USING MOBILE DEVICES IN CLASS / MY FINAL PROJECT

I normally use my Ipad in class, my students are used to it. But now, we have taken a step further because I am promoting the use of SmartPhones since I want them to communicate with me using EdModo through the app this platform has both for IOS and Android. The good thing about it is that communication is more fluent and obviously quicker.

I am in as far as mobile learning is concerned. I have taken a course about it and I am learning a lot of possibilities. One of the apps that I used in the course is the one I will be using for my project - SPREAKER. This app allows to record podcasts as if they were a radio program, since you can include music, background music, audience reactions, applause, etc.

We have used a new tool, PADLET. It is quite useful when you want to post short messages or links. I think I will use it in class to include links of my students' works and put them together according to the topic we are working on. This can be done when they publish on-line on Glogster and Prezi.

                           Example of Padlet taken from
   http://www.fundacionluminis.org.ar/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Planetas.png


Apart from all that, I have a peer-partner. It is Wadha from Kuwait. She is working with her students on implementing an ICT tool to make her students speak in English. I am very interested in this skill and since my students will also focus on speaking (making a radio program), I think we have a lot in common and we will review our final projects in a very effective way and giving good and interesting feedback to one another.



WHAT WE DID FOR THE PROJECT THIS LAST WEEK

1. Students decided what the sections of the radio program want to include.

2. Students decided who the components of the different groups are going to be.

3. Students assign groups to sections.

4. Students start to work on organizing the sections they will work on and they start to write their text for the radio section.


Students let me know that they are really interested in this project because they can make their own decisions. They also let me know that all projects should be done this way.
What do you think about this?

INTERACTIVE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

As promised, here are my findings about using an Interactive PPP:

1. Students were all eyes, it was a new thing for them and they really wanted to know what was going to happen.

2. They paid a lot of attention because they wanted to answer the questions correctly.

3. They said that the PPP was funny and interesting.

4. They really liked the inclusion of the video in the PPP that showed in detail what they had learnt with the PPP.

5. Conclusion - something to repeat, a must!!!


After showing the PPP I asked my students to do some interactive PPP. I am really satisfied with their work, they have done a very good job!!! They have been really creative!!!


The same happened with the presentations that my teacher-students showed to my 13-year-old students. You could see that they were having a really great time because they were paying attention in order to give the right answers to the questions included in the PPP which had to do with means of transport.

PPT is here to stay!!!

I have a confession to make:  I had sent PowerPoint into exile,  I had banished it from my mind and from my world. But, I brought it back to my life this week, thanks to Webskills.

"Interactive PowerPoint Presentation", it is like music to me. And, it really is. Making a PPP interactive has opened up my mind to new possibilities, to new ways of making my students take part in their learning, and above all, to make them speak, give their opinions, show their ideas, feelings, etc. I believe in PowerPoint again!!!

I made a proposal on one of the NiceNet threads this week. I have two students who are job-shadowing me a part of their instruction requirements to become teachers (it is a Spanish legislation requirement). I said that it would be a good idea to make my students create an interactive PPP and present it in front of my class so that I can take notes and see the whole experience from  the outside. Some of you gave me the "go ahead" and I will let you know about it on another post this week!!!

I prepared an interactive PPP for my students and I will present it tomorrow! I am really excited because I think they will like it and I want to get feedback as soon as possible!!! I will post on it too.

As for the implementation of a new technology to make my students interested in learning, that is, to engage them and motivate them to work on different subjects using English, I commented to them that we are going to prepare a radio program and that they have to decide the different sections it is going to have. We are going to produce podcasts using SPREAKER and I will record them on video using my Ipad. I am waiting for their proposals because one of the key points of my projects is that they have to decide what they want to do and that it is what they really like what is going to be crucial for the project!!! I AM SO EXCITED AND I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT!!!

Oh, what a world!!!

This week we have dealt with different topics and we have read quite interesting articles.

We have learnt about PBL - Project Based Learning - something that is widely used in my school, above all by all the teachers who are part of the bilingual programme. We normally establish at least one project a term based on the same topic for all the subjects - for example - WWI has been the last topic on which our students have to research - in English they have to research on the way it has been shown or it has appeared on movies.

I found the article "Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer really inspiring and I must say that it opened up my eyes and let me find the way to get the possible solution to the "issue" that I want to solve using technology. My students have to decide what their project will deal with. That is the key question that I found out when reading this article. I think I found the "quid" to lead my class to a good improvement.


We have also learnt about rubrics - in my school rubrics are also widely used. We normally set them up by using Rubistar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/) which is exactly the same web-page that we have been recommended by the course. Using rubrics is extremely useful to carry out a good assessment of different aspects of our students' learning process. And what is most important, our students are aware of what our expectations are about their learning and what we want them to learn and the objectives which  we want them to accomplish. I find this tool incredibly useful, something which is shared by the administrators in my school.


Webquests was another aspect of the course this week. This has been totally new to me. I am looking into it and even though there was an extra credit assignment, I guess I need some more time to try it. Webquests are useful because we can guide our students through a learning journey through which they can discover new things on the web. I definitely must put it into practice, and I will!!!
I found some information on a Spanish web page - www.isabelperez.com (this teacher has even made a doctoral thesis on webquests).


This week Michael Jackson's new posthumous CD is being released, I'm so excited.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/09/michael-jackson-xscape-review-tim-jonze

Week 4 - So far so good!!!

Another week that went by really fast!

It's really incredible all the new things that we are learning with this course. That is one thing I extremely like about my job: in order to teach, you must learn first and you always keep learning.

This week we focused on writing, reading and vocabulary. I visited several webpages related to these topics and I read some of my colleagues' comments on Nicenet and found out good webpages. My delicious is growing longer and longer, it is burning ;). But I must admit that the one that I liked the best and the one that is going to help me now and in the future is www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ because it contains pieces of current and not very old news adapted for reading at different levels. Each unit of work contains a large amount of activities which exploit pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading phases. It's simply spectacular!!!

 

                            BREAKING NEWS ENGLISH


Apart from that, we had to do some reading and I want to mention one that I found really interesting and useful:

Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books by Mei-Ya Liang

The best summary of this article is included at the beginning of the article:

"This online extensive reading lesson focuses on intermediate and advanced ESL/EFL students. The objectives of this lesson are to guide students to read authentic e-texts outside of the classroom and to improve their overall reading, writing and thinking skills by synthesizing and evaluating online materials with peers."


We also had to design a technology enhanced lesson plan using a template. I decided to do something that I am going to put into practice. So, I chose my 4º ESO students (the ones I will be implementing my project with) and I chose a lesson that we are going over right now, that is, the environment. For the lesson plan I will be using Prezi, EdModo and the new discovery, the breakingnewsenglish web-site. Let's see the way it goes!!!

                                                                        PREZI

For the project we took a step further and analyzed what the problem that we want to solve using technology is. Mine has to do with the fact that my students do not consider using new technologies as something interesting and motivating. That is what I want to change and solve in my class!!!

To sum up, I must say that everything is going so far so good, everything is marching along!!!


 
          
                                          EDMODO