Meet Phil

http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/english/

Phil's news from November 2002

I have been getting involved in too many projects, hooking my wagon to too many stars, and when that happens it becomes difficult to manage it all.

Just to give you an idea about what I am talking about, here are some of my projects:

mentoring two groups of teachers in middle school working with a laptop class (cartable électronique) and working with a regional coordinating group;
doing 6-7 teacher training seminars this year on ICT integration for the language classroom;
creating online lessons for the LOG (lycee ouvert de Grenoble) that should expand to include ESL in the classes it offers to its students in January;
managing an ESL resource site for the CDDP de Privas;
hosting the bi-weekly Euro Language Teachers Forum on Tapped In;
teaching several classes in the Lycee Astier (face-to-face even!);
and finally, managing the Viva virtual village project.

Regarding the Viva project, perhaps I should share a few URLs with you.

First, the text of the article I presented at several conferences this fall: http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/english/viva/viva.htm
Part of the article was also published in Thot, a French e-journal: http://thot.cursus.edu/rubrique.asp?no=17624
And at the "Rencontres de l'Orme" conference in Marseille, we managed to get an online video interview in, visible (in French again) at: http://www.ftpress.com/orme/06-nucci-benz.html

I'm subscribed to your list, but it seems like I'm never free on Sundays these days. Sunday is a family day for me, and I'm usually busy making dinner, eating it & cleaning it up -- for my wife & 3 kids. By the time I manage to get onto the web, it's usually at least 3-4 hours after y'all have left.

I've been busy as hell since the end of October, but got away with my family & in-laws for a week in the Alps over Christmas. It was fun, even though I'm really not much of a skier, and once back I was so happy to just have a few days to laze around. So far January has been rush-rush as well, with more 60 hour weeks of teaching and training. I've even been neglecting my own Tapped In sessions. <sigh>

But it's good to see y'all chatting here on Vance's mailing list, and one of these Sundays I'm sure I'll pop in when you least expect me.

Cheers,

--- Phil

Lycee Astier, Aubenas, France

01 Oct 2002 Susanne explains Phil's work in response to an inquiry by Juani ...

Hi Juani - and other teachers with students who need some new and playful inspiration,

I would like to point your attention to the virtual village, Viv@ where your classes can meet with others in many different topic related discussion groups, disguised as houses and places in a virtual village. Phil Benz from France (who is also a Webhead) created this very active and fun meeting place with some of his colleagues, and you can also join his sessions in Tapped In two Sundays a month. That is where I have learnt a lot about how teachers and their classes develop this. Barbara Dieu from Brazil has been very engaged with her classes building the Copacabana Club, and a French class vising Denmark this spring made a fine exchange in the Travel Agency. The gossip takes place at the bakers' shop, and decisions are made at the town hall. The drawings of houses, streets and environments are inspiring, cartoon like, colorful and fun - and you can use many languages.

Go to the English Multiverse (where you will also find lots of inspiration about Webquests and more), and click at Viv@ http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/english/

Hugs, Sus

From Tapped In's ...ON THE TAPIS November 2002 Issue 60 http://www.tappedin.org/info/newsletter/nov02.html - If you have RealPlayer, and feel up to braving ten minutes of French, there is an online interview with Phil Benz and Christine Nucci about the Viva project (http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/viva/index.htm), from a conference in Marseille a few weeks ago. http://www.ftpress.com/orme/06-nucci-benz.html

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Meet Phil

Last updated: Nobember 14, 2002 in Hot Metal Pro 6.0