BYOD in Brazil - Apptivities for ELT

This is a blog post which follows a presentation given by me at the IMAGE CONFERENCE in Brasília today.

While thinking about the topic I had chosen to discuss, I decided to build my talk around an infographic with all the information I'd collected, along with links. 

- First, I used PIKTOCHART to create the embeddable infographic.

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/442066-flow-2

- Then, to make it interactive, I added the resources to it using THINGLINK. So if you hover the mouse over the image, when clicking the little dots, you'll be taken to different resources.

I initially talked about different aspects we have to consider when adopting either a BYOD or a 1:1 approach. Then, I presented some apps and activities involving the use of IMAGES and VIDEOS.

For THE LINKS I shared during the talk, pass the mouse over the infographic and look for some "magic dots".

Forming questions with VINE

This week, my Basic 1 students were learning how to ask questions in English. Each group, decided on a question they thought was interesting to ask, wrote words on slips of paper and we recorded a VINE. Can you please help us by answering one or all the questions in the reply area?



I've also posted the videos separately so that people can choose what question to answer
http://ourprojectsci.weebly.com/blog.html

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed.

Tell us more about Brazil

Weeks ago, I was contacted by Larry Ferlazzo about having our students collaborate somehow as his students have been studying about Brazil. We exchanged a few messages trying to decide how this collaboration would take place and this is the result.

First, Larry's students recorded videos asking questions about Brazil.

http://sacschoolblogs.org/larryferlazzo/2013/10/07/questions-for-our-sister-classes-in-brazil/

Wow, there were many questions to be answered!

I asked my students if they accepted to collaborate with them and assigned a video to each student. The student would watch the video at home, select 3 questions to answer and write a draft on a piece of paper. 

In class, I had a quick look at the texts, helped them with the pronunciation of some words while they practised reading their texts to their classmates. To make the recordings, I took a digital camera, my smartphone and an ipad to class, divided the students into 3 groups and asked them to record themselves. Although some of the video recordings have a lot of noise in the background, I believe they did a great job. They talked about  our typical food, carnival, our schools and much more.

Learning about PBL: A blended course

Changing our way of teaching is not an easy task.

How can we help teachers learn, discuss and try out new approaches in English Language Teaching?

With this objective, we've started a  blended (part face2face + part online) methodology course at the school where I work when we'll be studying about 3 different approaches: PBL, the Flipped Classroom and Mobile Learning.

The course started at the beginning of September. Each week, we have presential meetings as well as online readings and tasks to carry out.

Following a PBL model, we started our course with a "driving question" :
How can we use PBL in our classes at Cultura Inglesa? 
this question was later refined to "How can we create a project which could be used with our students?"

Our final goal would be to think of a feasible project which could be implemented in our classes considering our reality.

But, how could we reach the final goal? What would be our NEEDS TO KNOW?
We needed to know more about characteristics of a PBL lesson, see some examples, talk to teachers using PBL.

Our group came up with the following steps:

- read different articles about PBL.

- watch different videos about it.

- interview a teacher who uses PBL for teaching English.

- try to imagine our own projects.

As a teacher to interview, I suggested a dear friend, Vicky Saumell, from Argentina, who has successfully implemented a Project-oriented approach at the school where she works.

The interview happened assynchronously, first we brainstormed some questions at our EDMODO group, then I sent Vicky the screenshot of our thread and  hoped Vicky would have the time to record a  video-response for us.

Here, I take the opportunity to thank Vicky again for kindly taking her time to share her experience with us. http://vickysaumell.blogspot.com.br/
For those interested in examples of projects for ELT, check  one of Vicky's presentations on slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/vickys16/saumell-meaningful-use-of-web-20-projects

 

It has been a great opportunity for me not only to study with a group of teachers who are my colleagues but also to try to be a more collaborative teacher.

Our next module is about "The Flipped Classroom".

Enriching Study Guides with Thinglink

How can I make Study Guides more visually appealing?

Many times I feel my students don't really know how to organize themselves to study. I often hear them say they only studied by reading the lessons in the book.

These are different ways I've tried to help students get ready for their English exams:

1. A Study Guide with links to resources shared in our EDMODO GROUP

2. I've created a wordcloud with topics and used THINGLINK to add online resources.

3. I've used the app VISUALIZE to create a visual poster and added links by using THINGLINK

Tiny steps: flipping part of my class

There are several things I like about the FLIPPED CLASSROOM model:

- First, you save a lot of time for really practising the language if students have access to the theoretical part of the explanation beforehand (at home).
- Second, if a student is absent, he can always catch up.
- Third, if a student needs more explanation he can watch it as many times as he feels is necessary for his comprehension.
- Fourth, before tests, students can always watch the videos again to help refresh their memories. 

This is how I've been TRYING to flip part of my class.

I'm aware there are various ways people have been flipping their classes but it's always important to think of each reality. I work at a Language Institute in Brazil and have to follow a course book for my classes. A moment which I've been finding useful to flip is the grammar explanation part of the lesson during which I would probably deal with the grammar focus. There are various videos available online, however, I sometimes prefer the ones I make myself as I try to make them more personal and as short as possible.

My most successful "flips", in my opinion, have been recording screencasts of myself explaining the grammar focus with examples. In addition, I assign a quiz to my students using Edmodo after a few classes of practice.

The instructions

The Quiz

I normally create a multiple choice quiz with 10 questions. They have 5 mins to answer the quiz which is corrected by Edmodo automatically.





The following class after the quiz, we go over each question and answers as I have access to the question most students had problems with.

This week, I wanted to try something different so I started to look for different tools I could use to make flip videos. The result of my search is a board I've created at http://learni.st/category/featured

My board: Tools for Flipping Classes
http://learni.st/users/anamariacult/boards/35935-tools-for-flipping-classes

Then, it was time to try some of them out.

Oh, the first step was to create the video screencast I wanted to use. Therefore, I used the EDUCREATIONS app on my ipad.
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/past-and-present-habits/10063195/?ref=appemail

The first flipping tool I tried was https://grockit.com/answers. Nik Peachey has created a very helpful post about it http://quickshout.blogspot.com.br/2011/10/create-online-social-interaction-around.html

My trial: https://grockit.com/r/hu9

Then, I decided to try http://www.metta.io/create

I had watched one  of Tamas Szakal's metta videos and just loved it. Unfortunately, I had no idea I would find it so hard to figure out how it works. I tried to find a tutorial, but to no avail,  I had to rely on my trials and errors to manage to make this first trial video.