EVO 2009

Séminaire 20 juin -- outils numériques from Marie-Hélène Fasquel

This activity was inspired by some posters I discovered at Pinterest by the ever so creative Tony Vincent. http://learninginhand.com/blog/2013/1/30/quotes-with-qrcodes

He created some posters where he provides the beginning of the quotes by famous people and then omits the ending by using QR CODES. In his post, he says he normally sticks these posters on the walls during workshops for teachers.

Quotes learning ppt from Ana Menezes Last week, I tried something different. I created my own posters with quotes by famous people about the topic LEARNING and turned them into a SPEAKING ACTIVITY. 
1. Show a slide / a poster and ask students in pairs or groups to guess what the ending of the quote could be.2. Elicit suggestions with the whole class.3. Ask students to use their own cell phones to scan the QR code and see the ending of the quote.4. In pairs/groups, students discuss what they think the quote means.
I tried this activity with a group of teachers and it worked really well. I supposed it would be appropriate for advanced EFL students.

To create the qr codes on the posters, I used http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ 

Hello TKTer’s Past and Present!

Several TKT graduates who are now working in public schools are interested in presenting together in a poster session in the next MEXTESOL National Convention to present a series of posters about how they work without technology in their teaching situation. We are looking specifically for teachers who are planning to go to the 40th International MEXTESOL Convention, are members and are interested in presenting in a combined group effort iina poster session.

 

Please respond to this post if you are interested.

Dear Users, You are kindly invited to visit our website and send in submissions to our journal (TEwT Journal)

What a great experience !


THE RECORDINGI'd like to thank Miguel Mendoza and Heike Philip for the moderation and kind words and to all participants who were in the room with us.
These are the resources  I shared yesterday:

Hello TKT candidates!

This is just a reminder that we will have class as normal.

Please continue working on your learning styles presentation. We will be viewing some of them during class tomorrow.

Please come prepared to stay until 6:30.

See you tomorrow.

Image via CrunchBase

I heard about Mystery Skyping through a blog that I read but am unable to remember which one – sorry!  The idea interested me and so I researched it (you know doing the usual – google search,  You Tube) and discovered that a number of teachers whom I had worked with in Flat Classroom Projects and the Flat Classroom Certified Teachers course were also involved.  I now just had to get interest from the teachers I work with.

I sent out an email about the idea and very quickly heard back from a Abby Cross one of our Grade 4 teachers.  We were ready to try this.  It was a bit of a scary time as I had never done this before and neither had Abby but we both thought this had real possiblitiles.

To make easier for everyone Abby had her class watch a great You Tube video that is an excellent presentation of how it all works.  We also followed the plan suggested with the different jobs.  There was considerable discussion with Abby and her class on behaviour and the kind of questions to ask.  We were going to follow the yes/no format.

Before too long it was time to hook up and with excitement we answered the call from Lisa Parisi.  Her class are old hands at Mystery Skyping so she was able to give us a bit of guidance.  What a great time we had. We were able to figure out their location first but it didn’t take long before the other class figured out where we were located.

One of the parts we did with Lisa’s class was extremely beneficial for overall learning.  Abby’s class went onto Google Earth and found where Lisa’s class was located and they did the same with our school.  While this was going on we disconnected but as soon as we knew we were all online another phone call was made.  The questions started then both back and forth as the students got an even better feel for where our new Skype friends were located.  It was interesting to notice that while there were differences between the two classes there were a lot of similarities in sports, subjects in school and pets.

One of the great supports I have found are the Mystery Skype groups on Skype.  A group called Mystery Skypers and another one called Hello Little World are excellent sources of conversation for teachers as well as links across the world to other skypers.  If you search for both these links you will be able to request admittance.  That is a fact I really like – it is protected.

Since that first call many of our teachers have gone on to be involved.  It is exciting to watch as an idea catches fire and then begins to spread across the Elementary School.  I am so interested to see where we are going to take this next year.

Resources that may help:

http://gvc-clubhouse.wikispaces.com/MysterySkype

Different Jobs

An example of Mystery Skyping

More information

How to do a Mystery Skype

Teaching Geography with Mystery Skype

Related articles

• Mystery Skype

Dear Hala, Christine, and Teresa, Thank you so much for your support :) Hugs and Kisses, Fatemeh Nami  Alzahra University [Non-text portions of this message

This morning I could hardly wake up, I felt exhausted, it was cloudy in the city of light and just when I switched on my computer to follow the latest news, I read that our "dear" Spanish Education Minister has finally decided to impose an education reform, LOMCE, which has been widely rejected. So, the Sunshine Award came at the perfect time from a talented teacher and blogger I look up to very much for all the effort, energy and heart she puts in everything she does! She and her students write on their blog Stop and Learn English where they create and share their everyday learning and practices.

Thank you very much, Mª Jesus, for bringing me some extra sunshine today and thinking of my blog for this award! You definitely made my day! Who doesn't like a little recognition now and then?




The Sunshine Award is an award given to bloggers by other bloggers. It is given to ...Bloggers who are positive and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.Now do you understand how honoured I feel?

Well, as with other similar awards, there are certain rules to keep to:

Rule 1.  Post the Sunshine Award logo on your blog.
Rule 2.  Nominate 5 to 10 other wonderful  bloggers.
Rule 3.  Announce their nomination in their blog’s comment section.
Rule 4 .Mention links back to their blog, including a link to the person who nominated you.
Rule 5. Answer seven questions about yourself.  This is designed to help people get to know you better.And my nominees are .... (Drums roll sound):Think and Dream in English by Pilar Pamblanco for the great amount of ESL resources and interesting news on education and technology she shares on her blog. Thanks for all your support and help on Twitter as well!

EFL SMARTBlog by David Mainwood also deserves this awards because he always shares useful lesson plans which include interesting resources from the net.

My First Blog by María Luisa Sánchez for her great work on encouraging little children and parents to learn English together in a fun way using ICT and other resources to develop creativity.

Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals by Claudio Azevedo for his contribution to make language learning through films more meaningful and sharing activities which work in class for him.

Collablogatorium by Carla Arena, always ready to share tips, her thoughts and reflections on EFL learning, teaching practice and technology integration.

Lengüetazos literarios by Silvia Gongo, Una tiza y tú by Carmen González, Educadores Hoy by Isabel Ruiz and Canada Blanch by Mercedes Ruiz (in Spanish), teachers from different subjects, from different educative levels, from different regions, joined for their passion to share, collaborate and change education and the way students learn. Thank you very much for teaching me so much! That would had been impossible without Twitter!

Educación y Virtualidad by Cristóbal Suárez (in Spanish) for your thought-provoking posts on education, collaboration, open learning and ICT. Thank you very much for encouraging me to start blogging when I thought I didn't have anything interesting to share. I have learnt so much from you!

Some things about me...

1. Favourite colour. 
I love purple! For me it's the colour of dreams, it makes me feel calm and usually is one of the best colours on me. 

2. Favourite animal. 
I can't choose one. Can you? So... cats, dogs, horses and dolphins and mythically speaking, dragons.

3. Favourite number. 
Maybe 8?

4. Favourite non-alcoholic drink. 
That's easy! A lovely cup of coffee to wake me up in the morning or enjoy with friends somewhere.

5. Favourite alcoholic drink. 
I'm not a great fan of alcoholic drinks, but it depends on the moment. I always enjoy a glass of wine with some delicious "pintxos" and friends. However, if I go to a party (something I don't do lately... I'm getting old!), I prefer a mojito, a daiquiri cocktail or a chilled champagne sorbet.

6. Facebook or Twitter. 
Well, definitely, Twitter has had a great impact on my teaching life, on my way of understanding education, of collaborating with others, sharing, learning and be informed. Twitter is the gateway to reflection, discussion, resources, free online chats and webinars. What else? Well, this is just my personal experience. I think the Twitter experience is different for everyone, so look for your own one!

7. My passions. 
My family and good friends, travelling, dancing salsa, walking along the beach, sunny days, reading and watching films, new experiences and adventures, writing on my blog when possible, cooking, photography, and of course teaching!

8. Giving or receiving gifts? 
Honestly, both of them make me happy and smile. However, something I find a little bit stressful is trying to find a present for someone just because it's a special day (birthday, Christmas day...). Any day is good to give and receive presents, isn't it?

9. Favourite city or country?
This is one of the most difficult questions for me to answer. I can't choose just one! As a mentioned before, I love travelling and I always discover something marvellous, surprising in any city or country I visit.

I love London, its modern and historical arquitecture, its museums, its lively atmosphere and cosmopolitan lifestyle; Peru, a country full of surprises. Coast, mountains, desert and jungle, all in one place. I love its food and people as well! Greece, what can I say about Greece? It's an amazing country full of culture, sandy beaches, great food and people.

I wish I could travel to all the places I dream of, and take my family and friends with me!

10. Favourite book?
Impossible to choose one, once more! I love reading, it's one of my favourite pastimes. So, some of my favourite books are The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Elogio de la madrastra by Mario Vargas Llosa, El túnel by Ernesto Sábato or Cuentos by Julio Ramón Ribeyro. I also love reading and attending poetry readings, and going to the theatre.

Congratulations to all my nominees! Now it's your turn to spread the positive flow and send the sunshine to other fantastic and inspiring bloggers!  

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/arthurhttp://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/merlinhttp://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/tristanhttp://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/avalonhttp://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/camelot
The conference will also be broadcast live on FACEBOOK.https://www.facebook.com/vrtwebcon/app_190322544333196orhttp://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 !

Hi everyone, LTMOOC is showing language teachers how to use a tool called Instreamia that allows you to play a YouTube video for your students and then use the

Bonsoir à tous ! Vous êtes invités à cette conférence sur l'innovation. Voici le diaporama qui accompagnera mon intervention. Bonne lecture & à bientôt ! Projet ebook fasquel-6 slides from Marie-Hélène Fasquel

 In the previous post - Book Creator Part 1 I talked about how great the app is and some of the things that the Elementary teachers are doing with it.  This post is going to talk about sharing the books and workflow.

When I attended the incredible iPad Summit Atlanta in April one of the take aways for me was the importance of workflow and work arounds.  This is especially important at a school such as mine where we are cross platform.  Our ES lab is full of touch screen new PC’s and we have iPad carts for all of grade levels 2-5.  It soon became apparent that we needed to make all of these work together as we also are a Google Apps school.

The solution was introduced to me at the Summit in the Google Drive app.  Now don’t go the idea I didn’t know about the app.  I did and I used it but I had not really understood how powerful it was.  This is what was emphasized at the summit over and over.  Once I had a grasp on what could be done I have started introducing it to the teachers and will make sure that it is one of the first things talked about next year during inservice days.  I am bless to work with teachers who, for the most part, understand how Google Drive works on a desk top.  Now we just have to make the transition of knowledge over to the iPad. Book Creator is a great example of how Google Drive can support the teachers.

In order for this to work seamlessly you must have the Google Drive app downloaded on your iPad as well as iBooks. (It is also very important that you have the updated version of Google Drive, iBooks and Book Creator for this to work.) When the book is completed in Book Creator you can send it directly to iBooks but it is still only located on that one iPad.  I know that teachers do not want to have to collect 24 iPads and work with those so this is the genius of Google Drive but there are a few things to take care of first.

1. The students will be sending to the teachers Google Drive account so you will need to make sure that the individual iPad has the correct log in for Google Drive.  It is totally up to the teacher how you want to set up your Google Drive.  Each of our teachers have a school Google Drive account and most are using those though after the project is completed they change the password.

2.  Book Creator uses the .epub format and therefore can only be opened in an app that recognizes this format.  Google Drive does not.  You need to think of Google Drive as a bridge you must use to get to the other side.  It is not a place to park or work in directly with these projects but helps you get where you are going.

OK on with the journey! Once the book is completed or in a place where the teacher wants to assess the progress, the students will send the book to Google Drive by choosing “Open in Google Drive”.  The book will then appear in the teachers Google Drive account usually with the words “A new book – 1.epub” or something similar but always has the .epub designation.  The teacher will open that document and will receive a message  ”unable to open file”.  This can be frustrating but do not worry because either below or up in the right hand corner you will see the words “Open in….”. Touch and you will see the apps that will open the .epub format including Book Creator and iBooks. It is totally up to you which one you use.  I tend to use the iBooks because I want a copy of the book in the Library.  If I open it in Book Creator I am concerned that I may accidently change something.  You repeat this process for each of the books your students have sent you until you have them all on your iPad.

From here you are able to review and assess what the students have done.  If you have made corrections or suggestions in the books themselves you repeat the process and send the books back to the Google Drive account.  The students then can open up their individual iPads, open up Google Drive and get their book and upload it to the Book Creator app.  From there the teacher can move forward.

You do not lose the books from the Book Creator app unless you deliberately delete them.

Update

While I was in the process of writing this post the Spanish teachers who had created the Guatemalan project I talked about in Part One rushed in to figure out how to get the books from one iPad to a bunch of iPads as parents were coming and they wanted to show off the students work.  That is where we learned the importance of having the apps updated because we could not get it to work in the beginning.  In desperation I checked for the updates and after those were downloaded everything worked beautifully.  This afternoon parents will be able to see the work their children have done plus also make sure they download a copy if they wish to do so.  Life is good.

 

Do Something is a non-profit organization in the intersection of teens and social change, activism.

There are tons of ideas on their site to help young people take action. I especially liked one about what makes you mad and the call for changing things around.
http://www.dosomething.org/actnow/actionguide/become-activist 

As I have a tight schedule, I was considering adapting the idea to something simpler:


>> Groups decide what make them really mad
>> They make a fact sheet with 8 facts about their issue, starting with, "Did you know that...?"
>> They create a motto about the situation
>> Students then write a manifesto about their topic to raise awareness and finishes the manifesto with the life motto they've created.
>> Taking a step further, we could vote for the best group motto and then create posters and even print T-shirts with the motto on it.

Simple and sweet. I guess this would be a great opportunity to talk about community issues, have students as agents of awareness & change, all that being done in English. What do teachers think? noreply@blogger.com (Carla arena)

Bonsoir à tous ! Je suis en train de préparer mon prochain séminaire en ligne qui complètera le ler (en ligne ici) Il s'agira d'un séminaire / atelier de présentation d'outils numériques performants et simples. Toutes les informations sont ici ! A bientôt !

During the past eight months I have slowly introduced iPad apps to the Elementary staff.  Apps like iMovie, Show Me and Evernote were at the top of the list.  It has been exciting to see the products that have been produced by these apps by both students and teachers. But by far the most interesting app that I was able to introduce was Book Creator.  

It all started a few months ago when one of the Grade 3 teachers was telling me about a project her students were going to be working on that involved writing and illustrating a book.  She wanted to know if I knew of an app that would help with this.  I had literally just read about Book Creator a couple of weeks before and had downloaded it on my iPad to check it out.  I showed the book I had created to her and immediately she knew this is what she wanted. I was able to get it on the Grade 3 cart and she was ready to go.

I had created one book to see how it worked but it was really with the help of the teacher and her students that I learned more.  What a great job the students did and they loved it.  The produced their own books and were able to share them with each other and with parents.

Of course, her success led to other teachers coming to me and wanting to know how to use the app and the ball started rolling and has gained momentum especially over the past three weeks.  I have been able to share it with almost all 40 teachers and they have come up with some wonderful projects.  We are already talking about what can be done during the next school year.

It is an extremely intuitive app to use and with each update the developers add more exciting features.  In fact, I learned about one yesterday while showing one of our Spanish teachers how to create a book.  I had not realized that you could put a soundtrack on that ran through the whole book. It was one of those discoveries that was by accident but a feature I had been wishing existed.  I really don’t know how long it has been part of the app but I love.  Previously I had only been able to get music on one page.

For the most part our teachers have created fiction books with their students and they have been very good.  What I like about this app is that it is really the final step in the creation process.  Students need to plan their books out, write the text, get the pictures which many are being hand drawn and then photographed to be imported into the book, edit and then finally move to Book Creator for the production.  When the book is finished it is uploaded to iBooks.

As this app produces the book in the epub format it works best in iBooks but the book can also be made into a pdf and sent to parents who may not use Apple products.  The pdf format works very well except that any recordings or music do not appear in the book.

Another book that our Grade 2 Spanish teacher is producing is a Guatemala Tourist Guide to all the monuments in the city.  Guatemala City is made up of different zones and there are many monuments in each of these zones.  The students each studied one of the monuments and created it out of plasticiene. A picture was taken for a page in the book and then the student recorded the information about that monument.  The book was completed and uploaded into iBooks.  The pictures below give you a bit of an idea of how a couple of the pages looked.  The best part is that there are now excellent books created that the teachers, students and parents can share and also use them for information.

Monuments made out of plasticene

 

Monument in Zone 14

Excellent resource; Thank you! Smiles from Virginia, Holly -- *"Try. Trust. Treasure."* *Holly* (Dilatush) lewwwp.com

I also added the article to the reading list in the edu tech course next academic year. Hearty congratulations, Fatemeh and Susan! Hala ... From:

Hi Fatemeh and Susan! Kudos on a great article with a new perspective. Very interesting! I tried something similar once with a small group of teacher trainees.

Congratulations, Fatemeh and Susan! I have already posted the article in my CALL Online course, which just started yesterday and includes the construction of a