GOODBYE dad

I was exploring youtube looking for songs by Nouvelle Vague, when I stumbled upon Waves and this lovely video. While watching it, I had all kinds of feelings: awe, sadness, loss , freedom and finally happiness. I HAD TO SHARE IT WITH YOU. After suffering from Alzheimer for 4 years, my dad passed away 15 days ago. He lived a long productive life and I´m relieved he´s stopped suffering.
This video is my goodbye to you, dad. Go in Peace! Love you.

I am 60

http://iam60.puma.com/#EN/

After reading messages at the Images4education Ning (Bob Sprankle´s message) , I learned about a very funny tool for playing with photos. You upload your photo and can see yourself in different hairstyles, accessories. It´s really fun.





How can we use this with students?

• You could make a slideshows of pictures you´ve created with iam60 and use it when teaching how to describe people physically.
• You could also ask students to do the same with one of their photos, write a description, and then publish it in a class blog or a personal webpage.
• If you´re using edmodo, you could do the same described above and ask students to share photo (edited) and description w/ the group.

Any other ideas?

Memorizing vocabulary

Learning vocabulary is always a challenge to language learners. I´d like to share two sites which can be extremely helpful to students when studying. Both sites let you create word flashcards for free.

The 1st one is Cramberry. It´s very simple. You sign up for free and then can create sets of word cards (front + back).

Cramberry: Studying Made Easy via kwout

The second one, is my favourite. I´ve been using it with my EFL intermediate students. I´ve created sets with the vocab they are supposed to know for their English exams and make it available to them. I also use the different exercises in the set in class on the interactive whiteboard as a warmer.

Flashcards, vocabulary memorization, and studying games | Quizlet via kwout

This is how it works: you create a set with words + definitions or questions + answers. Then the website generates 5 memorization exercises for the vocabulary set. If your students sign up, you can even see who has done the exercises and their score. This is a set I created about vocabulary to describe people.

Describing people flash cards | Quizlet via kwout

Tutorial1: Promethean e-board

This is a tutorial I´ve made using DIMDIM to help teachers start using the Promethean e-board. We´re giving a face 2 face training but I wanted to have a tutorial so that teachers could refer to later on.



TUTORIAL 1 - Using basic tools
TUTORIAL 2 - How to make flipcharts

Video: Muto a wall-painted animation

I´ve just come across an interesting animation in VIMEO and wanted to share here. In the description it says it was made on walls in Buenos Aires and Baden. Watch and see if you like it.It´s called MUTO and was made by BLU


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Trip: Mato Grosso + Foz Iguaçu

I´d like to share pictures taken during our trip in January 2009. Our first stop was Cuiabá in Mato Grosso, Brazil. It was a 12-hour-trip by car. The temperature was milder than usual, it was 25°C. We visited friends and also traveled to Chapada dos Guimarães in order to take the kids to the beautiful waterfalls there. Second stop: Tangará da Serra. We lived in Tangará da Serra for 10 beautiful years when my children were born. We visited friends for 3 days.

Third stop: Foz do Iguaçu (Paraná - south of Brazil). We had to sleep somewhere in the midle of the way but got to Foz do Iguaçu after 17 hours driving. The city is on the border of Brazil/ Paraguay/ Argentina. It´s the second city with more foreigners in Brazil and has wonderful places to visit: Itaipu dam, Iguaçu falls, the borders, a Mosque, a Budhist temple and many more. As a whole we travelled about 4,000 km in 9 days. Yes, Brazil is huge!

Hope you enjoy the pictures I´ve added to this voicethread.

Screentoaster

After reading a tweet, I decided to try out http://screentoaster.com for making screencasts. I used it to talk about the sidebar of the blog but I don´t know why the sound disappeared in the middle of the recording.

Advantages
- you don´t have to download any program
- it shows the movement of the mouse, audio and webcam image
- easy to upload to screentoaster site w/ a simple click ( took 10 min) and provides you with the URL and the embed code.
- you can also publish it in youtube.
- you can maximize the screencast and see it in full screen.