Words of 2011

This is an interesting article about new words introduced in 2011.

Another proof of a language's life. :)

Social networking

Creating an embeddable discussion forum

After trying several times, without any success, to create a discussion forum with Tal.ki, I tried Nabble only once and succeeded.

Now I have a forum for the wiki I'm going to use with my students this school year- We Play and Learn English Wiki.

I have created two threads: one for students' introductions and one for asking and giving help with posting in the forum.

Creating a forum with Nabble takes less than a minute, it is very easy and free. Embedding is equally easy, you only have to copy and paste the HTML code.

I can't wait to read my students' first posts.

To me the forum looks quite all right as a page of the wiki, but I'd like to hear your opinion, especially if you see something I have missed or could make better.

9/11

I've been thinking about doing something to bring a little of what world can learn about and from 9/11 to the classroom. And this video is by far the best thing I've found.



There are also many very useful resources on the 9/11 Memorial website: http://www.911memorial.org/spirit-volunteerism There's a booklet for teachers with teaching ideas and information about the people and things mentioned in the video.

There are also good resources here: http://onlinelearningexchange.com/content/products/remembering911.html They are made for children whose mother tongue is English, but that only means that we cannot use the resources with young learners and low level students.

This is a picture gallery compiled by yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/9-11-the-25-most-powerful-photos-1315611364-slideshow/25-most-powerful-photos-photo-1315610966.html Picture no.5 is not for everybody's eyes - I'd think twice before showing it in class. Picture no.15 is something I might definitely use.

Hope you find this useful.
Bye for now,
Dora

Stephen Fry interview of Lady Gaga

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0cca76f0-873a-11e0-b983-00144feabdc0.htmll#axzz1NfOiqapk

To Visnja

The Star Thrower

By Loren Eiseley:

"While wandering a deserted beach at dawn, stagnant in my work, I saw a man in the distance bending and throwing as he walked the endless stretch toward me. As he came near, I could see that he was throwing starfish, abandoned on the sand by the tide, back into the sea. When he was close enough I asked him why he was working so hard at this strange task. He said that the sun would dry the starfish and they would die. I said to him that I thought he was foolish. there were thousands of starfish on miles and miles of beach. One man alone could never make a difference. He smiled as he picked up the next starfish. Hurling it far into the sea he said, "It makes a difference for this one."

As found here.
Shine everyone,
Dora

Issuu

I've just discovered issuu.com. It's been named one of the Times.com's top 50 sites in 2009 and this is what Times' journalist wrote about it:
When magazine lovers get nostalgic about print, they cite the feel of flipping pages, the shock of seeing an amazing layout and the physicality of being able to hold something in your hands. Maybe a gadget like Amazon's Kindle can compete with the old-fashioned ink-on-paper experience, but for our money — which, in this instance, is zero dollars — we'll take Issuu, an online newsstand with infinite shelf space, hundreds of interesting micro-publishing projects and a slick online reader. Spending time browsing through the titles that are archived on the site comes so close to the feel of the actual thing that you might forget you're in a magazine matrix.
So far I've read Google for teachers part one:

Open publication - Free publishing

and two

Open publication - Free publishing - More teaching

which I find VERY useful and cannot wait to try out some of the tips it offers (especially the part where using Google Docs for flashcards is mentioned).

The same author also posted Google Earth Across the Curriculum which gives amazing ideas on how to use it on the topic of literature (it can be used to follow a character's travel) and protecting the environment (there are pictures ready for kids to browse):

Open publication - Free publishing - More teaching

I hope you find this useful as I have.
Bye for now,
D

I find these links very useful:  http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2011/sessions/index, and http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2011/sessions/videos.

The Easiest Speaking Game in the World

I've just stumbled upon this and believe it's applicability is unbelievable so I'm VERY happy to share it with you all:
The Easiest Speaking Game in the World
Love,
Dora

P.S.
I really like the chickens! :))
P.P.S
Somehow a test-post I've put on my blog ended up in the RSS feed for this blog. I'm sorry about that. Hope you'll enjoy Gloria Gaynor if you stumble upon it though.

Happy Easter to All!

The power of pentatronic scale

The Power of Words

Words are the voice of the heart, says a Chinese proverb. :)

Bear video

Are we equals?

This is a good video to base a discussion on:

Suitable for higher levels (B2+) and might be excellent in combination with Time's 16 of History's Most Rebellious Women. 

Be a teacher...

I guess the use of "have to" should be up for debate... ;)

Max My Dream

I have heard about a nice writing tool that can be used with students.

In Max My Dream, if you write about a dream in 140 characters and wait for a few seconds, you can see your dream animated. The colleague who first wrote about it on her blog, Ana Maria Menezes, suggested asking students to watch the animation and guess the words, even the original text.
I embedded a dream on my students blog and asked them to guess my dream. The first student has already tried.

This is my dream:



Can you guess it?

For Shakespeare Lovers

The title of this post is a link to a VERY long list of phrases Shakespeare coined and we still use today. It sounds like something that could be used in class, I'll write a few ideas one day...

Global Primary English Teacher Survey

Hello everyone,

I've just received the following email from a colleague of mine: 

Dear Primary English Teacher

If you teach English to children aged 5 – 12 in a primary school, we would like to hear from you.

As part of a research project the University of Essex, in partnership with the British Council, is carrying out a global survey of Primary English teachers’ qualifications, experience and career development.

You can access the survey here http://bit.ly/e4DVMJ – it only takes about 20 minutes to complete.

Many thanks for your help!

Helen Emery

Research project coordinator

My colleague received it from our Senior Advisor (the person who's in charge of English teachers' professional development in our county), who received it from British Council - so it's not spam. I filled in the questionnaire and am kind of curious of what the findings will be. And yes, it really does take about 20 minutes, no more. The title of this post is a link to the survey.

That's all from me for now,

Dora

Certificates

Has anyone received a certificate from British Council for the course that we completed?

I haven't received mine and the staff at the local British Council cannot help because they don't know anything. :(

HI, I have a new group on Learning Technologies site - interesting people from a broad area of the world, new behaviour online- interesting to deal with and a challenge in understanding and making them work as a group. It appears to take a lot of individual effort into creating an online class culture. I start observing this as a phenomenon. Perhaps I wil lbe able to draw some conclusion later in my life.
I have also discovered this, perhasp you know this already 


http://storybird.com/accounts/login/

English Central - website

I think I really like this website. The link will take you to a Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement speech. I haven't explored everything, yet - but I really like the fact that the stories, speeches, scenes are subtitled, teachers can monitor their students' progress and students can rewind and watch videos for as many times as they like/need. 

P.S

I've been playing with the design again, I hope you all like it. :) If you don't, change it - I like design experiments. 

Creating a 3D Pop-up Book

I have learned about a very interesting tool that helps you create a 3D pop-up story or even a book. It is ZooBurst The creation of a story is very easy, you can sign up for a free acoount and the tool looks like an interesting one, so I've decided to share with you my first attempt.

I've created only one scene to illustrate the last topic I discussed with my students:



To get started, you just click on"New Book" and then"Build" button. Then you choose the title for your story. You can find the right images by simply typing the key words of your story and getting nice images from ZooBurst gallery, or you can upload your own. After selecting, moving, rotating the images and creating a scene, you add text bubbles to your characters, which appear as exclamation marks above their heads until you click on them to read them. You can choose colours for the background and create more pages. When you have told your story, you save it.
Pro account gives your some more attractive options, like adding sound to your stories, but it seems you can create great stories with a free account, too.

There are two things I liked about ZooBurst:

• you can easily embed your story
• instead of just enjoying the book by reading it or looking at the illustrations, your readers can choose Webcam Mode to experience your book in Augmented Reality: the button turns on your webcam and you see yourself as if in a mirror, with a part of the story you were reading when you turned it on. You can print the mixed reality scene, too.

ZooBurst seems like a tool my students would love. I'll definitely use it in the classroom.

My new animoto

Animoto is a very easy tool to use. The registration is free and you can create 30 - second videos with music. You can also apply for Animoto Edu and create your full length videos for free. That's what I have done.
Creating a video consists of three steps:

1. you upload photos and decide if you want to add any text and where. Then you put your slides into the order you want to tell a story. It's a simple drag and drop activity.
2. You choose music for your video. You can upload music from your computer, and you are reminded to respect the copyright. I always choose from the songs already offered by Animoto team. I find it easier and they have a lot of beautiful songs in different styles.
3. You check that you have everything you wanted (the right title, tags, etc) and click "Create". Then you only wait. The video is created for you.
   
   
   
   This is the animoto I have created to introduce myself in Digital Storytelling Group of TESOL EVO. Please be gentle in your comments.

Glogster

Look I have created a Glog!!! I feel so happy! I have learnt to do something new!!!

http://annaconway.glogster.com/anna-conway-glog-5650/

Thank you Lora and Thank you EVO!!!

EVO session

Hello to everyone! :)

I have just been approved for PLEs and PLNs EVO session and Podcasting session. Has anyone joined those? Sanja, which one(s) are you doing?