Hello and Welcome

Hello and welcome to you, my new students in Jakarta. It has taken a long time to get these classes finalized and sorted, and now that we have done that, I have up and flown to Shanghai. I am sorry for that. Please watch the video below to hear my explanation:



Fear not, I have several tasks I would like you to complete before I return, so let's take a group breath and get to work.

1. The first thing I would like you to do is set up a Gmail account. You can get started by clicking here or just goggle Gmail. I hope you can figure it out on your own. If you are having problems you can watch this video.



2. Once you have done that, please email me your new address to Mrraisdana@gmail.com I will create a group for you and send you a quick response.

3. After you have done that, see if you can leave a comment on this blog. Simply click to the bottom of this post and click on comment. Leave a line or two that says hello. Use your first name only and which class you are in! Tell us about what you like to do in your free time.

4. I am sure many of you use Facebook! I would love to be able to send you information about our class, but to do so you have to "like" my page. Don't worry I won't see your profile and you won't see mine. You will just receive class updates and other cool things in your feed. Click here.

5. Please follow this link to take a survey on technology.

That should keep you busy for a few sessions. If you have any problems please, ask the teacher in the room, your classmates or  email me at mrraisdana@gmail.com and I will help you sort things out. There will be new tasks soon, so please stay tuned here at Community of Learners.

Setting Up Your Blogs!

This post and these instructions are only for people who have turned in their permission slips to me and started setting up their blogs in class. If you have not  started in class DO NOT create your blog yet. For everyone else here are step-by-step instructions. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below.

1. Start here and follow the instructions to set up your blog. Remember not to use your last name for a domain name.


2. Once you have created your blog, go in and change your password to something you will remember. Click here for instructions.


3. Change how your blog looks, by choosing a new theme. Click here to see how.


4. If you have gotten this far and feel comfortable go ahead and write your first post. See here for instructions. Simply cut and paste the piece about community that we have been working on in class. Be sure to categories it as: Homework, English, Community.


5. Final step email me your new blog address.

Don't panic if something goes wrong. Simply leave your questions below or ask me tomorrow in school. Good luck.

Understanding Blogs

Hello everyone. Let me say that I am very impressed by how many of you have completed the tasks I have asked to complete up to this point. I hope that we will all be in school next week, so we can make sure everyone is caught up, and so you can begin creating your own blogs! Before we do that, however, let's take a look at what blogs are first.

Welcome to our classroom blog. You guys have done a great job of checking in here this week, and I am sure you will become even more accustomed to spending time here soon. This blog will be one of many tools we will use to create our own online community. I have chosen to call this blog a Community of Learners, because I feel that the concept of community is very important to learning. We have been discussing the idea of community at length so far this year, and I hope that we can use this space to further that conversation. I also hope that we can interact with each other as a class, as well as connect and learn from other classrooms and teachers around the world.

I know this is all very new to some of you, so we will take it slow. Unfortunately our Internet connection at school is unreliable at this time, but I do not want this unreliability to affect our work. The fact that we have not seen each other for a week and still got so much done is a good sign. Even when we are back together, I will expect you to do many technological tasks at home. Each day I will show you how to do something in class and will expect for you to figure out to compete the task at home.

Part of learning is the ability to take risk and make mistakes. I hope that you will soon feel comfortable trying things out, learning how to ask proper questions, and finding the answers on your own.

I want you to watch the video below about blogs, so that you will be ready to create your own blogs next week and use them to share your ideas, reflect on you learning, express yourselves, and connect with students and teachers around the world. Your blogs will serve many purposes and I will explain them to you in time- sometimes you will use them strictly for school, but I would like you to take ownership of your space and share posts that reflect your interests in addition to the school assignments I give to you.

Please watch this video and in the comment section of this post answer the questions below the video:

Please answer all four of these questions using complete sentence:

1. What kinds of topics will you like to share?


2. What is your "news?"


3. Who do you hope will read your blog?


4. What questions do you have about blogs?

Just the Right Speed

It is difficult to know if we are moving too quickly or not quickly enough. Some of you are on board, eager to work, and you have completed the first few tasks.  And we still have several students I haven't even heard from, who may not have seen this blog yet! If you are all caught up and ready to go to the next step, I ask that you remain patient. I do not want to go so fast that people who have not even started fall too far behind to catch up. Here is a quick recap of what you should have done up to this point:

1. Create a Gmail account. Click here if you need instructions.


2. If you are on Facebook become a Fan of our page. If you do not have a Facebook account do not worry about creating one, simply use the tool bar on the right of this page to stay tuned with announcements. This tool bar is also how you can find our page and become a fan.

1. Read the post with the quote and leave a comment. Click here if you need instructions.

One more time for those of you that like simple instructions:

1. Create a Gmail account- Email me the address j.raisdana@cisdoha.org


2. Become a Fan on Facebook


3. Leave a comment on the Quote Post

If you have done these three things then please click here and take this survey.



Final note, you no longer need to comment on the Welcome post letting me know you are here. Simply complete the tasks, and if you have any questions leave them on the appropriate post.

If you have...

1. Created a Gmail account- Emailed me the address j.raisdana@cisdoha.org


2. Become a Fan on Facebook


3. Left a comment on the Quote Post


4. Taken the survey

...then you are done. Sit tight and relax. If not, then get to work!

Welcome

Hey guys!



As I am sure you have heard, due to Swine Flu, we will not be at school for at least a week. Since we know that you are dying to stay connected and continue with your school work, we have set up this blog as a way for all of us to continue our work of building communities, in “real” life, and now online.

This works out perfectly because we had planned to begin creating these online spaces for learning before these recent events, now we will work from necessity.

For the next few days, we will be posting lessons and ideas that we wish to share with you here on this blog Our hope is that you will check in at least once a day and leave comments so we know you have been here. This will be our way of taking the register.

Sometimes we will ask you to watch a video, look at images or read text and comment in the section below. Leaving a comment is simple. Follow the directions below. Find the link that says No Comments or 7 Comments and click it.

• Write your first name only


• Enter your email in the second box


• Leave the website box empty


• Copy the spam checker as you see it. Sometimes you might get it wrong and it will ask you to do it again. Do it till you get it right.


• Click submit comment.

So there you have it! Please leave a comment below so we know you are here. If you have any questions feel free to leave them as well. If you still can't figure it out, please email me: j.raisdana@cisdoha.org c.gould@cisdoha.org