tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-354214002010-03-14T13:36:15.148+01:00NOTE Because Blogger is stopping its FTP service after May 1, this blog will be switching to a new home shortly. Further details shortly.Tomnoreply@blogger.comBlogger329125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-68268657836170567922010-03-14T13:23:00.002+01:002010-03-14T13:36:15.305+01:00

Something young learners can embed on a blogHere's an idea suggested by Joan Rubies [blog] in a Macmillan Teachers' Day session in Girona, for something that you (or your learners!) can embed ("put", that is) on a blog.It can't be personalised at all, and TVs and TV announcers that look like that will hardly be familiar to them, nor will it give them any speaking practice -- but they'll still

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-48960184060433182662010-03-11T11:19:00.009+01:002010-03-12T16:31:08.085+01:00

ToonDoo: OK, so it is homework, but at least it's fun!Below, some of the links I provided in a creative writing workshop I gave recently for Macmillan (and welcome to any of you who came/are coming in Girona, Lleida or Palma!).Cartoons and animationsDfilm MovieMaker Toondoo.comVokiZimmertwinsNote that Dfilm MovieMaker is possibly not suitable for young

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-40044422857408827082010-03-08T11:15:00.002+01:002010-03-08T11:23:35.275+01:00

Lots of good ideas landed in my mail box this morning in the developingteachers.com Weekly Teaching Tip, on how to use the Oscars in class.Among them, I enjoyed (and think my learners will enjoy) the stories about the Oscars in an article in the Independent.

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-16251499333645612722010-03-02T19:27:00.002+01:002010-03-03T18:01:40.328+01:00

The Dogme ELT Discussion group is about to close -- or at least that's the idea that has been put forward. Dogme ELT proposes (or proposed?) that language teaching should "materials-light and conversation-driven" and should focus on emerging language [see also the original Dogme ELT "vows"]. There have been various proposals for a Dogme 2.0, including Scot Thornbury's proposals for Dogme and

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-27355961736969720982010-02-22T15:22:00.002+01:002010-02-22T15:33:04.474+01:00

Among titles shortlisted for the annual International House Ben Warren Trust prize is onestopclil.com (now merged, since its nomination, with onestopenglish.com).OnestopCLIL has some great resources for anyone teaching CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), though it requires registration and subscription for full access to its contents. Its older sibling is one of the best sites on the

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-86168325553638962942010-02-11T09:54:00.010+01:002010-03-03T17:40:07.358+01:00

A couple of interesting blogs that I've come across recently, the first Carol Read's ABC of Teaching Children, which has "Ideas, tips and resources for primary language teachers".Carol was -- I think -- the person who said "it breaks my heart to see young learners with the same identical photocopy", or words to that effect. I don't now remember when or where she said or wrote it, a long time ago,

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-66843146994718757792010-02-10T15:45:00.002+01:002010-02-10T16:03:24.432+01:00

An idea that I presented last week at the annual IH Barcelona ELT Conference, in my talk on Dogme and the Interactive Whiteboard.Dogme ELT argues that the best approach to language teaching is "materials-light", which is not exactly what you are going to get if you use a digital coursebook on an interactive whiteboard.Rather than doing that, a dictoglossed single text gives you a "materials-light

Tomnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-6756265379099882632010-02-07T13:21:00.009+01:002010-02-10T15:13:26.919+01:00

At the seaside in Asturias | Photo: Isabel WaltonBelow, the piece of writing my daughter (14) had to do for her English teacher this weekend, a task from a popular coursebook which asked the students to look at a model and then "Imagine you are on holiday. Write a postcard to a friend":Dear Kate,Greece is incredible! I'm having so much fun! The people I'm staying with are really nice and they

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-43335606516701657172010-02-07T10:25:00.003+01:002010-02-07T10:42:41.776+01:00

I very much liked one of the many suggestions Usoa Sol made in her talk, Listen up! Getting teens to listen in English, given at the IH Barcelona ELT Conference -- getting kids to write emails from the protagonists of the song. Usoa suggested Dido's Thank You, though I wonder if it's got a strong enough storyline and whether or not it tells us enough that we can interpret about the characters.

Tomnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-58521820725201077902010-02-07T09:54:00.005+01:002010-02-11T14:39:04.986+01:00

Let me, first, rephrase the title of this post, and call it not "How to make your Interactive Whiteboard interactive" but "How to make your students interactive".In my talk at the annual IH Barcelona ELT Conference, I suggested that we should do the following if we're using an interactive whiteboard (IWB):Stop calling it an interactive whiteboard: it isn't interactive!Start the class with only

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-7526368402883376422010-01-21T15:05:00.009+01:002010-01-21T15:23:14.964+01:00

We're in Week 2 now of the EVO sessions, in which I'm participating in the Smart Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards event and we're currently doing some background reading from some of the very interesting links provided.Here's a fairly typical example of what an enthusiastic user of an IWBs says:Our school has IWBs in every classroom. However, how it is used varies. Some use it as a glorified

Tomnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-81352483682197145702009-12-31T13:07:00.006+01:002009-12-31T19:35:37.951+01:00

This came from a recent TechLearning newsletter [post], which is well worth subscribing to (free).Google Squared is still under development and I'm not quite sure if I can see an actual worthwhile classroom application of it but it's at least a different way to search and does allow you to add and take away results.Disappointing that "Google Squared couldn't automatically build a Square about

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-86461282772503780652009-12-23T11:51:00.004+01:002009-12-23T12:15:38.705+01:00

Here's a YouTube video my son sent me that might be interesting to watch in class with language learners -- apart from anything else as Music Idol and its equivalents are still popular shows and will thus lead to discussion.Our first reaction is perhaps to laugh, but as language teachers I don't think we should laugh at people having difficulty pronouncing English correctly. But I think you'll

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-48139201480800416732009-12-05T12:18:00.002+01:002009-12-07T13:15:44.351+01:00

The 2010 edition of the excellent TESOL EVO sessions has just been announced.Session topics include video, online games, teaching with interactive whiteboards and teaching languages in virtual worlds (including Second Life).The six-week sessions start January 11th, are free and open to all and do not require TESOL membership. They tend to be a little over-subscribed, but are run by volunteers and

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-32040860225680640282009-11-20T05:33:00.000+01:002009-11-20T13:04:42.163+01:00

Some of the links that I provided on the handout in the workshop I gave today on using the interactive whiteboard (IWB)...ELT publishers are starting to produce digital versions of their coursebooks (for use with or without an IWB). Two examples:Macmillan's New Inside Out DigitalPearson's Total EnglishThere are numerous sites where you download things for use on the IWB:Promethean

Tomnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-68808563936615616612009-11-18T17:20:00.003+01:002009-11-20T13:02:08.175+01:00

If you are coming to my workshop on using the interactive whiteboard (IWB) this morning, you'll be seeing these two YouTube videos...With the first (above), I suggest not telling anyone that is an ad and just watching the first 35 seconds before pausing. You will also need to warn anyone already familiar with the video from blurting out what it is (and/or what it's an ad for).I've no doubt your

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-31258666184893514652009-11-04T10:01:00.004+01:002009-11-05T19:22:22.661+01:00

Among my Twitter litter...I'm not a big fan of Twitter (I actually have never yet cluttered up cyberspace with a message of my own) but I check it every day, largely because I'm "following" LIFE.com, which sends me links to fabulous pictures for use in class every day.As we've got PCs and projectors and interactive whiteboards in many of our classrooms there's no need to print them out -- you can

Tomnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-45112624582584857812009-10-21T11:54:00.005+02:002009-10-21T12:27:20.280+02:00

Halloween lessons and lots more on TEFLClips.comAmong the YouTube videos and lessons on Jamie Keddie's award-winning teflclips.com blog you've got a Halloween Horror Story that's fun (and topical!).If you prefer a more student-centred approach to listening, you could alternatively, and as a lead-in, get your learners to brain-storm the vocabulary they think will come up in a "Halloween Horror

Tomnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-79011657658508289692009-10-18T16:23:00.000+02:002009-10-19T11:22:49.396+02:00

Everyone knows YouTube, don't they?But there are other great video sites, too, which are particularly useful for learning how to use technology:www.teachers.tvwww.teachertube.comwww.videojug.comYou can read about how to do something in a manual, or find a text-based tutorial online somewhere, but sometimes actually seeing how something is done is so much more helpful!

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-56959795131319001252009-10-05T11:05:00.005+02:002009-10-05T11:17:59.943+02:00

If you are using a class blog, you might be interested in embedding a dictionary in it. Macmillan's is real easy to embed (ie, install, if you don't want to get technical). Here's how to install the dictionary, the appearance of which you can to some extent customise.It will look something like this:I've included it here in a post. You might want to install it somewhere where it will be

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-59583254932418718592009-10-02T08:40:00.005+02:002009-10-02T09:03:41.672+02:00

WordMagnets: color them, size them, add more, drag and drop them...One that comes from Nik Peachey's excellent Learning Technology Blog...Nik suggests that you could use WordMagnets as a tool for Revising Short Texts and Syntax, on a computer and/or on an interactive whiteboard.WordMagnets is free, doesn't require installation and enables you to copy and paste (or type in your own) short texts --

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-40272743888959023572009-10-01T09:23:00.006+02:002009-10-01T10:32:58.595+02:00

Dogme ELT is a "materials-light" methodology and also a very active discussion group.The discussion group has got a bit hijacked of late in futile debates between the advocates of technology and its detractors but Graham Stanley now suggests a way forward in his Dogme 2.0 for ELT wiki, with a call for "vows" that would outline technology's place in Dogme ELT... Can you (and how...?) use

Tomnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-21933081555036026882009-09-25T10:40:00.002+02:002009-09-25T10:54:39.852+02:00

Onestopclil: The Resource Bank for CLIL TeachersYou're probably already familiar with OneStopEnglish.com, the Macmillan resources site (lesson plans, worksheets, flashcards, etc...), which modestly claims to be "the world's number one resource site for English language teachers" (though you'll need to subscribe for full access, which costs €52 pa for individual membership).OneStopEnglish has a

Tomnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-24823733869655743292009-09-22T16:10:00.007+02:002009-09-23T09:05:41.121+02:00

Hi and welcome if you came to Monday's technology session on our teaching very young learners course...The following, in alphabetical order, were some of the links I suggested to sites with either lots of resources for teachers of young learners and/or -- and perhaps more importantly -- ideas and the resources for professional development.British Council "Kids" siteDLTK's Crafts for

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35421400.post-44117850509822496122009-09-22T12:39:00.003+02:002009-09-22T13:09:54.679+02:00

Customisable Mr Men stickers from the TES site...One of the resources sites I suggested in the technology session on our very young learners course this week was the Times Educational Supplement (TES) site, which has over 30,000 free resources, for all subjects (not principally ELT).From TES, I took two examples (registration required to view them): a PowerPoint Jeopardy template, and some

Tomnoreply@blogger.com0