Listening dictations

While having a look at Bob Palmer´s blog ELTportal and exploring his links, I found out this site which is perfect for listening.

Listen and Write - Dictation via kwout

It´s called Listen and Write and has various authentic listenings in different levels. Students listen to it and try to rewrite the sentences spoken.

Another wonderful place for listening is THIS ONE where you listen to specific lines from movies and have to unscramble the words given at the bottom. It´s great fun!
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/michel.barbot/hotpot/movies.htm

Dead Poets' Society (1) dps1.mp3 via kwout

Anglesonline is another great source for listening practise but this time with images. You watch scenes and answer comprehension questions. CLICK on the icon CINEMA and you´ll be able to see activities for different levels.

English Online France - offers various listening dictations I`d like to mention here.

English Online France - Movie Trailers: Free EFL / ESL Listening exercises via kwout

English Online France - TV Commercials: Free ESL/EFL listening exercises via kwout

You can find

• Beginner dictations
• Telephone expression dictations
• student´s introductions
• TV commercials
• Fairy tales dictations
  
• and so on

And finally, elllo.org (elllo , yes three Ls). At elllo you can find mixers (6 different speakers talk about the same topic), interviews, listening games, talking points ...
Enough listening for a life time. If you have an interactive board try one of the listening games in class, students love it.

SKY News

I´ve just discovered that Sky News provides embeddable news reports. I see great potential in using this in class blogs. Have a look at the video below. Imagine students could watch it and answer comprehension questions or even discuss the topic. In order to get the embed code,click on the play button, then on menu, embed, copy to clipboard and you´ve got the code to publish the video in your blog. So simple!

A blog to help teachers create their own blogs

I´d like to share a blog I created last year in order to train teachers at the school I work at. We had two workshops in which I introduced them to the basics of blogging. I created the blog in order to provide them with written instructions they could refer to later on and repeat the tasks we developed during the workshop.
http://bloggingteachers.blogspot.com/

I learned a lot about blogging reading tutorials, asking people questions and trying out stuff. I guess if you like reading and are really interested in trying out blogging, the BLOGGINGTEACHERS blog might be helpful. It gives detailed instructions on how to start a blog, how to add pictures, audio, chat boxes and other widgets.

The week / year in pictures

I was reading the blog Free technology for teachers when I came across this wonderful idea for using images. MSNBC has published some slideshows featuring the most important facts which happened during the week and I thought this activity could be really interesting for EFL learners as well.

Why not show some slideshows as an example and then ask sts to make their own slideshows using pictures or cartoons featuring "The week in my life" or "The year in my life" or even "The year in my country"? That would be interesting.

Christmas message

I´ve made two Christmas messages this year. One using Outshouts and the other using Animoto , inspired by Carla Arena´s Christmas message. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and may God grant us wonderful moments in 2009.

This one is from outshouts. You choose a video you would like to send and record an introductory message using your webcam. It´s really fun.



http://animoto.com/play/hINIOtVYSVQ93C1yW1S1RQ/greetings/holidays2008

Edmodo tutorial

I was meaning to make a tutorial in order to help colleagues to see how edmodo works and I tried utipu but unfortunately I couldn´t manage to see the video I had recorded. The feature from utipu which interested me is the possibility to easily send the video to youtube. ADVANTAGE: can send tutorial to youtube. DISADVANTAGE: have to download program to your computer and :( couldn´t see the video I recorded.

Then, I decided to try screencast-o-matic to make the tutorial.
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cjlqhcnBd

Pownce X Edmodo

I´ve already written about Pownce and how I loved the possibility of easily sharing files with a group of people but after I got the message that Pownce would be closing I decided to give http://edmodo.com a try. Carla Arena was the first one who talked to me about it as she used it with a group of teachers during a course.

These are some of the features which I found in common with Pownce and some differences as well.
*Both in pownce and edmodo you can easily share files (pictures, songs, videos, links, documents) with a group of people or with an individual. An advantage edmodo has is the possibility to share any application which has an embed code, like the examples below.















sharing a slide show sharing a video sharing a voicethread



*Both offer you the possibility of creating groups to aggregate the people you want to share with. If you are the creator of the group (instructor) you get a code you give to the people you invite to join the group. The code feature makes edmodo much safer than Pownce, in the sense that you have the control with whom your students will be in contact with. As the manager of the group you also have the power to select the messages you find adequate for the group (clicking in public). Another positive point is the possiblility of filtering the incoming messages by groups or reading all the messages together. Something I miss in edmodo is the possibility of filtering the messages per person by just clicking on their picture as I could do in Pownce.


Great advantages for using edmodo with students:
- you can have a quick channel of communication with your students.
- language students will have plenty of writing and reading practise using the tool.
- you can send assignments to the group and grade them.
- you can send alerts.
- you can share a course calendar with the group.
- you can put your students in contact with other groups to develop joint projects.

Another thing I miss in edmodo is the impossibility to customize my layout, but nothing is perfect, right? I´ll definitely use edmodo with my groups next term.

This is a tutorial Carla Arena has made about edmodo

TUTORIAL

Edublog Awards 2008

I´ve just received an e-mail from Nik Peachey saying that he had nominated this blog for one of the categories of the Edublog Awards 2008. I couldn´t believe my eyes when I read the message and like I said in the message I sent him back, I feel deeply honored to have been nominated by someone I admire so much. In fact, Nik, YOUR work with your 3 blogs is an inspiration to me. THANK YOU!!!!!!

Below is a part of his post where he nominates various blogs:I agree with Nik in his nomination for the Best Resource sharing Blog: Larry Ferlazzo´s blog is a reference to many teachers in the world who are willing to plung into the edutech world.

YouEmbedTube

I´ve just discovered this link via Nik Peachey´s twitter. With YouEmbedTube you can make a video carousel with tags you add or even with the videos from your youtube account like I´ve just done. I´ve also found out that Nik also has a youtube account I´ve just signed up to follow. I find it very interesting to explore what people select from youtube, this way discovering stuff I´m interested too. Check out my carousel. My youtube account.



HOW CAN YOU USE THIS WITH STUDENTS?
If you have a class blog, the video carousel is a great way of sharing a selection of interesting videos with your students.
Any other ideas?

Most used tools

I haven´t written for so long that I felt the need to say why. First, let me share with you how my interaction with my computer works. Once I turn it on, these are the sites I visit/ use everyday.

First, I go to my orkut page and have a look if I have forgotten any birthday. I also have a look at the photos + videos people have published recently. Orkut is huge in Brazil and it´s a great way to keep social contact with my students, friends and family.


Secondly, I open my twirl and check twits. I see who is online by checking who has twitted recently and explore links people suggest.





Then I open Pownce in order to check what my colleagues (from the school I work at) have been producing and sharing. We use Pownce to share ppts, exercises, lesson plans, videos we plan to use in class. I also check what my students have been writing (my students have been interacting with students from Mexico) .

• I check my e-mails in yahoo by quickly browsing and selecting what is urgent to read and reply.

This is what I manage to do on a daily basis. At this time of the year, I´m so worn out and stressed thinking of the hundreds of things I still have to do that I end up not having much time to post here.

These are some of the projects I´m involved with recently / and my priorities:
- I have been trying to learn how to use the e-board which has been recently installed at school.
- I have to complete my online training for Cambridge examiners before the 20 Nov.
- I need to find time to give a hand at the planning of our session at the next EVO.
- My students have been interacting with Mexican students (Elena Delgado´s) so I have to keep an eye on that and keep it going.

Well, have to go now. Hope these weeks go by VERY FAST.

Video Quiz: Films based on Novels

I´d like to share a video I´ve put together for a class of mine next week. It shows excerpts of 6 movie trailers of films based on novels. Students will watch it and try to identify the films. The activity will be used as a warmer for a lesson we´ll be talking about novels.

WOICES - Part 2 - Jericoacoara

It came as a great surprise to me to hear that the voice I had created in http://woices.com is one of the most popular echoes. I talked about a glacier I visited in Argentina. In fact I just wanted to try out the tool and I really enjoyed not only making it but also listening to other echoes (recordings).

So what you do is, you create a free account, select on goggle maps the location you would like to refer to, upload an image, record you audio and that´s it, you have made an echo. It offers you an embed code which you can copy to add it to your page. The tool is really interesting not only for EFL teachers but also to geography and history teachers. I can see a great potential for projects here. Check out my woices:

1st echo- PERITO MORENO - Argentina


2nd echo - JERICOACOARA - Brazil

EVO Images try out

I decided to try out some of the sites we´ve been bookmarking for EVO (Electronic Village Online) 2009 and see how they look.

• This is a tool made using FlickrIn- you select the tag, choose how many lines you want, generate the image and then grab the code.
  

How to use it with students?
Why not ask them to describe the pictures to each other?
They could also write a story based on the images.
Or describe one picture for their partner to guess the right picture.


this is a GUESTBOOK you can add to your web page from imageloop People can leave their messages and pictures.

A friend of mine used a guestbook in her blog to have her students post pictures and descriptions of their pets. The project looked really cute.

Playing with photo editing

Yesterday, we literally had a delicious class. We celebrated 4 birthdays in one day, mine, Thais´, Marcelo´s and Julia´s. Each student brought either a snack or a drink and we used the last minutes of class to have a GOOD TIME. Now that I decided to share the pictures, here I am playing with some photo editors. It´s such great fun!

First , using slide.com, I added a message to a picture where Karol appears eating one of the snacks

Then, with dumpr.net, I created a scene where someone is taking our picture (the niver people) ahahahaha

Created with dumpr.net - fun with your photos

some more effects from slide.com

Cindy and Thais in a polaroid poster made with dumprnet

Created with dumpr.net - fun with your photos


Blowing 4 candles, collaborative work!

Created with dumpr.net - fun with your photos

Imagechef- IMAGES

ImageChef - Customize Photos, Clip Art via kwout

This is a great site I´m exploring and wanted to share with other teachers. At imagechef.com you can find all kinds of templates to personalize your message or create an image to illustrate a post. You can personalize a birthday cake and send the image to a friend, use photo frames for your photos, create a great visual for your poetry, find animations, and much more.

WOICES - real listening

woices.com - where the words go via kwout

Woices is a site where people record their impressions of places they are at the moment or places they´ve been to. Unfortunately to EFL teachers, there are very few recordings in English, most of them are in Spanish but I guess as people start using it we´ll have more listening material in English. Once you like an "echo" you can get an embed code for your webpage.

How can we use this site with students?

• you can ask students to choose a place in the map, listen to a recording and then talk about it in class.
• you can ask students to write about a place they´ve been to and then recordtheir echo at WOICES.
• students then can listen to each other echoes and write about the most interesting ones.
• Any other ideas?

This is an echo I´ve found about the Galapagos Island (it´s in Spanish).



This is my very first echo about the "Perito Moreno Glacier"



Click on the ZOOM to have a better look at the picture.

Me - SUPERGIRL

This is a funny site I found yesterday. After downloading your picture, you star your own "Super Hero video", it´s a bit strange though. I have no idea how we could you use with students except for entertaining purposes. Wanted to share any way.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

WEB TOOLS for language learners

"Web tools to develop projects with language students"

This flowgram was meant to share some web tools I´ve been using with my students in order to develop projects (long-term/ short-term). Some are great to practise reading/writing and others speaking/ listening.


http://www.flowgram.com/p/4jtztzwvrpjvd7/

Two SONG TOOLS

Have just discovered two cool ways of sharing songs in your blog. First, it is by getting a link in TWITTER from someone who has blipped in blip.fm.From the link you can get an embed code to add it to your blog, like I´ve just done.



The other is the scrool tool offered by stlyrics for the songs you want to embed in your blog. I found it so cool to be able to listen and see the lyrics at the same time.


Lyrics Stereophonics - Maybe Tomorrow lyrics

Week 1- LWC course

This is week 1 of the online course being offered at the "Learning with Computers" community led by Erika Cruvinel and Ronaldo Lima. This week, we are exploring two tools: Proprofs and Script-o.

This is a quiz I´ve created using Proprofs for my upper-intermediate students. The quiz aims at helping students work with word formation, showing them the different variation a word can have. After you create the quiz, you can get the link to your exercise so that you can e-mail it to students or get the embed code to post it in your blog or webpage.

Word Formation - UIA 2C… » Quiz Question Maker

I´ve started creating a quiz with Script-o but found it a bit more complicated than Proprofs. Let´s see if I work the problems out.

LWC course: ONLINE EXERCISES

The "Learning with Computers" community is offering a new course on creating online material. This session is being led by Erika Cruvinel and Ronaldo Lima, EFL teachers in Brazil. If you´re interested in joining this free course, here are the instructions:

• first, join the LWC community at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningwithcomputers/

by clicking on SIGN UP, then wait for your approval.

• as soon as you´ve been approved, you can start doing the weekly tasks at http://learningwithcomputers07.pbwiki.com/Online+Exercises

It´s a wonderful warm community of English teachers who learn with each other.

POSTCARD.FM

This is another interesting tool I´ve just found out in http://www.killerstartups.com

It´s very simple. YOu can upload any picture from your computer+ upload a song + write a message and finally send it to someone´s e-mail.
This is my trial postcard.fm http://www.postcard.fm/72d266

The image below is my trial:

POSTCARD.FM via kwout

So, here´s what I thought:

• you can have students send pictures, songs and messages to each other.
• you can also have students select pictures, a song that matches with the place and describe their dream place.
• You can ask students to write about the place they would like to be at that moment but can´t ( adding picture, song and message)
• Any other ideas?
  

Daily English Activities

Daily English Activities via kwout

Nik Peachey is a learning technology consultant and has just started a new blog for EFL/ ESL teachers and students. He writes about sites which can help students improve their English and also suggests specific tasks to be done.

Nik has an interesting way of writing. He tries out the tools he writes about and comes up with wonderful suggestions. I´m a confessed fan and have been reading both his personal blog and this new blog as well. Great idea and thanks for sharing your discoveries with us!

Blip.fm

Blip.fm | Global Music Radar | Page 1 of 1063 via kwout

For those who like music and meeting new people, blip.fm is the site for you. I decided to write about it only now because I´ve been noticing how much pleasure it gives me to discover and rediscover songs through people´s suggestions. You can give people (DJs) props for songs you like and also add them to your favorites. The image above was taken from my blip.fm channel. BLIP.FM is also connected to other social network sites such as twitter, pownce, friendfeed, so whenever you blip a song, your updates go directly to the sites you´ve selected in your settings.

Give blip.fm a try!

How can we use this site with students?

• Well, I guess if you discover your group is really interested in music, and most of them do, then you could have your students share their favorite songs with each other.
• They can use the blip box to write about the song or the band using English.
• Any other ideas?
  

Firefox SHORTCUTS

I know many of us are aware of these keyboard shortcuts but many of us are not. And this is the reason for sharing these shortcuts that have been making my computer life easier. I can´t recall where I learned them from (I know it was from a blog) but they were a true find! Hope you enjoy them too. So you are a Mozilla Firefox user, here it goes.

New Features in Animoto

Using animoto is incredibly easy! You can make 30-seconds videos (longer ones are not free but the fee is cheap) using your images and music from their library or your own computer. Then you can get the embed code, download it to your computer or export it to youtube. Short and sweet! Check it out!

This one I made with animoto and exported it to my youtube account.

Video: The Zoo

This is one more video made by 11 year-old Brazilian students who are learning English with Flávia (a colleague) at the language institute where we work. Students drew the comics throughout the semester and then recorded the audio. This one is called "The Zoo".

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=KSSbY5XapHA

12 seconds

This is a site I had heard before but hadn´t tried yet, you need to have an invite though. You can record 12-second videos with your webcam or mobile, then post it or have it sent directly to twitter. So, instead of having written updates you can also use video.As you might have imagined 12 seconds is a very short time so you have to be very objective in what you say or show (just like in twitter). Just below is my first trial.

How can we use this tool with students?

Well, the best post I´ve read about this was written by Nik Peachey and my suggestion is that you go straight to his post to read all the great suggestion he´s given to teachers. Really worth reading.

• Nik Peachey´s post
  

testing 12seconds on 12seconds.tv

Exploring Larry Ferlazzo´s blog (Part 1)

One more time, here I go exploring Larry´s blog. This is a collection of sites I´ve selected from Larry´s blog to teach vocabulary.

Picture Vocabulary - different topics (picture + sound)
Phrasal verbs


CLOTHES
a cute song+ video about clothes (for children)
video about BUYING clothes
clothes GAME
video: What are you wearing today?


BODY
Body Parts (match words(sound) + picture)
Lots of body parts with picture + pronunciation
The human body (page explaining more parts of the body)



SPORTS
Sports Game (for 1 or 2 players, use keyboard for 1 player)
Match word+sound to the picture




FOOD
Presenting food (picture + sound)
food lesson on powerpoint video
Listening exercise for food
Tableware- picture + sound
food maize (listening activity)