BERGMAN, J.; SAMS, A. (2012) Flip your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. International Society for Technology in Education, USA.
I'm very excited to share a new class project which is about to start. It's going to be a collaboration Brazil + Argentina. After contacting my PLN friends from our neighbour-country, Argentina, Jennifer Verschoor accepted the challenge.
We both have teenage students who are going to be in contact during 4 weeks.
What's the project about?
PROJECT: Hello, there!
TYPE OF LEARNING: Language
GOAL: participants will be able to develop communication skills in the English Language.
TARGET AUDIENCE: a group of teenage students (14-16) from Brazil and Argentina.
TECHNOLOGY EXPECTED: students will be using their own devices (cell phones, tablets or computers) to communicate in Edmodo.
STAKEHOLDERS: teachers, parents, directors.
DEADLINE: project will be developed during four weeks.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
18 students from Brazil will be paired up with 18 students from Argentina to communicate during 4 weeks.
Objective: to learn as much as they can about the other student and the place where he/she lives during this period of time. At the end of the 4 weeks, each student will write a report to the teacher expressing what they have learned.
Platform: students from both countries will join an Edmodo group. Both teachers, from Brazil and Argentina, will be the managers of the group. Students will be divided in small groups in Edmodo (pairs) where they can develop a conversation. Their communication can be via text, audio files, videos, photos using any kind of file they wish to attach to their messages. Teachers will have access to their communication the whole time.
Teachers' role: to get students in contact, divide them into pairs and manage their conversation. Students' messages don't need to be corrected by the teacher beforehand as the objective is not accuracy but the development of a conversation. However, the teacher can prepare activities to be carried out in class with some common mistakes observed (without identifying students).
Final Task: by the end of 4 weeks, each student should publish a report to their teacher, explaining how the communication took place and what he/she learned about the other student. The final report should contain at least 200 words and images/ videos to illustrate it.
There are several things I like about backpacking,but most of all I love being in contact with other backpackers and listening to their stories.
Our adventure this year was to the north of Argentina. My husband had been talking about visiting this part of the country for 4 years and this year it worked out. Once more, we traveled with our kids ( now not kids anymore ), each with a backpack (thanks Marcinha for lending us your backpack).
We started our adventure by car. We woke up very early in the morning and went by Piracicaba to pick my daughter up. Our plane left Brazil from the International Airport of Guarulhos. The first delay from a series, the flight from SP to Buenos Aires with Aerolineas was ok, apart from the snack they serve. It's not that it's bad but the thing is they never vary the snack, it's always the same thing, a ham and cheese sandwich , alfajor and a candy. We got a connection from B.A. to Cordoba and guess what, the same sandwich again.
We got to Cordoba at night and what a night! Nearly 40 degrees Celsius, BOILING. As you can imagine, not a perfect night for some rest and sleep. We met some interesting people there, two from Brazil and a group from Israel. The center of Cordoba is very beautiful with interesting historical buildings to visit. I've been told there are lots of beautiful places to visit nearby if you have more time. Well, not our case, the following day after walking around the city for the day, we got a "coche cama" bus to travel north to San Miguel de Tucuman.
Once we got to Tucuman, there was endless RAIN. Rain, rain, rain. We walked around the city centre which is quite nice but decided to got to Cafayate on the same day, to try to escape from the rain. The trip towards Cafayate is breathtaking. The bus goes up a green mountain in an endless zig zag. Cafayate was a wonderful surprise. We had planned to stay for 2 nights but ended up staying 3. The hostel (Rusty-k) was the best one I've stayed so far, extremely clean and with a wonderful backyard covered with vines. We enjoyed the atmosphere with very pleasant dinners my husband cooked. What to visit? We chose to visit a vineyard about 8 kms from the town where they produce the great wine YACOCHUYA. Although they have no wine tasting, it's worth the visit. The view is stupendous. We went by taxi but decided to come back on foot to enjoy the scene. Well, the first 5 kms was just fine, but the last 3 ... We got back to town, exhausted and my tennis shoes came apart. I had to buy new tennis shoes .The next day was dedicated to trekking at the "Quebrada de las Conchas" , a wonderful area full of mountains and red rocks. Good points about Cafayate, beautiful and pleasant city centre, we found a great restaurant which serves typical food (Los Hornitos) such as fantastic empanadas, great places to visit, delicious wine and perfect weather.
I was definitely sorry to leave Cafayate but it was time to move again. We traveled further north to Salta, which would be a stopover towards places such as Humahuaca, Tilcara and Purmamarca. The trip from Cafayate to Salta should definitely be done during the day due to the BEAUTIFUL, unrivalled scenery. Salta
was another place I enjoyed. The city centre comes to life in the evening when the historical buildings are illuminated by different coloured lights. The main square is THE PLACE where everyone wants to spend hours just strolling and observing people go by.
We then travelled to Humahuaca. The village is interesting , however, I was expecting more from the pictures we had seen. The highlight there was a very pleasant lunch we had at the oldest restaurant in the village, "Pinocho", where we had a delicious meal and the pleasure to listen to a group of musicians playing music and reciting poetry.
At Humahuaca we bought a bus ticket to Purmamarca to spend the day. We got to the bus station on time, however, we were told the buses were being kept outside the village blocked by a strike and we had to find a way to get to the bus on our own. There we went, running to grab a taxi. Once there, to our surprise the bus hadn't waited for us but fortunately there was another bus which would pass close to the entrance of Purmamarca. The bus left us about 4 kms from the village and once again, luckily a taxi stopped next to us and asked if we wanted to go to Purmamarca. Lucky me!
Purmamarca is in the region of the colourful mountains. The village is surrounded by mountains on all four sides and everywhere you look different shades of brown, red, yellow, green and grey come to life. The more we stayed in Purmamarca the more we regretted not staying longer, the main square is a great place to feel the atmosphere, there is a wide variety of hotels and hostels, the "mercado de artesanias" is varied and the weather is great. We wanted to go to Salinas Grandes but didn't have enough time so we just enjoyed the village and explored its surroundings.
The last stop was Salta, where we would catch our plane back to Brazil. The hostel where we stayed is very well located close to the bus station and just a few blocks from the main square which was my favourite spot. We bought some more wine to bring home, a few souvenirs and got ready to leave. Not to break the habit, the flight from Salta to Buenos Aires (Aerolineas Argentinas) was 2 hours and a half late which made us nervous as our connection back to São Paulo was the last flight to Brazil that day. When we got to Buenos Aires, they had already boarded the passengers and were calling our names. We ran, ran and ran but managed to catch our flight. However, once we got to São Paulo we saw that our backpacks hadn't been as fast as our feet, they had been left behind in Argentina and only got home a day later.
Some weeks ago, I was in Buenos Aires for a conference when I had the incredible pleasure to meet some Argentine Webheads who are very dear to me. Before the trip, we arranged to have dinner together and meet f2f for the first time.
We decided to meet at the hotel where I was staying in the center of city. First, came Vicky Saumell, all smiles, and full of stories to tell. I was anxious to talk to her about how she started using PBL with technology at a school in B.A. Then, Andressa and her husband arrived. A few minutes later, Jennifer Verschoor came into the lobby saying Claudia Ceraso was on her way and would meet us at the restaurant. We chose a restaurant nearby to enjoy some time together. Andressa and I shared a delicious bottle of red wine and we all had a great time. Once again, I was SO HAPPY to meet these teachers with whom I have so much in common but still had lots to learn about. I learned that Vicky has been teaching online for a University in Colombia . Jennifer is very busy with her M.A. in Technology and we both talked about our dream to attend the M. A. offered by Warwick University with Russell Stannard.Claudia told us she loves dancing tango. Girls, thank you so much for taking the time to come and meet us.
This is my second time in Buenos Aires and the more I discover about the city, the more I like it.
I´ve come to Argentina accepting Andressa Cardoso´s invitation for a joint presentation at ABS International Conference. Andressa lives in Goiânia, in the state of Goiás, I, on the other hand, live in Uberlândia, about 350 kms from where she lives.
Then, ¨How did you two prepare your presentation?¨ Cláudio Azevedo asked. ¨With Technology, my friend.¨ For the last 3 months, Andressa and I have been having frequent meetings in skype deciding what to present and sharing what each of us had prepared so far. We also built a wiki as support material to offer to attendees. We only met face to face, a few hours before our jont presentation in Buenos Aires.
Our chosen topic was ¨Homework assignments using Web 2.0¨. Andressa started the presentation talking about some theoretical background related to homework assignment and then I presented ¨The 10 Tasks Challenge¨, a project developed with my students last semester.
I´ve been in Argentina since the 24th August and have been enjoying myself so much I had no time to blog about it. On 25th, I took a bus close to the obelisk and traveled to La Plata to meet dear friend Nelba.
I´ve known Nelba Quintana since 2006 through the internet but had never had the chance to meet her f2f. Her invitation to present at the Language Institute of the University of La Plata came as a GREAT surprise. I was welcomed with beautiful flowers, warm smiles and friendly hugs. So glad, Argentinians like hugging like Brazilians do. Susana Canelo, another webhead, traveled quite a long distance to meet us there as well.
The three of us, Nelba, Susana and I were thrilled. La Plata is a beautiful city about 60 kms from Buenos Aires. Loved the many wonderful buildings they have, all in an European style. As soon as I took out my camera to take shots of first buildings we visited, I discovered I had forgotten to charge my camera battery, can you believe that? Well, dear Susana, became the official photographer.
After a very pleasant lunch, we arrived at ESCUELA DE LINGUAS and I got ready for my presentation ¨Developing the 4 Skills with Webtools¨.
The presentation, based on my second book , is about different webtools teachers can use to develop the 4 skills in language learning: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
This is the powerpoint material I promised to share.
I'd like to thank Andressa Cardoso for the invitation to present a session with her this coming August in a conference in Argentina. We've decided to talk about how WEB 2.0 can transform the "homework experience".
I'm also using the opportunity to meet Argentine Webheads, teachers I've been in contact with since 2006 but never had the chance to meet f2f. Argentina, here we go.
Going to Argentina was an adventure. We decided to take our kids on a backpacking adventure to Patagonia. The worries were many: would the kids get too tired? Would we get transportation for the places we wanted? Would we be able to get to the south and come back in 14 days?
All in all, I could say I saw wonderful things I hadn´t imagined. Although we spent many hours in buses (good ones by the way) we had a chance to really see and feel the Patagonia, its extension, its nature, its beauty. The only thing I pity was the impossibility to meet my Argentinian net friends (Gladys, Nelba, Gabriella and Carla R). With such a tight schedule we ended up not meeting :( . Well, maybe another time.
This is a slideshow I´ve made with pictures we took, hope you like them.
