This week I really felt we had a lot to do… and so much content to review and read…! But I guess I’m managing it, it`s already Friday and I guess I’m just missing one post on Nicenet, I`m going to wait for some more comments and then I`ll do the second one. Together with my schoolwork and the teacher training course I’m teaching, these have been (and I guess will continue to be!) quite hectic weeks! But it`s totally worth it!
As for Delicious, I had already come into contact with it, but hadn`t explored it properly yet. It`s a wonderful tool, especially when we have to work with different computers, I guess now I’m really developing my own database of truly important sites that can help me in my work. The more specific we are when we write the tags the more effective it will be, because, if we are not careful with the tags, and are too general it will end up being very complicated to select the bookmarks we need or are looking for, when we go there in search of something specific!
The articles about CALL for listening, speaking, or pronunciation skills, and the lesson plans were very rich and interesting and managed to highlight the importance of technology in my classes and how it could be helpful in improving my students' aural/oral skills. In fact I’ve been studying this carefully and I guess that, together with Randal`s lab and Real English, they all have given me pretty good ideas of how to promote listening and speaking. As I mentioned in my posts I`ve selected some activities from these two sites to use in my lessons, and I think they will be perfect for my students.
I`m already a fan of podcasting, and I’ve used podcasts from the books we`ve adopted in my school, I’ve also created my own podcasts and have helped my students do the same. Even though the texts they record aren`t perfect, far away from that, the students commit themselves to the recording and thus train and take extra care with their pronunciation! They even cooperate more often with their colleagues, especially to ask for the help of those who are better or speak English better! It is really worth it! I normally do this after I’ve corrected the written comments the students leave on the blog, and then I publish the recordings on the blog as well. The video casts are another of my, and I guess the students`, favorite ways of learning English, and the closer to real life they tend to be, the better, and don`t forget the use of films (the one`s we watch on TV or at the cinema), these can be even more motivating for the students and we can easily prepare some exercises based on them. In Portugal most English course books suggest films according to the topics we are studying and there are already those books which include activities and exercises based on parts of the films they suggest!
Now I guess I’ll continue to read some more of your opinions and experiences!
Let`s keep on learning, unlearning and relearning!
Susana
As for Delicious, I had already come into contact with it, but hadn`t explored it properly yet. It`s a wonderful tool, especially when we have to work with different computers, I guess now I’m really developing my own database of truly important sites that can help me in my work. The more specific we are when we write the tags the more effective it will be, because, if we are not careful with the tags, and are too general it will end up being very complicated to select the bookmarks we need or are looking for, when we go there in search of something specific!
The articles about CALL for listening, speaking, or pronunciation skills, and the lesson plans were very rich and interesting and managed to highlight the importance of technology in my classes and how it could be helpful in improving my students' aural/oral skills. In fact I’ve been studying this carefully and I guess that, together with Randal`s lab and Real English, they all have given me pretty good ideas of how to promote listening and speaking. As I mentioned in my posts I`ve selected some activities from these two sites to use in my lessons, and I think they will be perfect for my students.
I`m already a fan of podcasting, and I’ve used podcasts from the books we`ve adopted in my school, I’ve also created my own podcasts and have helped my students do the same. Even though the texts they record aren`t perfect, far away from that, the students commit themselves to the recording and thus train and take extra care with their pronunciation! They even cooperate more often with their colleagues, especially to ask for the help of those who are better or speak English better! It is really worth it! I normally do this after I’ve corrected the written comments the students leave on the blog, and then I publish the recordings on the blog as well. The video casts are another of my, and I guess the students`, favorite ways of learning English, and the closer to real life they tend to be, the better, and don`t forget the use of films (the one`s we watch on TV or at the cinema), these can be even more motivating for the students and we can easily prepare some exercises based on them. In Portugal most English course books suggest films according to the topics we are studying and there are already those books which include activities and exercises based on parts of the films they suggest!
Now I guess I’ll continue to read some more of your opinions and experiences!
Let`s keep on learning, unlearning and relearning!
Susana
Hello Susana!
ReplyDeleteI am also a fan of podcast but unfortunately so far people are not used to this. Some of my students (not to speak about teachers!) have never heard about this. I consider podcast of a really great help. One of my goals for the future is to introduce this and I was thinking about creating mine, as well as encouraging my students to create some.
Don't worry about your students' mistakes. They are useful as they learn from them. In general, teachers have a negative idea about mistakes and students are afraid of making them. If we are very careful and very discreet, we can correct them and our students don't even realize their mistake was corrected. That's my opinion.
All the best,
Nadina
Hi Susana,
ReplyDeleteIt’s great to know that you used podcasts created your own podcasts and have helped your students too. Can you hare them with us? I love to learn more about podcasts and to see how teachers are doing this from all around the world.
Nice blog you have here;-)
Hala