Halloween project

Halloween in IH... and probably celebrated in some way in many language classrooms

I came across this list of 100 scariest movies the other day and thought, "That might make a good blogging project".

A rough outline of a project

• In class, brainstorm, talk about "scariest movies", to see if we can produce a list of, say, 10 to 20
• See if we can agree on a rough ranking for them
• Turn on the PCs, and use a collaborative process writing approach to produce a plot summary plus what makes them really, really scary
• Go through various drafts, getting the other learners to commit on each others' work, and saving as Word documents
  
• Post the final version on a blog
• Get students to read the finished products, and use the "comments" feature to "vote" which they now think are most scary

Time sitting facing the PC screen...? I'd estimate it at under 30% of the total -- as it should be, I would suggest.

More resources
More Halloween lesson plans on the BBC, and on DevelopingTeacher.com.

More lesson plans for other days of the year.

Class reader blogging project

If you use "class readers" with your students -- ie you all read a book together, either an abridged "graded reader" or the real McCoy -- here's something you might do with a blog, an amazing blogging project done in a Missouri high school as they read Guerrilla Season, which brings in author Pat Hughes as well as the kids.

A class library blog would also make a great project.

Why? A blog gives writing a purpose (it's no longer just to hand it in to the teacher, to keep him/her satisfied) -- so that the learner wants to write.

I think a blog of this nature can also make the learner want to read a book, partly because they want to then write about it -- because it's something being done and shared in a community (the class, the members of the blog...)

Learn these 84 irregular verbs for Monday

If you were a 13-year-old kid, you might leave a rucksack full of irregular verbs on the Metro...!

My son Toni (13), who has English only as his third language, brought home a list of 84 irregular pasts and past participles that he had to learn by Monday.

"Ok, take this piece of paper away, and write me a story using some of them," I said.

"No, not like that -- just say 'eat', and I'll say 'ate, eaten' like at school," he said. "Test me!"

Is that any way to learn a language...? Is it fun, to begin with...?

Storytime
Eventually (he didn't get to watch the football, otherwise ,-), he did write a (true) story...

Last Friday I had left my bag in the Metro. I didn't realised until I had gone in the school. I thought that it was to late but still I ran to catch my dad. When I caught him I told him what had happened.

I went back to school hitting my head for being so stupid. I thought I would have to hold and hear all the nonsense of my mum about how much it cost and bla, bla, bla.

And on for another 18 lines, at the end of which "I had learnt a lesson"... and had enjoyed doing something with his irregular verbs.

Rules
Being a thirteen-year-old kid, Toni went for the easiest line of resistance. To combat that, the following rules got added in to the "activity":

• When you've finished one story, start another (up to three)
• All of the stories have to be coherent as stories, though not necessarily true
  
• Each story has to include some examples of the past perfect (otherwise we just got the past simple; including both involves thinking about and deciding when the former is required)
• 50 words minimum, no max.
• Only one of the stories can be about football!
  

What's all this got to do with technology?
You could obviously use the idea without ever going near a computer (you might consider pinning the stories on the wall, so that everyone can read them...)

But if you had a class blog (one on which all of your students can author), I'd suggest writing the stories there would make a great project...

1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy

I would say Andrew Wright's 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy is the best, most useful book I've read in 25 years in English teaching.

It's practical, it's useful, it will save you (and your learners) lots of time, it's fun -- and it teaches you a skill that I think all teachers should have, especially anyone teaching young learners.

You can't draw? You don't need to be able to draw -- all you've got to do is learn how to copy a few simple images.

Publisher: Longman ELT, ISBN 0175571007. Available from Amazon.com.

What should teachers know?

Interviewed in the Spring 2006 edition of It's for teachers magazine [website], and asked "What should English teachers know to be good at their jobs?", Melanie Williams answers:

They should know about the language they are teaching, they should know some different ways of teaching language, they should know about learners and how they learn. They need to know about lesson planning and how to manage the classroom to make learning as efficient and effective as possible (...) and they need to know about resources and materials they can use in class.

In the same piece, her colleague Mary Spratt adds:

"Knowing how to have an open mind and a willingness to learn are very important, too."

From many years of experience in English language teaching, I can say that I wholly agree with all of that -- if anything particularly with the addition Mary Spratt makes.

What about technology?
Technology doesn't get a mention -- and I think it should.

Assuming that technology does make your life easier (for example to find materials, to store them...); assuming that it is used to its full potential, in order for your learners to communicate... then I think you should know how to use technology.

It it doesn't, forget it -- let's not bother adding it to the list.

Index of pages

An index of pages (more properly "posts") on this blog, roughly categorised:

Basic things you should know how to do

• 10 things you shouldn't do online
• I don't know the first thing about technology
• Understanding the technical terms
• Finding information on the Internet
• Change the default start page on your browser
• Firefox, not Internet Explorer
• Keyboard shortcuts
• New Year's Resolutions for Your PC
  
• "Paste special" to copy content from the Internet
• Phonemic script
• View thumbnails
• Windows Explorer

Other things from our CELTA course session

• Basic tools (Task #1)
• Don't waste your time on the Internet (Task #2)
• Finding texts for use in class
• Finding images for use in class
  
• Are texts more important than images?

Ideas I liked

• Designing prepositions
• Hard bargaining (speaking activity)
• How to date a hopelessly romantic person
  
• Lateral thinking puzzles
• Learn these 84 irregular verbs for Monday
• Mini-sagas and 100-word stories
• Preposition basketball
• Today is... | Christmas | April Fool's Day | Valentines
  
• What makes a good task?
• Where do you sit or stand in the classroom?
  

Useful links

• A-Z of ELT methodology
• Business English, links and books
• Interactive grammar exercises
  
• Learning strategies
  
• Lesson plans in your mailbox
• Listening material on the Internet
  

Blogs and blogging

• What is a blog? (some examples)
• Why blog?
• What can you do with a blog?
• Dealing with spam comments on your blog
• Halloween movie project
  
• How do you set up a blog (with Blogger.com)
• Blogger Beta
  
• How do you set up a blog (with Zoomblog.com)
• Zoomblog vs Blogger
  
• The difference between a blog and a discussion board
• The difference between a website and a blog
• What can you do with a blog?
  
• Is a blog open to anyone?
• Editing the links on a blog
  
• What is a permalink?
  
• Why is blogging (not) so cool and innovative?
  

More ideas for (blogging?) projects

• 100 greatest albums
• A room with a view
• Class reader blogging project
• List of faux pas, by country
• Mini-sagas and 100-word stories
  
• National icons: a webquest, blogging project?
• Nice poster, couldn’t we have put it on a blog?
• Word Collages

All that tech

• I hate Second Life
• Is your Yahoo (etc) account safe?
  
• Podcasting
• Making animations with young(-ish) learners
• Mobile phones
• RSS: Don't search, have things come to you
• Strip cartoons with stripgenerator.com
  
• Video storytelling
  
• Webquests | World's weirdest creatures
  

Using technology

• Classroom management in the computer room
• Good practice in hi-tech classrooms
  
• Is technology going to lead to more, better learning?
• Is a particular website suitable for use with a class?
• Not exactly Age of Empires
• Portraits of Learning - superb use of technology
• Projects using technology for language learning
• What (doesn't) make a good task in the computer room?
• Why bother with technology?

How to...

• Digitalise your cassettes
  
• Download movies from YouTube (etc)

Not using technology

• 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy
• Don't waste time looking for pictures on Google
• Good teaching
• Having fun learning to type, or learning a language...
• Really stupid technology
  
• What should teachers know?
  

Muddiest points

• CATS and muddiest points
• Why is Google evil?
  

Others

• About this blog
• Bibliography
• What's the purpose of this blog?
  

Good practice in hi-tech classrooms

The excellent techlearning.com newsletter [subscribe] brought me this article this morning -- Good Practice, Best Practice.

What is "good practice" when we're using technology with learners? The article (which describes itself merely as "some ideas for discussion"), is maybe not such a great one -- but the question certainly is! And it also leads to other links on the same question...

Of the four quadrants the article mentions, I'd say technology in the classroom should be "low input" (especially in terms of your time), "high impact" (on your students language learning, that is).

"What's the return on investment?" I would always say, before booting up the technology...