Fascinating stats

On Jim Belshaw’s Personal Reflections the following appeared this morning, though dated yesterday.

Australia’s Global Ethnic Rankings

We all know that Australia is a country of migrants. A short search of Wikipedia shows that, measured by ancestry, Australia is in global terms:

• The second largest Irish, Maori and Maltese country.
• The third largest English country.
• The fourth largest Scottish country.
• The fifth largest Greek, Vietnamese and Dutch country.
• The seventh largest German country.
• The ninth largest Italian country.
• The eleventh largest Serbian country.
• The fifteenth largest Han Chinese country.
• The sixteenth Turkish country.
• The seventeenth largest Indian country.

What do we make of all this? Well, it’s just a measure of diversity.

 

More good educational/English Studies blogs

Just had this email:

I am a regular reader of your English/ESL–and more! blog and I have found your site to be an inspiration. I am a teacher of high school English at Katikati College in New Zealand and I have been blogging for about nine months…

So I checked them out. I suggest you do the same.

This one is for Year 13 students (New Zealand):

This one is for other years, the majority of students at Katikati College.

Students here will find many relevant articles and links.

 

Tutoring site

Emma’s English Tutoring is a Sydney site that is partly commercial, in that it offers services. However, her background is certainly interesting. I am quite flattered that she has chosen to reproduce, with acknowledgement, How can I improve my essay grades, especially in exams, without learning “model essays” off by heart? from my pages here. There are some good pointers appearing on other posts on Emma’s site.

As you will know from my About page, I also do some tutoring, but not through these pages directly. If you want more information on that, use the contact page.

 

New edition of Wordweb

I have mentioned this excellent program before. Everyone should have one, and it is free. Now, however, you have to state that you been on no more than two commercial flights in the past year! That could make life harder for some ESL students I know…

NOTE: Click on that screen shot to access Wordweb downloads.

 

Update to one of the most popular posts

Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems has been checked and updated today. There are some new resources there, but sadly one that seems to have gone, and one that may have.

There are also some new HSC videos in the VodPod.

 

New closed page

You will note a new page in the page list in the side bar, just above the VodPod. Since it concerns a very limited readership that page is password protected; the password is known to those who need it. What marginally affects everyone is that I have removed the “top clicks” widget from the sidebar as that may have granted access to certain files linked on that closed page. No great loss really as I still see the top clicks on my admin page.

 

English/ESL honoured

I am really pleased about this. Go to Creating a Community of Writers Using Technology and you will find details of a March 7, 2008 Conference in Grand Rapids, MI.

Activity 3 (30 min.): Show examples of blogs and evaluate how well they would add to the community of writers in the classroom; teachers can follow links while facilitators show the link on the screen.

• http://bobsprankle.com/blog/ (4th grade in Maine, US)
• http://www.pageflakes.com/room116/12266518 (5th/6th grade in Gaines, MI, US)
• http://mr-fisher.edublogs.org/ (7th/8th in Manitoba, Canada)
• http://neilwhitfield.wordpress.com/ (high school in Australia)

Thanks, people. Have a good conference!

 

Yes, I have been quiet lately

I have begun the mind-bending task of checking links, but that will take a while. Where links have been checked you will find a not of the date last checked. Do help by telling me if you find dead links.

Meanwhile, the site has been busy. February showed a distinct climb back up from the school holiday season, and even now just five days into March there have been more views than there were in December 2006 when this blog started.

WordPress graph of page views from December 2006 to March 2008

Here is what people have gone to since December 2006:

Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems 7,486 reads
Studying the Gothic, or Emily Bronte? 5,812
Workshop 02 — NSW HSC: Area Study: Imaginative Journeys 4,509
How should I write up a Science experiment? 2,930
ESL+ 1,595
Workshop 01 — a theme unit in four different text types 1,525
Literacy 1,303
Scaffolding 1,238
How can I improve my essay grades… without learning model essays off by heart? 1,136
Links 1,119
The mysteries and injustices (?) of the UAI  996
How can I write better short stories? 989
Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems updated 867
In the Wild: Brave New World and Blade Runner  802
Workshop 03 — Creative Writing (Year 12) 800
Workshop 010: HSC Advanced English — “Brave New World” etc 782
Six suggestions for Imaginative Journeys 748
Why do I keep having trouble with subject-verb agreement? 744
About 726
01b: The Essays 707