All's About Sharing

One of the benefits of having a PLN (Personal Learning Network) via Twitter is the great opportunity of "sharing" it offers. I am extremely grateful to the members of my PLN for all

they have been sharing: My Timeline.

A short time ago, I came across Nadia Bentoua, who has shared her English language e-book. Nadia has travelled widely and she based her book on her travels. Her book is a resource for teachers and a self-study book for students.

In her Website Dynamic English Lessons, Nadia has included sample pages, which I have browsed and have found resourceful to introduce new vocabulary to students.

Is there anything you've created or a fellow educator has issued and you'd like to share? Please accept the challenge and write a post in your blog, making reference to this post.

FlexiMoti in Action

In a post I wrote last year called My Teaching Approach: FlexiMoti I reflected on my teaching practice in response to one of Jason Renshaw´s posts. It was Jason himself who generously coined the name of my approach and I've adopted it.

My attempts to be flexible are designed to meet my students' needs with the aim to motivate them to learn the English language in a way that suits their likes and dislikes. Having those principles in mind, I've also introduced technology in the classroom and we use wikis and blogs so my students can develop long-life skills that would help them become independent learners.

When classes started last March, I felt absolutely satisfied when one of my students from a group I had taught the previous year asked me if we would use blogs and wikis this year. I had already created a wiki for this class and was about to introduce it to them. So I thought the motivation level was ideal. I was too hopeful to consider that my students are teenagers and so their motivation fluctuates. Nothing new so far.

After considering ways to encourage my students to visit the wiki, I decided to start a competition and to offer a reward to the winner. I created a Lino Canvas in which I include a riddle a week and the first one to provide the correct answer as a comment in the wiki receives a prize. The first one I've granted was a chocolate.

I've found out that some of my students seldom visit their e-mail accounts and so when I update the wiki, they don´t realise about it. I hope this competition will be helpful.

I've been reluctant to appear in Facebook as I consider it's a social tool rather than a professional one but I've had to give in. As a Twitterholic myself I haven't found the sense of being on Facebook. Anyway, my students spend most of their cyber time on Facebook and so I've finally opened an account, which I'll try to keep only as a way of updating my students as to the class wiki new material. I'll do my best to keep my Facebook account as a learning/teaching tool.

What are the changes you've been forced to introduce in your teaching practice? I'd like to hear...

Are Educators Life-Long Learners?

If we, educators, love teaching then, we love learning as the former

implies the latter. As Vicky Loras (@vickyloras) expressed in one of her latest posts "Number three-What do you believe about

learning?- The 30 Goals Challenge", A good teacher is also a good

learner. Vicky has been writing insightful reflections on The 30 Goals Challenge created by Shelly Terrell (@ShellTerrell), both of whom are colleagues and mentors of mine and I feel thankful to them for being so supportive, personally and professionally.

Many times we forget how a student feels when they start learning a new language and it's difficult to gain insight into the language learning process from scratch. Imagine I started learning English when I was 6 years old and even if I can remember my classes, my memory is not so weak, I don't have any idea as to the way I felt in those times. So as to be able to be in my students' shoes, I've decided to start studying French. When I told my students about it, they looked at me in surprise but I guess it's a good way of showing students that it's never too late to learn a language and that teachers can also be learners. The line between teaching and learning is fragile and movable.

Hey, Soul Sister by Train

This is the link to the tasks described in my previous post:

Hey, Soul Sister by Train

I hope your students enjoy the song.

Peer-to-Peer Encouragement and Support

My First Certificate Level Students are sitting their Cambridge FCE in the next two weeks and they are studying harder.

When the course started back in March I did my best to make them

aware of the fact that their success depended on them and on their

commitment. I created a wiki space where I've been uploading lots

of material for them to practise in class and at home. from freedigitalphotos.net

It proved really helpful as a kind of "virtual library" and also as a means of communication. My students have made comments, solved doubts and kept in touch with me throughout the whole year.

Yesterday I felt a sense of achievement when a student of mine sent me a list of queries and he told me that it would be a great idea if I uploaded those queries with the replies for his classmates to have the opportunity to read. I thought it was highly thoughtful of him and I felt that was peer-to-peer collaboration. This student was concerned his classmates would have the same doubts he had. I felt proud of him and totally rewarded as to one of my aims was to encourage collaboration and support in the classroom.

After I uploaded this material, that same student wrote a very considerate message for his classmates. It was in Spanish but it made me feel a higher sense of satisfaction. His message was:

"Chicos: tengan en cuenta que las dudas que le envié a Marisa y ella completó son sólo una parte de todo el vocabulario para el speaking, si se fijan al comienzo del libro hay una tabla donde en una columna llamada speaking justamente están todas las pags. y temas del libro para no andar buscando, yo hice una fotocopia de eso y subraye vocabulario en la fotocopia, seran unas 20 pags. de speaking."

The translation of the message is: "Boys and girls: please consider that the doubts I sent to Marisa and which she replied are only a part of all the vocabulary for the speaking paper. If you check at the beginning of the book, you'll find a table which includes a column called speaking and you'll find all the pages and topics of the book. So as not to look up those topics, I made a copy of those pages and underlined the key vocabulary. They must be around 20 pages of speaking."

I'm not sure my students will pass Cambridge First Certificate Exam but I have managed to foster a sense of collaboration and support within the classroom. And that is highly rewarding.

How do you encourage collaboration and support within the classroom? I'd like to know about it.

Meet My PLN (Personal Learning Network) Series: Part 2

As part of this series I've interviewed another member of my PLN, Vicky Loras (@vickyloras), who's a Greek Canadian teacher of English. Vicky is really supportive and open-minded. Here are her replies:

• Why have you decided to start the teaching career?

Vicky: The truth is that ever since I remember myself, I wanted to become an attorney. I was in love with Law School. In our final entrance exams for university, for half a grade I did not make Law School, but succeeded in getting into what was my second choice - English Language and Literature. When I began to study that, I realised how wrong I had been all those years for not giving the thought of teaching a chance. I love it and I am so happy I teach!

• In your opinion, what are the advantages of using technology in the classroom?

Vicky: Nowadays, we have access to so many technological developments. The best thing we can do is put them into practice in the language classroom, as students can both learn how to use the respective technological tools and learn the language in the process. I believe technology increases the interest in learning and gives it a whole new dimension. For instance, I teach some students through Skype and it is amazing what we can do with this fantastic tool. Student and teacher are literally face-to-face, we can use the chat feature as a board when we want to make notes of something, share files and send files...the potentials there are so many!

• As you see it, what factors determine that a class has been successfully taught?

Vicky: I believe that it shows throughout the lesson. If the teacher is interested and enthusiastic, then the students are as well. If the lesson comes to an end and the students are motivated and excited, that means that they have also learned and then go home to study with a different approach to lessons. In addition, if the students apply what they have learned in the subsequent lessons as well at their own initiative, then that means that the teacher has succeeded in pressing that magic button that has turned on learning.

• Is there a teaching method you favour? If so, which one?

Vicky: I absolutely love role-playing. Here in Switzerland I use it a lot in my adult classes (I mainly teach adults) and it is so impressive to see the responses and how their English comes out so beautifully and spontaneously. I even take part in them and we always have a lot of fun, laughs and it is amazing how much they can learn. My adults love it so much, they keep asking for role-playing! They are so eager to do it, as it puts them in realistic situations.

• What technique do you use to correct your students' mistakes?

Vicky: Reformulation is my favourite technique. I believe it is important that students can hear the correct answer or sentence right after their own, so they can realise the mistakes that have been made. It also does not demotivate them and is a softer way of correcting.

• Should technology be present in the students' assessment? In what way?

Vicky: Well, perhaps it would be useful to see how students use the technology they have utilised in the language classroom to their own benefit, that is to the benefit of learning. It should not be the sole purpose of assessment though, I believe. It should be a combination of various aspects of their presence and performance in the classroom.

• What is an effective way of assessing students?

Vicky: As I mentioned earlier, for me, assessment comes when I notice a student using a particular aspect of the language that we have learned in previous lessons. When they do this on their own, for example they use some new terminology we have learned or a grammar structure which is quite complex, then that tells me all I need to know about the students. How eager they are, whether studying at home and my assistance in the classroom has really helped them and how much the language is starting to settle down in them. When students apply what they have learned, all on their own and without teacher intervention, then that for me is an automatic assessment of their presence as students.

• A final question, what is your recommendation for new teachers?

Vicky: I would recommend that they get all the professional development they can. Fortunately, we are in a very creative profession in which we are lucky to be constantly learning. Twitter is an amazing tool that can assist them in this, as they can come into contact with excellent educators around the world from whom they can learn a great deal. Conferences and workshops are also extremely useful and helpful. They should follow these, as we have the opportunity of having lots of them organised for our profession. There is also a great number of fantastic books which can help them improve their teaching or learn about new practices and methods. In other words, teachers should be the best students themselves!

• Thank you very much for your time, Vicky! And thanks for sharing your expertise with all of us.

Vicky: I thank you very much as well, it has been a pleasure and I truly appreciate this opportunity you have given me. Many thanks, Marisa and I hope to meet you in person one day!

I have enjoyed this very much and it is the first time I have ever given an interview, thank you so very much!

Students' Studying Strategies

Have your students ever asked you how they should study?

I teach English to intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced students

and it is when they reach these levels that they realise they need to study as

what we do in class is not enough. Then, they ask me to recommend how

they should do so.

My recommendations are:

• Reading as much as they can since it helps students widen their vocabulary scope and strengthens their use of the language;
• Doing exercises as extra practice;
• Keeping records of their corrections so as not to repeat mistakes;
• Taking down notes and reading new words and phrases in context;
• Making pictures since they are great memory aids;
• Meeting peers to practise conversation skills;
• Singing songs to practise pronunciation;
• Listening to podcasts.

I am convinced we, in our capacity as teachers, should help our students develop life-long skills and become independent learners no matter how much they resist changing habits.

To collect other teachers' tips and hints I've created a wallwisher: Students' Studying Strategies

Some educators have included their suggestions via Twitter. Feel free to include yours.

Extensive Reading In The Classroom

My teenage students often admit to not enjoying reading in their native language or in English. For that reason, I decided not to

assign reading a book or a chapter for homework long ago after

finding out it was useless as only four or five out of 15 students

read them and were ready for the class tasks I had planned to strengthen, reinforce, confirm and deepen their knowledge of the

English language. Image courtesy of Free Foto.Com

In my attempt to adapt the use of extensive reading, I've decided to make use of adapted readers that include a CD recording, which is highly motivating as it includes sound effects.

For my upper intermediate students I chose The Phantom of the Opera and to introduce the reader I made my students watch the movie trailer of the latest film based on the book. After that, we found out data about the author: Gaston Leroux.

On different classes throughout the learning year, we listened to chapter after chapter and used it as a talking point in class while highlighting on the board significant data like names of the characters, relevant events, settings and so on.

So as to systematise the tasks I've prepared some material to upload in the blogs/wikis I share with my students: The Phantom of the Opera

How do you implement extensive reading your classes? I'd like to hear about it.

The 2010 Soccer World Championship in my Classes

My PLN members have shared lots of material about the soccer championship via Twitter and I've been selecting what I thought my students would find interesting. I've been uploading the material I've chosen in the classroom blogs and wikis for my students to go on practising the language at home. Unfortunately, I haven't written down the name of the Tweetterer who has shared or recommended the material but I have thanked the sharer and made comments as to the significance of the recommendation.

So far, I've uploaded:

1) The game calendar: Calendar Useful for my students to check dates and places where the games are played.

2) An insightful article: Follow your Football Team You can read information, look at pictures and see videos.

3) Articles for my students to read: News Item To encourage students to read about the latest news.

4) Vocabulary Tasks: Useful Vocabulary (by @esolcourses)

5) The World Cup Map: Map For students to be informed as to the countries that participate in the championship.

6) Quizzes: The World Cup Helpful to practise vocabulary and grammar.

7) A Game: Fling the Teacher Highly motivating for students to learn and have fun. (by @eflclassroom)

8) Pictures: Big Pictures For students to enjoy creativity and art.

9) Songs: Wavin' Flag (by K´NAAN)

Waka Waka by Shakira

Videos of songs are great resources for the introduction of talking points in the classroom, for learning vocabulary and for developing listening skills. Singing songs is a good way of practising pronunciation.

10) A video about the star of the champiosnhip "The Vuvuzela Horn": Should vuvuzela horns be banned from the World Cup? The idea is to introduce the talking point about the use of this type of horn and then students can watch the video and write any idea that comes to their heads while watching it (task suggested by Anne hodgdon, @annehodg, in her comment to one of my posts). After that, students can share ideas in pairs and whith the whole group. As a follow-up task students can suggest a different device for cheering teams.

11) A site for students to create a football character: SP Studio (shared by @annapires)

Have you used any other task in your classes connected to the World Cup?

Students' Foreign Language Assessment: A Challenge for Teachers

This week I've been busy writing my teenage students' reports for their parents to read about their children's performance and progress in their learning of the English language. It's still a challenge for me to create mental parameters as to the areas I teach: oral language, reading comprehension and grammar. Without doubt the most complicated area is oral expression as I deal with teenagers who feel reluctanct to speak English in front of their peers for fear of looking ridiculous, who instinctively speak their native language and I need to react quickly and insist in their using English in the English class. I've found out that I can break a Guinness Record in the number of times I say "in English, please!" in the classes any time free conversation is developed.

I've shared my experience with a colleague and friend of mine who told me that after assessing her students the school where she works organised a parents' meeting to exchange ideas and solve queries parents may have as to their children's progress in learning English. During the meeting, that friend of mine, who had taken tests to her students to measure their performance, felt that some parents were using the test results to assess her performance as a teacher.

I'd like to know about other teachers´experience so I've created a WallWisher I'd like to share with you so as to exchange views on this issue:

Students' Assessment.

A Different Presentation

I enjoy trying new tools that prove motivating for my

English classes.

One of the members of my Personal Learning Network (PLN),

Marisa Constantinides (@Marisa_C) has shared a helpful link for

language teachers via Twitter: 21st Century Teacher Tools. From these useful

tools I've selected issue as a creative way of uploading pdf files.

In my previous post I shared a song for the class and I've used this song to offer

a different way of presenting material to my students:

Song: Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode

Have you tried a new tool this week? I'd like to hear about it.

Classroom Web Conference

After three unsuccessful attempts due to technical reasons, one of my classes had their first Skype experience with a group of Fifthgraders from a school in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

We had arranged the video call with Shelly Zavon (@shellyzavon) in Around the World with 80 Schools, a project started by Silvia Tolisano (@Langwitches).

The video call was highly beneficial for my students because they were able to use the language they are learning, English, in a real situation. At the beginning they felt a little shy to speak but as time went on they felt more confident and interacted with the American students.

I believe these virtual meetings foster understanding between people from different nationalities and contribute to make young people more open-minded. At the same time, it prepares them for a new kind of communication that is becoming trendier and trendier.

Have you ever connected your class with a class from another country? What was your experience like?

A Song for the Class

After reading a post in Jason Renshaw´s Weblog, in which

Jason embedded the video of the song Enjoy the Silence, I thought it would be interesting to make use of the song as a way of introducing a talking point in my upper intermediate class.

As to the selection of tasks, I was inspired by a post I read in Janet Abruzzo's edublog and by another one I read in Eva Büyüksimkesyan's blog, A Journey in TEFL.

Here's a link to the tasks I prepared: A Song for the Class

I hope you find it helpful. Which songs have you found suitable to be used in your classes?

A Creative Tool

I like finding out innovative ways of presenting material to my students as part of my self-improvement edtech skills. I'm far from being an expert but I do my best to make use of the free tools available.

Among Google docs I've chosen a format to devise charts so as to summarize a book module and help my students organise the topics they have to study in order to be prepared for the end-of-module written test.

These are the summaries I've created and I've been able to download them in pdf format too:

• Module 1 Chart
• Vocabulary: Extreme Sports
• Grammar Section: Verbs
• Wordbuilding: Families of Words (For my students to complete with families of words)

Which tool do you use to create summaries in order to help your students organise their material for studying?

An Attempt to Motivate Students

Motivation is one of our main concerns as teachers, especially if we teach teenagers, whose motivation span deflates at lightning speed. In an attempt to encourage my teenage students to adopt English learning habits at home, I've created classroom blogs and wikis to upload material for my students to use after class. Thanks to my Twitter colleagues I'm able to receive creative ideas I do my best to put into practice so as to prevent my students' motivation from fading.

In this post, I'd like to share some of the links I've used to update my students' blogs and wikis:

1) Quizzes: Definitions

2) WallWisher: Students' Expectations

3) Games: Synonym Toast

4) Songs: The 2010 World Championship Song

5) Surveys: Free Time Survey

6) Articles connected to the topics introduced in class: Extreme Sports

7) Interactive Stories: Inanimate Alice

8) Grammar Tasks: Multiple Choice

9) Intonation Awareness Exercises: English Media Lab

10) Bakcground Knowledge: 2010 World Cup Map

11) Listening Practice: Accidents at Home

12) Speaking Practice: Questions Recorded with Vocaroo

This list is just an example of the kind of material I upload, for which I am thankful to my Twitter fellows for sharing it.

I'm interested in knowing how you encourage your students to practise outside the classroom.

Brainstorming Before Classes Start

Inspired by my PLN and specially by @ShellTerrell I've thought of ways of applying everything I've been learning through Twitter exchanges in my group classes, which start at the beginning of March. So far, I've devised some goals:

• I'm going to use Edublog to create a blog for each class, where I'm planning to include interesting links I've been bookmarking for my students to feel motivated to do extra practice outside the classroom;
• I'd like to have my students create their own individual blogs so that they can feel encouraged to have an active participation in their learning process;
• I'm going to add my students' blog to my blog roll, thanks to @suewaters detailed instructions;
• I'd like to welcome my students to class with a message using voki;
• I'm planning to use Wallwisher for my students to express their wishes, plans, likes and dislikes for the learning year ahead;
• I'm going to design mind maps for my students to find it easier to remember new vocabulary and concept networks;

So far, these are my goals and I'll add new ones as classes approach. Please feel free to make suggestions so that I can be a better, more motivating educator. Thanks!

Stages In My Teaching Life

Tinkerbell and her Talent

I love children's movies and I always take my nieces to the cinema to watch them. These movies conjure in myself memories of my childhood and fill my soul with pleasant images and sensory perceptions. Also, they contain a moral that makes me think about life. One of the latest movies I have watched and relished was Tinkerbell. At the beginning of the movie, Tinkerbell is born and is taken to Pixie Hollow, where she is given a talent at random. Her talent is to be one of the tinkers, the fairies who make and fix things. In brief, Tinkerbell is not satisfied with her talent and tries to learn other skills but in vain. In the end, she learns to find how valuable her talent is.

The Movie and My Teaching Career

The moral of the movie helped me to understand some aspects of my teaching career, such as:

• I was born with a talent, to teach, which I have been developing and improving;
• Unlike Tinkerbell, I have always felt it is absolutely rewarding;
• I would not be able to do a different thing;
• I have got a mission in life.

Stages in My Teaching Career

While developing my "gift" I have passed through different stages. I started teaching when I was at high school and my "students" were my classmates. In those days, I used to help my peers at home with homework and I offered them after class help for free. Even, I did not mind helping my classmates prepare their exams when they failed the end-of-term tests in all the subjects. I remember receiving my classmates at home and explaining different topics to them and making them do extra exercises. I corrected their exercises and did my best to explain items in the easiest way possible for them to grasp them. I was successful and I managed to make myself understood. My greatest reward was being chosen as the best classmate at the end of high school with the 98% of my classmates' votes. It was really moving.

The second teaching step was when I graduated as a teacher of English as a second language in my early twenties. At the beginning of my teaching career, even though I have always found it delightful, I could not relax in class. I was self-conscious and I tried to control every aspect of the class.

As time has passed and after attending courses and conferences to improve my teaching career, I have become self-confident. And that self-confidence has given me the chance of feeling at ease in group classes. This relaxing attitude helps me to be a better teacher and to meet my students' needs.

Of course, as in all walks of life, teaching requires constant improvement and updating so as to face the challenges of the current times and prepare our students to make practical use of what they learn.

Reflections on Edtech

My Experience

I have always wondered how I could help my students of English become independent learners. I teach one-to-one classes and group classes. In the case of the one-to-one students, it is easy to encourage them to go on practising after class because in general, they are adults who don't have time to learn English in a language school and so decide to take classes alone and do their best to progress through the learning experience. My group classes are adolescents at upper intermediate level who, in general, are sent by their parents to learn English so as to be better prepared for their future careers. These students go to high school and many times they use this fact as an excuse not to do their homework or study. In this case, it is difficult to motivate them go on practising English outside the classroom.

Internet as a Useful Tool

The use of the Internet has been great help for me to be able to make my students expand on what they are learning. Outside the classroom, they are able to:

• Watch videos of films made on the books we are reading
• Do interactive grammar exercises to further the practice of a certain grammar point
• Create mind-maps so as to organise their material
• Ask teachers questions so as to solve their doubts as to the tasks they are supposed to do at home
• Use dictionaries
• Express their messages at any time instead of waiting for the next class
• Upload their homework for teachers to correct
• Solve queries they do not feel like asking in class. This has been specially useful for weak students who feel embarrassed to show their difficulties among their peers.

Plans for This Year

For all the advantages I have mentioned above and many others I am planning to make my students have their individual blogs this year. In this way, they will succeed in becoming autonomous as they will select the material they think they need for their learning experience with their teachers supervision. I hope this way, they will feel motivated to see some English outside the classroom.

Teaching a Language: Goals

Reflections

When the language learning year starts I always make my students reflect on the reasons why they are learning English, devise goals and make commitments to fulfill those goals. This year, I'm planning to use Wallwisher to carry out these tasks as I expect the novelty would be highly encouraging for my students.

Students' and Teachers' Goals

Students' goals can be classified into short-term ones such as learning the structures and the vocabulary that are part of their curriculum and into long-term ones like being able to comunícate fluently or to get a better job.

We, teachers, also set short-term and long-term goals. Among my short terms goals, I can mention to give students the tools to make them develop reading, speaking, listening and writing strategies. Many times, teachers’ long term goals are achieved at the end of the learning year when students have their final exams and are assessed at the language school or by international examination boards. However, our major goal, the ultimate goal, as teachers should be to help our students become independent learners. Learning a language is a never-ending process and once a student reaches a high level, it is necessary for them to continue in contact with the language. Technology is a practical tool to continue practising the language outside the classroom and so I have created a Wiki space which I share with all the students I have at present and also with the students I have had for them to go on with their learning process. My Wiki space is: Linguistic Consultancy .Thanks to Twitter (I’m @Mtranslator) and to my PLN I can upload interesting material into this Wiki space.

Thanks!

I would like to thank all the members of my PLN for sharing insightful links and for their support. A special thanks to Shelly Terrell, who also gave me the opportunity of contributing a post in her Teacher Reboot Camp. In this post I have written about the use of technology in education in my country: To Use Edtech or Not: That is the Question.