lesson plans and implement them in our classes.

True! It's a hard work but it is rewarding seeing the kids enjoy a lesson, it's rewarding seeing the kids enthusiasm about the English lesson and it is rewarding seeing the kids' progress. But most of all it's rewarding looking at the progress we, as teacher have done up to now.
This is a very nice video I've found in YouTube that show the changes in education during centuries.

So, what kind of teachers do we want to be?  What do we want to teach our kids? What do we prepare them for?

Once you have an overhead projector and a computer in the classroom  you are ready to go!! 

The sky is the limit!!!

As I see it there are many levels for the implementation of techonolgy in the classroom.

The first and most basic is using Word/PowerPoint.

You can make a nice explanation sheet, game, activity and show it on the overhead projector. You can make it fun for kids to learn.
when the kids are activated - they find it more interesting. For example, they can go to the board and circle/match/color (using a marker - no need to use the computer)

See example here:  (you can click on the image to go to file)

The kids just love it! They really love coming to the board, using the teacher's marker and everyone waits nicely for their turn. (I usually begin with a boy coming to the board and then a girl, a boy and a girl... so they don't aruge as for who goes first).

PowerPoint games are wonderful and the kids enjoy learning by playing. (sometimes they don't even think they learn)... There are many ways to prepare a PowerPoint game and you can learn how to make a basic game using the tutorial I've made.

These kinds of games can be played with the entire class, where each student has a chance to come to the board  (computer) and play once, it can be played in a small group or individually.

It will be delightful if every English teacher had an English room with computers, but unfortunately this is not the case in Israel. But looking at the bright side of things I think every school has a computer lab where an English lesson can be done once in a while.

The computer can be used to help the students explore. One activity I like to do is to give some information about a specific topic and ask the students to explore.
They like it as they write on colored cardboards, add images, paintings, drawings and then they present it to the class.

So that kind of activity where the students use the computer, but only for exploring, finding data, translation and reading is also a great way of using the computer in the classroom, which is one of the curriculum domain (access  to information). Our goal is for students to objain and use information from all kind of sources by applying their knowledge of vocabulary, syntax, morphology  etc. 

Here is an example for such an activity: