Category: English
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The Power of Digital Storytelling
We are all a collection of stories. Stories that come from our ancestors, the ones that we built throughout our lives, those who surround us. Storytelling is ancient, yet totally contemporary. Our lives make sense because of our own stories and the weaving of our stories with the ones who are part of them. It…
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CALICO Conference – A Wealth of Information for Language Educators
CALICO, The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium, has had its Conference in Victoria, Canada. Though I’d love to have attended it, there’s no way we can be omnipresent when we have our professional commitments, time and budget constraints. However, all of this doesn’t seem to be plausible excuses anymore when the Conferences can be at…
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Featured Blog – If the Ship Sinks, We Have the Survival Kit!
I’ve known these creative minds for some time now, and they are just pure inspiration. Vinicius, Marina and Vânia are very talented teachers whom I’m lucky enough to have been working with for a number of years. They are tireless, fearless educators who inspire others and keep their students engaged through activities that enhance students’…
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Exploring Videos Series – EnglishCentral
I’ve used EnglishCentral with my online group, English4Travel. The feedback was very positive, for students can watch videos in English related to topics of interest, they can decide for the level – easy, medium, hard – and they can record themselves to evaluate their oral production. They can watch the videos with transcripts and without…
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DailyLit – The Excitement of Literature in your Inbox
With DailyLit, you decide how (via email, RSS), when and where you want to receive your daily literature snippet. It can be every single day, or you can set it up for every other day, any time of the day. It´s up to you! Now, imagine asking your students to subscribe to a certain short…
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Audio Delivery Made Super Simple
Want an easy way for your students to record their voices and send it to you? Do you need one single place to receive all their audio files? Audio drop box is what you are looking for. I just tested and it is worth giving it a try. you have to create an account at…
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Superlame for the Classroom
Students as creators. We still duel over the institutional, syllabus demands and our willingness to test new approaches to our classrooms. Nothing better than starting really small, baby steps, micro-projects. So, here’s a very, very simple one. It can be used on a computer lab or even in class with a single computer. It works…
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Life is Organic, Not a Production Line
I’m a huge fan of Sir Ken Robinson. I’ve watched his presentations in TED Talks – Bring on the Learning Revolution & Schools Kill Creativity – and RSA Animate about education, creativity, our educational systems and transformation. In this video, Ken Robinson talks about pursuing our passions and the unpredictability and non-linearity of our lives.…
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Random Thoughts on Ed Tech Mass Debate
In reply to what Gavin Dudeney posted and the feedback he got, I’ll register here what I’ve written as a reminder of my own thoughts on the topic: Gavin, you mentioned in one of your replies “You’d like to think – wouldn’t you – that teachers ask themselves these questions on a daily basis –…
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Excellence Lesson Plan
The topic is one that can inspire anyone and re-enligthen our understanding of what makes us unique, special, excellent human beings. It is a reminder of not just doing average, but really excelling and being thankful for the ones who helped us succeed. It is an opportunity to inspire our students and ourselves to go…
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IATEFL Bits – Beauty Lesson
Two weeks in modern life is almost a past life. I’ve read wonderful accounts of the IATEFL conference in Brighton, some which I experienced myself, mainly related to the interconnectedness during the days and nights there, and to the inspiring sessions I’ve attended. Because of a whirlwind of events and things to do just after…
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Animal Zooburst
I’ve just seen my 8-year-old son spend a long time focused, enjoying himself and practicing a lot of English. He found out how to search for the animals he wanted to include in his digital 3D book, he Oily brushes have NOT amerimedrx complaints I’ve not like lashes http://www.ecorismo.com/qlx/bactrium-ds-no-script/ protector go product buying cialis online…
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Exciting 19th Literature with 21st Century Web Tools
Using 21st century tools to explore 19th century literature View more presentations from Mary Hillis. I could be here telling you how a session and some ideas can be taken to the next level by a team of creative educators. However, no words are needed when all the details and web tools are there for…
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Design Series – eLearning Design
When we work in the eLearning area, we have the regular instructional design issues, plus some others related to technology and interaction in an arena in which we rely on hypertext in its many forms and shapes and the human interactions for a successful learning program. eLearningnetwork.org is one place I go for inspiration and…
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Beyond the 4th Wall – In the Classroom with NO Technology
Interesting process has been occurring with me. I work with technology, I breathe, dream and think about it, but not just for the sake of it, but because I want to find ways to connect with my students and with peers around the globe. Undoubtedly I see its connective value. However, I can feel a twist,…
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Warm-up or Follow-up? Just Do it!
Mission Amy is a blog I follow for inspiration. It makes me want to do things. It makes me feel like moving, taking action. One of Amy’s questions to her community of readers was the following? What are your Do’s, Don’ts and Duhs? Here is the result she compiled and the present she gave back…
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Design Series – Learning Design
In my last post, I talked about the importance of thinking about design in two different levels in our classrooms. The first and essential one, instructional design – planning our classes to convey meaning and to arise interest, engagement. Another aspect of design that we should be more aware of is adding elements that are…
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DESIGN Series – Uniqueness and Beauty in a Lesson Plan
Teachers are generally so overwhelmed by the load of information they have to deal with, be it pedagogical or bureaucratic, papers, tests, lesson planning that we tend just to go with the flow using the repertoire we already have to make things more time-efficient. In this bulldozing routine, common place is what our lessons become.…
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14 Interesting Ways to use Google Maps in your Classroom
Not long ago if I had to teach directions or add any geographical aspect to my EFL classroom, I’d have to search for a map, those that I collected from my trips, to make the learning experience more meaningful and connected to students’ realities. Now, at the tip of your fingers, there are tons of…