Exploring PIMPAMPUM

PIMPAMPUM.net offers interesting flickrtoys.

• This week, I´m developing a project with students of mine with one of these tools: BOOKR. Students will create a photobook describing their best friend. We´ll start the task in the classroom where sts will write sentences about their best friend and imagine what kind of picture would be nice for each page (we´ll use pictures from flickr archive). I´ll demonstrate in class how to create the photobook and how to get the embed code for publishing it on a blog or webpage.

This is an example I´ve created to show them

• BUBBLR - with this tool you can make slideshows or comic strips with speech bubbles using picture from your flickr account or with flickr archive pictures. This is an example I got from the archive

• PHRASR - you can make slideshow from isolated words (from a vocabulary group) or from a sentence. Phrasr finds the right image for your word. It´s great for revising vocab. You can play it as a warmer and them ask sts to write all the words they can remember. Or you can use it to reinforce idioms, phrasal verbs, proverbs...

This is an example I´ve created w/ adjectives of PERSONALITY. (the word organized was misspelt)

• MEMRY - make a memory game out or flickr photos. Choose a topic (tag) and play the game. Tags I tried: animals, smiles, friends.With images of people, you can have sts play the game and describe the pictures of people they match.
  

Great links for EFL

This is nice stuff I´ve found in Larry Ferlazzo´s webpage today.


*a fortune cookie message generator (nice to send to friends)

*Fortune Sign Generator Click on this link to see my message.

*PREFIX online game (for 1 or 2 players)

*creating a PET E-MAIL

*BOOKR How to create a photobook with images from flickr. Example

EARTH hour 2009

This year more and more people around the world are joining the Earth hour. All you have to do is turn off the lights for one hour today (Sat 28 mar). In Brazil it will be from 20:30 to 21:30. Many cities in Brazil have joined the project and will turn off the lights of its famous monuments and public buildings. My kids told me they wanted to participate after watching a Brazilian commercial (included here). You know, I think the idea is fabulous, bringing people from around the world together and creating a reflection moment.
http://www.earthhour.org/home/

Earth Hour via kwout

This is a powerful video about the Earth hour from Youtube

http://www.earthhour.org/home/


Pictures tagged as earthhour. EARTHHOUR flickr slideshow

My CLASS BLOGS this semester

These are two blogs I´ve been using this semester. Originally, I created the blogs to archive extra material we´ve been planning to use in class with our students. It´s also a way to share in one place the videos and links with the other teachers. But as the semester moves on, students have also been using the blog for extra practice. The blogs are simple and were not meant for interaction but as a storage of online material.




http://intera109.blogspot.com
course book: New English File Intermediate















http://upperb109.blogspot.com
course book: Face2Face Upper Intermediate

eyePlorer : finding info

Just found this site in http://blog.go2web20.net/ . It´s a new way of finding information. YOu enter a term you´d like to look for, then you´ll see topics organized in a chart. Once you click on specific topics, you can read more about it and also drag the information you want to keep to the notepad to the right. Really nice site, worth trying! http://www.eyeplorer.com/eyePlorer/

Memorizing vocabulary: Part 2

Once again, here I am talking about a site which can help you memorize vocabulary.

This is my #2 tool for that purpose STUDYSTACK. My #1 is QUIZLET

I create sets/ stacks with vocabulary we cover during the semester and share it with students so that they can study at home. I also use some of the activities created by the sites in class using the e-board. The more different activities you use with the same vocabulary the more you remember them, right?

Why do I like STUDYSTACK?

With a simple list of questions + answer / or definitions + answer, the site generates several activities with the same vocab: hangman, unscramble words, crossword, wordsearch and others.

Flashcards: matching, hangman, crossword, word search, word scramble and flash cards via kwout

Reading magazines in English

I remember when I had to ask friends travelling abroad to kindly buy magazines in English for me as this was the only way I could read magazines written in English!!!!! Whenever I got a hold of the magazine, it felt like something precious to be savoured slowly and at its most.

Now, you can read magazines in any language you can imagine, online, FOR FREE!!! I´ve just come across a site via Nik Peachey´s blog which offers various magazines you can read online. You can experience magazines, leafing through pages, you can zoom in/out, you can even embed the magazine in your blog! It´s fantastic, isn´t it?
http://issuu.com/publications

SHAHI - Visual dictionary

Just found this site via Carla Arena´s blog - Collablogat0rium.

It´s a visual dictionary where you enter the unknown word and then get definitions with examples plus images from flickr which represent the word you´re looking for.
http://blachan.com/shahi/

You can also click on unknown words (sublinks) from the definitions and find their meanings too.The page keeps record of all your searches so that you can go back and re-check. I imagine it would look wonderful on the e-board. Fantastic tool!!!!!

Grammar Activity - GOING TO (predictions)

You can use this activity as a warmer after having taught Future verb tenses.

- Watch the video beforehand in order to select the best moments to pause it.
- Then, in class, whenever you pause the video, ask sts "What´s HE going to do next?" to elicit sentences with GOING TO.
- Show the part and see who guessed the right action.
- Do the same thing, at various moments of the video.

The video-activity is short, fun and interesting.

Grammar Activity - Past tenses

I used this activity last week to revise Past tenses: Past Simple, Past Continuous and Past Perfect.

• I cut the hand-out into slips and gave to each st. Then, students watched the video and had to complete the sentences using one of the Past tenses mentioned. I then revised the usages of each tense.

IA 1b Grammar Activity Simpsons

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work grammar past

Grammar Activity - USED TO

Inspired by Claudio Azevedo´s blog. I decided to share some simple activities I use with my students w/ videos from Youtube. Advantage: videos from youtube are accessible to almost everyone w/ internet in class and videos are short.

I used this video w/ a group after having taught the usage of USED TO (past habits)

WHILE watching: ask sts to make sentences w/ used to about the video
Ex: The man used to ......
The boy used to .........
AFTER watching: Write down some sentences sts have created.
Pairs make sentences about their past habits.

Grammar Activities w/ Movie Segments

I´d like to recommend a very good blog written by Claudio Azevedo from Brazil. He designs grammar activities to be used with film snippets. You can find a list of grammar topics and the links to the appropriate activity in the sidebar. He also provides the right scenes to anyone interested in using it. Claudio, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful ideas with us.

Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals via kwout

http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com/