Interviewing Juandon

Brad Patterson

Have gotta say this has been the perfect excuse to find some time to write in my blog. It also coincides with the close start of holidays at the uni – to be honest. This post will be about someone I recently interviewed. How did I decide to interview him and learn a bit about him? Well, I have got to literally point to Mr. Brad Patterson. Yes, the very same who started this wonderful idea in his Journée in Language. It is about interviewing someone from our vey own PLN. So a few weeks ago, he DMed me in Twitter and smartly encouraged me to interview this person. So let’s see what this Twitter friend and part of my PLN answered to the 5 standard questions Mr. Patterson came about to get know them. Without further ado: Juan Domingo Farnós Miró. 

Juandon

First: Who is Juan Domingo Farnós Miró?

Juan Domingo Farnós Miró works as teacher for special needs students using ICT at a school in Santa Barbara, Spain. He also works  as an online tutor for “Generalitat de Cataluña” using e-learning and Web 2.0 for training teachers from primary, high school and higher education.

He has got a fantastic blog called “juandon.Innovación y conocimiento” (juandon.Innovation and knowledge). It'd be great if you have a peek at it!

Now with the Interview:

1) If your students were to label you with 3 adjectives, what might they be?

Guru, innovator and creative...That's the way my students actually call me online and offline.

2) What would we find in your refrigerator right now?

Seasonal fruits and fresh non-alcoholic beverages

3) If you weren’t a teacher, what might your profession be?

I reckon I'd have been a writer. My family always wanted me to be an architect, though.

4)  What do you find most difficult about the teaching profession, or What has been your most difficult class as a teacher?

One of the most difficult things to do for any teacher and myself is to put oneself in the students' shoes. You should be able to understand what they want. A teacher should know what a student really needs. Knowing how to provide help and make their learning an easy ride is a must. I have been working as a teacher and principal for a long time in educational institutions and organizations of all sorts. However, working as a principal has taken up most of my time at the expense of doing what I passionately love the most: being part of my students' learning process. You might be wondering why I didn't say "teaching". Because I do believe I have never taught anything to anybody. I have always encouraged my students to learn by doing. This doesn't mean I haven't worked as much as any other teacher, you know, providing materials, scenarios, orientation to make their learning easy.

5) What was the last book/movie you read/saw, and what have you seen/read way too many times?

I have read so many books. I reckon I have read entire libraries since I have worked helping in several of them. I have even offered support in the digitalization of libraries in some cities in Spain. The last book I read...Well, I never read a book a bit at a time; I read several...I am currently reading the Koran for the fifth time. This time I am reading this book in French... Now...Films...Mmm....It has been a long time since the last time I went to the cinema...I  am not a moviegoer. I love futuristic and action films, though.

Flip Cameras in the Language Classroom

Shelly Terrell

I was invited by Shelly Terrel some weeks ago to participate in the 3rd Virtual Round Table Conference. I thought it was a great opportunity for me to have my first online presentation and a real honour to present along with people like Lindsey Clandfield , Russell Stunnard, Alexandra Francisco, Vicky Saummel, Doris Molero, Marisa Constantinides, Berni Wall, Mike Harrison,Guido Europaantje, Graham Stanley, Paul Maglione, Teresa Almeida d'Eca, Carla Arena, Erika Cruvinel, Daf Gonzalez, Vance Stevens and Jennifer Verschoo among others. So I decided to talk about, and also following Shelly's suggestion, using flips cameras in the language classroom inspired on the experience I have had recording videos for a sign language course in Venezuela.

Heike Philp

I have got to describe this experience as amazingly wonderful. Shelly helped me become familiar with the platform two days before the event (Thanks Shelly!). During my presentation, Heike Philp, the moderator, was really nice even though she was really busy multitasking with different presentations taking place all along. Even though, I had a small crowd, they were really great and supportive. Helen, Shumbles, Teadira (colleague & friend) and Valeria made several questions and comments and helped a lot to make this a nice, fun presentation. Shumbles went the extra mile and recorded a video using a flip camera during my presentation: Virtual Round Table online Conf #vrt10 best seat at conf. Here's the video and have fun!

 

Here's my presentation:

And here's the presentation in Adobe connect. Click on the image to have access to the room.

If you would like to visit the website created for hosting the videos for the Venezuelan Sing Language course, write to my e-mail mmendoza97@gmail.com and I'll send an invite to join this site.

Zach's Fundraiser

This is for Zachariah, an intelligent and resourceful Deaf student from Kenya, who deserves a helping hand in attending the English Lanuage Institute of Gallaudet University. He has been accepted but his tuition of $27,000, which will be paid directly from us to the English Lanuage Institute must be raised, and he needs money for expenses, such as air fare from Nairobi to Washington D.C.

The first 3 days of this campaign were good. Now a week later, and no more contributions are coming in. Please join us in this effort!

Here is the normal version of the 4 Zach Videos. First, my talking head provides context for this effort during the first 3 minutes, before you meet Zachariah, and Alice who interviews and interprets for us.