Shellee is an American ESL teacher who teaches overseas. She
recently began this FB page, so she doesn’t have many “likes” yet, but one can
tell that just by scrolling through her page she is a very thoughtful educator
and is dedicated to helping ESL in a variety of ways.
Shellee’s lessons consist of “idioms of the day “slang
lessons of the day” and words with definitions that are paired with illustrations
to reinforce the concept. Shellee also has a music video posted with
accompanying lyrics and two tasks related to the song for the English Language
Learners to complete. She also takes the time to offer comments/suggestions and accepts request for lesson ideas.
So my questions are:
How might the approach that Shellee has taken to reach and
teach ESL’s work?
From what we have learned about technology in the classroom,
do you think a Facebook page is good place to learn English?
If you had a Facebook page, what type of activities might you
post?
*If you’re interested Shellee also has a YouTube channel and a Twitter account for
English Language Learners and she accepts lesson topic requests on both sites as well.*
And a Twitter account:
I think facebook could be a practical way to reach an audience. It seems a very personalized approach in which a teacher can interact with learners. Her slang posts seem to fun and learners can easily comment on them and ask questions. Also I think it’s possible that Shellee will feel overwhelm if she has many of her friends asking questions. If I had a facebook to teach English my activities would include videos with illustrations and encourage learners to post their own videos. Maybe if learners like a particular teaching approach, they will be interested in private lessons.
ReplyDeleteI messaged Shellee and asked her about her FB page, where she got the idea and the positive/negative aspects of keeping up with her page. Here's what she had to say:
ReplyDelete10 hours ago
Study English With Shellee
Hi Roxy, Thank for your message. I would be happy to give you as much information as you would like. First of all, there are many benefits to having a FB page. As well as to many reasons why to have one. One reason people create FB pages is to generate a fan base. FB pages are a growing way for people/companies to market their brand/business. The possibility to reach high audience volume is quite lucrative. The more effort you put into a FB page the higher number of fans you can accumulate. As for me, I work full time so my participation/ contribution is more limited than I would like it to be. However, personally, I am generating a fan base with the intention of linking it to my YouTube Channel.... laying the ground work for a future project so to speak.... where I provide free English language lessons - counting on Google Ad-sense to eventually generate a small income. Once a fan base is accumulated you have an ongoing audience for advertising purposes ~ don't you? I have also linked it to my online teaching profile and when I desire more students I will be able to advertise via FB on my own fan-page. The only downside that I can think of is that it is a bit time consuming - but for a net junkie like myself I find it rather therapeutic. I work teaching ESL in the field now .... However, I have taught ESL online for many years and I am a firm believer in using technology and the internet to bridge the gap and help spread English to the world. Our resources are unlimited.
Hope this helps
Take Care , Michelle
I like the idea of using facebook in education for many reasons. first of all, by using Facebook, instructors can take advantage of and use the student space. students will be engaged in the discussion before or after the face to face class. It is so much fon for the students to post and view pictures and videos. They can also participate in academic activities in a social fram.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like this teacher may be onto something. Facebook can be such a useful teaching tool given the amount of interest so many people have in it. However, as we discussed in class last week not all cultures are as excited about facebook so it may be a challenge for some people.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have learned in class, I do agree that Facebook can be used as a tool for education, but one also has to think of how it will be accepted as a tool of education by both the educators and the students. Some of the school districts in San Antonio if not all block facebook which I think it’s a big mistake. Facebook allows students to communicate with other students and learn about their culture. Facebook requires students to express themselves and communicate in a written format. While it might not be proper writing, it’s at least writing something. I would use facebook to teach my students English.
ReplyDeleteas with any technology tool, with direction/guidance, fb too can be an excellent tool within ESL. FB can be used for questions/answers, reading/writing, explore/discovery. From day one, this class explored etiquette using technology ~ that would apply to fb as well. Excellent topic. Thanks. Cat
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about the issue of pay, so I was happy to see that she has a plan to earn money from this eventually. With so many resources available online, it can sometimes be difficult to get people to pay for the services!
ReplyDeletetesting
ReplyDeleteThis teacher is way ahead of myself in looking at the future of teaching. I can't comprehend where she finds the time to keep up this page, but if it will net her students and income in the future then more power to her. It all seems like a good idea, especially considering how popular facebook is around the world. I will be sure to mention her site to my students. They are always interested in idioms and slang, especially when given context. I personally do not have or will ever have the time to do what she is doing, but I hope it works out well for her.
ReplyDeleteAfter my experience with Facebook in class, I think Facebook can be an useful teaching tool because so many people are interest about it, and it is so popular around the world. Facebook as an Instructional Technology Tool, and the second most popular site on the Internet, it has a great potential as a collaborative tool for teachers and students. In my opinion, Shellee's ESL Facebook page is a rely excellent to learn English, and should be an exemplary for so many ESL teachers how to spread English to the world. She is so dedicated instructor, and I think she spends an inordinate amount of time on Facebook and Twistter in order to help people learn English.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link Roxy. I like the facebook page. I think a lot of people (students) have time to kill online and are constantly looking for something entertaining. This is a good example of education as entertainment. Jokes, slang, interesting topics all in the vein of learning a foreign language. I think one of the most difficult duties of a teacher is to motivate students to engage with the material outside of class. This is a good example of how to do just that using facebook.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think Facebook is definitely an effective resource for English language learners to acquire essential English knowledge. It has great platform to telecollaborate students coming from around the world. Some students might not like reading books but they definitely like to see Facebook to some extent to kill time. Also, Shellee's pages can make student engaged and motivated. Especially after getting through her idioms parts, I was involved so much. What I concerned is that if she has other medium platforms. Because for me, I am not able to log in Facebook in china. If I have a Facebook page, I will definitely post podcasting associated with slangs and my personal teaching experience video clips.
ReplyDeleteI think Dan makes a great point that many students spend free time on the internet looking for ways the occupy their time. If an ESL students stumbles across a page like Shellee's, they might be more productive than they would have been otherwise. One issue is that there are many ESL/EFL students who have not been exposed to facebook, or use their own country's version of this application. Because Shellee has the Youtube and Twitter accounts, she might be able to reach this population despite their non-presence on facebook.
ReplyDeleteI think that maybe it isn't the best place to really learn a language but it can be used to supplement what someone already knows. I still think that because facebook is a social network it can provide learners with the interaction that a software program or online course might not. Also because it isn't a classroom learners might feel less pressure and can maybe take more because it has a casual presentation. If I were to make a facebook page, I think that I would just set it up as a place for language learners to meet up and then let them interact with one another. Pretty much how the article we read had set up their facebook page, minus the characters they played.
ReplyDeleteI think she has used one of the best online ways to communicate with her students since facebook has more than 400 million active users and more than 200 million log on everyday. Fan pages and groups are usefull features for educators as they can reach students without friending them. It is also worth mentioning that facebook has a Page for information about how educators can best use Facebook. However, one can argue that facebook is an ideal target for hackers or facebook encourages students to be multitasking where they can use facebook chat and read their teacher's posts at the same time
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that Shellee understands the most difficult part for ESL students is the idiom, especially for students outside of America. She is great that she designed different mini program to teach English and even spare time to listen to learners' ideas for class. What I worried is still the digital divide thing. Although she has post her videos on YouTube and Twitter, a lot of ESL students may have no such access to internet. Another thing is that Facebook is a typical social network that supports arrays of recreational activities around the personal page; ESL students may be distracted by other funny things. Sometimes, it is a chain effect and students may lose a lot of time and don't like to insist on learning online.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have Facebook,So I'm not sure what kins of tool in Facebook. but I think using the Facebook Page to learn English is good for ELL students. I still think that because facebook is a social network it can provide learners with the interaction that a software program or online course might not.
ReplyDelete