Tag: TESOL
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Professional Development: Cultivating rather than Training
Last Tuesday, November 18th, I had the pleasure to present in a Cambridge University Press panel at the BETT Leadership Summit. Here’s the full version of my very condensed talk about a topic that is dear to me. In the past, when I thought about teacher training in the Educational Technology realm, it was in…
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TESOL 2014 – Snapshots
I could be here focusing on the interesting ideas that I learned from presenters in the TESOL Conference 2014, but having the snapshots, quick notes I took during some sessions, might give you the chance to come across interesting references, links and people that will inspire you. Some topics that caught my attention: Many Intersections…
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TESOL 2014 – mLearning: From Mobile to Learning
TESOL 2014: From Mobile to Learning from Carla Arena My presentation in TESOL 2014 was part of a great multicultural colloquium about mlearning contexts around the world. Even in such different contexts, such as in the US, India and Japan, there’s still so much in common, mainly in terms of iPad rollout programs and infrastructure…
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Cultural Capsule: Amazing Interactive Website
I have an aunt, tia Mercês, who is incredible passionate and knowledgeable about everything art-design-related. She is all for building local communities of artisans to make their lives a decent one that goes much beyond survival. She wants to empower people through their skills, traditions and passions. Yesterday, she sent me some some stunning…
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Teaching in a Brave New World: From Digital to Tangible
Soon, we will have another BrazTESOL Brasilia seminar for the local educational community. The main topic of our seminar is “Teaching in a Brave New World”, which entices me to connect it to what I’ve been talking about in my presentations, the need for us, teachers, to explore new digital possibilities in the classroom without…
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The Image Conference – Kieran Donaghy’s Short and Sweet
I had the pleasure to watch him in action twice this year. Kieran Donaghy, one of the Keynote Speakers in our BRAZTESOL Brasilia Image Conference, shared wonderful video ideas for the EFL classroom. Short and sweet were the videos he presented and inspired the Brazilian educators. Everybody left the room with a refreshed perspective…
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On the Ed Tech Radar – Free Online Professional Development Opportunities in October
Stay at the comfort of your home or keep yourself comfortable in your office, but don´t miss two great professional development opportunities that you can access from wherever you are in the world for free. October 12th – TESOL CALL-IS & IATEFL LEARING TECHNOLOGIES SIG Online Conference It starts at 2pm GMT /…
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On the mLearning Radar – Creating on iPads
I´ve just come across this box of mlearning treasures that an art teacher/teacher trainer has put together. Though the focus is on digital art, many ideas can be adapted for the language classroom. http://drydenart.weebly.com/creating-on-ipads.html Mrs. Fuglestad has also created a Smore page with ideas for ipad creation. What I think could be the…
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Making Homework Assignments Smarter for your Students and their Brains
One of my favorite bloggers, Annie Murphie Paul, has written a post about homework that every educator should consider as a guideline for better learning opportunities. Her claim, based on Neuroscience and Psychology research, entails making better use of strategies that are effectively proven to have an impact on learning. Annie mentions three strategies…
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On the Ed Tech Radar – A Learnist Web2.0 Resource for Educators
I´ve already mentioned Learnist as an interesting learning playlist tool that can be used by educators and learners. This Learnist is one educators will love, with all kinds of digital resources in one single place. http://learni.st/users/bryanNchrissie/boards/4090-web-2-0-tools-for-the-classroom
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Introductions Practice in the EFL Classroom with Authentic Content
Besides using Haiku Deck app to create visually-appealing presentations, what if you used it with students to help them use language with content produced by real people. So, it is the old “this is..; she does this and that” with a twist in authenticity. Take, for example, this presentation: Created with Haiku Deck, the free…
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Images in the Classroom – Now and Then
I’ve always had this natural inclination to add images to whatever lesson I was teaching, and now even more so when I see the neuroscientific reason for doing it. James Zull, in his book “the Art of Changing the Brain”, mentions that “Our concrete experience contains much of the information we need for understanding, because…
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A Teen Educator Failing Miserably
For some, I might seem confident and a bit tech-savvy.However, with teens it seems that I’m bond to failure. That’s how I feel so often. Teaching them is like a roller coaster. Yes, don’t get me wrong! Sometimes I fear I won’t reach them. Every time I prepare my classes I have the feeling that…
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IATEFL Conference 2013 Ed Tech Highlights
IATEFL was just some days ago, but things get so hectic when we get back that it seems that it was so long ago… The highlights of an international conference like IATEFL is always related to the people you meet and talk to and the networking that takes place everywhere, on the streets, on Twitter,…
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mLearning – Evernote as a Trigger for Writing
In the Binational Center I work for writing is taken seriously. There is a program for all levels. For the Teens and Intermediate courses, students work on paragraphs, but when they get to the Advanced level, the requirement is more demanding. Learners are exposed to different kinds of genres and are supposed to hand in…
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mLearning – Turn your Ipad into an Interactive Board
Educreations, Showme, Screenchomp are simple and multifaceted for the language classroom. These free screencasting apps have multiple possibilities, ranging from recording students’ dialogues or letting them freely talk about a subject as they show on the screen what they are exploring. There’s drawing, typing a text or inserting an image while recording. The students can…
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Taking Learning Into a Visual Experience Through Infographics
Evolving, progressing, developing. Not always an easy task, mainly for very busy English teachers who have heavy schedules, different groups with varied age range and levels of proficiency. But still, they are up to the challenge of after a long day of work to come to a Teacher Development Course to keep improving to become…