May 17, 2008

LWC session about Twitter

I´d like to invite language teachers who are interested in exploring web tools in education to join us in a session at the Yahoo Community "Learning with Computers" starting on 19th May.

Microblogging:

The session is devoted to exploring one of the possibilities of microblogging: TWITTER . First join the "Learning with Computers" Communityand then follow the weekly tasks proposed in the wiki so that we can explore this tool together.

May 16, 2008

I´ve been memed!




Using Larry Ferlazzo´s words: “Meme” is a term used to describe a question or series of questions that a blogger asks another. Usually, a blogger “tags” several others to respond.

He asked me:

  • What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was living in Mato Grosso with my husband and children. I owned a English Language Institute there and was a teacher and director.

  • 5 things you have to do today.

Prepare my classes for next week, write a post in my blog, have a meeting with other coordinators, buy my father-in-law a present.

  • Snacks I enjoy…

I love Doritos(chips), yogurt, cereal bars, hot milk with cinnamon.

  • Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I would travel abroad every year with my family to different exotic places, I would buy a new car right now, I would probably continue teaching but less hours, I would provide mom and dad with comfort for the rest of their lives.

  • Three of my bad habits:

Procrastinating things I don´t like doing, not drinking enough water, serving food twice.

  • 5 places I have lived:

I´ve lived in Tangará da Serra (Mato Grosso, Brazil), Wisconsin (USA), London, Paris and I live in Uberlandia (Brazil).

  • 5 jobs I have had:

Teaching English to small children, au pair in England, cashier at a shop in England, au pair in France, coordinating a language school.

  • 6 people I want to know more about:

Nina, Mary Hillis, Nelba Quintana, Camila Sousa, Joao Alves.

GLOGSTER making web-posters


A friend of mine, Lívia fernandes, found out about Glogster in Facebook and decided to try it out with a project for mother´s day. She asked students to write a short text about their moms, then she scanned the texts and made a poster with their work. It´s so cute!!!!

Click on the link to see the full image
http://livinhaz.glogster.com/mothersday-pt1a/

Then as I wanted to try it out too, I made a present to e-colleagues of mine from the Learning with Computers community using Glogster.
http://anamariacult.glogster.com/LWC-divas/

Carla Arena after hearing about it also put her hands to work and created he own poster to send a message to her students.
http://carlaarena.glogster.com/message-to-students/

Then yesterday, I came across this really cool glog made by photographer Jan von Holleben. It´s enchanting! Loved the photographs!
http://patrix.glogster.com/Dreams-of-Flying-by-Jan-von-Holleben

Besides being visually appealing it is so much fun making the posters! You can add images, videos, audio to preset cool templates.

HOW CAN WE USE IT WITH STUDENTS?
  • You can publish your student´s work.
  • Students can make their own poster on an specific topic.
  • You can send messages to students.
  • USE YOUR IMAGINATION

May 1, 2008

ANIMATIONS for your blog and ppt presentations





I´d like to share some sites I came accross today while looking for cute animations for a ppt presentation I was preparing for next week.
This one is from Seven oaks art , just below.








Video: Daily routine (mime activity)

I´d like to share a video we made in class with basic 1 students after having learned verbs about daily routine. Each students mimed an action for our little video. We had great fun making it. Something simple. I used my digital camera to record the little films and then put everything together with Windows Movie Maker.

April 23, 2008

Flypaper.net X Powerpoint



Everyone is very familiar with Powerpoint by now and I wanted to try something different that could offer me other tools.

Well, Flypaper offers various models you can use, you can also dowload models from the community of users and also use the online space to host your presentations. It´s not so simple to use so I advise watching the tutorials first and I also found a bit complicated to understand how to publish the presentations.

I´ve used the opportunity to make a presentation for a conference I´m taking part in July in Fortaleza (Brazil). I´ve published my presentation in two formats: full screen (downloaded to my computer as a flash animation) and also published it to the flypaper community where you can get the embed code.

TO SEE THE PRESENTATION: click on the image and move to next slides clicking on the arrow to the right(on the keyboard)