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Introduce yourself and get to know the community.

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago

Hello all,

I'm Mr Dao Yi, an ELL (English Language Learner) middle school teacher in Shanghai. I found this website about a year and a half ago when I was looking for creative ways to inspire my students to do more creative writing and have a purpose for writing - that end goal being a final product uploaded online.

So far, we've had three teams of writers that produced one story game each. Feel free to check them out, and don't hold back. These writers are eager to learn from their mistakes, and have cherished each user comment as each one is an opportunity to improve their English writing.

Thanks again to the users here who have taken the time to support us so far.  

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago

No problem. Everyone is pretty direct around here, so any feedback won't be sugar coated. Lol.

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago

Glad you're all here. I got a kick out of The Dark, Smelly, Fatal Prison, because it reminded me so much of something I'd have written as a child. Your students had better syntax than I did as a kid though, lol. 

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago

Thanks, they constantly surprise me with what they know. A lot of them had completed Harry Potter in English by the time they finished elementary school. I can't imagine having ever tried reading even a picture book in Chinese by that age.

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago
Oh, hello!

I need to go and review those stories soon, it's something that keeps getting pushed back on my to do list. I think it's great the kids are able to do this and have so much fun with it, and honestly they're about the only school group we've ever had show up here good enough at writing to hold their own.

I'd really recommend not encouraging them to wander around the forum though, better if they just stick to the storygame side of things. We don't have many rules for censoring language and it can get a little wild over here. (Or maybe it's just the Lounge that's more of a shark tank, Writing Workshop and the Creative Corner are probably fine.)

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago

Thanks for the tip. I've browsed a bit and noticed it can get discussions can get very colorful to say the least.

 

Unfortunately the middle school experience here in a competitive Chinese city like Shanghai doesn't allow students to have much free time to browse sites aimlessly. They've all got huge national tests to prepare for (?? zhong kao, ?? gao kao). I'm fortunate that I can squeeze 45 mins out of them each week to hold a meeting.

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago

Sorry, guess the forum doesn't recognize Chinese characters.

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago
Forum is plain text with optional use of HTML unless you have the Rich Text Editor turned on in your profile.

Member for 1.5 yrs, 1st time introducing

3 years ago

The writing ability for kids that age is astounding considering that it's a second language too, you must be a very good teacher.