A WEBHEADS THEME SONG

A great song to start the new year with, by Michael Coghlan in Australia. Clicking on the link to the webheads community was the best thing I have ever done in my career life!!

A WEBHEADS THEME SONG

Quotes for Today

I came back form the German Club very angry of my self, blaming myself for being the queen of procrastination because of my constant delay in writing my PhD. I actually can't provide a reasonable excuse for myself if being asked of why I am NOT writing/researching! I believe that I CAN defeat any challenges, jump over stones, smash obstacles ( and what a lot we have these days!) My supervisor thinks I am almost done. I can't tell him that I can't finish chapter one.Why? I don't know. It's because I am the greatest procrastinator. Few minutes ago, I stumbled upon these quotes.They just came in the right time to touch my nerves.I wish I will not be a PhD withdrawal. Any moral back up out there??

"Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don't count."

"You were placed on this earth to create, not to compete."

"Act as if you have already achieved your goal and it is yours."

"If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?"

"When you blame others, you give up your power to change."

"Overcoming fear and worry can be accomplished by living a day at a time or even a moment at a time. Your worries will be cut down to nothing."
Dr.Robert Anthony

Happy New BaW 2009!

On Sunday, October 26, I received an invitation from Dafne and Tersa to join the beautiful baw09 team. It was a very difficult decision to take. My life is not organized, my daughter Haneen needs my help and support as she will be sitting for the High School exams in March 2009, my little kido needs to be sit with doing her homework ( KG2), my PhD work is paused due to procrastination, my teaching schedule is not included, as I got a very reasonable teaching load this semester. So, after praying Istikhara, I sent the below reply to baw 2009 team:
"Well, as it's a belated introduction and all are full of reading intros, I would better make it a short one.
For those who don¡¦t know me, I am Hala Fawzi, a short and elegant:-)
teacher from Khartoum, Sudan, since 1994, a mother since 1992 and a
proud a webhead since 2005. I was a co-moderator in baw06, a
moderator in baw07 and now I am with baw2009 beautiful team.
I work in a private university, teaching ESP. Also, I am an English
Instructor at Faculty of Education, the Open University of Sudan,
teaching Literature and Linguistics to in-service teachers. I am a
PhD student researching about the use of blended learning in EFL
classroom, especially in a developed country like mine. My interests
are; CALL, blended learning, Web 2.0 in ELT, and teacher
professional development, online or on site.
Glad to be on board with great teachers and educators!
Happy new EVO!!"

Hala

Webheads are ten years old!

Webheads 10th birthday!!!I can add nothing to Tom's post about webheads! I found myself nodding on completing each sentence. I remember I wrote before about /with them on the impact of joining WiA. Today, after attending the session on WiZiq and reading Dennis verse at Tapped In, I can't but post my response to Nina Liakos, who is supposed to present in October about the webheads:
In a response to Nina Liakos, who is presenting at TESOl at her country, I send her the below text:
Describe below how you helped, or were helped by, a fellow webhead:
It was my first webcasted presentation, when teachers from around the globe were supposed to join colleagues at the British Council, Khartoum back in June 2006. http://tinyurl.com/5k7a9b Teresa (Portugal) and Cristina Costa ( Portuguese in UK) offered their help. They spent long hours online , going over my slides, listening to my worries, sharing their knowledge, giving me backup moral support. They were with me until midnight before the day of the presentation. I was like a baby holding tight to his mum’s hand on his first day in school. Eventually, Cristina emailed me asking about my address to send “something”, which, unfortunately, didn’t arrive in the time of the presentation. She sent me a new headset, because we encountered problems in hearing during my rehearsal. “Break a leg.I will be there to applaud to you” were the words written on the back of the card: http://tinyurl.com/5vs65j Andy, the owner of Alado room, offered me countless tutorials for the how-to use the room. He was online with the technician of the BC 2 hours before we started. I would have never delivered a successful presentation without Teresa, Cristina and Andy! http://halafawzi.wikispaces.com/
List below, and add pictures if possible, your favorite f2f encounters with other webheads.
This is a Bubbleshare album I created for my f2f encounter in Fukuoka, Japan. There are more photos if you look for the most interesting pictures tagged with worldcall08 at flickr. It was as if we have known each other for ages. I had the most amazing time in my life with the webheads http://tinyurl.com/69haz2
Describe below how being a webhead has led to professional advancement and/or career changes for you:
I believe all what I have learned about online learning/teaching goes back to the webheads community of practice for teachers. I started as newbie, a co-moderato for Becoming a webhead in 2006, a moderator in 2007 and I ended up as an awardee of a scholarship to attend World CALL 2008, because of my accomplishment in the field of CALL and the benefit I offered to both my students and teachers in Sudan. All goes to the webheads help, sense of commitment, sense of belonging, diverse skills and knowledge; shared objectives, understanding and above all, mutual trust and respect. In the university I teach, I am the first teacher who integrated online learning in EFL classroom in Sudan. This led to more university recognition, more advancement in my teaching and above all, a salary-bonus on the latest promotion scale at my college !
In a reply on the list 16/9/08:
Although the distance should have kept us a part, but all keeps all in the heart.
Your words come from your deep heart, John.
I can't find the exact words that could convey what I feel towards webehsds, and how proud I am of being one of them!
Thank YOU goes to EACH webhead around the globe!
To Vance, Dafne, Teresa and all!
Greetings from deep Africa!

"How does your blog relate to your business?"

I was tagged by my friend Cris to answer the above question. Actual, it is a challenge that that was posed by Cirs' friend’s friend's friend's friends's and which she decided to pose on to other friends, including me. I am blogging because I am a life-long learner. I am willing to share what I have learned. I need to learn with/from others. I love to read/watch others' contribution to knowledge . I like to track how knowledge is distributed. Isn't this what is all about? Sharing knowledge, experience, feelings, networking collaboratively with local and international communities. Although I hate writing, here I am, blogging about everything. I blog because I NEED to be inside the blogosphere which is created by bloggers, the real people with whom we live and interact. I guess it is also about communicating with people. Can I call it peo-blogging ( people-blogging)? I don't have many blogs, five at Blogger and two at Wordpres! When I started to blog, which is the way how to learn the blogging process, I wasn't aware of the dozens of the world-wide-windows that keep on opening with every blog post I add, or every post I read. I blog because blogging have changed my life and it will keep on giving me a better life, with other bloggers!!

Meme game ... I was tagged by Berta

I was tagged by Berta for a meme game. It was my first time to know about it.Based the word on a shortening of the Greek "mimeme", Richard Dawkins coined the term meme, which first came into popular use with the publication of his book The Selfish Gene in 1976.In the blogshphere, "Meme is a term used to describe a question or series of questions that a blogger asks another. Usually, a blogger “tags” several others to respond."Larry Ferlazzo.
Here I go:
What was I doing 10 years ago?
I lived all my life in Khartoum, Sudan, if you excluded the beautiful 4 years in Cairo. I was happier, lighter, more secured, easy life, fewer burdens and I weighed less.
5 things you have to do today:
Answer the mem, submit my annual vacation to our Dean; write mid term exams for semester 2&4, post about my students latest projects, take my kids to their aunt's house to play with PSP.
Snacks I enjoy…Tasali. Watermelon seeds, dried, washed and fried without any oil, with salt added at the end.
Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I guess I will take much time to think about this when I HAVE it!!
I will quit my job , devote my time to charity work fighting everything poor in Africa; education, health and poverty.
Three of my bad habits:
I agree with Berta when she wrote" leaving certain things to the last minute because I think I work well under pressure", ( same here Berta!) ; not drinking enough water in spite of the heat here and looking for perfection in everything I do.
5 places I have lived:
No, only two places.; Cairo, Egypt, where I studied for four years to get my B.A, and Sudan.
5 jobs I have had:
A secretary at a company in Cairo was the first job I have ever had. A secretary for an ambassador at one of the embassies here in Khartoum, an office administrator at UNICEF, teacher assistant at Khartoum unvieristiy and a Lecturer at different universities in Khartoum.

6 people I want to know more about:
Cris, Teresa, Carla,Vance,Susan Marandi.Sorry guys! I know you are so busy, so please feel free not to play the game!

TESOL 2008

Webheads at WorldCALL2008 Home

Nina, or Nagora, has created a wiki for webheads awarded with the scholarship to participate at WorldCALL 2008 Congress in Fukuoko, Japan. Nina put a page for each awardee, all congratulations received on webheads' mailing list and the discussion there is hot about travelling to Tokyo before the conference, and where to go and stay there, learning Japanese( never thought about it in my entire life!!) This is just FANTABULOUS!!
Did I ever mention the criteria of the selection?
Our goal was to decide on individuals who met these criteria:-People who have been active in CALL (not just language pedagogy or administration) as evidenced by recent publications, presentations or on-going projects.
-People who exhibited in their "Statements of Purpose" a clear goal for their attendance at WorldCALL and a plan to disseminate the knowledge so gained upon their return home.
-People who represent a wide spectrum of geographical areas, balanced by gender and years of experience. Geographical selection was also, to some extent, determined in proportion to the number of applications from that area of the world.

Webehads Congraulations!

As usual, as a family, we always rush into sending deep heartful congratulations on occasions like winning a scholarship!The one which made my day is Dennis from Phoenix.An elegant card from Blue Mountain With these nice words:
As-salaamu aleikum, my friend.
Congratulations on winning a scholarship to WorldCALL 2008! You richly deserve this honor, and I'm already looking forward to hearing about your experiences in Japan.
Again, CONGRATULATIONS!
Dennis in Phoenix
He sent another one for all awardees which put a BIG smile on my face!
Shukran Jazeelan my dear Dennis.
All the rest of the congratulations are on the comment area, so as not to have a looong post here.Thank you everyone!

WorldCALL 2008 Scholarship Awardees

I DID it!!!
After a long tail of emails,checking rates, bookings and re-bookings, long hours of waiting, I won another scholarship in REAL life!!Below is my email to the webheads! I am much grateful to the wings they gave me!
I with more webheads ( read the names of the awardee on the list), have been selected among WorldCALL 2008 scholarship awardees because of what I have learned here, and still learning, and because of this magic, weird spirit that urges one to pay forward what he/she learns here. It's because of you ALL that I won this scholarship!
Thank you!
I am so excited that I will meet up with you all girls!!!Congratulations! Indeed, Webehads are every where, all year round! YEESS!Viva Webehads!
http://wc3scholar. info/
Hala ( off to start packing )LOL

Valentine's Day!

Cris warm voice has made my day!
Happy Valentine's Day, BaWers!

Food for Thought!

This is shared on the baw08 list. I think I have seen it before.I tried to dig into my delicious account without success.So, I decided to put here.It is the comment section that will add to this food of thought about creativity and educators.It also reminded me of this article, that when I ever read it, it just leave me wondering how much alike is the conditions and circumstances where teachers work around the globe!

Um abracos!

Webehads love hugging!
A Webhead friend, Monica from Brazil, is known for her 'um abracos'( a hug).I asked her to send me san audio to hear how can I say it.My kids are practicing saying um abracos to me at bed time!!lol

Becoming a Webehad 2008

Oh!How long I have been away from here? Fortunately, so many GOOD things were happening around.I hope I will have the time again to keep on posting about webheads heaven world!
I have turned up a very dear invitation form my dear friend, mentor and teacher; Teres to moderate a week at baw08 session.Too much for me to manage with family, writing, work and not an easy teaching load.
A 'Fantabulous' work has been done by Dafne and Teresa!Claps for the hard work behind the scenes done by all moderators and co-moderators!
Allah know how I miss it!!
Here is a screenshot of the EVO08 Kickoff.