Why God Made Teachers

Why God Made Teachers
By Kevin William Huff

When God created teachers,
He gave us special friends
To help us understand His world
And truly comprehend
The beauty and the wonder
Of everything we see,
And become a better person
With each discovery. 

When God created teachers,
He gave us special guides
To show us ways in which to grow
So we can all decide
How to live and how to do
What's right instead of wrong,
To lead us so that we can lead
And learn how to be strong.

Why God created teachers,
In His wisdom and His grace,
Was to help us learn to make our world
A better, wiser place. 

How to Master English Grammar

http://www.english-conversation-online.com/2011/01/how-to-master-english-grammar.html

The following is a guest post by Mike Shelby.
In my view learning English grammar in the following sequence ensures firm solid thorough knowledge of English grammar:

1. 1. Read a short clear easily understandable explanation of a grammar rule.
2. 2. Study several practical usage examples (sentences) illustrating that particular grammar rule. Check yourself whether you have mastered the examples.
3. 3. Do several exercises for that rule with communicative content (with sentences that most likely can be used in real life situations).

Grammar exercises that contain dialogues, interrogative and statement (or narrative) sentences on everyday topics, thematic texts and narrative stories are especially effective for mastering grammatical structures.
Grammar practice should also include exercises in listening comprehension and speaking, not just in reading and writing.
Grammar exercises must help learners not only form correct sentences, but also use them correctly in context in real life situations. Contrastive and contextualised exercises give practice in form, meaning and use.
It is very important to learners for practising English grammar on their own that there are answers provided to the exercises (the key) in the grammar practice book for self-check.
A learner of English can’t rely on real life communication alone to be proficient in using grammatically correct English. Learning English grammar from books, audio and video aids is equally indispensable to substantially accelerate mastering of English grammar.
Correct oral communication in English is based on knowledge of English phonetics, grammar, vocabulary, and on practice and experience in communicating with native English speakers in real life.
I would argue that first a learner must master at least basic English grammar from books with exercises before being able to communicate grammatically correctly in real life with native speakers of English.

100%

A small truth to make our Life 100% Successful

IF

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is equal to

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

T h e n :

H+A+R+D+W+O+R+K = 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11

=98%

K+N+O+W+L+E+D+G+E = 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5

= 96%

L + O + V + E =

12+15+22+5

=54%

L + U + C + K =

12+21+3+11

=47%

None of them makes 100%!!!!!!!

Then what makes 100%

Is it Money? ... .. No!!!!!

 

Leadership? ... ... NO!!!!

 

Every problem has a solution, only if we perhaps change our

" A T T I T U D E ".

It is OUR ATTITUDE towards Life and Work that makes OUR Life

100%Successful..

A+T+T+I+T+U+D+E = 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5

= 100%

Does that make sense?

Did U Know

Fun Facts You'll Love Reading

1. The quartz crystal in your wristwatch vibrates 32,768 times a second

2. No one can drown in the Dead Sea. It is 25 percent salt, which makes the water very heavy

3. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water

4. Earth's oceans contain 7 1/2 million tons of gold, dissolved in the water

5. Children who are breastfed tend to have an I.Q. seven points higher than children who are not.

6. It was during the Victorian era that the formerly nude Cupid was redesigned as wearing a skirt.

7. Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and 140,000 people die.

8. The amniotic fluid that surrounds a baby in the womb is completely replaced every three hours.

9. There are at least 40 known carcinogens in cigarettes.

10. The earliest British expeditions tackling Everest wore tweed jackets, woolen underwear, and leather boots.

11. During World War II, twice as many fighter pilots were killed during training than combat

12. In 1962 an outbreak of contagious laughter in Tanganyika lasted for six months and caused schools to be closed

13. A nautical mile measures 6,080 feet while a land or statute mile is 5,280 feet

14. The bird flu virus could evolve into a form that is easily spread between people, resulting in a highly contagious and lethal disease.

15. The Chinese, in olden days, used marijuana only as a remedy for dysentery.

 

Tips Menjelang Peperiksaan

Menjelang peperiksaan, pelbagai permasalahan disuarakan oleh bukan pelajar tetapi juga ibu bapa. Diharapkan tips dan panduan ini dapat membantu anda untuk menghadapi senario peperiksaan.

Bagi pelajar,masalah² seperti cara membahagikan masa, strategi pembelajaran terbaik di samping petua ulang kaji yang tebaik sering ditanya.

Bagi ibu bapa pula, petua untuk menasihati anak yang masih leka menonton televisyen di saat-saat peperiksaan yang hampir menjelma adalah antara persoalan popular.

Artikel ini cuba menjawab secara umum,akan persoalan dan permasalahan di kalangan calon peperiksaan sendiri, dan permasalahan yang dihadapi ibu bapa,guru dan pihak lain yang prihatin.

Pertama

Hadir di dalam bilik darjah.Dalam tempoh 2-3 bulan ini,anda mesti datang ke sekolah dan hadir di dalam bilik darjah untuk mengikuti apa juga ajaran dan nasihat guru di samping perbincangan dengan kawan sedarjah.

Kedua

Pastikan anda mendapat petunjuk yang sebanyak-banyaknya daripada semua guru mata pelajaran anda. Jangan mengambil kesempatan untuk `tuang` kelas atau bersengkokol dengan kawan² yang kurang motivasi atau tidak jelas matlamat mengapa belajar atau menduduki peperiksaan.Anda mungkin perlu sentiasa berjumpa guru untuk perbincangan di luar waktu sekolah. Lakukan demi kefahaman. Di samping itu,anda perlu ada kawan belajar sehingga 4 orang lagi supaya pembelajaran atau perbincangan anda dengan guru mata pelajaran lebih bererti.

Ketiga

Jangan membuang masa berbincang perkara yang tidak penting. Selama anda berada di kawasan sekolah dari pagi hingga tengahari atau ke petang, sekiranya tidak belajar di dalam bilik darjah, jangan lagi membuang masa bersembang di kantin atau berlonggok di bawak pokok. Sebaliknya,pergilah ke perpustakaan untuk menyelesaikan kerja sekolah atau berbincang dengan kawan² kumpulan belajar, ataupun mengulang kaji pelajaran secara bersendirian.



Ketujuh

Ssanggup bekerja keras. Kalau sehingga bulan Ogos ini markah anda untuk setiap mata pelajaran pada keseluruhannya di bawah 60%, anda perlulah menumpukan lebih banyak masa untuk belajar, memaham dan menguasai topik, fakta, rumus dan simbol mata pelajaran tertentu demi peningkatan pencapaian sehingga 80% ke atas.

Keempat

Mmematuhi jadual pembelajaran dan ulang kaji yang teratur. Bayangkan,anda mengambil 10 mata pelajaran (SPM) atau 8 mata pelajaran (PMR). Jangan lupa, aktiviti ulang kaji ini termasuk membaca, memaham, melukis(melakar), menulis dan mengingat.

Di samping membaca.memaham dan mengingat fakta, bahasa, konsep atau persoalan dan pernyataan, anda mesti mahir melukis peta, rajah, jadual dan graf dan menulis karangan atau jawapan berbentuk rencana. Sehubungan dengan latihan menulis jawapan ini, di sini saya mengingatkan semua calon supaya menguasai bahasa Melayu dengan sebaik-baiknya.
Khusus bagi penguasaan mata pelajaran,anda perlu berdamping dengan guru,buku teks atau kawan yang pandai. Setiap mata pelajaran ada sifat dan ciri umum,dan khusus. Misalnya, bagi menguasai mata pelajaran Matematik, anda perlu menguasai topik, rumus, simbol dan pengiraan.

Kelima

Sentiasa sihat badan dan cerdas minda. Selama belajar ini pastikan anda mengambil makanan dan minuman yang dimasak, bersih, segar dan berkhasiat. Kurangkan atau tinggalkan daripada memakan makanan segera atau meminum minuman bergas dan berais. Ingat!! Otak yang cerdas, pergerakan yang cergas dan emosi yang ceria, datang daripada badan yang sihat. Badan yang sihat ditentukan oleh makanan dan minuman yang baik dan seimbang. Pastikan anda sihat, cergas dan ceria sebelum dan semasa peperiksaan.

Keenam
Sentiasa mengerjakan sembahyang dan berdoa. Bukan sahaja anda, ibu bapa, sanak saudara pun sama tidak meninggalkan solat, dan turut mendoakan kejayaan anda.

Petua Motivasi Diri

Petua 1: Lupakan masa silam yang kelam

Sebelum anda boleh mencipta masa depan yang lebih baik, anda harus melupakan peristiwa malang anda di masa lalu. Gagal sekali bukan bermakna anda akan gagal selamanya. Belajar dari sejarah, tetapi jangan biarkan hal itu menjadi sebagai penghalang antara anda dan impian anda.

Petua 2: Ingatkan kejayaan

Sama pentingnya dengan belajar dari masa lalu dan mengatasi kegagalan adalah mengenang kejayaan masa lalu. Tidak kira siapa anda, anda pernah berjaya di dalam sesuatu hal pada suatu ketika dahulu. Renung kembali saat-saat tersebut. Gunakan kenangan kejayaan anda untuk memotivasikan diri anda bahawa anda sebenarnya boleh mencapai matlamat anda.

Petua 3: Menyedari segalanya berkemungkinan

Tiada yang mustahil, segalanya boleh berlaku. Impian yang tersemat di dalam hati anda, jika dipindahkan ke dalam minda dan diusahakan pasti boleh dicapai. Terimalah kenyataan bahawa anda sebenarnya boleh mencipta kehidupan yang lebih baik. Ini akan bertindak sebagai batu loncatan untuk meneguhkan kepercayaan anda untuk berjaya.
Petua 4: Impian yang besar
Agar impian dan keinginan anda dapat memberi inspirasi kepada anda untuk bertindak dan mencapai matlamat, maka impian dan keinginan perlu menjadi besar. Jika anda tidak ghairah dan bersemangat tentang apa yang anda rancangkan untuk masa depan, anda tidak akan dapat menemukan inspirasi yang anda perlukan untuk mengubah hidup anda. Impian yang besar boleh menggerakkan jiwa, dan ketika anda berimpikan sesuatu besar, anda akan terdorong untuk menjadikan impian anda sesuatu yang realiti.

Petua 5: Bertindaklah untuk berubah
Tidak peduli bagaimana anda ingin sesuatu hal itu terjadi, perubahan tidak akan berlaku jika hanya sekadar berfikir - anda harus mengambil tindakan!. Dunia khayalan tidak membawa anda ke mana-mana, tetapi hanya mereka yang bertindak atas keinginan mereka akan benar-benar mencapai impian mereka.

ICT in ELT

http://ictinelt-george.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, 29 March 2011

Webquest... A well-planned project

I have to make a confession here. I regret so much that I didn't have discovered Webquest.org earlier.

What's this

Dudeney and Hockly(2007: 54) define webquests as 'mini-projects in which a large percentage of the input and material is supplied through the web'. From the same book and the classes we had in the ICT in ELT module I learnt that Bernie Dodge, a Professor of educational Technology at San Diego State University is the pioneer for this educational tool.

How it works?

There are specific guidelines, in order to design your own customised webquest. The under-pinning langugae learning theory is, in my opinion, Task-based learning. In Webquest design there are stages as exactly there are stages in a language learning task. However, Webquests are classified more as projects than tasks (Dudeney and Hockly 2007:57). In order to design a webquest you will need an authoring tool. QuestGarden is the one.

For extra help on how to do it check this out:


A tip: Bear in mind all the steps and the level of the students in order to create a successful WebQuest.

Benefits

• Learner develops  research skills.The learner is looking up information on the web in order to complete the task.
• Learner develops analytical skills. Questions are designed to stimulate analytical thinking.
• Learner develops word processing skills. Students need to write down the answers and edit  texts.
• It is virtually motivating as each webquest is tailored to students' interests.

Limitations

• It is not free (well it's pretty cheap-a two years subscription to QuestGarden is $20)
• The design of the quest is a bit poor and might be a bit blunt.  

 

 

Quizzes

“Sometimes questions are more important than answers.”

Nancy Willard

Socrates use to make his students getting interested on a topic by answering questions. Asking questions is the only way to find the truth. I strongly endorse this view as the majority of the teachers does. On the web there are thousand sites for quizzes. I have tried many of them but here there are two quite useful in language learning:

BBC is one of my favourite site for authentic material. The learning English pages are extremely useful. There are many games that you can use in the classroom such a crosswords and beat the keeper(It's fun!). BBC's quizzes could be extremely useful in teaching idioms or colloquial expressions. Try it!

 
One of the largest quiz databases in the Web. You can find some really good quizzes of general knowledge and some of them , belive me, are really challenging! Quizzes come both in HTML and Flash form.
I really enjoyed a quiz about what is sarcasm!(For those of you that find it difficult to teach abstract concepts).  One drawback of this site is the advertisements(sometimes there are pop-up windows as well).

You can find million and millions of videos to consume in YouTube for consumtion either in or out of the classroom. The sites featured here contain videos intended for more educational use than the funny videos in YouTube. However, there are educational channels aor universities channels quite interesting and I will try to cover them in the future.

Why to use Videos?
 The answer is simple: To stimulate your students' brains. If you have the appropriate equipment for showing videos can be a part of a warm up activity or an excellent source of information or even the prompt to start a conversation.

TeacherTube


Good site specially designed for teachers. Contains loads of educational videos and also some interesting resources such as lesson plans. Here is an example of a video and how to use it in the classroom:

Fashion



Last year I had to teach a unit about fashion in B1 level. In the course book there were activities for all skills and the last activity of the unit is always the writing and speaking activities. The text about fashion at the beginning of the unit was a bit blunt. The classroom had an IWB so what I did was to show students a video like this in order to stimulate them and motivate them to take part in the speaking activity first and then come up with some ideas for the brainstorming pre-writing part of the writing task.



BBC learning zone

BBC's educational portal is extremely good and full of ideas. Although it is mainly attended to native speakers it is ideal for a CLIL(Content and Language Integrated Learning) context. One of the benefits of using BBCs videos in language teaching is that it is an authentic material specially designed for learning. Well, I won't write more, go and check it out yourselves.Here is a video about the climate change:

Hot potatoes: Creating exersices is easier than baking spuds!

What's this?
It's an authoring tool to create your own exercises. Basically it is a programme you can download here and install it to your computer.

Why to use it?
To create on-line quizzes for the classroom of course. Quizzes are fun and capture learners' interest.


How to use it?

Hmmm... This might take some time just to get used to the interface. To get an idea start watching tutorial videos like this one below or go to website's tutorial list here



Limitations

• The same old good six typical exercises you will find in books.
• It is time consuming to create an exercise(10 items took me half an hour-but then maybe it's because that's just me)

Computers 1 | Learning Chocolate

This Website presents words in groups using some interesting pictures as a visual aid in order to memorise vocabulary.
Special features:

• You can listen the word(good for racticing pronounciation)
• There is a bunch of exercises useful for further consolidation.

Why is this useful?
As most of us did we learn by seeing. And the fact that they are grouped makes the site interestingly useful.

In the language classroom?

 I would use it in presenting a group of vocabulary with an interactive white board.

 

Audioboo!! Recording-Sharing-learning!!

audioboo

What's this?

Website for recording and sharing your sounds. Create you podcast and share them instantly!! Watch this video tutorial for more details.



Why is it useful?

Podcasts  can be used both by learners and teachers.

Teachers can:

• Record feedback and share it with the learners.
• Record a conversation among teachers(native and non-native speakers), another lesson, record learners.
• Create ''improve your pronunciation'' podcasts.

Learners can:

• Record themselves reading a text (improving intonation and pronunciation)
• Create their own podcasts.
• Record themselves discussing a topic and then sharing it with the classroom. 
• Sing...

Audioboo's most significant feature is easy sharing. You can publish your podcasts anywhere! a

The Usefulness of Second life for Language Learning on Prezi

 That was the presentation Carina and I did in classroom about second life. There are so many things to say about Second Life. Many universities already use it to deliver some of their distance learning courses.

Of course, SL is used in language learning with success. 

Watch this video:

Benefits:

1. It maximizes experiential learning through the interaction with virtual word. Learners have the opportunity to see, hear and touch objects and learn their names or read floating text etc.
2. Inter-cultural communication takes place more often than in traditional classrooms.
3. Interaction with native speakers who use second life.

Of course the list of the benefits could be expanded and we could discuss further the above statements. But when I was working on this presentation I thought that SL is to good to be true.

Drawbacks:

1. It is for adults not for children. When you enter SL you might experience cyberbullying or sexting. \Linden Labs ,which is the company that launched SL, has set the age limit at 18.
2. It is a virtual not a real world. Yes, simulation can be really good for practice but I am not sure how "prepared" the learner would be when faces a real-life situation.
3. It can become addictive for some learners. Being whoever you want to be and do whatever you like in a virtual world might be extremely appealing and therefore addictive.  A dystopian possibility could be that people spend more time in their virtual lives rather than in real life. 

Conclusion


SL could become the future in education. The graphics will improve and the environment will become more real. However, it is not only used for educational purposes. Users(or residents in SL context) should be responsible on how they are using it.

USING IT TO TEACH AND LEARN ENGLISH

http://ictinenglishteaching.blogspot.com/

 

Using ICT to Teach and Learn English

Sunday, 12 June 2011

Voice Thread

The modern technology has lifted the field of education to the high levels. The teaching tools which were used in the 20^th century are being replaced at a high rate especially in the developed countries. Teachers are eager to try the modern tools in their class rooms. These methods do not only capture the learners interest but they also leave a mark in the learner’s memory. Whatever method the teachers choose, they can be sure that learning takes place.

Voice thread is a modern technology which facilitates easy and interesting teaching and learning. It is a free online programme and it is used to narrate stories, chant rhymes using pictures, text, and music all over the world. With voice thread, a group of conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. The good thing with voice thread is that no software is needed to be installed.

For one to use the voice thread, the following are needed

A computer and the internet

Microphone

Windows XP

And USB, audio file in mp3/wav format

Open an account at...... http://voicethread.com.

Steps towards creating a voice thread:

Open an account at http://voicethread.com.

Choose a topic you want to discuss or teach

Decide on the audience that is what age group the topic is suitable for.

Choose the materials you would like to use. One can either take photographs, import from different sites on the internet as long as they are allowed to be used for private purposes.

The photographs are then used as a guiding factor for example if one has taken photographs in African sceneries, then one can discuss the topic with the help of the photographs. At this point I would like to mention that photographs are not needed, a topic can be enough to discuss depending on the audience.

Choose the media you would like to use and this can vary from digital photo story to power point.

In the voice thread website, there is a place written create, click on create in order to create your Voice thread.

Organize your work and delete the areas you find inappropriate for use and decide who should be allowed to view and comment on your work.

Useful features in the voice thread:

Doodle: Doodle allows you to emphasis on the important features on your work. If the creator fins that the green sceneries are important in Africa, then he/she will draw circles around the green sceneries on the photographs. One can draw and comment on it at the same time.

Commenting on the voice thread:

There are five ways of commenting on the voice thread:

Telephone: Use a telephone to leave your comments to the creator.

Microphone

Text

Audio file

Video with webcam

Advantages of using voice thread:

It does not need any software to be installed.

It accepts Ms Word, excel, power point and even digital photo story.

It is free for educators to use.

It is easy to create.

One can control who to watch and comment on the voice thread.

One can participate while others are commenting on it.

The physical impaired can participate in commenting by using the phone and the sign language.

The learners can also create their voice thread and allow the teacher to comment on their work. Mrs. Ngai a teacher in the USA has done this successfully. You can find her work in the following website: http://www.ngaiclassroom.meyertown.com/voicethread.htm.

I recommend voice thread to all teachers. The fact that both the teacher and the learners can use it is good.

Sunday, 27 March 2011

My StoryMaker

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm

Can a lion share a muffin with an elephant? Yes, why not?

In this interactive picture book, you can create different stories depending on the figures you use. It is easy to follow the instructions and create your own story. The first thing you need to do is select which characters you want to include in your book. Then select what the book should be about. After that, you can type and choose different characters, items, objects and settings depending what you want to happened in your story. There is so much you can do with your story, for example, you can move objects by clicking on them, change characters feelings and write what is happening in the picture. Afterwards, you can share your book with others, read it and print it. The library, Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, in the U.S. is the creator of this website.

What you need to make it work

Flash Player

How the resource can be used by teachers.

As a teacher, you can make your own stories, which you can show and read to the children.

The story can be used as an introduction to a new topic or a theme.

The story can be a part of a portfolio, used for assessment.

How the resource can be used by pupils.

Children can create their own illustrated stories. They can read and display their stories to each other, and also present their story to the whole class.

Children are practicing writing, listening and reading when they use this website. They are practicing to listen when they are following the instructions, and when they listen to others' stories. They are practice reading when they read the instructions. And they are practicing writing, when they are writing their story.

Other considerations when using this resource.

Before you begin creating your story, it is good if you watch a little video with instructions. If you need help while you are creating your story, there is a little blue guy who can help you. Just click on him and he will help you.

Josefin Lilja

Photo Story as an ICT resource

Photo Story is a program from Microsoft which you can use to make digital presentations. In the presentaions you can add picture - your own or from a general archive and to the pictures you can add text, music and recorded speech.

As I said before, Photo Story is a program from Microsoft and you can download it for free from their homepage.

To make this program work on your computer you need a license version of Windows and you need to have Windows Media Player 10 installed as well. To be able to record speech you must have access to a microphone or a headset.

Photo Story contains easy step-for-step instructions so both you as a teacher and your pupils easy will learn how to use it. When I first tried it, I did not have any pre-knowledge of the program and I learned very quick how to use it.

How Photo Story can be used by teachers and pupils

Photo Story as an ICT resource in the classroom can be used in multiple ways, the only thing that stops you is your imagination. Teachers can use the program to e.g. to introduce new areas of work, lectures, storytelling and much more. Pupils can use Photo Story to e.g. do different kinds of assignments, documentary a day out or a study visit the class made or things like that.

I have tried this program myself to do a Storytelling of the book Spotty and I totally fell in love with it! I am sure that this is a program I will use many, many times in my future work as a teacher.

I also think that this is a program which the pupils will appreciate to work with because first of all it is fun and also because I think that they will feel very proud of their final productions. Certainly will some pupils feel umcomfortable to hear their own recorded voice but this could be a good way to get knowledge of how important the pronunciation is. I also think that Photo Story is a good program to pupils who think it is uncomfortable to speak in front of the whole class, because maybe they will think it is easier to show a Photo Story they had made.

Other considerations when using Photo Story as an ICT resource

When you are using Photo Story as an ICT resource you must think about the copyright of pictures. If you have use pictures you have draw or taken with a camera yourself you do not have to worry about the copyright at all. A good idea is to have a scanner or a digital camera available! If you choose to use picture from different websites you must use pictures with no copyright. Websites that offers an archive of pictures without no copyright is e.g.

• www.flickr.com
• www.multimedia.skolverket.se
• www.fotofinnaren.se

Friday, 25 March 2011

In today’s society we use all kinds of different communication tools like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, MSN, YouTube, blogs and other platforms. I think that most people, regardless of age, are familiar with at least one of these tools, probably more. And I am pretty sure that every kid knows how to use a computer and the internet and I also think that most parents are well known with the internet and what you can find there. So, why not use this in the teaching?

When I joined Facebook a couple years ago I thought that it was a forum for young people. I was probably around 19 at the time so by “young people” I meant people no older than 30, maybe 35. Today, Facebook is not just a forum for “young people”. Parents and even grandparents are on Facebook and it is nothing weird about that. Same with blogs. People of all ages have blogs with different messages and different kinds of readers. There are fashion blogs, interior design blogs, and baby blogs and so on. A blog can be used in so many different ways with different purposes and I think this would be a great resource for ICT. Just like a platform for the pupils and the teacher to communicate on.

One thing that I have noticed while doing my traineeship as a teacher is that many parents feel like they have no control or no clue of when and what their kids have to do for their homework. We all recognize it, the parent ask the child “Do you have any homework today?” and the kid says “No Mum, I don´t”. I think you know what I mean and by having this blog the parents can keep themselves updated on their kids homework, tests, what they are working with right know and so on. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t mean that the parents should “check up” on their kids and be like “Hey, I read the blog and I know you have homework to do so stop playing videogames and start!”. The pupils must take responsibility for what needs to be done but the blog can involve the parents in the teaching.

Of course, you can’t take for granted that all pupils have a computer with internet at home but I do think we can be sure that all the pupils know how to use it and in one way or another they can easily get in touch with a working computer. If not in their home, there are computers with internet in school, library and even in most mobile phones.

How blogs can be used by teachers and pupils:

Like I mentioned before, this blog can be used like a learning platform. The teacher would, of course, be the “head chef” for the blog though the pupils and parents will have full access to it. The teacher can post information about tasks and lessons and the pupils can ask questions to the teacher or the other pupils.

Just to show you my thoughts about this blog I made a blog for fun (at www.blogg.se) and created different categories to different kinds of topics. When I, the teacher, post something on the blog I can choose to place it in the right category. For example if I want to post something about the content in next English lesson I place it under the category “Lessons”. In that way the pupils can easily navigate on the blog and find the information that they are looking for. Here are some categories that I made:

· Contact – contact information to me, the teacher, and the pupils email addresses so that they can email each other.

· Discussion – the pupils can discuss things at the blog like tasks, and this goes under the category Discussion

· Homework and tasks – here can the pupils find homework and tasks that they have to do. It would of course also be given to them in school. But it can be a good thing if someone is sick and wants to know what the homework is for next lesson.

· Lessons – here I would post a lesson planning so that the pupils can see what we are going to do at next English lesson.

· News – perhaps I am sick one day, to inform my pupils I can write this on the blog.

· Questions and concerns – if the pupils have any question or concern about something. It could be questions about a test or something like that.

· Timetable – what time the lesson starts and in which room the lesson is in can be find here.

Considerations

One thing to have in consideration is that you can´t count on the pupils to always keep themselves updated by looking at the blog. I think that there will always be one group who will definitely use the blog to communicate with other pupils and the teacher and also keep themselves updated but there will also be one group who will not bother to check the blog for updates about lessons and homework. Therefore the teacher cannot rely on just the blog; practical information will also need to be given by the teacher when meeting the pupils IRL.

Thursday, 24 March 2011

Learning English through a blog

The internet is full of sources of learning English through ICT and the selection of places to participate in activities and games are great. In school we have to have a purpose with the selection and we have to think how the information is being shown for the students on the site and who it is who want to send a message through the site.

I have been going through a website that supposedly is designed for students to learn and practice English as a foreign language in Japan, but the site also encourage young native speakers (English) to play the games and learn from the activities. I do not want to criticize the website, because I am sure that many children can learn something from it, but I would not use these kinds of websites in my English teaching classroom. The reasons are first of all that the games ask you to complete different quizzes and will off course only provide you with right or wrong answer and no explanation. If you happen to answer wrong you get minus points, leading to that this could be a very negative experience for the student if he/she can not complete one question, and looses all the points he/she already made.

I also question why we need to use a computer to play games like “Hangman” or “Matching pairs”, when those are perfect examples of activities for children to communicate around in pairs or groups. Along with “Hangman” the board game “Guess who?” is a fantastic way to communicate, describe and be comfortable while learning. “Guess who?” can also be transformed and the pictures can be changed with different themes and why not play the game live with the students being the “bricks”?
(foto by:unloveablesteve, flickr.com)
(picture posted according to copyrights)

I would want my students to communicate to learn English. I want them to talk, write and explore how to use the language in a creative way and that is why I would use a blog in the English education. For the students to have their own blog would give them the opportunity to write in the blog about matters that they believe is important and to use the English language for something that they are interested in. The blog posts will also be up for discussion with the class and social, global and multimedia ethics would be thought. Many schools and classes write articles and make newspapers, to use the blog we would enter a more environment friendly zone and also gives the parents the opportunities to have a direct access to the children’s development and work.

I am also very keen on the idea to have the blog on the class website (where information, forms, homework and week letters and planning would be posted) so that is will be a natural part of what they already would be used to. To create a website like that you can very easy use weebly.com ( http://education.weebly.com). Smart, environment friendly and easy for most of the families today, who use email and internet in work and in private everyday. For those families who do not have the opportunities to enter the website at work or at home will off course be provided with a paper copy of the news and the weekly letter, so no obligations, no pressure for families.


In short the resource would be a blog created at either weebly.com or blogger.com or any other free blog network. The blog will work as forum to post text, poems, news, work and information about other activities that happened in the English classroom. The students know that there is a receiver for their work, and will therefore make a bigger effort when creating. The students will always have the opportunities to publish their work and that will make them proud. To make this work we need a computer with internet access and the above mentioned blog account (and possibly a digital camera to post pictures on the blog to make it visually come alive)



For me as a teacher I will have access to all the texts written by each student in one place, giving me the opening to easy evaluate and to see progress in the work. The blog would be a tool for helping the students to see their own progress, with will help me as a teacher to motivate them. Me, as the teacher also has the responsibility to make sure that no pictures of the children (without parental approval) are being posted and that all text is correct and representative is the blog.


The students will write and publish real information, example a post about last week’s fieldtrip, give grades on the food in the cafeteria, tell about something they find important and discuss world news etc. the students will know that they always have a receiver and will be published and that their job is important and will not just end up in a pile or draw of old texts (like too many texts do now unfortunately). Education and knowledge about layout, fonts and esthetics will also be a part of the blog. How do we attract readers? How can we make the post look as good as possible? The students will feel important and the work they do will always feel meaningful.

POSTED BY: THERESE BOLIN

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Photo Story- an ICT resource

About Photo Story
This software from Microsoft is free of charge and can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/photostory. The computer needs to be prepared with Windows XP or Windows 7. It also requires that Windows Media Player 10 is installed.

The program makes it possible to provide presentations through speech, music, text and photos. When creating a new story, the first step is to import the pictures you want to use. These can be your own productions as well as photos found on the Internet. The webb site www.fotofinnaren.se has an extended selection of material, which is free to use for educational purposes. There is also an opportunity to add different effects to the chosen pictures, as well as text and music. The program is prepared with different pieces of music, but if not finding anything suitable, a suggestion is to look at www.multimedia.skolverket.se/Arkiv/Musik/ for further options. In the flow of the story making, you will eventually come to the "recording point". This is where you add your voice to the photos and it can be redone until you are satisfied with the result.

Photo Story can be used by younger learners as well as by older pupils. The creation will be a product of the learners´ present level of knowledge and skills. When used by teachers, the topics and language can be adapted to fit the specific group who will take part of the presentation.How Photo Story can be used by teachers
First of all, I think that this is a good tool when introducing a new topic or theme. The presentation does not have to reveal the actual topic, but can be built up for the pupils to guess. Clues will be given from the recorded voice and the pictures will serve as support for meaning and understanding. The same goes when using the program for storytelling. It can then be used as a listening activity, with included pre- and post tasks. Digital presentations can also be good starters for different discussions in the classroom.

The children´s own and final productions can be published on, for example, YouTube. Once they are avaliable on the Internet, they are items of public opinions. This gives an opportunity to have a discussion that highlights an appropriate behavior when commenting other peoples´ pieces of work, and the value of constructive criticism verses condescending comments. Due to the stories inclusion of pictures, a discussion about copyrights will have its natural place.

This way of working has the advantage of creating a rather informal learning situation. The pupils are allowed to pick up and produce language under fun and relaxed circumstances, which is beneficial to the motivation and thus the whole learning process. The digital stories can be contributions to portfolios used for assessment. It will give the teacher a chance to catch the learners´ pronunciation skills. When used as assessment material, the whole working process should be considered though. Not just the final result.How Photo Story can be used by learners
This program is an excellent way for young children to get intouch with computers for learning purposes. It is simple to use and no pre-knowledge is required. Clear instructions and support from the teacher should be enough when making their own digital presentations. Producing a story offers opportunities to practice speaking, pronunciation and writing. The recording allows the learners to really listen to the own voice, which may lead to an awareness of the pronunciation and the importance of it. When consuming someone else´s story, careful listening is required. This gives the pupils a chance to practice and develop this skill.

The final result of a Photo Story is a very concrete outcome. In the end it will, hopefully, make the children feel proud of what they have created. YouTube publishes will make it accessible to parents and friends. This might push the pupils to make an extra effort.Other considerations when using Photo Story
As concerning all teaching and learning, this way of working includes both advantages and disadvantages. There will be children who are less comfortable with having the own voice recorded for everyone to listen to. It is, indeed, a rather exposed situation. This can be softened up if the topic is familiar and out of interest. Since the access of computers usually is rather limited in schools, one idea is to let the pupils work in pairs or small groups, put together out of common interests.

There is a risk that computer work is considered to be less important than ordinary teaching. Explicit information of the learning purposes and the expected outcomes is one way to decrease that risk.

A website as an ICT resource – LearnEnglish Kids (British Council)

The resource I have chosen to tell you about is British Council's user-friendly website LearnEnglish Kids, which is designed for children who are learning English as a second or foreign language.


You can find the website here:


http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/


On LearnEnglish Kids there are five main sections:

• The game section, where you will find online activities and games about numerous different topics. You can play games just for the fun of it, like "Take That, Teacher" where you collect points by hitting teachers with paper aeroplanes, or you can play language games that are more obviously focused on language learning like labeling pictures, quizzes, finding words in puzzles and practise spelling in English.
• The listen and watch section, where you will find videos and online activities that are designed to practise listening skills, as well as songs and animated stories especially written for children. To make it easier to find songs and stories that are suitable for your class, every song and story has a level tag stating if it is "easy", "medium" or "not so easy". You can also find rhymes and tounge twisters here, and you could even record yourself saying them.
• The read and write section, where you will find worksheets that you may download and use in the classroom. This section also contains a feature that is called "word of the week", where a new word is introduced by a short video every week (as the name implies). A sub-section called "Your turn" in this section is designed to encourage children to contribute to the site by writing about different things that catches their interest.
• The make section, where you will find online activities that allows you to create your own stories or for example design your own superhero. Here you can also download crafts worksheets and watch videos of children making some of the things described in these sheets.
• The explore section, where you could watch an introduction video how to use LearnEnglish Kids and where different things can be found on the site. You can also find links to other websites that are suitable for children learning English.

In order to use LearnEnglish Kids you need a computer connected to the Internet and the freeware Adobe Reader that easily can be downloaded from this adress:
http://get.adobe.com/se/reader/
How teachers and pupils can use LearnEnglish Kids
For teachers, LearnEnglish Kids really can be an invaluable source of material to use in the classroom. The great number of topics to choose from could work as an inspiration to create whole themes, but you can of course also search for exercises that are suitable for just one particular lesson. If you want to use a story or a song you can choose if you want it to be texted or not, and you can also control the speed by pausing (for songs) or clicking the "next"-button (for stories). Most of the stories and songs also have following worksheets that you may download and use with your pupils, as pre- during- or post-tasks. If there are many words in them that are new to the pupils you could prepare them before the viewing.
Because of the varied content of the site you can use it with pupils aged 7 to 13, but of course you have to adjust your chioces to your own particular group of pupils and their current level. Something that works with one group of children might be too hard or childish for another one, even if they are in the same age.
To create your own user account and become a member of the site you need to be 13 years old or younger. If you want your pupils to use LearnEnglish Kids by themselves there are a couple of house rules to go through (regarding their expected behavior on the site) before they sign up. You don't have to be a member to use it though, but if you are you are allowed to post comments and create your own avatar. The possibility to write and post comments is something I really like about this site, because it provides a great opportunity for pupils to use their new language in an informal way and interact with children all around the world.
When the pupils have been introduced to the site they could use it at home, playing the games or listening to the stories of their own choice, whilst they are learning at the same time.
Other considerations when using LearnEnglish Kids
If you want to play songs and stories in front of a larger group you should have the computer connected to a projector, to make sure that all pupils are able to se everything. And if you want your pupils to use the site on their own there is, of course, the issue about the number of disposable computers.
Another thing to have in mind is that you should have a clear learning purpose when you are using this site in your teaching, so it doesn't become just an emergency solution when you want to keep your pupils occupied.