Introduce yourself!

[Heike Philp]

Hi all,

May I start this 'Introduce yourself' discussion forum thread by introducing myself:

 

My name is Heike Philp and I am the creator and organiser of the semi-annual Virtual Round Table Conference, which has become a great joy in my life!

 

So, here is my official bio:

Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi is founder and CEO of let’s talk online (founded 2003) and previously held the position as managing director of LANCELOT School^TM GmbH (2006-2010), an accredited teacher training center for language teaching in real-time via the internet by means of virtual classroom technology and virtual worlds. With over 20 years in education and with Germany’s first live online language school, Philp co-initiated two European funded projects and worked with 35 European partners including 17 universities to develop accredited and certified teacher training courses.  These EU Projects are LANCELOT (LANguage learning with CErtified Live Online Teachers) and AVALON (Access to Virtual and Action Learning live Online. Philp runs her own online conference, the Virtual Round Table conference and is co-organizer of the SLanguages conference in Second Life. She co-owns EduNation islands in Second Life and her blog let’s talk online is a rich resource for language educators who want to work online.

 

Contact details

Skype ID: letstalkonline

Twitter: @heikephilp

LinkedIn http://de.linkedin.com/in/heikephilp

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/heike.philp

XING http://www.xing.com/profile/Heike_Philp

Email heike.philp[at]letstalkonline.com

 

http://www.letstalkonline.com (main website/ blog, founded 2003)

http://www.lancelotschool.com (managing director LANCELOT School GmbH, 2005-2010)

http://www.avalonlearning.eu (co-initiator EU funded AVALON project)

http://www.lancelot.at (co-initiator EU funded LANCELOT project)

http://www.lancelotters.net (community LANCELOTTERs.net)

http://www.virtual-round-table.com (organiser Virtual Round Table Conference)

http://www.slanguages.net (co-organiser SLanguages Conference)

http://edunation-islands.wikispaces.com (co-owner Second Life Island)

http://www.telecoaching.org (board member European Telecoaching Institut)

 

 

 

And here is also my inofficial me: I am crazily addicted to networking, social media, Second Life and my friends out there which have enriched my life so much, that I am soooo grateful to all I have been able to learn and that I keep learning. This conference itself has shown what wonderful people I am able to work with and I am so thankful for this rich learning experience.

Many, many thanks to my PLN!

 

I am very much looking forward to your introductions.

[Shelly Terrell]

Hi!

 

I'm Shelly Sanchez Terrell and the VP of Educator Outreach for Parentella and the Social Media Community Manager for The Consultants-E. I am also the co-organizer and co-creator of the award nominated educational projects, Edchat, ELTChat, The Reform Symposium E-Conference and the Virtual Round Table conference. You can visit my education blog, Teacher Reboot Camp, for resources for effective technology integration. In the fall of 2011 find my book, The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators on Amazon. I am  @ShellTerrell on Twitter. I currently teach and do teacher training and am based in Germany. I'm Rainey Zapatero in Second Life and my virtual and in person pet is Rosco the pug!

[Berni Wall]

Hi!

I'm Berni Wall and run RLI a small language school offering one to one training and short total immersion English language courses in the UK for individuals and groups of up to 4 students. I also run Gapfillers a site for advanced English language learners who want to study online. I co-moderate and co-ordinate the blog summaries for #edchat and am co-founder and moderator of #eltchat. I am also on the organising team for the Virtual Round Table.

My blog Radical Language gives tips and advice to English language students to help them with their study (especially those who are trying to learn by themselves) and also hosts the edchat summaries.

I live and work in North Yorkshire in the middle of the countryside where I host and teach students and also run free teacher Professional Development Workshops.

I am @rliberni on Twitter and Bern DarkRose in Second Life. I have no virtual pets but do have a dog, cat,10 hens and 4 very non-virtual daughters!

[Graciela Renee Gonzalez Sorronde]

Hi my dear colleagues! I am Graciela Gonzalez, in Montevideo ,Uruguay, South America. I am free lance and graduated from University of Reading and with two post graduation courses held at Interational House and Geos Academy in England

I attended the Tesol Congress in New York in 2008, event that didnot fullfill any of my expectations

My target is adults, people who need to brush up their English, which is widely recognised in the country, but badly taught

unless you attend bilingual schools.

Somehow I fully appreciate your commitment, and I look forward to hearing from you often, the chances of personal growth

in South America are quite few, and Teacher development is nule

I am 59 years old and looking forward to dealing with whatever comes from ovearseas! Please, keep me posted

My warmest regards to my colleagues who like me are teaching addicts!

 

[Tara Benwell]

Hi VRT participants! 

I'm Tara Benwell and I'll be attending the VRT conference this week. I live near Toronto, Canada and I am an online English teacher and materials writer. I presented for the first time at VRT in 2010 and was amazed by what Shelly, Heike, and Berni accomplished with this conference.

 

I currently have two main gigs in my ELT life. I am the administrator of My English Club, the social network for EnglishClub.com, which is the sister site of TEFL.net. I am also the media director and head writer for ESL-Library, a division of Red River Press that is based here in Canada. On Friday I'll be giving a live tour of the NEW ESL-Library, and I hope you'll come along and win a chance for a 1 year subscription. It's been a crazy week for me as I was just featured in a Seth Godin eBook (about taking initiative) and my novel came out on Amazon.com. I'll be reading from my novel, The Proper Order of Things at the VRT open mic night! If you enjoy writing, please visit my blog, Beyond ELT. 

 

I am @tarabenwell and I also tweet for @ESLLibrary and @TEFL. If you're going to be at IATEFL this year, please introduce yourself to me. I'll be the lost Canadian who needs a friend! 

[Oya USLU]

 

      Hi Dear Colleagues,

      I am an English Language Teacher in a state school in a small town in Turkey.I have been teaching English since September 2005. I hold a BA degree in Foreign Language Education-Middle East Technical University-Ankara/TURKEY. I did CELTA in ENGLAND (August 2010). I had ETTO Certificate-British Council (2010) and I have been attending British Council's TKT Global Online Course since the beginning of February. I am open to new ideas and look for the ways to improve myself. I am applying for an MA degree in ELT in May. Hope I will be able get an approval. I coordinated a Comenius School Partnership Project between 2008 and 2010. I have been involved in an  E-twinning project since October 2010.

       I love reading books. I like reading especially historical novels. Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors and her Mr Darcy is one of the characters important in my life. I am fond of going to the cinema and theatre although I cannot go much since I live in a small town. I mostly like European cinema. Ferzan Özpetek, Fatih Akın, Çağan Irmak, P. Almadovar are among my favourite directors. Se7en, La Finestra Di Fronte and Solino are among my favourite movies. I am interested in photography and cooking. I am crazy about travelling. I like meeting new people especially from different countries and working on projects like Comenius projects.

 

[sue annan]

Hello. My name is Sue Annan and I'll be attending the sessions this weekend whenever possible. I am an EFL , ESL and Business English teacher in a private language school in the Channel Islands, a British crown dependancy off the French coast. I train candidates to pass the Trinity College London Cert TESOL twice a year, in March and September.

On twitter I am @SueAnnan and my blog is sueannan.blogspot.com , although I haven't had time to do much with it this year.

I belong to ELTchat. I have taken part in all of the VRT so far and enjoyed learning from each one.

My plan for this year is to dip my toes into Second Life.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend for all the sessions and networking

[Marina Petrovic]

Hi!

I'm an EFL teacher from Novi Sad, Serbia. I've been teaching English and running a private language school for fifteen years now. Four years ago I started teaching online, both English and Serbian, and became fascinated by the possibilities which virtual worlds, virtual classrooms and online teaching tools offer to language teachers.

I've learnt so much by attending the LANCELOT and IH COLT courses, and most of all by joining Twitter and learning from my PLN.

The VRT conference is very special for me because I've been helping with moderation since the first event, back in November 2009. Being around the teachers who discuss trends in education, creators of language learning content and teaching tools, inspired me to be proactive in this field myself. That's why, after blogging about Serbian, about English for beginners and sharing my knowledge about Vyew virtual classroom, I started creating my language learning sites, such as:
Virtual School of Serbian and LeWiNoW (still working on it)

Looking forward to meeting you all at the conference or via Twitter @educo11

[Brad Patterson]

Howdy Heidi, Shelly, Berni, Graciela, Oya Tara, Sue Ann, and Marina-

 

I'm kind of a newbie here on twitter, and building my PLN on the net, but oh my goodness am I loving it!  VRT is just another amazing opportunity for us to share our wealth and I can't wait to get started.  :)

 

I have been a passionate language learner and traveller from a young age.  After a stint of high school in France I, studied Italian, French and Sociology at Indiana University.  Then, leaving the academic world for a bit, I spent a year working for a highly-acclaimed French Chef, Jean Robert De Cavel for a year.  Later, as I continued to work within cuisine, I also taught those previously acquired 3 languages on the side.  At age 24 I went to Mexico to learn Spanish, to work as a masseuse and to volunteer on organic farms. 

I returned home, continued to teach and cook, and prepared for a long, long hike.  After hiking the Appalachian trail, I set off for China and the language challenge of a lifetime.  I spent 3 years at ShanDong University teaching oral and written english to Masters and Doctoral students.  Now I live in Paris and work as an intercultural/education consultant.  One of my current clients is Edulang, an English e-learning company, where I serving as their "pedagogical soul" or community manager.  I love the outdoors, martial arts, yoga and lead a very fun social life with my partner, Claire, who is a language fanatic as well.  

 

For more connects/profile info, please visit my splash page.  Cheers, Brad    http://about.me/brad5patterson

[faisal ibrahim shamali]

Hi,

I'm Faisal Ibrahim Al-Shamali. I got an MA in Linguistics, Jordan 1998. He has been teaching English Language since 1994. He taught English Language at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia; Dhofar University, Oman; IH, Chiang Mai, Thailand. He got CELTA in 2009. He got a TEYL and E-Teacher Professional Development certificates, UMBC, USA 2010.  He joined webinars in Ukraine and Jordan. He got an E-Certificate by American Embassy, Jordan. He is registered in an online course by university of Oregon on CT. Also, he is registered in Webinar course held in Washington DC. He attended and presented at numerous international conferences in Jordan, Oman, Thailand, USA, etc. He is a member in TESOL.

[Constance Kunene]

Hi

I'm Constance Kunene aka Stance. I teach TEFL in Coventry, England. I am also a part-time MA English Language Teaching student. I look forward to improving my IT Skills in this conference. I also hope that by the end of the conference I would have developed more confidence to use IT in my lessons. This term I have been doing a module in CALL and I love every bit of it even though I find some things challenging. Next week I have a lecture in Second Life so I hope this conference will give me sound background knowledge  in this area. I have no experience at all in engaging with the virtual world.

[Azhar Youssef]

Dear Colleagues,

 

This is Azhar Youssef Ahmed from Egypt. I'm a teacher of English language at a high school. I have got my MA degree in 2008 which is about develping writing skills of first-year prep students using TBL model. Now, I'm working on my PHD which is about using technology in teaching English as a foreign language. I'm also a teacher trainer. I like this extra job very much as I deal with many audiences, e.g., assistant teachers, teachers, supervisors, other trainers, etc. As an online learner, I have participated in many courses. Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web sponsored by Oregon University is one of them. I have tried many web 2.0 tools and created my own such as my blog, my wiki, my delicious page, etc. I have also participated in EVO 2011 sessions, e.g., podcasting for ESL-EFL classroom, PLEs and PLNs for lifelong learning and Baw 2011: Becoming a webhead 2011. I'm also interested in computer applications. I have got many online courses from http://alison.com/?signup=1&ref=701102, such as video editing and publishing, screen capture tools, wordpress: blogging on the web, how to create your first website, and there are other courses that I'm taking now.

 

For contact:

Yahoo ID: azharyoussef

Twitter: @azhar_youssef

Skype ID: azhar_youssef

[Constance Kunene]

Hi All

I have given up trying to enter the venues. I am so disappointed. I was so much looking forward to this. I will call it a day for now. I will try again tommorow.