Back in USSR... Well Ukraine.

After a very enjoyable summer in oxford and near London I have finally returned back to the Ukraine, thought not yet to Dnipropetrovsk. I am currently attending a weeks teacher training before I return to day to day teaching at the school.

The first thing that struck me when I arrived back in Dnipro from my flight was about the stray dogs that are all around the Ukraine. Next was the bumpy nature of the roads!

luckily at the airport I had my tablet with me and so could send some emails and messages to family and friends. It was very easy and didn't feel as obvious or intrusive as using my mini laptop.

During my journey I read most of Scott Thornbury's book on teaching speaking and it's given me some thoughts for a new blog post on teaching. However I've been thinking about writing a separate teaching blog as it would be read more, corrected more and help me to develop... More. So now I just need a snappy title and to set it up.

I will try to upload some photo's soon and share them with you soon but in the mean time please share something you've read recently (for work or pleasure).

A couple of new Blogging and teaching gadgets...I mean tools

I don't often write blogs like this but in an attempt to get back in to the habit of blogging I'm going to tell you about two new additions I have to help with blogging this coming year in the Ukraine. [not just blogging mind]

Before showing you them I should probably also confess...I love gadgets. It's something I've noticed across my family and I usually try to pass off one or other member as being worse than me but really I do love them. Often it is the most useless ones that seam the most appealing for some reason (possible due to the fact that all gadgets do a job that another object can do better/with added internet updates). I think I have improved in recent years over the desire to own such objects though my latest purchase and present would like to suggest otherwise.

The first is a new Camera! Ever since my last one was stolen I had wanted a new one so I could take photos to sow people what the Ukraine is like. From a blogging point of view it would also mean that I can put a lot more self made photos on for post rather than prowl sources for them. This was actually a present for my birthday and is a Canon Ixus 117hs. It is a 12 megapixel camera which can take videos as well as pictures. It has a very impressive auto mode as well as an functions option that includes such things as colour accent [where all the colours except one are blanked out] toy camera and super vivid [my favourites so far]. Here are some samples

The second is an HP Touchpad! If you haven't heard the story of the HP touchpad hewlit packard [HP] made a tablet computer based on it' WebOS operating system. No other company ran Web OS on it's products and as such there was a limited number of App's and app producers. On top of that it has several less impressive technical features than the Ipad2 or several android based tablets yet cost the same price. As such it flopped. So HP did a firesale slashing the pice of the models to a low of £89.99 [from £400]. I had been considering a Tablet for use as an E-reader and several other classroom functions and so when I saw this price drop I pounced!

So far I've been very impressed with the keyboard and several apps within it [including the skype/google messenger program] and I'm looking forward to using it for writing on the go, reading books, looking up recipes...etc

So these are two of my new gadget's to use for blogging/teaching and various other purposes.

Jesus was a white man?

If you're from the western world then I'm sure you're familiar with his image of Jesus. Also known as "Jesus the white man". 

For a long time it actually filled me with some feelings of rang at the complete lack of authentic representation for Jesus appearance that we see within stain glass and classical paintings. These images have in some cases been used to reinforce racial prejudice and in some cases anti-Semitism. After all Jesus was just like us and certainly not like them. 

Of course this flies completely in the face of the gospel message and people can only come to this conclusion with selectively reading the bible to reinforce a pre-exisiting world view and not asking God to challenge them as to what HE is revealing from the Bible. However, this made me feel uneasy... Why was Jesus not a Jewish and from the middle east?

However recently I wondered if this was a deliberate mistake. You see everyone wants a Jesus they can relate to and often the elements of God we most relate to get overemphasised (and sometimes we diminish the parts we don't like). Maybe these painters wanted to show that God was their God, not just the God of this tribe or that but he was their God. If you go to Africa you can find pictures of Jesus who is black, if you go to India then there are pictures of Jesus as an Indian man. 

Jesus was the God for all and people.

Twitter Cull

A few days ago I conducted a "Twitter cull" that being a mass unfollowing of the people who my twitter account receives updates from. I went from over 600 to just over 200...and I may not have finished!

There are a few reasons why I did this and it certainly wasn't a spur of the moment decision.




1. Meaningless tweets
 I have become increasingly bored of twitter where it seams to be a mass of updates about things I really don't care about and or Partisan politics and catchphrases. This does indeed reflect the people I choose to follow and as such removing some of the main offenders will undoubtedly change the feel of the updates I receive.

2. Followers Vs "Followers"
I have posted many questions on twitter and they are usually answered by only a couple of followers [partially due to a factor I shall mention later] there are many people I followed and ignored and followed me and ignored my updates. I see this as pretty pointless and basically all about "follower numbers" ("I'll follow you if you follow me") If we're both ignoring each other then I'd rather not have the extra followers and focus on those who I do interact with.

3. Too much noise! 
When you follow 600 people you get too many tweet from too many sources and there is a lot of noise! This noise can lead to missing the actually interesting and good posts that people put up. As such my hope is that by removing a lot of noise I can respond to more meaningful tweets.

I have tried to keep many of the people I had interactions with but probably have included some extras I shouldn't and culled some who I shouldn't have and as such would willingly change your status if you feel so inclined as to suggest it.

I also understand that I will no doubt lose a lot of followers from this but to be honest they never really followed me anyway. I'll let you know if this seams to improve twitter for me at all or not.

Any Questions?

I've been a bit on an off of blogging this month [see off] so I thought I'd start by inviting you to ask me some questions again and get the ball rolling from there. If you haven't checked it out then look at my Vyou bellow!

All you need to do is type in a message and then I'll reply with a little video. 

Why not give it a go!

google plus invite

I've had google plus for a little while now but not really used it too much. The main reason I suspect is because I don't really know anyone else who is on it. As such here is a code so you can sign up if you feel so inclined too.

https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3Dq59kwUynEAE%3AG_3Md8pTWvg

Of course as soon as I find another social media product I start to review my use of social media as a whole and ponder the amount of time I spend on the Internet and for what purpose.

I have noticed that I have almost completely stopped using twitter. This is partially because of the lack of time I had at the summer school but I think also because I realised that there is a lot of pointless information and updates on there. Despite this I have ended up reading several interesting articles about the riots from different people. However I do feel like my twitter account suffers from being overload by people spouting off about one group or another and as such will definitely remove many of the people I'm following and I am even considering starting again for a more professional account focusing on teaching English.

Facebook has generally become something that I use less and less but does seam to still have some uses. Arranging to meet up with people and sharing photos are really great over facebook. You don't ever have to worry about losing someone's email address or phone number. Having said this privacy concerns and the risk of spending too much time do cause me concern regarding facebook.

Google plus is a new kid on the block however it has a couple of features I really want to try out. The first is the Hangout feature. In this you can have a video conference with several friends...for free. Considering the fact that I live 2000 km away from most of my friends for a large part of the year it's not too hard to see the appeal of this feature. The second is the circles feature where you can categorise people into how much information you want to share with them.

So if you fancy experimenting with Google plus with me then why not check out the link.

IF you too think that maybe you spend to much time on the internet/with modern technology, why not consider an internet fast.

July 2011 Aims

Finally! After a delay I've finished my July Aims update. Over half way through the year now and it's starting to get hard, plus not being in the country where I designed these routines for hasn't exactly helped. Still here is the update. To see the original page click here.

1.I will give at least a 10% tithe in addition to any other giving I will do.

Having left the Ukraine for the moment I found myself in the odd position of being without a regular church to go to again. On top of this moving to Oxford and frequently working on Sunday due to commitments has meant I haven't really given my current tithe yet. I have been pondering where would be best to give the moment I'm earning here in the UK [seeing as it is a larger sum than in the Ukraine] and I was reminded of something that someone said to me at university. Your money is where your heart is and your hear is where your money is. As such giving to a cause or group makes you think/care about them more and likewise if you look at what you spend your money on you can see what you care about the most. As such I've decided to give some of money to The Well in addition to Nadezda in the Ukraine. 

2. Making Prayer a stronger habit. 

Prayer has been a struggle this month. It's so worrying how having slightly less time can lead to me reducing the amount of prayer that has gone on. I think it is partially due to a change in routine but it probably is more than just that

3.Use skype more to chat to people back home/Britain

being back in the UK has reduced the need for Skype however I have certainly had more phone, skype and face to face chats.

4.  I will improve as an EFL teacher.

Coming to Oxford has certainly been an interesting experience for a few reasons. Firstly Multi-lingual class rooms have provided a few interesting challenges with having to cope with different student difficulties. In addition I had observations from the staff here which helped identify a couple of other areas that I need to work on as a teacher [including teacher talking time]. However one of the greatest moments was receiving the feedback that I was grading my language correctly for the level and yet still maintaining natural language. I think this is a great sign of how I have improved.

5. I will improve my Russian.

I haven't had much time to practice as I have avoided using Russian around students. However I have been working my way through this course book. 

6. I will write more songs. [see previous months comments regarding this aim]

7. Host a weekly meal at my flat.

I haven't had a flat this month but I have been trying to meet up with people when I can. So not really possible but still trying to do something.

8. Regular and higher quality blogging.

Blogging this month has been very limited. I haven't really had time and I haven't wanted to just publish rubbish.

9. I will get involved with some form of charitable work in the Ukraine.

Again not in the Ukraine so it's not really been possible to do this.

10. I will make a Public video each month.

I'm still waiting for my last challenge to be complete before I post another one...

Self-portrait entrants

Well! it's been a while since I set the challenge and having just received a second entrant I thought now was the time to upload some pics for you. I hope you enjoy them and feel inspired to make one.

I set the challenge to push creative and uncreative people alike to explore a form of expressing themselves that perhaps they rarely/have never done. I hope you will consider doing one yourself.
Nat Gillet

 Charlotte Wallace

Oxford, Blogging, rants and thoughts

I know I haven't written in a long time and in fact I've even missed my monthly aims update! This has largely been due to what a strange time working here in the summer school has been. Teaching wise there has been a lot less pressure and time for teaching but on the other side there has been all the other warden and summer school duties that have occupied my time. Finding a few precious moments to write has been hard and when you add into the formula that my life has almost completely been summer school related, there has been a lack of anything worthwhile to say.

However I don't think this is the whole story. Having been around many more people who speak English recently I think I have just been able to speak through my thoughts a lot more, in some cases this means I've realised the problems, in others I don't feel the need to say them as much. Maybe it's because I know that much of my target audience are the people I have been speaking to.

I have really enjoyed writing the blog and although it has changed from the original purpose [practice writing and seeing if it was a route I wanted to go down] to a new more free role [writing for the sheer joy I get out of writing rather than any career goal and the hope that someone will agree/disagree/think about what I've written] I can't help but feel that it is just me speaking and no one listening.

That's not to say that is necessarily a bad thing, after all practising writing is definitely a worthwhile activity and even leaving the option for peer correction [whilst not receiving any] I do believe has helped me immensely to correct common mistakes I make/made and develop a writing style that I can truly own.

I guess I feel a bit deflated after the lack of responses to my second challenge of drawing a self portrait.

I knew it would be harder to get people to do it but I had hoped that there would at least be some people who would take part. Some people had agreed to do it and I am still waiting for their entry.

I don't blame them, I understand how hectic life can be and how drawing a picture of yourself can easily come last on a long list of duties and responsibilities. I guess I just feel if this one failed...why bother doing any others?

Yet despite all this I still find myself enjoying writing. Having actually managed to sit down and find the time to write this meandering rant I've remembered why I like blogging. I guess I need to push on a do my blog update for July and hopefully I'll find some time to do that soon. If not then I only have a week left here in oxford and so I'm sure I'll have time then.

Till then I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog, I hope you don't mind the rant, I hope you don't feel like I was attacking you (I wasn't) and I really hope you'll comment or suggest something bellow.

All the best