Starting points after Braztesol 2018

Some people go to conferences such as Braztesol to come back with new ideas for their classes, others go for networking and others for inspiration.

Besides all the reasons I've mentioned, attending Braztesol can be an excellent way to observe the directions ELT is moving to:

- What are most talks about?
- Are there more talks or workshops?
- What about the plenaries? Are they full, what are they about? What kind of plenaries people liked the most?
- What do people comment about in the corridors?

I saw many people talking about teacher development, learner's autonomy, topics related to language learning (such as pronunciation, grammar, fluency), active methodologies, educational technologies and bilingual education. But this post is not a description of what I saw during the conference. Instead, it's what I intend to do from now on.

What am I taking from this experience?

My take-aways are quite simple. I usually like recording them in order to remind myself of the insights I had during the conference and what I wish to do next. The names between brackets or the people I mention are the teachers who were responsible for inspiring my thoughts.

HERE IT GOES

• Look for the musical Dear Evan Hansen and its songs, they might be wonderful for classes (Gustavo Gonzalez).
• Read about Teaching for understanding, its proposal seems to be really interesting (Cecília Lemos). It reminded me a bit of a course I took at Perestroika SP about Creative Curriculum design.
• Explore the pre-reading and post-reading activities proposed by Paul Seligson. He provided participants with a hand-out with MANY possible reading activities which are much more interesting and simple than the ones we find in course books. I always benefit a lot from his talks and his straightforward way of viewing language learning and teaching. This is a video that has nothing to do with his session at Braztesol, but it's really worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHY4ARebktc 
• Remember that warmers can be a great way to signal to students what is about to come and not only to recap language (Caio Albernaz).
• Explore the app Heads Up suggested by someone attending the warm-up session by my side. Sorry, I can't remember your name! As you can customize your list of words, it might be an interesting tool to use.
• Re-watch the TED talk Why people believe they can't draw shown to us by Cleide Frazão and Danielle Botelho. I liked drawing as a child and some time between then and now, I lost the touch for drawing. As a result, I have always been ashamed of drawing in front of students. Their session was a breath of fresh air. I absolutely loved realizing that I can draw certain things starting from shapes and lines. I was also the lucky winner of a book they intend to publish in the future which aims to help teachers draw simple things (check the slideshow below for an image of the book I'm talking about). Apart from using drawing to help students understand what I mean, I've always wanted to learn how to sketchnote properly and to be able to process/register information differently. Now that I feel less self-conscious about my drawings, I guess it's time to start off by watching two resources I've found about it. SLIDESHARE and VIDEO . 
• Re-read these 3 posts written by Silvia Tolisano about Sketchnoting 
• http://langwitches.org/blog/2015/08/11/sketchnoting-for-reflection/
• http://langwitches.org/blog/2015/08/12/evolution-of-note-taking-new-forms/
• http://langwitches.org/blog/2015/11/15/10-tips-to-get-started-with-sketchnoting-workshop/

Of course, I attended several other great sessions, and I apologize in advance if I don't mention your name.  My aim here was to recap my starting points after the conference.

So, feel free to explore each and every link I've added to the post and please, leave a comment if you also wish to share your insights with us.

 

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".

Virtual Round Table : here we come

In a few minutes, one more Virtual Round Table event is about to start.

If you've never attended one, it's a FREE Web Conference for ELT teachers.

About 79 presenters from different parts of the world will be presenting talks on educational topics during 48 hours. You don't need to attend all the sessions, just have a look at the program, choose the talks which interest you and click on the ROOM NAME (Ex: ROOM MERLIN in the program) to join the web room. Participants can participate via chat sending questions and comments.

THE PROGRAM

These are the links to the rooms:

http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/arthur

http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/merlin

http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/tristan

http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/avalon

http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/camelot

The conference will also be broadcast live on FACEBOOK.

https://www.facebook.com/vrtwebcon/app_190322544333196

or

http://tinyurl.com/vrtlivestreamonfacebook  

I've already attended previous VRT web conferences but this time I'll be presenting as well. 

The presentation abstract:

My presentation: Digital tools to help creative language use.
Friday, 8:00 p.m. (in Brazil) - 11 GMT

See you there !

TEACHMEET Int'l : Even Beginners Can Write

If you've attended the TEACHMEET International 2013, this post is dedicated to talk a little bit more about the project presented this morning.

Many beginner students of English tend to learn isolated words and sentences and that's all they seem to use for the first years studying English. These students have very little opportunities for expressing themselves a bit more using the target language.

This semester, I'm teaching a group of beginners which have studied English for 5 months only (classes are twice a week). I asked them what sort of writing they did last semester and I was told most of what they wrote was in their workbooks and the few times they wrote short texts the only person who read it was their teacher.

Well, aiming to provide opportunity for this groups of students to develop their writing skills in English to express themselves I proposed the following project using the EDMODO platform.

Each week, I would share a bit more about myself by writing a short text using language learned that week. Students then would try to do the same over the weekend. But this time, they would be writing about themselves, we would be reading everyone's text and would be able to learn from each other. I mentioned to them, my objective was to give them further reading and writing practice , to learn more about them and to see from their language use where they needed further help.

This is how we started:

Then, it was my students' turn to write their own texts.

I tried to respond to the content of the text and not use the replies for correction purposes. This way, I intend to make students feel more confident in using English to talk about themselves.

After reading several texts written by the students, I took notes of the most COMMON MISTAKES and in the following class, without identifying who had made the mistake, I tried to elicit from them how to make the sentence grammatically correct. 

A big challenge I've been having is to get students to keep the conversation going, like I did with Talita, in the example above. They say they don't have enough time to go back and do more reading. Let's see how it goes.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE:

These were the slides used to present.

Teachmeet anamariacult from Ana Menezes

The LIVEBINDER with resources

Resources TeachMeet 2013

How to use the IATEFL app: a quick guide

I've already been to big International conferences and I know how hard it is to choose what sessions to watch. In big conferences in Brazil, we might have about 15 sessions taking place at the same time. However, IATEFL presents a bigger challenge to people attending it, sometimes there are about 22 sessions taking place at the same time, and HOW TO CHOOSE?

Well, the first thing I did was try to find the programme. It can easily be found at the IATEFL website

http://www.iatefl.org/liverpool-2013/liverpool-2013  or by clicking below.

Another great idea, MY FAVORITE in fact, is to download the IATEFL app from here http://www.iatefl.org/mobileapps.html for your iphone/ipad or android devices.

Then, explore the programme, bookmark sessions, add them to your planner and you'll have a better idea of what to expect.

I've used two different apps to create quick tutorials of how I've organized myself for NEXT WEEK at IATEFL 2013 Liverpool. 

The first one is a simple SNAPGUIDE,   http://snapguide.com/guides/use-the-iatefl-app/

Check out How to Use the IATEFL App by Ana Menezes on Snapguide.

The second one is a SKQUEAK which allows you to draw and record your voice as you talk about the images you've selected.
 Now, if you're attending the conference for the first time (like me ) it is interesting to watch the WEBINAR presented by Susan Bardhun HERE.

Next Presentation: EdmodoCon11 - The 10 tasks Challenge

Dear Lifefeast readers,

I'm very glad to invite all of you to attend the first EDMODO virtual conference (EdmodoCon11)  where Educators from different corners of the world will share how they have been using Edmodo with students.

My presentation will be about using webtools to assign homework. I'll be presenting a project I developed last semester with my students where apart from assigning the traditional homework, that is, workbook exercises and writings, students had to carry out 10 tasks using different webtools.

EdmodoCon 11
10 August (Wednesday)
Sessions start at 10:30 AM Eastern Time (11:30 in Brazil)and go on until 8:30 PM ET (9:30 in Brazil)

MY SESSION WILL BE AT 5:00 PM ET ( 6:00 PM in Brazil)

EdmodoCon 2011 Presentation Schedule via kwout

Hope to see many of you there.

You can  regitster for EdmodoCon11  HERE.
Click HERE to attend the sessions.

Webinar: Reform Symposium #rscon3

This weekend, teachers all over the world have a great chance to listen to outstanding teachers during 3 days FOR FREE! I have already chosen the sessions I'd like to attend, have you?.
July 29, 30 and 31

This is the SCHEDULE . Choose your time zone and check the sessions you can attend.

Check the PRESENTERS. (Carla Arena, Bruno Andrade, Cecília Lemos, Shelly Terrell, Janet Bianchini , David Deubelbeiss and many other teachers)

You can REGISTER here.

Don't miss this great opportunity of professional development!

Moving Beyond Workbooks. Next presentation.

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.

CO11 Free Online Conference - Time to share and learn

Free Online Conference on WiZiQ: CO11 - Feb 4-6, 2011 via kwout

Fantastic free online sessions taking place this weekend.

Presenters will discuss the following topics:

Free Online Conference on WiZiQ: CO11 - Feb 4-6, 2011 via kwout

To participate, click on the link below, check the session that interests you, and a few minutes before the session starts, click on the link of the session, click JOIN THIS CLASS, and then LAUNCH THIS CLASS.

I'm planning to watch two sessions today:

1. Blended Instruction w/ Blogs and Wikis for Young Learners (Shelly Terrell and Greta Sandler)
2. Language in Motion: Teaching with the Flow (Janet Bianchini)

About Tech Talk Live! Conference 2011

There is a conference coming for K-12 IT professionals this April!

If you're an IT professional who works for a school, school district, or educational organization, you may be interested in a conference this April in Pennsylvania.



IU 13 in Lancaster, PA, is hosting Tech Talk Live on April 26-27, 2011. While there are other conferences for professionals interested in using technology in the classroom, this is the only conference that serves IT professionals who work in educational environments. The content is directed toward directors of technology services, systems and network administrators, application developers, and IT support staff.

Walt Mossberg, who writes a weekly column on personal technology for The Wall Street Journal, is scheduled to speak. Breakout sessions delve into the nitty-gritty of deploying and maintaining information technology systems in K-12 institutions. 







Greg Schwem, a standup comedian who pokes fun at corporate and institutional cultures, is giving the keynote, to bring levity to the intense two-day event.


Early Registration is $250 through the end of February, and includes entry to win a free Apple iPad.

For more information on this conference or to register, visit the Tech Talk Live website, http://techtalklive.iu13.org.

POST-CONFERENCE REVIEWS 2010